2i8 RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



logical writings to show the insufficiency of the 

 Baconian method of collecting facts and drawing 

 from them conclusions of a continually widening 

 scope. These empirical laws, as the inductions of 

 the Baconian method are called, will usually be safe 

 and accurate, but they may also be barren. 



In the search for Nature's laws, we must some- 

 times go before her complete revelations, though 

 we must allow her to point the way. Bacon's 

 doctrine was the heroic remedy for the venerable 

 tyranny of Aristotle and the Schoolmen, but the 

 true method of scientific discovery lies between the 

 Aristotelian deduction and the Baconian induction. 

 All theories, however, must be based upon ascer- 

 tained facts, and must be verified by comparison 

 with other related facts, before they can be considered 

 as worthy of confidence. Newton's emission theory 

 of light was seen to be inconsistent with the fact 

 that atoms, however infinitesimal, could not be 

 projected from vast distances upon the delicate 

 structures of the eye without injuring them. Young's 

 undulatory theory, although emanating from a far 

 more obscure source, was found to harmonize so 

 completely with all such phenomena as reflection, 

 refraction, and colour, that it quickly drove Newton's 

 hypothesis from the field. 



It follows, then, that while it is scientifically 

 legitimate and useful to formulate theories of 

 Creation, yet such theories must be based upon 

 well-understood and indisputable facts, or they 

 hardly deserve serious attention. They must also 

 be capable of verification by comparison with other 



