CLASSIFICATION 61 



hensive generalisation which unifies all below it. Specu- 

 lation is the scaffolding or system of guiding lines of this 

 edifice. As facts are packed beneath it the apex of the 

 scaffolding has to be shifted, raised, lowered, until at last 

 it is properly centred. Then the whole is so compact 

 that no fact can be detached. 



Darwin abolished the distinction between induction and 

 deduction in science. His hypothesis was of so general a 

 character that it embraced every manifestation of life ; it 

 gave a reason for the form and functions of every organ 

 of every living thing. The history of philosophy cannot 

 give an instance of a wider generalisation, and yet the 

 proofs of Darwin's hypothesis, which far outstretched Des- 

 cartes' most imaginative deduction, are as rigidly induc- 

 tive as Bacon could desire. 



