26 INTRODUCTION TO SCIENCE 



judgment upon these facts, unbiassed by personal 

 feeling, is characteristic of what may be termed 

 the scientific frame of mind" (Grammar of Science, 

 1900 edition, p. 6). 



As Faraday said: "The world little knows 

 how many of the thoughts and theories which 

 have passed through the mind of a scientific 

 investigator have been crushed in silence and 

 secrecy by his own severe criticism and adverse 

 examination; that in the most successful instances 

 not a tenth of the suggestions, the hopes, the 

 wishes, the preliminary conclusions have been 

 realized." As a complementary statement we 

 give another quotation from the same great au- 

 thority: "The philosopher should be a man will- 

 ing to listen to every suggestion, but determined 

 to judge for himself. He should not be biassed 

 by appearances; have no favourite hypotheses; 

 be of no school, and in doctrine have no master. 

 He should not be a respecter of persons, but of 

 things. Truth should be his primary object. If 

 to these qualities be added industry, he may 

 indeed hope to walk within the veil of the Temple 

 of Nature." 



It seems to us strange that some biologists 

 have criticized Prof. Weismann because in the 

 course of a quarter of a century or more, he has 

 modified certain of his suggestions as new facts 

 came within his knowledge. Nothing is more 



