UTILITY OF HYPOTHESES. 179 



where such views of " the uses of divine philo- 

 sophy " are entertained, there could be any right 

 preparation of mind to receive with candour, or 

 treat with justice, a plan of nature like that pre- 

 sented in the Vestiges of Creation ? Xo, it must 

 be before another tribunal, that this new philo- 

 sophy is to be truly and righteously judged. 



It is important that these sentences be not mis- 

 understood- There is both a necessity for the as- 

 certainment of detached facts, that we may attain 

 to the elimination of principles, and a danger in 

 premature generalization, as tending to mislead 

 men from the true road to that residt. But, on 

 the other hand, scientific men are seen spending 

 their time in wrong pursuits, merely for want of 

 the tracings which are often supplied for their di- 

 rection by happy hypotheses. It is to the chilling 

 repression of all saliency in investigation, which 

 characterizes tiie scientific men of our country and 

 age, that I object, not to a due caution in select- 

 ing proper paths in which to venture. The function 

 of hypothesis in suggesting observations and ex- 

 periments is admitted by one of the most vigo- 

 rous thinkers of our time. " Without such assump- 

 tions, science could never have attained its pre- 

 sent state : they are necessary steps in the pro- 

 gress to something more certain. . . . The pro- 



