226 Charles Darwin. 



facts," and he seeks for them. He may find that 

 which he seeks, or he may find something quite 

 other. If he be an honest thinker, a true philoso- 

 pher, it matters not to him. He substantiates his 

 hypothesis or constructs a new one. If such hy- 

 pothesis leads to many new discoveries scientific 

 men accept it, and call it a working hypothesis, and 

 if it still leads on to discovery scientific men call it a 

 theory ; and so working hypotheses are developed 

 into theories, and these theories become the funda- 

 mental principles, the major propositions of science, 

 the widest generalisations of philosophy. 



Sometimes the inductive method — the Baconian 

 method — -is said to have been modified or improved 

 by the addition of the method by working hypothe- 

 ses, and then modern scientific methods are said to 

 be inductive. With this understanding, it may be 

 said that the deductive methods of metaphysics have 

 been supplanted by the inductive methods of science. 

 It would, perhaps, be better to say that deductive 

 and inductive methods have been superseded by the 

 method of working hypotheses. 



Working hypotheses are the instruments with 

 which scientific men select facts. By them, reason 

 and imagination are conjoined, and all the powers of 

 the mind employed in research. 



Darwin, more than any other man, has taught the 

 use of working hypotheses, Newton and Darwin 

 are the two great lights of science — the Gemini in 

 the heavens of philosophy ; stars whose glory is the 

 brightest of all. 



There be good folk in the world who love mytho- 



