8 GENERAL VIEW AND BASIS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. 







body for its successful pursuit. (The investigator 

 (possess a scientific habit of thought ; his mind must b 

 \ stored with the chief facts and principles of science ; h 

 (must be able to imagine, invent, manipulate, observe 

 pompare, and reason. 



Original scientific research consumes a very larg 

 amount of time, and in some cases is also attended b 

 considerable expense. Since much of the labour of re 

 search is also only tentative, many of the earliest result 

 obtained in an investigation are imperfect and erroneous 

 and thus the quantity of new knowledge obtained, even b 

 the most successful investigator, is very small in propor 

 tion to the amount of time and labour expended. Bu 

 the value of even a small amount of new knowledge i 

 great, because a new truth in science is a truth for evei 

 The discovery of negative truths also possesses a value 

 4 It is by efforts which, being successive, require time ; b 

 the gradual rejection of errors, and discovery of ne\ 

 truths ; by the combined attempts at forming and per 

 fecting a technical vocabulary and a philosophical arrange 

 ment, that sciences are advanced. Hence truth may 

 with Bacon, be called the daughter of Time rather thai 

 of Authority.' l 



The processes which lead to scientific discovery ar< 

 chiefly of a mental character. Eesearch is a wrestlin* 

 with nature, a striving towards the limits of attainabl 

 knowledge. In some subjects it lies largely in physica 

 manipulation necessary for the purpose of testing hypo 

 thetical or imaginary questions, respecting matter am 

 its forces. In mathematics it consists nearly wholly o 

 mental operations, with comparatively little physica 

 labour ; in geography, on the other hand, it consist 



1 G-. C. Lewis, Inflwnee of Authority in Matters of Opinion, p. 373. 



