PREFACE. Vll 



cedure and the various methods, by pursuing which, a real 

 student of science, possessing a certain amount of scientific 

 knowledge, .a disciplined mind, and manipulative skill, 

 may reasonably expect to succeed in finding new truths 

 of nature. 



It has been said that Lord Bacon hoped to furnish 

 a method of scientific investigation which should be so 

 complete and accurate as to constitute an organ of dis- 

 covery, and reduce all intellects to a level, making success 

 in the search after truth a matter merely of time and 

 labour, and that his followers, taught by experience that 

 discoveries cannot thus be made by rule, have attempted 

 merely to analyse and describe the process by which dis- 

 coveries have been made, without hoping to indicate any 

 sure method of adding to their number. 1 



Whilst I do not forget Dr. Whewell's assertion that, 

 speaking with strictness, an Art of Discovery is not pos- 

 sible ; that we can give no rules for the pursuit of truth 

 which shall be universally and peremptorily applicable ; 

 and that the helps which we can offer to the inquirer in 

 such cases are limited and precarious, I share his hope 

 that aids may be pointed out which are neither worthless 

 nor uninstructive. 2 



I have no wish even to suggest the idea of reducing 

 all intellects to a level, nor to make success in research a 



1 Bowen's Logic, 8th edit. p. 403. In a short conversation on this 

 subject which I once had with the late Mr. Faraday he expressed to 

 me a more favourable opinion of the possibility of my proposition 

 of framing an Art of Scientific Discovery than is contained in this 

 extract. 



2 Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. ii. p. 483. 



