THE SCIENTIFIC MOOD. 13 



personal bias in forming judgments. It should 

 always be possible to eliminate opinion from all 

 scientific conclusions ; their validity, in fact, depends 

 upon this. " The scientific man has above all things 

 to strive at self-elimination in his judgments, to pro- 

 vide an argument which is as true for each individual 

 mind as for his own. The classification of facts, the 

 recognition of their sequence and relative signifi- 

 cance, is the fnnction of science, and the habit of 

 forming a judgment upon these facts, unbiassed by 

 personal feeling, is characteristic of what may be 

 termed the scientific frame of mind." * 



" The world," Faraday writes, '^ 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 realised." As a complimentary statement, 

 another quotation from the same great authority may 

 be permitted : — ^^ The philosopher should be a man 

 willing to listen to every suggestion, but determined 

 to judge for himself. He should not be biassed by 

 appearances; have no favourable 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 with- 

 in the veil of the Temple of [N'ature." 



(c) A third characteristic of the scientific mood 

 is dislike of obscurities, of blurred vision, of foggi- 

 ness. We instinctively discount the scientific abili- 



* Karl Pearson, Grammar of Science, rev. edition, 1900, 

 p. 6. 



