cm. xxix.] EXCEPTIONAL PHENOMENA. 645 



exceptional events are commonly the points from which 

 we start to explore new regions of knowledge. It has been 

 beautifully said that Wonder is the daughter of Ignorance, 

 but the mother of Invention; and though the most familiar 

 and slight events, if fully examined, will afford endless food 

 for wonder and for wisdom, yet it is the few peculiar and 

 unlooked-for events which most often lead to a course of 

 discovery. It is true, indeed, that it requires much 

 philosophy to observe things which are too near to us. 



The high scientific importance attaching, then, to ex- 

 ceptions, renders it desirable that we should carefully 

 consider the various modes in which an exception may be 

 disposed of; while some new facts will be found to confirm 

 the very laws to which they seem at first sight clearly 

 opposed, others will cause us to limit the generality of our 

 previous statements. In some cases the exception may be 

 proved to be no exception ; occasionally it will prove fatal 

 to our previous most confident speculations ; and there are 

 some new phenomena which, without really destroying any 

 of our former theories, open to us wholly new fields of scien- 

 tific investigation. The study of this subject is especially 

 interesting and important, because, as I have before said 

 (p. 587), no important theory can be built up complete 

 and perfect all at once. When unexplained phenomena 

 present themselves as objections to the theory, it will often 

 demand the utmost judgment and sagacity to assign to 

 them their proper place and force. The acceptance or 

 rejection of a theory will depend upon discriminating the 

 one insuperable contradictory fact from many, which, 

 however singular and inexplicable at first sight, may 

 afterwards be shown to be results of different causes, or 

 possibly the most striking results of the very law with 

 which they stand in apparent conflict. 



I can enumerate at least eight classes or kinds of ex- 

 ceptional phenomena, to one or other of which any 

 supposed exception to the known laws of nature can 

 usually be referred; they may be briefly described as 

 below, and will be sufficiently illustrated in the succeeding 

 sections. 



(i) Imaginary, or false exceptions, that is, facts, objects, 

 or events which are not really what they are supposed 

 to be. 



