INTR OD UCTION 



believed Matter was in itself ignoble, and the study 

 thereof degrading. They had an exaggerated con- 

 ception of the power of the mind and of its capacity. 

 Most men believed that the ideas of things existed 

 before their realities, were of a purer, and there- 

 fore of a nobler nature, and that the mind of man 

 offered the only field for study. * Ignorant of all 

 relative knowledge, they yet hoped to discover the 

 secret of existence; to know the ABSOLUTE THE 

 UNCONDITIONED by introspection, and by con- 

 verting their subjective thought into objective 

 theories to obtain true knowledge. Metaphysicians 

 still so try, will continue so to do, but will try in 

 vain. So long as men employ deductive reasoning 

 only, from a-priori convictions, no evolution of real 

 knowledge is possible. 



With the method of inductive reasoning came 

 gradually the accumulations of observed facts, and 

 the discovery that these facts were not the accidental 

 result of irregular causes, but were the consequence 

 of definite, uniform actions or conditions. Men 

 found that these actions or conditions indefinitely re- 

 peated would always produce the same result. To 

 them were applied the term "Laws of Nature." 

 Usually these laws do not explain the cause of a 

 fact or occurrence, but only assert its invariability. 

 The explanation of a phenomenon generally consists 



(xii) 



