METHOD OF DISCOVERY 45 



getting up and walking onward, and showing what science 

 has done and is doing, by pointing to that immense mass 

 of facts which have been ascertained and systematized under 

 the forms of the great doctrines of Morphology, of Develop- 

 ment, of Distribution, and the like. He sees an enormous 

 mass of facts and laws relating to organic beings, which 

 stand on the same good sound foundation as every other 

 natural law ; and, therefore, with this mass of facts and 

 laws before us, seeing that, as far as organic matters have 

 hitherto been accessible and studied, they have shown 

 themselves capable of yielding to scientific investigation, 

 we may accept this as proof that order and law reign there 

 as well as in the rest of nature ; and the man of science says 

 nothing to objectors of this sort, but supposes that we can 

 and shall walk to a knowledge of the origin of organic 

 nature, in the same way that we have walked to a knowledge 

 of the laws and principles of the inorganic world. 



But there are objectors who say the same from ignorance ( 

 and ill-will. To such I would reply that the objection 

 comes ill from them, and that the real presumption, I may 

 almost say the real blasphemy, in this matter, is in the 

 attempt to limit that inquiry into the causes of phenomena 

 which is the source of all human blessings, and from which 

 has sprung all human prosperity and progress ; for, after 

 all, we can accomplish comparatively little ; the limited 

 range of our own faculties bounds us on every side, the 

 field of our powers of observation is small enough, and he 

 who endeavours to narrow the sphere of our inquiries is 

 only pursuing a course that is likely to produce the greatest 

 harm to his fellow-men. 



But now, assuming, as we all do, I hope, that these 

 phenomena are properly accessible to inquiry, and setting 

 out upon our search into the causes of the phenomena of 

 organic nature, or, at any rate, setting out to discover 

 how much we at present know upon these abstruse matters, 

 the question arises as to what is to be our course of pro- 

 ceeding, and what method we must lay down for our 

 guidance. I reply to that question, that our method 

 must be exactly the same as that which is pursued in any 

 other scientific inquiry, the method of scientific investigation 

 being the same for all orders of facts and phenomena what- 

 soever. 



I must dwell a little on this point, for I wish you to 

 leave this room with a very clear conviction that scientific 



