IV 



PREFACE 



the fact that the Lecturers, some of whom were not 

 resident in Oxford, had no opportunity of formal confer- 

 ence beforehand as to the exact points to be dealt with 

 by each. They had the scheme before them, and general 

 suggestions as to the purpose of the course, and nothing 

 more. A few words may, therefore, be permitted as to 

 the way in which the lectures now published illustrate the 

 scheme. The first two Lectures, which were introductory 

 to the whole course, describe in general terms the aim 

 and character of scientific method from two slightly 

 different points of view. Professor Case shows the 

 various forms in which the general material of scientific 

 study is exhibited : the various logical processes by 

 which the facts under investigation are co-ordinated and 

 explained. Professor Gotch, on the other hand, draws 

 from an account of an historic incident in the warfare 

 between science and ignorance, the true temper and aims 

 of the scientific man : his relentless criticism of authority, 

 his appeal to reason alone, his refusal to regard any fact 

 as unimportant or meaningless : together with his bold 

 but cautious use of the imagination for the extension and 

 consolidation of knowledge. 



From this point we pass to the special sciences : and 

 here two methods were possible. The Lecturers might 

 have produced what would have been, in strictness, logical 

 dissertations discussions on the method of science with 

 illustrations from their special department. The alterna- 

 tive plan was to describe some particular investigation 

 belonging to each special science, and to show the method 

 of the science emerging, as it were, from the description of 



