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" There are and can be only two ways of search- 

 ing into and discovering truth. The one flies from 

 the senses and particulars to the most general 

 axioms, and from these principles, the truth of 

 which it takes for settled and immoveable, proceeds 

 to judgment and to the discovery of middle 

 axioms. The other derives axioms from the 

 senses and particulars, rising by a gradual and 

 unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most 

 general axioms last of all." Upon system, or plan 

 of procedure, a great deal depends : look at any 

 undertaking carried out under a good system and 

 a bad. The ancients were a long time in learning 

 the right system to adopt, but it was indeed a 

 great day for science when the method of reason- 

 ing by induction was introduced. Starting with 

 particulars or facts which are collected from nature 

 by observation and experiment applied in every 

 available way, it proceeds step by step in the 

 process of generalizing until the largest and widest 

 propositions are obtained. From the proposition 

 which has been formulated out of, it may be, only 

 a few facts, advance is made with the aid of other 



