10 THE ADVANCE OE SCIENCE 



had any direct beneficial influence on the 

 advancement of natural knowledge. No 

 delusion is greater than the notion that 

 method and industry can make up for 

 lack of motherwit, either in science or in 

 practical life ; and it is strange that, with 

 liis knowledge of mankind, Bacon should 

 have dreamed that his, or any other, ' via 

 inveniendi scientias' would 'level men's 

 wits ' and leave little scope for that inborn 

 capacity which is called genius. As a 

 matter of fact, Bacon's 'via' has proved 

 hopelessly impracticable ; while the ' an- 

 ticipation of nature ' by the invention of 

 hypotheses based on incomplete induc- 

 tions, which he specially condemns, has 

 proved itself to be a most efficient, indeed 

 an indispensable, instrument of scientific 

 progress. Finally, that transcendental 

 alchemy — the superinducement of new 

 forms on matter — which Bacon declares 

 to be the supreme aim of science, has 

 been wholly ignored by those who have 



