SCIENCE AND MORALS. 



329 



Science presents itself to us under a double aspect: as primitive 

 science, which is the solid basis of every application, in the material 

 as well as in the moral domain; and ideal science, which comprehends 

 our near hopes, our imaginings/ and our remote probabilities. The 

 common bond between these two aspects is method. Our method 

 consists in first observing facts. I mean internal facts, revealed by 

 consciousness or inner sensation, as well as external facts, made mani- 

 fest by outer sensation; and in provoking the development of both 

 by experiment, the principal source of our discoveries. This method 

 is the same for social and political, for material and industrial facts. 

 The study of facts thus constitutes the point of departure for all 

 knowledge. When facts are once established, human intelligence 

 brings them together and seeks to determine general relations be- 

 tween them. Hence, what we call scientific laws; and upon these 

 laws rests all application of science, to individuals as well as to 

 societies. 



But this pure determination of facts and their laws does not 

 satisfy the human mind. Drawn by an invincible tendency, it sup- 

 ports itself upon the facts and rises above them to construct repre- 

 sentatives or symbols, by the aid of which it collects its knowledge 

 into a co-ordinated system of hypotheses. Such a system is even 

 indispensable if we would go further and make discoveries; for, in 

 order to find new facts and new relations, it is necessary first to 

 imagine them; then we seek for the realization of them. Each one 

 develops as he will, following his individual inspiration according to 

 his feelings and creative faculties, the consequences of the concep- 

 tions and symbols by the aid of which he has figured facts and laws 

 to himself. But the student also should always be ready to abandon 

 his hypothetical beliefs as soon as the facts have demonstrated the 

 vanity of them. In any case, every one finally builds up thus his 

 system of the world a scaffolding, resting at the bottom on facts, 

 but the solidity of which I mean the certainty, or rather the 

 probability diminishes as one goes higher. 



Thus facts and laws, through symbols and hypotheses invented 

 to co-ordinate them, constitute the fundamental basis and even the 

 sole substratum of every system. Such are to-day the general views, 

 such the manner of proceeding, of those who seek to raise the scientific 

 ideal above empiricism. 



The diversity, the profound contrast existing between the sci- 

 entific and the theological methods employed in the seeking for 

 truth are manifested to a very striking degree in the application of 

 these methods to the government of individuals and of states. 

 While theologians erect their systems regarding the beginnings and 

 the ends of things into absolute and invariable principles revealed by 



