304 ON LIFE AND ORGANISATION. 



by the similar, but comparatively passive process of examination 

 through, the senses, termed Observation. 



It is to be observed that there is, in general, a great difference 

 in the facility with which individual minds can work in these 

 different modes of procuring and arranging data. Certain minds 

 work easily in Mathematical, others in Experimental or Observational 

 research. Few minds are capable of that peculiar power of ab- 

 straction necessary for Metaphysical and Psychological inquiry. It 

 is to be noted, also, that there are comparatively few minds which 

 combine two or more of these powers ; and such minds are, in- 

 variably, under favourable circumstances, the most successful in 

 conducting research. 



These fundamentally different powers or capabilities are innate ; 

 certain minds being naturally more or less highly endowed with 

 one or more of them ; but every sound mind possessing them to a 

 greater or less extent. Each of these powers, therefore, after its 

 kind, is capable of being developed by judicious training. The 

 evolving and exercise of these powers, in due proportion, con- 

 stitutes a primary element in a sound general education ; whde the 

 education for particular professions demands as complete a de- 

 velopment as possible of at least one or more of them. 



All scientific, or other inquiry, is, however, fundamentally 

 regulated by the laws of thought. For these laws, as they are the 

 conditions under which the Human Intellect works, cannot be dis- 

 pensed with, and consequently constitute the logical process in 

 every train of inquiry. Every sound intellect is necessarily — that is, 

 is instinctively regulated, more or less, by the Laws of Thought ; 

 but the extent to which it is so regulated, depends upon that 

 assiduous training, with this special object in view, and which 

 ought, therefore, to constitute another of the primary elements of a 

 sound general education. 



There are, therefore, in all inquiry, two steps to be taken. The 

 elements or facts of the question, of whatever kind these elements 

 may be, must be laid hold of; and the logical process must be 

 brought to bear upon them for further analysis or reduction, and 

 reference to their proper position in the system. There is a dif- 

 ference between metaphysical and mathematical inquiry on the one 

 hand, and experimental and observational on the other, in the 



