EXAMPLES OF HIS ACCURACY. 87 



cellences rather than in his defects. Genera- 

 lization is the characteristic of an early period 

 and of an infant stage of science, as well as 

 of impatient intellect and of daring genius. 

 The inductive method, the strictly natural 

 history method, belongs to a more advanced 

 period and stage of knowledge, when the at- 

 tention is given more to differences than to 

 resemblances. Had Bacon lived at the time 

 of Aristotle, he probably would not have 

 proposed a scheme for inquiry like that de- 

 tailed in his Novum Organum. The defects 

 of the old plan, long worked on, and so un- 

 profitably, may well have led to the new one. 

 When you say you have turned over the pages 

 of Aristotle with little profit, you are, I think, 

 hardly just. Remember that, though he deals 

 much in general propositions, he commonly 

 enforces them by examples, and often gives 

 striking instances of the minuteness as well 

 as accuracy of his observations. How well 

 he describes the eyes of the mole which, even 

 now, is considered by the vulgar to be blind 

 and without eyes. How correctly he describes 

 the peculiarities of the cuckoo, separating the 

 fabulous from the true, which in recent times 



G 4 



