COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



that they move in elliptic orbits, with a velocity 

 which periodically increases and diminishes. 

 This upset the subjective conclusion. And 

 thirdly, the passage from premise to conclusion 

 was seen to have been wrongly made, since while 

 the planets would naturally move in straight 

 lines (supposing the motion of each one to be 

 independent), they do actually move in ellipses. 

 In this example is seen the essential vice of 

 the subjective method, the feature by which it 

 is distinguished from the objective method. It 

 ignores Verification, which is the comparison, 

 by means of observation, experiment, and de- 

 duction, of the order of conceptions with the 

 order of phenomena. Now verification is the 

 great engine of the objective method. That 

 method takes little heed of the Cartesian maxim, 

 that whatever complex proposition can be dis- 

 tinctly formulated must be true ; the history of 

 science having only too frequently shown that a 

 proposition may be very distinctly formulated 

 and yet be false. " That the velocity acquired 

 by a falling body, at any point, must be pro- 

 portional to the space through which it had 

 fallen," was a very distinct and plausible hypo- 

 thesis, so long as it was not confronted with the 

 phenomena. Yet it did not withstand the appli- 

 cation of the test of truth, " since its negation 

 was thinkable, and there was the equally dis- 

 tinct idea of the velocity being proportional to 



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