SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE METHODS 



cult quality, and stigmatized it as a revival of 

 Aristotelianism. On the other hand, add this 

 verifiable formula to the ' inherent virtue ' of 

 the old metaphysicists, and the result is a strictly 

 scientific proposition." ^ 



Here also is revealed the inherent weakness 

 of metaphysics : it is incapable of making dis- 

 coveries. For verification is absolutely essential 

 to discovery. No theorem can be accepted as 

 a discovery until it has been verified, and the 

 theorems of metaphysics do not admit of verifi- 

 cation. Hence the utter barrenness of the met- 

 aphysical method. From Thales downwards — 

 according to the current reproach — philoso- 

 phers have been disputing over the first prin- 

 ciples of their subject, and are now no nearer to 

 a solution than when they began to dispute. It 

 is not, however, as is sometimes superficially 

 supposed, because metaphysicians disagree that 

 their method must be rejected by any philoso- 

 phy which would found itself upon science ; 

 but it is because their disagreement can never 

 end in agreement, — can never lead to know- 

 ledge. Since there will always be room for dif- 

 ference of opinion on many subjects, until the 

 human mind shall have explained and classified 

 all the phenomena of nature, it cannot be de- 

 manded of any system of philosophy that it 

 shall admit only such conclusions as are not 

 ^ Lewes, Aristotky p. 84. 

 189 



