THE SELECTION OF FACTS. 17 



a pure intelligence, at least whenever they are pursuing 

 an end that is immediate and always the same. But 

 instinct is routine, and if it were not fertilized by- 

 thought, it would advance no further with man than'' 

 with the bee or the ant. It is necessary, therefore, to 

 think for those who do not like thinking, and as they 

 are many, each one of our thoughts must be useful 

 in as many circumstances as possible. For this 

 reason, the more general a law is, the greater is its 

 value. 



This shows us how our selection should be made. 

 The most interesting facts are those which can be 

 used several times, those which have a chance of 

 recurring. We have been fortunate enough to be born 

 in a world where there are such facts. Suppose that 

 instead of eighty chemical elements we had eighty 

 millions, and that they were not some common and 

 others rare, but uniformly distributed. Then each 

 time we picked up a new pebble there would be a 

 strong probability that it was composed of some un- 

 known substance. Nothing that we knew of other 

 pebbles would tell us anything about it. Before each 

 new object we should be like a new-born child ; like 

 him we could but obey our caprices or our necessities. 

 In such a world there would be no science, perhaps 

 thought and even life would be impossible, since 

 evolution could not have developed the instincts of 

 self-preservation. Providentially it is not so ; but this 

 blessing, like all those to which we are accustomed, is 

 not appreciated at its true value. The biologist would 

 be equally embarrassed if there were only individuals 

 and no species, and if heredity did not make children 



resemble their parents. 



(i,"77) a 



