ch. v.] THE TWO METHODS. 103 



for these propositions than that they are by him judged 

 sufficient. If one of his hearers had asked him why water 

 might not be a cube, and air an octahedron, — or what proof 

 there was of either being one or the other, — he would 

 have replied 'It is thus I conceive it. This is best.' 1 Let 

 us proceed. The universe, we learn, has a soul which moves 

 in perpetual circles. Man also has a soul which is but a 

 portion thereof, consequently it also moves in circles. To 

 make the resemblance more complete, man's soul is also 

 enclosed in a spherical body, — namely, the head. But the 

 gods foresaw that this head, being spherical, would roll down 

 the hills and could not ascend steep places ; to prevent this, a 

 body with limbs was added, that it might be a locomotive 

 for the head." 2 



It will perhaps be said that such speculations as these 

 could not be found in the writings of any modern philosopher, 

 no matter what his method might be ; yet in view of certain 

 vagaries presently to be cited from Hegel and Comte, it will 

 hardly be safe for us to seek refuge in any general assertion 

 as to the superiority of the moderns over the ancients in 

 sobriety of philosophizing. These speculations of Plato 

 exhibit in strong relief the treacherousness of the subjective 

 method when left to itself and allowed to range at large over 

 the field of phenomena. In ancient times there was no organ- 

 ized physical knowledge to stand in the way of such vagaries 

 as those just cited. In modern times there exists an immense 

 body of established scientific truth which checks the natural 

 extravagance of the intellect left to itself. Moreover, as the 

 subjective and objective methods have always coexisted, and 

 as one has never been exclusively employed without the other, 

 tne majority of systems have worn a semblance of proba- 

 bility which prevents their shocking us like the almost 



1 It is to be noted, however, that this wildest use of the subjective method 

 characterized Plato chiefly in his old age, whev, like Comte, he had begun to 

 assume a pontifical tone. Of this more inon. 



* Lewes, Aristotle, p. 105. 



