108 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [ft. l 



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 deduc- 

 tion, 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 distinctly 

 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 proportional 

 to the space through which it had fallen," was a very distinct 

 and plausible hypothesis, so long as it was not confronted 

 with the phenomena. Yet it did not withstand the applica- 

 tion of the test of truth, " since its negation was thinkable, 

 and there was the equally distinct idea of the velocity being 

 proportional to the time by which to oppose it. Then 

 came the necessity for verification;" and by this criterion 

 Galileo ascertained that the first-named conception — the one 

 which had been held by the ancients — was erroneous, " and 

 although the alternative conception which replaced it was 

 not more intelligible, it had the supreme advantage of being 

 a more accurate description of the order of nature." There- 

 fore " in all verifiable cases we dare not be confident that an 

 explanation is true because its truth seems possible. Our 

 conceptions of possibility are too contingent to form a secure 

 ground of deduction. Thus, to Galileo, it at first seemed 

 possible that velocity must be proportional to space, because, 

 in so conceiving it, he had not distinctly visible to his mind 

 all the elements of the problem ; in other words, all the 

 possibilities." But when, in the process of verification ths 



