368 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



deserves to be heard, on the value of hypotheses in 

 scientific inquiry. Professor Huxley says : " Do not 

 allow yourselves to be misled by the common notion 

 that an hypothesis is untrustworthy simply because 

 it is an hypothesis. It is often urged, in respect to 

 some scientific conclusion, that, after all, it is only an 

 hypothesis. But what more have we to guide us in 

 nine-tenths of the most important affairs of daily life 

 than hypotheses, and often very ill-based ones ? So 

 that in science, where the evidence of an hypothesis 

 is subjected to the most rigid examination, we may 

 rightly pursue the same course. A man may say, if 

 he likes, that the moon is made of green cheese : 

 that is an hypothesis. But another man, who has 

 devoted a great deal of time and attention to the 

 subject, and availed himself of the most powerful 

 telescopes, and the results of the observations of 

 others, declares that in his opinion it is probably 

 composed of materials very similar to those of which 

 our own earth is made up : and that is also only an 

 hypothesis. But, I need not tell you, that there is 

 an enormous difference in the value of the two 

 hypotheses. That one which is based on sound 

 scientific knowledge is sure to have a corresponding 

 value ; and that which is a mere hasty random guess 

 is likely to have but little value. Every great step 

 in our progress in discovering causes has been made 

 in exactly the same way. A person observing the 



