PREFACE 



THE fourth of the " Collected Essays " in the 

 volume now published gives an account of the 

 indispensable conditions of scientific assent, as 

 they are defined by the author of the famous 

 " Discours de la Methode." 



The other eight set forth the results which, in 

 my judgment, are attained by the application of 

 the " Method " of Descartes to the investigation 

 of problems of widely various kinds ; in the 

 right solution of which we are all deeply in- 

 terested. Hence I have given the volume the 

 title of " Method and Results." 



Written, for the most part, in the scant leisure 

 of pressing occupations, or in the intervals of 

 ill-health, these essays are free neither from 

 superfluities in the way of repetition, nor from 

 deficiencies which, I doubt not, will be even more 

 conspicuous to other eyes than they are to my 



