Chap, iv.] Metamorphosis and of the Spiral Theory. 



171 



temptation of nature is in a condition to do justice to the 

 results of exact inductive enquiry. The opposition between 

 his point of view and that of the most eminent representatives 

 of the inductive method became more and more pronounced 

 as years went on, and must be treated here as a historical fact. 

 But if the new tendency in botany pursued especially by von 

 Mohl, Schleiden, Nageli, Unger, and Hofmeister may be called 

 inductive in the absence of a better term, and be contrasted with 

 the idealistic tendency represented by Braun and his school, it 

 must not be supposed that the latter did not equally contribute 

 in matters of detail to the enriching of the science by the 

 method of induction ; on the contrary, Braun himself was the 

 author of a series of important works conceived in this spirit. 

 When the new method is here called inductive, it should be 

 understood that the word is used in a higher than the usual 

 sense, and some explanation of this point will not be super- 

 fluous in this place. Idealistic views of nature of all times, 

 whether they present themselves as Platonism, Aristotelian 

 logic, Scholasticism or modern Idealism, have all of them this 

 in common, that they regard the highest knowledge attainable 

 by man as something already won and established ; the highest 

 axioms, the most comprehensive truths are supposed to be 

 already known, and the task of inductive enquiry is essentially 

 that of verifying them; the results of observation serve to 

 elucidate already received views, to illustrate already known 

 truths ; inductive enquiry has only to establish individual facts. 

 But in the sense in which inductive enquiry was understood 

 by Bacon, Locke, Hume, Kant, and Lange, its task is one 

 that goes essentially farther than this ; it must not be content 

 with establishing individual facts, but it must employ them in 

 the critical examination of the most general notions that have 

 come down to us, and do its best to deduce new and com- 

 prehensive theories from them, even where these may be 

 entirely opposed to traditional views. But it is part of the vet) 

 nature of this method of investigation, that its general results 



