An Introduction to a Biology 



mind, they are swept out, by the current of our 

 interest, to the sea of things. When they have 

 arrived there we become conscious of them for the 

 first time, and so we think that we have found them 

 there. 



So strong is this outward current that even the 

 human voice is allowed to be carried out by it. 

 " The facts speak for themselves," we say. But it 

 is an illusion ; at any rate, a dangerously misleading 

 figure of speech. Facts do not speak. If the reader 

 should answer and say, " Well, at any rate they 

 speak to me," I would come out and meet him on 

 the same ground and reply, " Very well, then ; so 

 do they speak to me, but they do not say the 

 same thing." Facts are like the dolls of the ven- 

 triloquist and say what we want them to. Life in 

 the hands of the too self-confident biologist is 

 a very docile doll in the hands of a very skilful 

 ventriloquist. 



The discomfort felt by the investigator when he 

 is asked by a layman who is taking, or trying to 

 take, or pretending to take, an interest in his work, 

 and asks him, " What are you trying to prove ? " 

 is due to the fact that he sees that this question, 

 unknown to the asker of it, reveals to him what 

 he really is doing. He ought not to be trying to 

 prove anything, but to find something out. But 

 very often he knows in his heart that he hopes 

 very much that his pet theory will be proved true 

 by his investigations. And even if he answers, " I 

 am verifying certain hypotheses," he condemns 

 himself out of his own mouth. For " to verify '' 

 literally means " to make true." 



9 



