558 SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT. 



by writers like Whewell, von Liebig, Stanley Jevons, 

 and many others, and shown to be of very doubtful 

 value ; the example given by Bacon himself — the re- 

 search into the nature of heat — being especially un- 

 fortunate and badly chosen. In spite of this, it 

 is noteworthy that, up to quite recent times, the 

 Baconian method is continually referred to, mainly by 

 writers who are desirous of introducing what they call 

 the exact methods of research into other sciences 

 than those of external nature. A good example of this 

 kind is given by Walter Bagehot, and as it serves to 

 make an important point more intelligible than a gen- 

 eral statement would, I will here give it in full. He 

 speaks of the Enumerative, or, as he calls it, the "All- 

 case method," and then continues: "A very able Ger- 

 man writer ^ has said of a great economical topic — 

 banking — ' I venture to suggest that there is but one 

 way of arriving at such knowledge and truth, namely, 

 a thorough investigation of the facts of the case : by 

 the facts I mean not merely such facts as present 

 themselves to so-called practical men in the common 

 routine of business, but the facts which a complete 

 historical and statistical inquiry would develop. When 

 such a work shall have been accomplished, German 

 economists may boast of having restored the principle 

 of banking — that is to say, of German banking, but 

 not even then of banking in general. To set forth 

 principles of banking in general, it will be necessary 

 to master in the same way the facts of English, Scottish, 

 French, and American banking — in short, of every 



1 Prof. Cohn in ' Fortnightly Review,' Sept. 1873. 



