THE PRINCIPLES OF NATURE STUDY 59 



But most of us have the tendency, and the majority are so 

 unhampered by facts that flight is free. 



There seems to be also a notion current that one may 

 start with a single fact of nature and by some logical 

 machinery construct an elaborate system and reach an 

 authentic conclusion, much as the world has imagined for 

 more than a century that Cuvier could construct a skeleton 

 if a single bone were furnished him. Facts are like step- 

 ping-stones; so long as one can get a reasonably close series 

 of them he can make some progress in a given direction, 

 but when he steps beyond them he flounders. As one 

 travels away from a fact its significance in any conclusion 

 becomes more and more attenuated; until presently the 

 vanishing point is reached and its power of illumination 

 fades like the rays of light from a candle. A fact is really 

 only influential in its own immediate vicinity, but the whole 

 structure of many a system lies in the region beyond the 

 vanishing point. When life and conduct are shaped by 

 such observation and reasoning the result is disastrous. 



This dangerous tendency is so serious and fundamental 

 that that exercise deserves special emphasis which more 

 than any other single one in nature study will be found 

 useful in correcting it. 



The suggestions just made in this chapter are intended 

 to be a statement of the methods by which the important 

 results which were mentioned at the close of the first chapter 

 may be obtained. It remains to apply the principles to 

 actual studies. If the results are important, and the prac- 

 tice of certain principles can secure them, and simple exer- 

 cises can include these principles, then there would seem 

 to be no reason for hesitation in making the experiment. 



