CHAPTER VII 

 ARTIFICIAL AND NATURAL METHODS 



WHEN we have to study a fact taken by itself we are free 

 to choose that method of analysing the fact which pleases 

 us ; the best is that which is clearest for us as observers. 

 From such a point of view all methods of analysis are arti- 

 ficial. 



It is not the same when we have to study one object with 

 reference to another object, with which it has relations. 

 Then our method of analysis of the first object must be such 

 as to bring out precisely those elements of that first object 

 which are in relation with the second. 



To go back to our example, if there had been question 

 simply of describing an adult herring, we should have had 

 no reason beforehand for choosing one mode of analysis 

 rather than another. We should naturally choose the 

 most convenient among the several descriptive methods, 

 all of which would be equally artificial. 



But when there is question of a herring's heredity, that 

 is, of the herring considered in reference to the egg which 

 it produces and which will produce it, there must be a natural 

 method ; and this will consist in bringing out clearly in the 

 herring just those among its characters which were deter- 

 mined in the egg and no others. In such a problem the 

 discovery of the natural method amounts to solving the pro- 

 blem itself. 



There are some celebrated examples which will bring 



