12 PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 



can only be built up by a series of complex transformations. 

 Even the specialisation common in science will be progressively 

 superseded, as more and more general facts of a scientific 

 order accumulate. 



Men of science need not therefore be intimidated by the 

 suggestion that nature possesses no unity, or that the world 

 of life and mind can only be effectively explored by the in- 

 tuitionist. 1 



III. THE METHODOLOGIST'S PROCEDURE. 



3. A modern methodology of science should be the out- 

 come of an analysis of modern scientific procedure at its best ; 

 and yet such an analysis is well-nigh impossible, since what 

 is offered to us in publications are final results which veil, 

 rather than disclose, the concrete movements of the mind. As 

 the analyst of Darwin's method states: "The scientist, after 

 establishing a conclusion to his own satisfaction, is not con- 

 cerned with telling other people how he reached it, but with 

 convincing them of its truth." (Frank Cramer, The Method of 

 Darwin, 1896, p. 22.) For this reason it might appear neces- 

 sary that the methodologist should be an adept in most sciences ; 

 but here, again, the task imposed is more than human. The 

 author has, therefore, chosen a third road which Condillac 

 already clearly perceived when he wrote: "Mais comment 

 apprendre a conduire ses sens? En faisant ce que nous avons 

 fait lorsque nous les avons bien conduits." That is, we cir- 

 cumspectly observe ourselves whilst we are occupied in think- 

 ing, take diligently note of the ratiocinative successes we score, 

 warily apply as universally as possible to subsequent thought 

 what we have learnt, and by dint of persistent examination 

 and experiment we discover and realise, to express it theo- 

 retically, the most effective methods of thinking. 



Yet, at the threshold, an initial obstacle has to be surmounted, 

 for every-day thought is far from interesting, arduous, or 

 coherent. On this account the present author spent several 

 years in preparing a text-book of psychology based on ori- 

 ginal research, 2 and engaged on other large and definite tasks, 

 in order to find opportunities for examining his mind when 



1 "The biologist deals with a vast number of properties of objects, and 

 his inductions will not be completed, I fear, for ages to come; but when 

 they are, his science will be as deductive and as exact as the mathematics 

 themselves." (T. H. Huxley, Twelve Lectures and Essays, "The Educational 

 Value of the Natural History Sciences", ed. 1915, p. 14.) 



- The Mind of Man, pp. 568, London, 1902. 



