PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS. 13 



systematically and strenuously at work, and so as to apply and 

 test the results of his studies. 



Self-examination and self-training are, however, not likely 

 to be sufficiently far-reaching, because it is very probable that, 

 after every allowance has been made, peculiar grooves of 

 thought and blank ignorance have to be taken into account. 

 Accordingly, self-examination was supplemented by a study of 

 the great methodologists, by wading through libraries of books 

 on science, by perusing many of the works and the biographies 

 of the foremost thinkers of the race, by interviews, by visits 

 to laboratories, and, not least, by submitting successive drafts 

 of the typescript to competent scholars. In this way, it is 

 hoped, the personal equation was substantially rectified, and thus 

 a fair understanding reached of general scientific procedure. 



When it is considered what diverse methods have been 

 applied through the ages in seeking to comprehend the world, 

 and also that modern psychologists are agreed that the process 

 of intellection presents no mystery, it will be conceded that 

 there is nothing monstrous or fantastic in the endeavour to 

 ascertain how man thinks at his best, and how to compress this 

 mode of thought into definite and utilisable statements. 



IV. THE METHODOLOGIST AS SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERER. 



4. Readers might be inclined to test the proposed me- 

 thodology by what its propagator has achieved thereby. They 

 might contend that if a scientific methodology is to help men 

 to assured and rapid advance in science, the methodologist, 

 inasmuch as he has found the pearl of great price, should sub- 

 stantiate this by his discoveries. Accordingly, the readers of 

 this treatise may be tempted to search in its pages for a long 

 chain of novel and epochal scientific truths. 



The temptation to argue in this manner may appear warrant- 

 able at first sight; but further consideration will, we hope to 

 show, evince its unreasonableness. The duty of the elaborator 

 of a scientific methodology is, plainly, to evolve a methodology, 

 not to exploit it. From the very commencement of his attempt 

 to its consummation, he is ever groping his way, and slowly, 

 very slowly, assisting to create a relative cosmos where pre- 

 viously a relative chaos prevailed. Even if he could devote a 

 whole life-time to his enterprise, and was peculiarly fitted for 

 it, he would still require all the hours at his disposal to prevent 

 his methodology from being more imperfect than necessary. 

 He would be, therefore, obliged to publish his work long be- 



