34 PART I THE PROBLEM. 



immediate practical utility, it would be almost always impossible for us 

 to succeed." 1 (The Fundamental Principles of the Positive Philosophy, 

 ed. 1905, pp. 44-45.) 



Under present circumstances the scientifically and unscienti- 

 fically trained adult agree in being g,uided by tradition, only 

 that in the former instance the method customarily employed 

 is immensely superior. In the true sense, the scientifically 

 trained adult will only come into being when a tried methodology 

 introduces the student to the meaning and methods of science. 



There is no valid reason why deliberate methodological train- 

 ing should be postponed to the distant future. Far easier than 

 semi-conscious conjecturing and interpreting of supposed methods 

 on the basis of a medley of half-sifted facts and fancies, would 

 it be for students to be deliberately educated in conformity, 

 say, with the thirty-six Conclusions contained in Book II of 

 this volume. By a combined theoretical and practical study 

 (see Conclusions 8 to 10) the learner would in this manner 

 arrive at being tolerably proficient in reading the secrets of 

 nature and of life. If we imagine every teacher fairly trained 

 in this respect at his or her college, it is to be presumed that 

 the general instruction, work, and life of the school (and, it is 

 hoped, of the home) may become permeated with at least the 

 elements of the scientific spirit, especially if we note that the 

 world about the child offers boundless opportunities for pur- 

 poseful, methodical, and exact observation, generalisation, and 

 theoretical and practical deduction. What is true of the child 

 is a fortiori truer still of the adolescent and of the young men 

 and women of university age. It is most desirable therefore 

 that the introduction of this more excellent way of acquiring 

 scientific skill should not be indefinitely postponed. Men of 

 science should be surely the last in the world to insist on 

 continuing a tradition for no better reason than that it exists. 



SECTION V. THE MAN OF GENIUS, AND THOUGHT AS HABIT- 

 CONTROLLED AND AS A PAN-HUMAN PRODUCT. 



I. THOUGHT AS HABIT-CONTROLLED. 



9. The super-chemistry of thought is more easily conceived 

 in the abstract than concretely analysed. Stimulated by in- 

 stincts and consequent desires, human thought enters the scene, 

 and is primarily dependent for efficiency on a more or less 

 complete and correlated memory. Yet, singularly enough, with 

 all its perfection there is scarcely anything more imperfect 

 than the human memory. First we note that our consciousness 

 is almost like a sieve, for most of our sensations no sooner 



1 Comte's view was manifestly correct as far as the stage of scientific 

 development of his day was concerned. To-day already his reasoning is 

 only partially justified, and in the course of time it will become obsolete. 

 On the subject generally consult Conclusion 2B. 



