SECTION 19. INTRODUCTORY AND SUMMARY. 147 



Auguste Comte proposes the hereunder mentioned fifteen universal 

 principles or laws: "Law 1. Form the simplest and most sympathetic 

 hypothesis consistent with the whole of the known facts. Law 2. Regard 

 as invariable all laws whatsoever which govern phenomena and, through 

 them, beings. Law 3. All modifications of the universal order are limited 

 to the degree of intensity of the phenomena, their arrangement not ad- 

 mitting of alteration. Law 4. All subjective constructions are dependent 

 on objective materials. Law 5. The internal images are always less 

 vivid and less distinct than the external impressions. Law 6. The image 

 which is our immediate object must predominate over all that are simul- 

 taneously evoked by the excitement of the brain. Law 7. Every under- 

 standing passes through a succession of three states: fictitious, abstract, 

 and positive, in all its conceptions without exception, with a velocity 

 proportioned to the generality of the phenomena in question. Law 8. 

 Man's activity passes through a succession of three states: Conquest; 

 Defence; and, lastly, Industry. Law 9. Man's social existence has also a 

 succession of three states: the Family, the State, Humanity. It is domestic, 

 civic, universal, in accordance with the peculiar nature of each of the 

 three instincts of sympathy. Law 10. Every condition, statical or dyna- 

 mical, has an inherent tendency to continue as it is without change, 

 resisting all disturbance from without. (Kepler.) Law 11. Every system 

 maintains its constitution, whether in exercise or at rest, when its con- 

 stituent parts are subjected to simultaneous changes, provided that the 

 changes affect all the parts in equal degree. (Galileo.) Law 12. Reaction 

 and action are always equivalent, if the degree of each is measured in 

 accordance with the peculiar nature of each collision. (Newton.) Law 13. 

 The theory of motion must be subordinated to that of existence, by 

 looking on all progress as the development of the particular order in 

 question, the conditions of such order, whatever they may be, regulating 

 the changes which together make up the evolution. Law 14. Every 

 positive classification must proceed on the principle of the increase or 

 decrease of generality, whether subjective or objective. Law 15. The 

 intermediate state should be in all cases subordinated to the extremes 

 which it brings into connection." (Richard Congreve, Positivist Tables, 

 London, 1892, pp. 26-28.) 



Huxley epitomises in this manner the method of science: "The methods 

 [of the sciences] are all identical: 1. Observation of facts, including under 

 this head that artificial observation which is called experiment. 2. Tfrat 

 process of tying up similar facts into bundles, ticketed and ready for 

 use, which is called comparison and classification; the results of the 

 process, the ticketed bundles, being named general propositions. 3. De- 

 duction, which takes us from the general proposition to facts again, 

 teaches us, if I may so say, to anticipate from the ticket what is inside 

 the bundle. And, finally, 4. Verification which is the process of ascertaining 

 whether, in point of fact, our anticipation is a correct one." (Twelve 

 Lectures and Essays, ed. 1915, p. 12.) 



Here is a philosophical summary of the nature of the scientific process: 

 "The aim of the scientific process as it occurs in the individual is to 

 render the Objective in its actual determinations intelligible. This happens 

 when primary facts enter into an 'apperceptive system'. ... If the process 

 has been of the kind intended by the term scientific, it will have the 

 further property of leading to other determinations of the Objective, and 

 these further determinations are the actual achievements of science, and 

 its 'end', therefore, from the universal point of view." (T. Percy Nunn, 

 The Aim and Achievements of the Scientific Method, 1907, pp. 142-143.) 



An expert thinker, it might also be suggested, will perennially 

 and intently concentrate his mental powers in order that he 

 might, with the aid of appropriate canons, rapidly discover, 

 record, verify, connect, preserve, and communicate static and 



10* 



