164 PART IV. PREPARATORY STAGE. 



is applied, or when a number of these is fortuitously employed. 

 To attain our end, a mode of procedure has to be resorted to 

 whose initial stage is the determination of the precise problem 

 to be examined and whose final stage is the report. Obser- 

 vation, for example, is hence a mere preliminary to generali- 

 sation and admittedly without appreciable significance in the 

 absence of the latter, whilst generalisations which are not verified 

 and are not crystallised into a comprehensive interim definition 

 (itself the introduction to the process of deduction, etc.), remain 

 more or less meaningless. A truth may therefore be said only 

 to be established, or properly inquired into, when (a) to (/') have 

 been applied in orderly succession, no section of the process 

 being omitted and none being utilised out of place. 



The logical connection of these methods will, it is hoped, 

 recommend itself on examination, (a) We should, to begin with, 

 naturally be clear as to the nature of the problem with which 

 we are concerned. (Here we are aided by the table of Cate- 

 gories incorporated in Conclusions 3 and 33.) To remain in 

 doubt on this score is to rob the whole enquiry of its meaning. 

 (b) Granted clarity in this respect, it is as obvious that nothing 

 is achieved when no more is attempted, as that the next step 

 should be the examining and ascertaining of the facts, for to 

 generalise or to treat deductively unverified statements would 

 be evidently fatal to solid progress. If the determination of 

 the problem must be and can be only followed by an examina- 

 tion of the facts, it is equally beyond question that the further 

 step is, where possible, resort to experiment, for this permits 

 of observation under relatively ideal conditions, (c) Since the 

 number of particulars in an enquiry is as a rule incalculably 

 great, this distinctly suggests that our goal is not reached, 

 and that we should accordingly somehow arrange or compress 

 these details into classes. The process of generalising follows 

 therefore necessarily on that of observing and experimenting. 

 (d) Yet to generalise is to conjecture that what we think holds 

 true of certain phenomena holds equally true of others, but of 

 that we cannot be sure without verification. Generalisation is 

 hence of necessity succeeded by verification and by nothing 

 else immediately, (e) Fairly embarked upon the process of 

 generalisation, we naturally generalise our generalisations, and 

 this issues in a summary statement or definition, epitomising in 

 the fewest terms possible the results thus far attained. Here 

 apparently our enquiry has reached its natural climax and con- 

 clusion. (/) If, however, we probe the matter, we discover that 

 we should be poor indeed if we proceeded no further. In fact, 

 we stand only before the golden gates. The circumspectly for- 

 mulated summary statement forms an ideal point of departure 

 for the process of deduction, whereby we not only obtain con- 

 vincing proofs of the general proposition we have reached, but 

 by which we also discover innumerable important truths that 



