SECTION 20.- STUDIES PREPARATORY TO ALL INVESTIGATIONS. 165 



open up hew vistas and new enquiries. In fact, we are now 

 reaching in a novel way the truths which it would have been 

 far more difficult to detect by continuing the process of obser- 

 vation and generalisation, (g) We have now learned what we 

 desired on the theoretical side ; but this leaves an arbitrary gap, 

 namely, the discovery of the causes whereby the facts are or 

 may be produced, and the satisfaction of men's practical require- 

 ments so far as this can be attained through applying the theo- 

 retical knowledge acquired, (h) Even now, however, most of 

 our labour may prove futile if the various particular and general 

 facts which we have gathered are not preserved to some extent. 

 We therefore classify our whole relevant material in an order 

 most convenient and profitable for inspection. These classified 

 facts prepare thus the way for our comprehensive definition, 

 as our comprehensive definition illumines them. The two form, 

 as a matter of fact, a single or interdependent totality. (*) This 

 need gratified, we are again threatened with a formless con- 

 clusion to our enquiry, and hence we compress our results in a 

 comprehensive definition which, at a glance, can instruct us as 

 to the total outcome of our enquiry, (j) One more step needs 

 to be taken to conclude the enquiry we must prepare a written 

 report. If we neglect to do this, our imperfect memory and 

 inarticulated memoranda will lead to the loss of the truth which 

 we have toilsomely built up, and, again, if we perform this task 

 indifferently, our statement may be too obscure and will there- 

 fore tend to nullify our- labours, or it may be so unattractive 

 because of its plain dress that it will arouse practically no 

 public attention. The interdependent and synthetic unity of 

 the scientific process of enquiry is thus readily demonstrated. 



As already hinted, two reservations should be made in con- 

 nection with the preceding statement. Assuming that we are 

 concerned with a complete enquiry, it might be concluded that 

 once our observations are succeeded by generalisation, the 

 process of observation has drawn definitely to a close, and 

 that observation constitutes a self-contained mode of procedure 

 affected by nothing outside itself. Both these assumptions are 

 unjustified. The need for sedulously observing, examining, or 

 calculating, persists through every stage of the complete pro- 

 cess of enquiry, while the obverse is also true that each section 

 of the complete process should represent in miniature the com- 

 plete process. At every stage we shall hence have frequent 

 occasions to observe, to generalise, to verify, to define, 4x> 

 deduce, to apply, to classify, to re-define, and to write. Bare 

 observation, generalisation, etc., most imperfectly satisfy scienti- 

 fic requirements. 



More serious is the objection that enquiries are not seldom 

 partial ones, and that therefore the synthetic method is not 

 uniformly applicable. To a certain extent there is a transparent 

 answer to this objection, for enquiries to-day are in countless 



