PART IV. PREPARATORY STAGE. 



instances partial when they should be and might be more or 

 less complete. As we have pointed out in Conclusions 4 and 25 

 more especially, the contemporary interest in fragmentary 

 enquiries is highly prejudicial and detrimental to the establish- 

 ment of truth and to rapid discovery, a fact which the tenor 

 of this Conclusion makes almost self-evident. This conceded, 

 however, it need only be remarked that in a necessarily partial 

 enquiry, consonant, say, with Darwin's life-long practice, every- 

 thing should be done to render it as comprehensive as possible 

 and, as suggested in the preceding paragraph, to introduce into 

 every one of its parts the components of the complete enquiry. 



B. NEED OF A HISTORIC APPRECIATION OF DIFFERENCES IN 

 METHODS AND IN THE SCOPE OF ENQUIRIES. 



73. The question of the general standard applicable to 

 methods and to the scope of enquiries is of such far-reaching 

 consequence that it is advisable to associate it closely with the 

 problem discussed in A. Without viewing methodological 

 matters in true perspective, there is danger of misapprehend- 

 ing them seriously and becoming enmeshed in delusive and 

 paralysing subtleties. We shall accordingly deal with the sub- 

 ject here at some length. 



(a) In A we pleaded for a synthetic methodology. In this 

 place, however, we desire to dilate on the historic process which 

 has rendered possible such a system. This analysis should 

 therefore prove useful from more than one point of view. 



In methodology, if anywhere, comparisons are odious. One 

 thinker will emphasise the importance of observation, another 

 of experiment, a third of generalisation or deduction, and so 

 on, and the reader will be tempted to pronounce himself in 

 favour of one or another school. The methodological con- 

 ceptions of different scholars and ages are also commonly judged 

 to be inferior or superior. A historical study of the problems 

 will lead us to deprecate indiscriminate comparisons. 



Before much thought had been devoted to deliberate enquiries, 

 even the very notion of method had not suggested itself. At 

 first, with no positive knowledge to guide or check men's 

 cogitations, haphazard thinking and examination appeared satis- 

 factory, since there was nothing to indicate that the results 

 reached were fanciful or well-nigh worthless. Then, slowly, by 

 insensible gradations, sounder knowledge, on the one hand, 

 accumulated, and, on the other, casual experience and reflection 

 were increasingly found to be inadequate and disappointing. 

 Accordingly, one methodological aspect here and another there, 

 rose more and more into prominence. At each fairly developed 

 stage, too, individuals and schools, as now, imagined that the 

 ideal had been at last attained, only however to be superseded 

 by a somewhat higher placed school equally confident of having 



