188 PART IV. PREPARATORY STAGE. 



and that the ultimate conclusion is neither substantiated nor 

 verified. The employment of subtlety is principally due to 

 the chaotic state of an unresolved general problem, for this 

 primitive chaos suggests countless inapposite questions. A prob- 

 lem, like a mist, clears up imperceptibly. 



All subtlety, therefore, save in respect of the final solution 

 towards the conclusion of the investigation, is useless and 

 mischievous, for it is by a series of closer and closer approxi- 

 mations that a satisfactory solution is reached. In this con- 

 nection we ought to bear in mind that observation should be 

 relevant and rational ( 170), and that subtlety is often a 

 consequence of the neglect of these two precepts. The most 

 notable scientific practice of to-day, is for investigators to aim 

 at resolving or developing to a certain extent some large aspect 

 of an important problem in the light of the most general 

 aspects, "brushing aside for a time the non-essential and rising 

 above the confusion of detail". Triviality, completeness, dog- 

 matism, subtlety, are eschewed. 



In the preceding Conclusion we learnt that the progress of 

 science is represented by a slow upward movement. Hence 

 we should take it for granted in this Conclusion that any 

 legitimate 'problem has its roots in other partly or entirely 

 solved problems, and that the solution we seek restricts itself 

 to some definite class of phenomena, and aspires to only a 

 comparatively moderate advance. Accordingly we may affirm 

 that, passing by general explanations concerned with groups of 

 established sciences, the circle of scientific interest should not 

 normally "extend beyond one particular science at a time, such 

 as geology, physiology, anthropology, or ethics. 



Again, in the initial stages of an investigation it would be 

 futile to search for momentous conclusions, for we scarcely 

 yet know what we are inquiring into. Let it be a question of 

 the genesis of culture, for instance. First, ethnologists should 

 have roamed among practically all the peoples of the earth, 

 and should have published tolerably copious notes of their 

 customs, practices, and institutions. For the pioneer ethnologists 

 conclusions should be of the smallest import and facts of the 

 weightiest consequence. Yet working in the dark, as they 

 needs must do at first, there should be no attempt to exhaust 

 or even approach exhausting any series of phenomena. The 

 facts of ethnography are very nearly infinite, more particularly 

 when we contemplate the incessant changes in customs and 

 their interpretation. Ethnographers should, therefore, be accurate 

 and extensive in their observations, and endeavour to secure 

 many samples of facts and the more common features dis- 

 cernible in any community. Whatever offers obstinate resistance, 

 as the interpretation of the mentality of peoples or the as- 

 certaining of the customs which these peoples are reluctant 

 to divulge, they reserve for a later period. If the preliminary 



