216 PART IV. -PREPARATORY STAGE. 



CONCLUSION 13. 



Need of a Provisional Conception as to the Form which an 

 Enquiry should assume. 



92. In the Conclusions which succeed this one, we shall 

 deal with ' the various stages of an investigation in synthetic 

 order and with the methods applicable to them. In this place, 

 for the sake of providing a synopsis, we offer miniature illustra- 

 tions of the conception which should dominate the inquirer in 

 respect of his general procedure. Since, however, all that we 

 could state is necessarily contained in far greater fulness in the 

 subsequent portions of the treatise, the present Conclusion must 

 inevitably appear seriously incomplete. Its object may therefore 

 be said to be to indicate by a few unpretentious examples in 

 what spirit an enquiry is to be entered on rather than to deter- 

 mine every one of the methods which need to be employed for 

 the purpose of bringing it to a successful issue. 



To level wits, was Bacon's methodological end, and this should 

 be manifestly also the ideal of every methodologist. The test, 

 that is, of a methodology, is the aid it renders the inquirer, 

 and the burden it removes from his shoulders. So far as Bacon's 

 chief example, the one relating to the investigation of heat, is 

 concerned, he supplies four definite rules, and implies that classes 

 of facts should be exhausted, that experiments should be made 

 whenever practicable, that utilitarian ends should be kept in 

 view as well as theoretical ones, and that opinions should be 

 loosely held until established by irrefragable proofs. Granted 

 that these helps- are invaluable, they are yet far removed from 

 according the inquirer all the guidance he requires. 



Suppose we go much further. By Conclusion 19, the inquirer 

 is greatly aided in the collection of facts. By Conclusion 20 his 

 path is made comparatively smooth. By Conclusions 17 and 21 

 he is helped to avoid a number of concealed traps which might 

 seriously vitiate his conclusions. By Conclusions 27 and 28 

 much that is obscure and complicated would be illuminated and 

 disentangled. His course will be also determined to a crucial 

 extent by Conclusion 3. Conclusion 16 will, naturally, contribute 

 appreciably to his success. In all this, the general course of 

 procedure clarity in regard to the problem to be examined, 

 observation, generalisation, verification, deduction, application, 

 classification, and interim and final statement is assumed. 



Even so, however, the methodological ideal is not completely 

 satisfied. We ought to postulate, besides, thorough intimacy 



there is an appalling waste of energy. For instance, how much more just 

 the present author would have been to his readers and to his theme, if, 

 through exclusive devotion and through enlisting wide co-operation, he could 

 have dealt with the whole of his theme instead of with only a portion 

 thereof, and if he could have avoided many imperfections which no doubt 

 materially reduce the value of this treatise. 



