236 PART V WORKING STAGE. 



problems may be out of reach, let them be as extensive as 

 practicable and not as restricted as possible. ( 166.) Detail 

 work is thoroughly consistent with sweeping aims; but detail 

 work is frequently almost wasted because it is performed in a 

 mechanical way, with the mind relaxed instead of tense. 

 Darwin's life-labours pointedly illustrate this: 



"His works are a series of models of the scientific jnethod, because of 

 the rare and happy combination of minute and accurate observation and 

 daring speculation followed by ruthless testing and pruning of his hypo- 

 theses. He thought it worth while to notice and penetrate into the 

 meaning of the most insignificant fact, and was capable of sweeping 

 the whole earth for evidence in support of his largest theories. He could 

 take the time to count twenty thousand seeds of Lythrum salicaria." 

 (Frank Cramer, op. cit., p. 34.) "There can be no doubt that his great 

 interest in apparently little things, and his efforts to make the most of 

 them, were due to his conviction that important things were hidden behind 

 them, that they were illustrations of general laws." (Ibid., pp. 47-48.) 

 "Perhaps one of the noblest lessons he left to the world is this which 

 to him amounted to a profound, almost religious, conviction that every 

 fact in nature, no matter how insignificant, every stripe of colour, every 

 tint of flowers, the length of an orchid's nectary, unusual height in a 

 plant all the infinite variety of apparently insignificant things, is full 

 of significance." (Ibid., pp. 51-52.) Darwin refused to accept details at 

 their face value. 



In view of the Conclusions which follow, and the variety of 

 material accumulated in the sciences, it is not necessary to pass 

 beyond these broad generalities when referring to the estab- 

 lished sciences. 



PART V. 

 WORKING STAGE. 



SECTION XXL PRECISE NATURE OF PROBLEM TO BE 

 INVESTIGATED. 



CONCLUSION 14. 



Need of Precisely Determining the Nature of the Problem under 



Investigation . 



105. Granting that the question which we desire to address 

 to nature is an admissible one (Conclusion 5) and that its 

 character is also such as to commend itself to the methodologist 

 (Conclusions 4 and 25rf), it only remains to provide that our 

 interrogation shall be unequivocally formulated. This may be 

 difficult, perhaps impossible, at the very commencement of the 

 enquiry. In that case, little is lost, however, if we are fully 

 conscious of the haze in which our conceptions are enveloped. 

 Many a problem only exists because it is not clearly framed, 

 that is, the mere proper framing not infrequently engenders 

 its solution. Every effort should be therefore made to devise a 

 formulation of the problem which shall be minimally ambiguous, 



