244 PART V. WORKING STAGE. 



necessary embarrassments, and that the language, as in the 

 case of Greek, be so constructed or re-shaped as to permit of 

 an easy joining and fixing of terms and part terms. Already 

 academies and learned compilers of dictionaries have contributed 

 appreciably to making language less amorphous and more re- 

 liable ; but, to attain this end completely, it requires the employ- 

 ment of a method of automatically fixing the signification of 

 words and readily augmenting or lightening the vocabulary. 1 

 Till that day arrives there is perhaps some advantage in employ- 

 ing for scientific purposes the words of a dead language not 

 subject to the disastrous wear and tear of daily use in the 

 irresponsible market of the world. If this be so, everybody 

 should learn that language, although nobody should speak or 

 write it (which is virtually the case with Greek to-day). This is, 

 however, a clumsy and desperate device of overcoming what 

 in many languages is now a serious obstacle both to research 

 and to its popularisation. 2 



110. (B) EXACT CONCLUSIONS. As with terms, so with 

 conclusions. Lack of precision in great measure invalidates 

 them. To venture therefore in a desultory manner on innumer- 

 able assertions concerning a subject, may be arresting because 

 of the very vagueness, but is not exactly enlightening. In con- 

 sequence, next to aiming at precise terms, we should endeavour 

 to reach precise and truly comprehensive definitions which shall 

 summarise an enquiry in a convincing manner. Such definitions 

 will alone enable us and others to test the correctness of our 

 results and to utilise them for deductive ends, for which reasons 

 they are indispensable. Leaving aside the various definitions 

 of methodological terms which we have offered in Part II, we 

 may further illustrate our meaning by calling attention to the 

 comprehensive definition regarding the nature of man furnished 

 in Conclusions 13 and 34. One might similarly, though tenta- 

 tively, gather up the total meaning and content of the science 

 of ethics, by speaking of it as "that branch of the general 

 science of specio-psychics which deals with the historic tendency 

 of human impulses, individuals, groups of individuals, and groups 



derived from identical roots are classed together. That is, what we attempted 

 to do for English words developing out of the Latin "vertere", in Con- 

 clusion 20 d, might be effected for the whole vocabulary, including prefixes 

 and postfixes. Thys mastery of the etymology of at least the more common 

 words of foreign origin would then involve a comparatively modest effort 

 which might not be beyond the capacity of the older scholars in the primary 

 school and of adults generally. Not only would novel combinations be thus 

 readily comprehended, but the current vocabulary might be increased, say, 

 to the proportion common in literary works of distinction. 



1 For a project of a scientific language, see 205. 



2 The definition of a term may be verbal or real. In the first instance, 

 we merely explain how we propose to employ a term; in the second 

 instance, of which alone we speak in the text, we strive to define the 

 nature of the phenomenon implied in the term. 



