PART V WORKING STAGE. 



generalised to the furthest limits by learned physicians ? Why 

 should so many generalisations have been so slowly evolved, 

 and why should they have so frequently met with prolonged 

 and stubborn opposition? Indeed, why should not many ex- 

 tensive generalisations have suggested themselves earlier and 

 to more individuals? It is, of course, a familiar fact that in 

 certain cases an extraordinary accident led to a step in-advance r 

 and, in addition, that it is not infrequently true that full or 

 even partial verification is difficult. Yet if men were trained 

 to generalise by habit and methodically, it is not easy to resist 

 the conclusion that the progress of science would be materially 

 accelerated, and that whilst fragmentary and slipshod generali- 

 sations would greatly diminish, comprehensive and defensible 

 generalisations would not only be proposed in abundance, but 

 be universally welcomed and impartially examined. The re- 

 markable fact that large and valid generalisations have been 

 frequently arrived at by young scholars or by those who were 

 not academic teachers, argues, from this point of view, that 

 numerous young scholars and laymen do not permit themselves 

 to be imposed upon so readily by tradition as many of those 

 who have become professed and professional teachers. Experts. 

 and bureaucrats as a body are noted for their disastrous love 

 of routine, and science also to a certain extent suffers from its 

 protagonists not seldom sinking unnecessarily into deep ruts. 

 167. (d) IMPORTANT GENERALISATIONS.- Sweeping 

 generalisations should also aim at being of the highest import 

 scientifically. They should, if possible, establish some general 

 fact which throws directly much light on a far-reaching ques- 

 tion and leads to countless important deductions and practical 

 applications. Merely for the sake of illustration we may men- 

 tion such widely appreciated problems for individual or collec- 

 tive solution as the evolution of (a) the earth, (b) the solar 

 system, and (c) our universe; the fundamental laws and rela- 

 tions of heat, light, electricity, magnetism, radiation, and chemi- 

 cal affinity; the nature, connection, and development of (a) the 

 chemical elements and compounds and (6) crystals; the con- 

 stitution and dynamics of the living cell, and the genesis of 

 life; the causes of irritability, adaptation, growth, reproduction,, 

 senescence, death, heredity, variation, and evolution in living 

 beings; the evolution of sensibility, the senses, of instincts, 

 and of the intelligence; the interaction and interrelations of 

 cells, tissues, organs, systems of organs, organisms, and neigh- 

 bouring groups of organisms ; the possible unity, or exact rela- 

 tions, of mind and matter; the distinctive characteristics of 

 man and of his immediate ancestry, and their explanation; the 

 nature, origin, and further development of (a) language, of (b) the 

 arts, of (c) economic processes, and of (d) the primary social 

 institutions; the foundations and precepts of (a) morality and 

 (b) aesthetics, and the effectual cultivation among human beings 



