SECTION 23. GENERALISATION. 339 



oh the side of the sentiments, of the sense of right or conscience, 

 of sympathy or fellow-feeling, refinement or tact, and of humour 

 or geniality); and the will (interpreted as mainly initiative, 

 resoluteness, perseverance, and strenuousness). The rule then 

 reads: "In your conduct (and, further generalising methodically, 

 in all your activities!) utilise all the powers of the mind, i.e., 

 carry out promptly and intelligently, in a sympathetic, genial, and 

 tactful manner, what a thoroughly enlightened and awakened 

 conscience (reason, taste, etc.) demands." We arrive in this 

 methodical way at a complete rule, so far as our present 

 knowledge extends. 



Methodical procedure is of cardinal importance from the 

 commencement of an enquiry; but it should not be severely 

 pressed until we have made considerable headway and until 

 we are tolerably sure of our ground. For example, assuming 

 any two points reached, we search for any possible points 

 disregarded between or beyond the two points, and, having 

 reached some kind of scheme, we proceed to eliminate what is 

 irrelevant and add what is lacking. Even to the last, however, 

 the system constructed needs to be critically re-examined, and, 

 if required, recast, for especially towards the end of an enquiry 

 should gaps and flaws become visible or even glaring. (Con- 

 clusion 30.) So, too, the amount of time we have devoted to 

 a certain portion of our investigation or the amount of material 

 we have collected, will each, when examined, perhaps suggest 

 that adequate attention has not been paid to that portion, or 

 that the material collected or the time absorbed is more than 

 ample. And we shall not rest satisfied till we have done what 

 is necessary to weld all the details into a connected whole, or, 

 at the very least, to link them, so far as permissible, in a parti- 

 cular order. Unintermittently, therefore, we need to aim at 

 rounded or strictly serial and connected results, and arrange 

 that continuity and proportion are throughout respected. So 

 long as this object is not attained, our work is manifestly in- 

 complete, and to obviate such incompleteness we should have 

 recourse to methodological procedure. 



From the foregoing it is evident that the value of proceeding 

 methodically cannot be overrated. Leaving matters to chance 

 or to half-chance, we not only progress with painful slowness, 

 but -we can never be confident in our conclusions. On the 

 contrary, by methodical observation, recollection, generalising, 

 deducing, application, and classifying, we advance with rapid 

 strides and safely. The collection of facts will proceed with 

 great rapidity, and the explanation of these facts will be con- 

 summated at the earliest possible moment, when methodological 

 canons continuously govern the process of enquiry. Darwin 

 never merely indulged in assertions, nor merely speculated; 

 but he systematically applied logical rules throughout all his 

 work. One might, indeed, claim that the truest token of intellec- 

 ts* 



