366 PART V WORKING STAGE. 



SECTION XXV. INTERIM STATEMENT. 



CONCLUSION 30. 



Need of Exhausting and Gradually Consolidating Lines of In- 

 ductive Enquiry and of Aiming at a Balanced Interim Statement. 



191. (A) EXHAUSTING LINES OF INDUCTIVE EN- 

 QUIRY. We reach now a more general and self-explanatory 

 Conclusion. Not only should we seek to exhaust classes of 

 relevant facts and the conditions under which they subsist; 

 but we should, as far as possible, solidly exhaust every line, 

 whatever direction it takes within that enquiry. Under this 

 heading fall especially the filling in of the interstices between 

 one generalisation and another, the connecting of generali- 

 sations, the extending a generalisation to the furthest limits, 

 and testing and extending by deductive procedure. Any in- 

 ferences or processes of reasoning ought to be also exhausted. 

 In short, when the final conclusion is established, the problem, 

 except for disguised, unimportant, and extraneous implications, 

 should have been, for all intents and purposes, dealt with as 

 far as possible exhaustively. 1 



192. (B) CONSOLIDATING LINES OF INDUCTIVE EN- 

 QUIRY. The progress of an investigation cannot be ordinarily 

 compared to a straight line, e.g., first observing an object, then 

 ranging this into a class, and ultimately forming ever larger 

 classes, and drawing inferences. On the contrary, an investiga- 

 tion needs to proceed simultaneously in sundry directions. For 

 instance, wishing to make a study of the nature of the sensa- 

 tions, I begin to collect the facts relating to the special senses. 

 I also seek for their mode of development, for their connection, 

 for their possible unity, for their relation to the memory, and 

 so on. How such series of facts are to be linked is not usually 

 manifest at first sight. Consequently, as the enquiry proceeds, 

 tentative attempts are periodically instituted to consolidate it, 

 and this process is repeated with the progress of the investiga- 

 tion, until the totality of the results are as nearly as possible 

 revealed. This does not signify a mechanical consolidation, but 

 a series of rearrangements out of which many suggestions arise 

 for novel lines of investigation. Especially as the general prob- 

 lem approaches solution, will consolidation prove of consequence, 

 and the final attempts may lead to the discovery of much which 

 was unanticipated. This is admirably illustrated in the very 

 gradually and very indirectly obtained gaseous laws of Boyle, 

 Dalton, Gay-Lussac, Avogadro, and Graham, which now tend 

 to be explained by the single hypothesis that a gas represents 



1 "An investigation, by stopping short of exhaustion of the field, may 

 lead, not only to imperfect, but to false, conclusions." (Frank Cramer, 

 op. cit., p. 198.) 



