THE GERM-PLASM THEORY 59 



our army in Flanders as commemorated by Captain 

 Shandy. 



Now a hypothesis which collects together a 

 number of otherwise isolated facts and makes a 

 whole of them, is an achievement and a useful one, 

 even if it subsequently turns out that the hypo- 

 thesis is incorrect ; for without working hypo- 

 theses science is arid, dead, non-existent. The 

 mere observation of isolated facts, though a neces- 

 sary preliminary to scientific generalizations, is a 

 matter of comparatively small interest, and one 

 which gives little if any stimulus to further work. 

 It is the combination of these facts into a working 

 hypothesis which gives stimulus and leads to 

 further harvests of knowledge. All this one freely 

 admits, yet without seeing why the newly erected 

 hypothesis should be treated by its adherents as if 

 it were the most sacred of doctrines. But this is 

 actually what happens. A hypothesis is put forward 

 and supported by a number of facts. Its originator 

 collects around him a band of energetic workers 

 and supporters who bring forward a number of 

 further observations, all to the good of knowledge, 

 capable of being interpreted in terms of the hypo- 

 thesis and perhaps of other hypotheses also, if a 

 little dialectical skill be employed. The new facts, 

 thus interpreted, are held as being irrefutable 

 proofs of the hypothesis which is now erected into 

 a dogma. Severe scientific censures and cold con- 

 tempt are the lot of those who cavil, so that the 

 prime law of science, " Try all things," is almost 

 forgotten, and those who would be critical, find 

 it necessary to apologize for their audacity. What 



