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result has ever been the same, no agreement, but ever widen- 

 ing diversity ; fierce onslaught and bitter rejoinder. When will 

 those who thus dispute learn to distinguish between those fields 

 in which scientific methods may be employed, and those wide 

 domains in which, while room exists for speculation, dogmatism 

 should have no place. So many things in these days force 

 themselves upon our attention, that we shall do well so to train 

 our faculties that we may see clearly the difference between 

 those which will repay investigation, and those which give no 

 promise of reward. But we too often credulously accept what- 

 ever is put forth with a show of learning, no matter how 

 sophistical the arguments, nor how false the premises on which 

 it is based. We have no need to go back to the idle specula- 

 tions of past ages for illustrations. Look around, and you may 

 find on every hand dupes of mere charlatans by the score, and 

 believers in every kind of humbuggery, and these often among 

 people otherwise of fair intelligence, and neither illiterate nor 

 inexperienced in the ordinary affairs of life. Some of the 

 isms which have recently been urged and discussed, count 

 among their votaries men and women occupying high places in 

 society, in the church and in the state, and the explanation of 

 a fact, otherwise so surprising and so discouraging, is that these 

 people have neither a real love for truth, nor knowledge of the 

 way by which truth may be discovered. They accept with 

 equal readiness guides true and false ; they have not learned to 

 weigh evidence for themselves, nor to distinguish between the 

 blatant claims of charlatans and established facts ; they fail to 

 see that in their very essence some things are absurd, incapable 

 of proof, or unworthy of investigation. In other words, their 

 credulity results not so much from a lack of intelligence as from 

 a faulty education, and especially from a want of scientific train- 

 ing, and I have thought that it might be profitable for us briefly 

 to consider this evening some of the methods of science, since 

 these have been of such service to mankind in the search for 

 truth. They are capable of wide application, and their practice 

 tends to clear thinking and good workmanship ; and surely the 

 ability to think clearly and to work well is worth cultivating in 

 any calling. Especial reference will be made to the methods 

 employed in the study of the physical sciences, and it will be 

 my endeavor to point out some of the characteristics of good 



