SCIENTIFIC METHOD 29 



Is it possible to give general expression to the promi- 

 nent features which give the method its peculiar potency ? 

 And if so, what line of treatment would be most suitable 

 for the purpose ? 



A convincing line, but one necessitating special know- 

 ledge on the part of my audience, would be to select 

 groups of scientific problems and attempt to show how 

 they have been investigated. I feel that I must leave 

 this to the eminent scientific men who are to deal with 

 such problems later. 



After much consideration, I have decided to adopt a 

 line of treatment which may, at least, have the charm of 

 novelty. The rise and development of any new method 

 which transforms human thought, is always subjected to 

 the fierce fire of hostile criticism ; and it may be fairly 

 assumed that the grounds of such attacks involve the 

 more prominent characteristics of the new departure in 

 thought. Bearing this in mind, we may, I think, arrive 

 at the general features of the scientific method by an 

 examination of some of the grounds upon which it was 

 assailed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 

 The assault has continued on more or less the same lines 

 to the present day, indicating that the features selected 

 for attack were not extrinsic ones belonging to the period, 

 but are intrinsic to the method itself; they constitute, in' 

 short, some of its more essential characteristics. 



These characteristics are displayed in the attacks made 

 upon the early work of the Royal Society, which was 

 founded in the seventeenth century. The birth of this 

 celebrated society is a landmark in the history of the 

 scientific method. One of the first-fruits of the reincar- 

 nation of the true scientific spirit was the rapid growth 

 of an enthusiastic interest in the study of nature. Drawn 

 together by similar interests and intellectual desires, men 



