MEMOIR OF DANIEL TKEADWELL. 



4G1 



accumulated in knowledge we do not perceive that we are a single step nearer to it than we 



were at the beginning." * 



" How does the case stand, then, between Bacon and the inductive philosophy ? First, for the 

 experiment. No one can successfully dispute that this has been the great teacher since man had 

 a place upon the globe ; and for any claim to an improved mode in the practice of experimenting, 

 Bacon was wholly ignorant of all practice. However stained with gold, his hands were innocent 

 of oil and charcoal ; presenting in this a strong contrast with Galileo, who was not only the 

 first philosopher, but the best experimenter and handicraftsman in Europe. Next, for the 

 induction. It cannot be denied that general truths or principles were learned from particular 

 instances ever since particular instances were observed ; and for the particular method of menial 

 examination which Bacon taught, no one does now or ever did follow it. Lastly, for the knowl- 

 edge to be obtained or the object of the induction. That proposed by Bacon as the end of his 

 inquiries never has been attained or generally sought for by the true followers of the inductive 

 method. I cannot avoid the conclusion that to call the inductive philosophy after the mime of 

 Bacon is a misnomer as great as that made by calling this continent after the name of Americas 

 Vespucius, and one of the same kind ; and that Galileo was as much the leader and teacher of 

 the inductive philosophy, in its systematic form, and in all that in which it differed from pre- 

 ceding systems, as Columbus was the discoverer of America." 



There is an opinion very widely spread amongst certain classes that great improvements in 

 the arts may be directly deduced from scientific knowledge without anything like a creative 



effort ; and that the production of a great invention necessarily implies an acquaintance with all 

 the principles and laws by which it acts. " This opinion does not appear to be well founded. 

 The common pump furnishes an apt example ; it was invented before the Christian era, but it 

 was not until nearly two thousand years after its invention that Torricelli discovered and taught 

 the scientific principles on which it operated ; namely, that the water is made to rise in it by 

 atmospheric pressure. The groined vaults of the cathedrals and other great buildings of Europe, 

 elevated upon their slender columns almost to the clouds, were constructed by men unacquainted 

 with the refinements of geometry or the application of its principles to the equilibrium of arches, 

 and from no light but that furnished by their own genius and tact" 



" But the strongest and most direct instance of the application of science to the arts is fur- 



The following from a paper by Professor T. H. Huxley, written thirty-five years after Professor Treadwell's 

 lecture, is so strikingly in accordance with his views that it may be cited : — 



"In our own country, Francis Bacon had essayed to sum up the past of physical science, and to indicate the path 

 which it must follow if its great destinies were to be fulfilled. And though the attempt was just such a magnificent 

 failure as might have been expected from a man of great endowments, who was so singularly devoid of scientific 

 insight that he could not understand the value of the work already achieved by the true instaurators of physical 

 science ; yet the majestic eloquence and the fervid vaticinations of one who was conspicuous alike by the greatness of 

 his rise and the depth of his fell drew the attention of all the world to the i new birth of Time.' 



" But it is not easy to discover satisfactory evidence that the ' Novum Organum ' had any direct beneficial influence 

 on the advancement of natural knowledge. No delusion is greater than the notion that method and industry can make 

 up for lack of mother- wit, either in science or in practical life ; and it is strange that, with his knowledge of mankind, 

 Bacon should have dreamed that his, or any other, ' via inveniendi scientias' would 4 level men's wits/ and leave little 

 scope for that inborn capacity which is called genius. As a matter of fact, Bacon's 'via 7 has proved hopelessly 

 impracticable; while the l anticipation of nature 7 by the invention of hypotheses, based on incomplete inductions, 

 which he specially condemus, has proved itself to be a most efficient, indeed an indispensable, instrument of scientific 

 progress. Finally, that transcendental alchemy, — the superinducement of new forms of matter, — which Bacon 

 declares to be the supreme aim of science, has been wholly ignored by those who have created the physical knowledge 

 of the present day." — Professor Huxley, in " The Reign of Queen Victoria/ 7 Vol. II. p. 325, London, 1887. 



