16 PHILOSOPHICAL NOTES ON 



their causes, and to make a colligated growing whole of all that 

 is in us and outside of us, of which we can take cognizance. 



A philosophy of any set of phenomena or of the whole con- 

 nected universe without a theory is no philosophy at all. In fact, 

 philosophizing without theorizing is inconceivable. Therefore, 

 the philosophy of any set of phenomena would appear synonymous 

 with " a theory which explains the causes and the relations of that 

 set of phenomena." 



Dr. Wliewell * says : " All received theories in science up to 

 the present time have been established by taking up some sup- 

 position and comparing it, directly or by means of its remoter 

 consequences, with the facts it was intended to embrace. Its 

 agreement, under certain cautions and conditions, of which we 

 may hereafter speak, is held to be the evidence of its truth. It 

 answers its genuine purpose, the colligation of facts." 



Prof. Bain almost endorses this in different words. He says : 

 *' Our reason essentially consists in using an old fact in new 

 circumstances, through the power of discerning its agreement or 

 disagreement with them." 



Mr. C. F. Holder, in his " Life of Darwin," gives the following 

 definition : — " Science is the discernment, discrimination, and 

 classification of facts, and the discovery of their relations of 

 sequence " (p. 210) ; while " Philosophy is the explanation of 

 the phenomena of the universe" (p. 214). 



Both science and philosophy are, therefore, often tentative, 

 the one endeavouring to establish facts, the other, by speculation, 

 endeavouring to establish the facts into a colligated ichole, in- 

 telligible as a whole, without which the facts might remain 

 scattered and isolated. 



Professor Knight has said that the more one is a specialist the 

 less can he be a philosopher. This is, perhaps, true in a certain 

 sense. There is, however, no doubt that some minds are both 

 scientific and philosophic. Indeed, one cannot see how these two 

 branches of investigation can well be separated. Some minds can 

 dissect facts and find out other facts behind tliem, at the same 

 time that they can take up a number of strands, and weave them 

 into one continuous string. 



" Novum organon renovatum," ch. iv. sec. 11. 



