ADDRESS. 5 



sively to one branch of scientific inquiry ; the conjunction influences and 

 determines progress in all the sciences, and when associated with a 

 sufficient touch of imagination, when the power of seeing is conjoined with 

 the faculty of foreseeing, of projecting the mind into the future, we may 

 expect something more than the discovery of isolated facts ; their co- 

 ordination and the enunciation of new principles and laws will necessarily 

 follow. 



Scientific method consists, therefore, in close observation, frequently 

 repeated so as to eliminate the possibility of erroneous seeing ; in experi- 

 ments checked and controlled in every direction in which fallacies might 

 arise ; in continuous reflection on the appearances and phenomena 

 observed, and in logically reasoning out their meaning and the conclusions 

 to be drawn from them. Were the method followed out in its integrity 

 by all who are engaged in scientific investigations, the time and labour 

 expended in correcting errors committed by ourselves or by other 

 observers and experimentalists would be saved, and the volumes devoted 

 annually to scientific literature would be materially diminished in size. 

 Were it applied, as far as the conditions of life admit, to the conduct and 

 management of human affairs, we should not require to be told, when 

 critical periods in our welfare as a nation arise, that we shall muddle 

 through somehow. Recent experience has taught us that wise discretion 

 and careful prevision are as necessary in the direction of public affairs as 

 in the pursuit of science, and in both instances, when properly exercised, 

 they enable us to reach with comparative certainty the goal which we 

 strive to attain. 



Improvements in Means of Observation. 



Whilst certain principles of research are common to all the sciences, 

 each great division requires for its investigation specialised arrangements 

 to insure its progress. Nothing contributes so much to the advancement 

 of knowledge as improvements in the means of observation, either by the 

 discovery of new adjuncts to research, or by a fresh adaptation of old 

 methods. In the industrial arts, the introduction of a new kind of raw 

 material, the recognition that a mixture or blending is often more 

 serviceable than when the substances employed are uncombined, the 

 discovery of new pi-ocesses of treating the articles used in manufactures, 

 the invention of improved machinery, all lead to the expansion of trade, 

 to the occupation of the people, and to the development of great 

 industrial centres. In science, also, the invention and employment of 

 new and more precise instruments and appliances enable us to appreciate 

 more clearly the signification of facts and phenomena which were pre- 

 viously obscure, and to penetrate more deeply into the mysteries of nature. 

 They mark fresh departures in the history of science, and provide a firm 

 base of support from which a continuous advance may be made and fresh 

 conceptions of nature can be evolved 



