Rae 
METHOD OF MULTIPLE WORKING HYPOTHESES 847 
factor in education the disciplinary value of the method is one 
of prime importance. When faithfully followed for a sufficient 
time, it develops a mode of thought of its own kind which may 
be designated the habit of parallel thought, or of complex 
thought. It is contra-distinguished from the linear order of 
thought which is necessarily cultivated in language and mathe- 
matics because their modes are linear and successive. The pro- 
cedure is complex and largely simultaneously complex. The 
mind appears to become possessed of the power of simultaneous 
vision from different points of view. The power of viewing 
phenomena analytically and synthetically at the same time 
appears to be gained. It is not altogether unlike the intellectual 
procedure in the study of a landscape. From every quarter 
of the broad area of the landscape there come into the mind 
myriads of lines of potential intelligence which are received 
and coérdinated simultaneously producing a complex impression 
which is recorded and studied directly in its complexity. If the 
landscape is to be delineated in language it must be taken part 
by part in linear succession. 
Over against the great value of this power of thinking in 
complexes there is an unavoidable disadvantage. No good thing 
is without its drawbacks. It is obvious upon studious consider- 
ation that a complex or parallel method of thought cannot be 
rendered into verbal expression directly and immediately as it 
takes place. We cannot put into words more than a single line 
of thought at the same time, and even in that the order of 
expression must be conformed to the idiosyncrasies of the 
language. Moreover the rate must be incalculably slower than 
the mental process. When the habit of complex or parallel 
thought is not highly developed there is usually a leading line 
of thought to which the others are subordinate. Following this 
leading line the difficulty of expression does not rise to serious 
proportions. But when the method of simultaneous mental 
action along different lines is so highly developed that the 
thoughts running in different channels are nearly equivalent, 
there is an obvious embarrassment in making a selection for 
