WILLIAM G. STEVENSON. 7 
of art, transformed them into speechless marble, or, 
with poetic fire, described them in immortal verse. 
Mythology, with all its illusions, was, nevertheless, a 
legitimate result of the subjective method of interpre- 
ting natural phenomena. Man saw with the eye, and 
not through it; and sought to harmonize objective facts 
with ideal conceptions, which were based on neither ac- 
curate observation nor verified knowledge. 
In this connection, it is well to keep in mind the im- 
portant fact that correct reasoning and healthy imagi- 
nation depend upon ‘‘accurate perception and exact 
memory.”’ 
‘‘Knowledge is the perception of relations,’ and 
this implies ability to distinguish differences, which 
depends upon accurate observation. 
An imperfect perception of an object gives to the 
mind false data, by which reason is distorted, and im- 
agination—freed from the controlling influence which 
observation imposes upon it—degenerates into fancy. 
_The earth becomes thereby a fairyland, peopled with 
chimera, satyrs, and sirens. 
The subjective method reached its highest philosophi- 
cal expression in the teachings of Plato, wherein we learn 
that objects are only inexact material embodiments of 
ideas,—‘‘unsubstantial shadows”? without reality, and, 
therefore, our knowledge of the external world is to be 
attained not by observation, but by simple reflection. 
The human mind, with all its varying shades of thought, 
thus became the measure of the universe, and the inter- 
pretations of nature rested, not upon the verities of the 
world around, but upon the conceptions formed when 
the mind contemplated itself alone. 
This idealism, so flattering to the vain conceit of man, 
robbed nature of her unity and truth, and seriously re- 
tarded the progress of knowledge. 
Gradually the tide of thought rolled on until Aristotle 
