WILLIAM G. STEVENSON. 15 
lie behind the phenomena which are presented to the 
senses or perceived by the intellect. 
The course of the falling stone or the blazing star is 
explained by ‘‘gravity’’—but what is gravity? and 
chemical affinity and life—what are they? We recog- 
nize some of their passing effects, but their essential 
natures are riddles we cannot solve. 
When nature is interrogated she answers—not in 
words, but signs ; the rocks give record of her years, 
and the skies measure the infinitudes of her vastness ; 
she emerges from the deep darkness of the past and, in 
her giant strength, throws into space revolving worlds, 
and marks their courses by the rays of light ; she paints 
her beauty on the hills and vales, pours sweetness in the 
flowers and fills the earth with joy and gladness ; but, 
though closely scanned, nature reveals not the secret of 
her power —the where, the whence, the whither of her live. 
The mystic threads of energy and matter, which have 
been so skillfully woven into the grand fabric of the 
universe, have been traced by the human intellect 
through many forms of life and worlds ; but the power 
that spins these threads and puts them upon the shut- 
tles of nature is not discerned by the microscope nor tel- 
escope, neither can the balance measure the wisdom 
that has designed the symmetric beauty of the world. 
That, however, which lies beyond the jurisdiction of in- 
ductive science, speculative thought seeks to reach 
through the still broader generalizations of philosophy, 
which represent the highest synthetic achievement of 
reason. 
It was the abuse of the deductive method, the attempt 
to reason, either without objective facts or from data 
that were not true, which brought it into disrepute ; 
and the abuse of the inductive method—the toleration 
of an unwarranted tyranny of the senses over reason— 
can only retard mental progress. 
