Otago Institute. 563 
speculations resting on a more or less reasonable basis; and, on the other hand, often- 
times a too tenacious retention of what is merely traditional interpretation, or a clinging 
to quotations from uninspired records as though they were divine utterances. I think it 
more befitting to my present position however, that I should address myself especially to 
younger students of natural science, with a view to pointing out some of the mistakes 
which they perhaps are particularly liable to fall into, mistakes which no doubt further 
study would enable them to correct for themselves, but which often remain uncorrected 
very much because the studies are so fitfully pursued that it is only when some cireum- 
stance arouses a publie interest in seientifie subjects that their attention is drawn to 
them again. It may appear but a commonplace observation when I say that one of the 
first things to be guarded against is impatience of the drudgery needful to master even 
the alphabet of almost any branch of science. I mean more by this than that there is no 
royal road to learning, and my meaning extends to this, namely, that there is a great 
temptation to forsake the steady pursuit of knowledge along the more tedious pathways 
of careful observation and well-considered induction for the more attractive highways of 
fashionable theory. I am not alluding now to those whose chief object is to get a repu- 
tation for the possession of scientific knowledge careless as to the basis upon which that 
reputation may rest. It may suffice for such to read a review of them, to plunge hotly 
into a discussion probably with far more rashness of assertion than they dare to whom 
the subject had been long familiar. But I speak rather of this danger as besetting those 
who are sincere in their desire to get to the root of matters. It is a seductive error. It 
s so much easier to discuss the merits of a theory than to plod along with the 
accumulation of facts, forgetting that we are not qualified to judge of the merits of a 
theory until we have a wide knowledge of the facts upon which it is based. It is that 
old error of the Aristotelian philosophy which the Baconians corrected. Dialectical skill 
instead of ascertained facts. Deductions from abstract and a priori propositions made to 
fit on to nature, instead of inductions from a multitude of observed phenomena leading 
up to conclusions of high probability. It is not wonderful that, in a population almost 
entirely occupied with pursuits which afford but little leisure, men should readily take 
the road which seems to be the shortest to the desired end, but it is a road which sub- 
divides so often that its end is commonly confusion. Mind, I am distinguishing the 
from lawful induction, and considering theory as something which men postulate for them- 
Selves, and a lawful induction to be a conclusion arrived at from the agreement of so 
many particulars as to make its value approach that of a general proposition. It is the 
business of the student of science to acquaint himself with these particulars, It is a 
common mistake to consider the dealer in theory a philosopher and to stigmatize the 
work of the plodding student as that of a mere recorder of observations; the former, 
however, is often a mere empiric, while the latter, if he be not a true philosopher, if hə 
will but persevere is likely to become such because his well-stored mind can hardly fail 
to arrange his copious data; unbidden thoughts will come and form distet into 
conclusions the value of which will be in proportion to his stock of knowledge, his 
judgment, his mental training, and his mental powers. Only let the philosophy come in 
its proper place, not first, but last. It will be understood that my remarks have special 
reference to the physical sciences. 
A kindred, yet distinet danger is that of jumping to conclusions upon data, which, if 
not altogether unreliable, are often very partial. Should the fact or facts in view come 
‘a port = an t opiidon previously — some hobby of our own, what an almost 
 irresisti o build a wide-spreading g superstructure upon a narrow basis! I 
