24 THE FOUNDATION'S OF ZOOLOGY 



" By way of escape from the metaphysical Will-o'-the-Wisps 

 generated in the marshes of literature and theology, the serious 

 student is sometimes bidden," says Huxley, "to betake himself to 

 the solid ground of physical science. But the fish of immortal 

 memory, who threw himself out of the frying-pan into the fire, 

 was not more ill advised than the man who seeks sanctuary from 

 philosophical persecution within the walls of the observatory or 

 the laboratory ; for metaphysical speculation follows as closely 

 upon physical theory as black care upon the horseman." ^ 



If, as modest biologists, we were to assert that the biological 

 aspects of the physical sciences are the only basis for rational 

 interest in these sciences, our good friends in physical and chemical 

 laboratories would, no doubt, charge us with arrogance, although 

 I think they must admit that the principles of science, as dis- 

 tinguished from the concrete sciences, are part of biology. 



We cannot investigate response to the order of nature without 

 asking what the order of nature is. What are the properties of 

 things and of thought that convince us of its existence .-' What is 

 this conviction worth ? What are the methods by which knowledge 

 of this order is acquired and perfected and extended ^ How far 

 are these methods and instruments trustworthy.' Are any limits 

 to their application known, and, if so, how known .' 



To all these questions the zoologist has a peculiar right to ask 

 answers, in addition to the right which he shares with other stu- 

 dents of science. 



"The Mind, her acts and faculties," says Berkeley, "furnish a 

 new and distinct class of objects, from the contemplation whereof 

 arise other notions, principles, and verities. It may therefore be 

 pardoned if this rude essay doth, by insensible transitions, draw 

 the reader into remote inquiries and speculations, that were not, 

 perhaps, thought of either by him or by the author at first setting 

 out." 



Some, who believe they at least are rigorously scientific, may 

 here feel impelled to cry out that these inquiries are not scientific, 

 but metaphysical, and that modern men of science have nothing 

 to do with them. For my own part, I might be disposed to agree 

 with them if the average human mind were, on these difficult 



^ Huxley, VI., p. 200. 



