METHOD OF DISCOVERY. 55 



the principles of the " Baconian philosophy." I do 

 protest that, of the vast number of cants in this world, 

 there are none, to my mind, so contemptible as the 

 pseudo-scientific cant which is talked about the " Ba- 

 conian philosophy." 



To hear people talk about the great Chancellor,— 

 and a very great man he certainly was, — you would 

 think that it was he who had inveuted science, and 

 that there was no such thing as sound reasoning before 

 the time of Queen Elizabeth ! Of course, you say, 

 that cannot possibly be true ; you perceive, on a mo- 

 ment's reflection, that such an idea is absurdly wrong ; 

 and yet, so firmly rooted is this sort of impression, — I 

 cannot call it an idea, or conception, — the thing is too 

 absurd to be entertained, — but so completely does it 

 exist at the bottom of most men's minds, that this has 

 been a matter of observation with me for many years 

 past. There are many men who, though knowing ab- 

 solutely nothing of the subject with which they may 

 be dealing, wish, nevertheless, to damage the author 

 of some view with which they think fit to disagree. 

 What they do, then, is not to go and learn something 

 about the subject, which one would naturally think the 

 best way of fairly dealing with it ; but they abuse the 

 originator of the view they question, in a general man- 

 ner, and wind up by saying that, " After all, you know, 

 the principles and method of this author are totally 

 opposed to the canons of the Baconian philosophy." 

 Then everybody applauds, as a matter of course, and 

 agrees that it must be so. But if you were to stop 

 them all in the middle of their applause, you would 

 probably find that neither the speaker nor his ap- 

 plauders could tell you how or in what way it was so ; 



