584 MODERN METHODS OF SCIENCE. 
I now pass to the second part of my discourse—the methods 
of modern science—the caution to be observed in pursuing it, 
if we do not wish to pervert its end by too confident assertions 
and deductions. 
It is a very common attempt nowadays for scientists to tran- 
scend the limits of their legitimate studies, and in doing this they 
run into speculations apparently the most unphilosophical, wild, 
and absurd; quitting the true basis of inductive philosophy, and 
building up the most curious theories on little else than assertion ; 
speculating upon the merest analogy; adopting the curious views 
of some metaphysicians, like Edward Von Hartmann; striving to 
work out speculative results by the inductive method of natural 
science. To me this appears a perversion of Bacon’s philosophy, 
and we cannot wonder that one.adopting such views, whatever his 
claim to genius may be, soon cuts loose from all physical reason- 
ing and becomes involved in the most transcendental and to all 
appearances absurd opinions, which, however clear to the author, 
are strange and unintelligible to others; and if at any one time 
we believe we have caught the conception of the author, this 
impression is only momentary, and we give up in despair, realiz- 
ing that we cannot follow his intellectual ecstasies; for, in the 
language of Tyndall, they are even “ unthinkable.” Those en- 
gaged in such speculations are very commonly found in bitter 
conflict with each other, forcing on us the belief of the saying of 
D’Alembert, that “when absurd opinions become inveterate it 
sometimes becomes necessary to replace them by other errors, if 
nothing better can be done.” 
his extreme metaphysical philosophy is referred to for the rea- 
son that many scientists, ranking as sober, earnest laborers after 
truth, are caught dealing in such philosophy in their method of 
investigation, and sometimes, quite unconsciously to themselves, 
forgetting that “science is only an accurate record of the proc- 
esses of nature; that its laws are only generalizations of its 
observations, and not a declaration of an inherent necessity ; 
and that one of its vations is the uniformity of natural ` 
sequence.” r 
I am one of those who believe that everything must give way 
to the laws of nature; but then we must master these laws, and be 
sure that we have done this before either interpreting phenomena 
by them or venturing into the realm of speculation. 
