246 



Louis Agassiz. 



tools, do to material progress. The civilised man is 

 not superior to the savage in physical strength. 

 The wonderful mechanical results achieved by civil- 

 ised man are possible only by the use of mechanical 

 contrivances. So, also, the scientists differ from the 

 unscientific not by any superior intellectual power. 

 The astounding intellectual results achieved by 

 science have been attained wholly by the use of 

 intellectual contrivances^ called methods. As in the 

 lower sphere of material progress, the greatest bene- 

 factors of our race are the inventors or perfecters of 

 new mechanical contrivances or machines ; so in the 

 higher sphere of intellectual progress the greatest 

 benefactors of our race are the inventors or perfec- 

 ters of new intellectual contrivances, or methods. 



To illustrate the necessity and power of method, 

 take, for example, the method of notation^ character- 

 istic of mathematics. How simple the contrivance, 

 and yet how powerful! Nine numeral figures, hav- 

 ing each a value of its own, and also a value depend- 

 ing upon its position : a few letters — a and b, x and 



connected by the symbols \ and — : that is all. 

 And yet by the use of this simple contrivance the 

 dullest boy in your public schools may accomplish 

 intellectual results which the greatest philosophic 

 genius could not otherwise attain. As soon as we 

 leave the field of abstract thought and rise into the 

 field of phenomena, observation commences. But as 

 in the field of pure thought, thought can accompHsh 

 little without method ; so in the field of phenomena, 

 observation can accomplish little without the assist- 

 ance of method. The phenomena of the external 



