REVIEWS. 
421 
of limestone, showing probably that their deposition took place in deep and 
quiet water, where the conditions, unlike the shallower waters of the 
margin, would not be favourable for a luxuriant growth of plants so essential 
for the formation of thick beds of coal. 
THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENCE.* 
T HAT a work of the present kind is wanted no one will deny ; for, with 
the exception of Whewell’s u Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences,” 
there has hardly been published any book dealing with the principles or 
methods on which scientific men ought to, if they do not, work. However, 
we cannot see that on the whole the matter is in a much better condition 
owing to the labour of Mr. S. Jevons. We confess that he has done good 
in the onslaught he has made on the systems and roundabout measures 
adopted by his predecessors. But, it must be asked, could he not have put 
the whole rationale of the scientific method — when truly and properly 
adopted — forward in a vastly briefer form ? We do not see why a system 
off logic, such as should be followed, need run to such extreme lengths. 
Nor, we confess, can we see the great efficacy of many of the chapters which 
the author has given us. For ourselves we should have infinitely more 
preferred the book had it been less in the old style of such works, and more 
in the modern type. Still, when we have found fault to the utmost extent, 
it must be admitted that Professor Jevons has done a good deal to render 
logic more acceptable to the general man of science than it has been hitherto ; 
and that what he has done exceedingly well in, is the manner in which he has 
used such a number of illustrations, extremely happy in their tone, and 
taken from so many different branches of science. The method which the 
author offers to the student is of course much simpler than the older ones, 
and in this respect is to be much admired. And in this regard we may 
refer to his remarks on one subject as being extremely valuable. It is an 
abbreviation of the indirect method of inference ; in this the logical abece- 
darian is given in a very convenient manner by means of the “ logical slate,” 
which is described at p. Ill, vol. ii. ; problems of less than seven times 
may very readily be worked out. The other parts of these two volumes 
are full of interesting material, but they will require every attention from 
the young student, who cannot read this book as he could a mere historical 
work. With the author’s observations on the subject of Providence we do 
not at all agree. Indeed, the remarks were not demanded at all unless Mr. 
Jevons thought that his remarkably fair treatment and just appreciation of 
the law of evolution demanded a kind of counterscarp, in order to please 
those who were likely to affect an opposite side to his remarks on the 
subject of Darwin and Spencer. 
* “The Principles of Science;” a Treatise on Logic and Scientific 
Method. By W. Stanley Jevons, M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Logic in Owens 
College, Manchester. 2 vols. London Macmillan & Co., 1874. 
