4?6 
On Scientific Method. 
[October, 
the cooler the interior the smaller will be the return of 
gaseous elements to the surfaces ; and probably before 
Saturn and Jupiter have cooled down to a habitable temper- 
ature, the senescent earth will roll through space — cold, 
void, and airless. Sooner or later nothing is more certain 
than that 
“ to this favour she must come.” 
III. ON SCIENTIFIC METHOD.* 
By M. M. Pattison Muir, F.R.S.E. 
A^^Z~HETHER v T e turn our attention on ourselves, or 
seek to pursue the study of mankind in general, 
or, on the other hand, confine our view to the 
natural world around us, there is in each case one method 
by pursuing which we arrive at exact knowledge : that 
method is the Scientific. What, then, is Science, and what 
the scientific method ? The question, What is Science ? is 
synonymous with another, What is Knowledge ? Here is a 
stone : how do I know it to be a stone ? Because it is like 
so many other things which I call stones ; it is hard, it 
possesses a certain colour, it is not easily broken, and so on. 
I know that it is a stone because I recognise in it certain 
qualities which I have grouped together and regarded as 
characteristic of those pieces of matter, to all of which I 
therefore apply one general name, viz., stone. In stones, 
therefore, there is some quality, or qualities, possessed by 
all in common, such qualities being sufficient to mark off the 
possessors of them from all other kinds of matter. Yet 
these stones may differ from one another in many other 
ways.- 
Such a classification is a scientific one. I know some- 
thing about these stones. Were there only one piece of 
stone in the world I could never know anything about it as 
a stone. To know we must compare ; and the scientific 
method consists in finding unity amid variety, in tracing the 
inner relationships between seemingly diverse things (or 
* In this paper I have freely availed myself of the stores of information 
and of-the wonderfully original suggestions contained in that most remarkable 
work “ The Principles of Science,” by Prof. Jevons, F.R.S. 
