482 
On Scientific Method. 
[October, 
this or that conclusion, we must be very chary in accepting 
this result until we have again and again varied the condi- 
tions of the experiment so as to bring under notice every 
circumstance which can in any way influence the phenomenon 
we are investigating. 
To discover what condition may or may not influence a 
given phenomenon becomes therefore one of the most im- 
portant problems of the scientific investigator. And here 
the man of a keen insight and quick apprehension has a very 
great — in fadt, an immeasurable — advantage over the ordi- 
nary dull and plodding experimenter. 
There seems to be a somewhat widespread idea that there 
is no longer any use for genius ; that magnificent laboratories, 
elaborate organisation, Government endowment, and certifi- 
cated teachers are to carry all before them, and achieve 
results such as the world has never seen. To me it seems 
that now, as ever, genius is necessary for any really great 
discoveries ; that no amount of training, nor of organisation, 
nor of artificial selection, can make up for the absence of 
native talent — of that subtle, scarce definable something, 
which we call genius. 
If the genius is there, by all means let us educate it as 
best we may ; let us also do our utmost to train all, whether 
possessed of genius or not, — for in doing this we shall, at 
any rate, be giving to all the means of leading a nobler and 
a more useful life than they otherwise could ; but let us 
beware of thinking that we can evoke this rare and wonder- 
ful product, genius, by any method of selection, or by any 
system of competitive examination : plodding, persevering, 
patient work is of the very utmost importance ; but the 
power of grasping the one true condition of a problem, to 
the exclusion of the many trivial but seemingly important 
conditions, is of yet more importance ; while he who com- 
bines both of these qualities, — he who has genius to see and 
patience to follow, — he it is who stands forth as the great dis- 
coverer, as the poet of Science. The successful investigator of 
Nature must be patient ; he must very often reserve his 
judgment until experiment proves to him that this or that 
conclusion must be the right one ; he must be ready to frame 
hypotheses, but he must not shrink from submitting these to 
the most rigorous experimental test, and when he finds expe- 
riment and hypothesis opposed he must be ready to doubt 
the latter, but yet not despair of finding another truer gene- 
ralisation ; he must never disdain help, even from the 
humblest ; he must have no envy ; he must negleCt no ob- 
jection; he must not choose and then compare, but after 
