THE METHODS OF SCIENCE, AS BEING IN THE DOMAIN 
OF LOGIC. 1 
J. J. BLAISDELL, 
Professor of Philosophy , Beloit College; First Vice President of the Academy. 
Sitting as a visitor for several hours in the room of a Chris¬ 
tian pastor, and hearing his conversation with several persons 
of his parish who came to him for advice, he said to me, after 
their retiring, with something of sadness in his tone, “These 
people come to me for counsel as their pastor, and little think 
that I have no pastor, but have to find my way alone. ” I mis¬ 
trust that something like this is the feeling of the more thought¬ 
ful men of scientific pursuits as they make their way along 
through the special departments of truth which it is the busi¬ 
ness of their life to explore and conquer. They find disciples in 
the study of the one science which occupies them, but when 
they look up above that, if they are large enough to do so, they 
have a sense of isolation. The bond that holds together the 
facts of their particular field is plain, and they have no diffi¬ 
culty in subordinating them into unity under the dominating 
principle; but the other sciences, save perhaps some intimately 
related, seem apart, moving in an unrelated orbit, like ships 
crossing or going on widely parallel lines, pilgrims to different 
shrines, ships that pass at night, out into a night, from which, 
for us, we have no sense of their ever being bound to emerge at 
the same port with us. 
The question forces itself upon every thoroughly trained per¬ 
son whether it is so really with the several sciences, whether 
they are like ships unrelated, at sea, ruled, I do not mean so 
1 Annual address at the winter meeting of the Academy, Dec. 26, 1895. 
