As Being in the Domain of Logic. 
59 
to detect the presence of variations in the sprectrum which no 
human eye has ever seen. In another science, amid all the ap¬ 
parent moral confusions which life confronts us with as we fol¬ 
low with the microscope of observation the cases where moral 
derelictions in character more and more obscure are yet followed 
by their corresponding sanctions in retributive reckoning, by 
argument from progressive approach we are confronted with the 
fact that for every idle word that man shall speak God shall 
bring him into judgment, and that accordingly not one jot or tittle 
of the law shall perish. By such methods as these the student 
of all secondary sciences is obliged to make his way into rela¬ 
tion with the facts which he makes the field of his study. Minor 
premises, which he uses by way of analogy, example, progressive 
approach, sign, a priori from principle, a posteriori from result, 
induction from individuals, deductions from generals, he uses as 
standing ground to reach out into realms beyond his immediate 
cognizance, as we take the diameter of the sun’s orbit as our 
base line for measuring the distance of the fixed stars and their 
movements. It is at once seen that in all these methods the 
principle of procedure is a law of reason which holds conclusion 
in fixed relation to premises, to transcend which relation we 
say is unreasonable; without realizing that what we mean is 
that there exists an absolute reason which all thinking must 
obey or go off into absurdity and mental chaos. To affirm and 
formulate this sufficient reason as the law which holds thought 
in absolute limitations so as to be true, and certain of being 
true, is however the exact business of the science of logic. 
(b) I shall have time only to express briefly my thought as- 
regards those methods of science which are ccdled ultimate , which 
will perhaps by most persons be regarded as being the main 
ones. That they are the main methods in which science does its 
actual service in helping mind to become identified with its own 
universe is to me more than doubtful. It has long seemed to me 
that, great as have been the mistakes of method in generalization 
and classification, and fatal, the greater misfortune almost has 
been in not comprehending the limitation at the point I have 
already mentioned as set by reason to the very problem of 
science, which limitation, while it widens magnificently that 
