384 Ethical Functions of Scientific Studij —Chamherlin. 
In scientific stud}'', or, as I prefer to phrase it, iu creative 
scholarship, the truth is the single end sought; all yields to that. 
The truth is supreme, not only in the vague mystical sense in 
which that expression has come to be a platitude, but in a 
special, definite, concrete sense. Facts and the immediate and 
necessary inductions from facts displace all pre-conceptions, all 
deductions from general principles, all favorite theories. 
Previous mental constructions are bowled over as childish play- 
structures by facts as they come rolling into the mind. The 
dearest doctrines, the most fascinating hypothesis, the most 
cherished creations of the reason and of the imagination perish 
from a mind thoroughly inspired with the scientific spirit in the 
presence of incompatible facts. Previous intellectual affections 
are crushed without hesitation and without remorse. Facts are 
placed before reasonings and before ideals, even though the 
reasoning's and the ideals be more beautiful, be seemingly more 
lofty, be seemingly better, be seemingly truer. The seemingly 
absurd and the seemingly impossible are sometimes true. The 
scientific disposition is to accept facts upon evidence, however 
absurd they may appear to our pre-conceptions, 
2. This supreme love of truth is furthermore active and in- 
stinctive, not a mere passive, receptive love of truth when truth 
is forced in upon the mind. It arises in its own strength and 
in its own inspiration and goes forth to search for specific, 
positive, demonstrative truth. It is moved by a controlling 
thirst for truth, the naked, the innermost, the vital, the fund- 
amental truth. 
3. Moreover the activities of the ideal scientific mind do not 
go forth merely as an affection and as an enthusiasm, but also 
as a scrutinizing, questioning agency whose hatred of falsity is 
as great as its love of truth. Its first action is to demand the 
credentials of whatever offers itself for acceptance; if it be an 
observation, it is to be rigorously verified; if it be an induction, 
its validity is to be unsparingly probed; if it be a classification, 
its basis and its collocations are to be questioned; if it be a mental 
structure, the strength of every part is to be put to trial. If 
possible, the crucial tests of experimentation are to be brought 
to bear upon it. In the scientific structure every beam is to be. 
tested, every joint is to be put to trial. The edifice is to 
be built on knowledge and not on faith; on proof and not on. 
