360 
JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
ILLUSTRATIONS OF METHOD. 
ABSTKACT OF DR. WILLIAM H. PEARSe's PAPER. 
(Read November 14th, 1872.) 
Method is the way of the mind in knowledge, truth, and joy. 
True method harmonizes knowledge, and gives to facts life and 
meaning. It is an ever-expanding way, a " unity with progres- 
sion," an ever-seeing the relations of things. 
Plato's great aim was to " develop the art of method, to remove 
the obstacles, the continuance of which is preclusive of all truth 
to educate the intellect." (Coleridge.) 
Sketch of man's present state in reference to method : social 
crimes, vices, and wars, are as rife as ever. Disease, except in a 
few splendid instances, is uninfluenced for good, and untouched by 
medical art. The cultivated castes of the East view with wonder 
the controversies and customs of the West. The millions of 
Europe and America, having attained liberty and knowledge, 
have now advanced beyond the mental range of those who 
hold the position of leaders of thought. In the midst of such 
disaster, we rest in a false confidence, a temporary condition of 
danger, resulting not a little from a literature and press devoted 
much to the passing interests, and even passions of the hour, 
occupying the place of earnest thought and knowledge. 
These views of the present urgent need of true method are not 
stated to shake hope and faith, but to lessen false confidence. 
Lord Bacon says, " There is no danger in the proportion or 
quantity of knowledge, if it be taken in charity ; that spirit of 
charity which maketh knowledge so sovereign." 
Certain mental states and practices have proved hindrances to 
knowledge — e.g., the vice and habit of assertion ; the haste of 
assigning what are but antecedent parts of series as potential 
"causes" of phenomena; the binding and limiting influence of 
words ; the creation into entities of what are but parts of series ; 
the practice of definition. Instances of these hindrances were 
