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sceptical attitude essential to the formation of true Science, and due 
to the majesty of truth, though at the same time, in relation to 
Nature, it was the attitude of love and trust and devotion, religious 
even in its sacredness. Going deeper down into the question of 
knowledge than Bacon ever thought of, Descartes, wearied and dis- 
gusted with the conflicting views of philosophical schools, and the 
uncertainties engendered by adhesion to the principle of authority, 
with a daring never in ancient or modern times surpassed, applied 
the Lutheran and Baconian principle to the whole range of beings 
and things, and sought to start in a virgin quest of certainty by the 
renunciation not only of all human authority, but also of all so- 
called fact and belief, except the one undeniable indestructible fact 
" Cogito" " I think." Unquestionably it was in the same spirit of 
mental independence of all human authority that Newton applied 
his great powers to the examination of the facts pertaining to the 
motion of bodies till, by a wise use of the stable conclusions pre- 
viously arrived at by others, and the patient application of hypo- 
thesis after hypothesis, he arrived at the grand generalization known 
as the law of gravitation. The splendid success thus achieved by 
the new method of induction, and the amazing view thus gained 
of the unbroken unity of force pervading all matter in, probably, 
all worlds, could not but permanently enrich the educated imagina- 
tion, and create a profound conviction, that a method of research so 
rewarded in its application to one department would, if persistently 
carried out into all departments of enquiry, issue in gains to know- 
ledge equally stupendous. The Scientific Spirit was now fairly awake. 
The words almost deemed sacred passed from master to pupil — 
"Accept nothing because it is old and identified with venerable 
names ; study Nature directly in the lines and movements of her 
own face ; observe accurately all positive facts and relations ; regard 
everything on which the eye can rest, or the hand handle, or the 
delicate appliance can test, the subject of the most rigid scrutiny 
and the keenest analysis ; trace out with minuteness and care every 
complicate form and compound to its simplest elements, and so by 
a slow but sure progression get into the mind an intelligible counter- 
foil of Nature, as she actually is, thinking not an iota of conse- 
quences." 
During the present century men of many lands, gifted by nature, 
disciplined by culture, and sworn to seek the truth, have, in accor- 
dance with this spirit, searched and searched each in his own line 
