230 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INS'TITUTION. 
directed observations. The clearness and certainty with which 
during the past two hundred years the highest intellects have 
traced, by means of minute observations and verified results, 
subordinate laws running up to an almost final unity—the ap- 
proximate solution thereby obtained of the old-world dream of the 
‘‘Many in the One,” and the coincidence of this intellectual 
progress with a more perfected material condition and general 
culture—these considerations invest, for some minds, the modern 
Inductive method with a sacredness of its own, and foster the 
supposition that only of late years has the world discovered the 
key to the secret of nature. To Lord Bacon has been ascribed, by 
the popular voice, the honour of introducing the method which has 
recently been more scientifically formulated in the Canons of John 
Stuart Mill. Bearing in mind the dreary centuries before Lord 
Bacon, during which acute intellects, entangled in the meshes of a 
perverted Aristotelian deductive logic, sought in vain to construct 
sound theories of the universe, it is no wonder that he should have 
been hailed as a preacher of a new and true gospel of Science. 
This cutting off of the modern method from all connection with 
the past has not, however, found acceptance in every quarter. Lord 
Macaulay, for instance, recognises the pre-existence of Induction 
among the Greeks, and claims for Lord Bacon the distinction of 
bringing to bear on men the more powerful motive of an increase 
of the material comforts of life to induce them to use more fully 
a procedure understood and practised by all men.* No doubt Lord 
Bacon’s expressions, here and there, do lend an appearance of truth 
to these representations ; but that it is an unsatisfactory statement of 
the scientific character of modern Induction is obvious. For though 
the actions and mental conclusions of the dyspeptic referred to by 
Lord Macaulay are based on a set of observations, that is a different 
process from the deliberate adoption of formulated canons applicable 
to selected instances giving evidence of a universal law, and regu- 
lated again and again in their application by an adequate verification. 
This means a subtle and elaborate process in which the Inductive 
principle is worked in full view of its bearing and its goal. 
Now, in order to understand the relation of our modern methods 
of research to that of the Greeks, it is desirable to bear in mind 
two well-attested facts. The first is this, that sciences and scientific 
processes are developments, and often very gradual, of facts tabu- 
* “Kessays,”’ ii, pp. 228-251, 
