very essence of Science--the power of making _known_, of introducing
_certainty_ into investigation, may be an important factor in the _true
Scientific_ Method, but cannot constitute the _Method itself_, or its
_leading_ feature. Let it not be understood, however, that in bringing
the Inductive Method in Science to the ordeal of a critical examination,
it is designed to detract from its just dues or to depreciate its true
value. Science is preeminently severe in its probings; and that which,
asserts its claim to the highest Scientific position, and affects to be
the only guide to exact knowledge, cannot expect anything less than the
most rigorous inquiry into the validity of such claim, and the most
peremptory insistence upon the production of proper credentials before
so lofty a seat be accorded it. If inquiry discovers deficiencies in its
character, Science should rejoice that truth is vindicated, and that, by
correctly understanding the nature and powers of their present guide,
Scientific men may avoid being tempted to consider it as competent to
conduct them into regions where the blind must inevitably be leading the
blind, and both be in danger of the ditch. If the devotees of the
Inductive Method have in their enthusiasm set up claims for it which
cannot be substantiated, they must not blame the rigorous hand, which,
in the service of Science, unmasks their idol and exhibits its defects,
but rather impute to their own deviation from the severity of Scientific
truth, the disappointment which they may experience. The question of
Method lies at the foundation of all Science. Until it is thoroughly
understood, until the exact character of all our Methods or Processes is
definitely and rightly apprehended, there can be no full understanding
of the true nature of Science, and, hence, no critical and exact line
drawn between that which is Science and that which is not.

Our examination of the Methods in use thus far in our past search after
knowledge has developed these facts:--that prior to an era which is
commonly said to commence with Bacon, the Method of intellectual
investigation was _mainly_ by attempting to proceed from Principles to
Facts, and that the attempt exhibits three distinct phases: one, in
which the Induction stage is so simple and so short as to be
instinctively and correctly performed by all people, and the Deductive
stage at once reached--this furnishes the Mathematics, the only Science
in which hit