ed
fact; and the additional question which analogy suggests is, whether the
direct method is substituted for the indirect method.

Such parallelisms might be multiplied. And were it possible here to show
in detail the close correspondence between the two kinds of
organization, our case would be seen to have abundant support. But, as
it is, these few illustrations will sufficiently justify the opinion
that study of organized bodies may be indirectly furthered by study of
the body politic. Hints may be expected, if nothing more. And thus we
venture to think that the Inductive Method, usually alone employed by
most physiologists, may not only derive important assistance from the
Deductive Method, but may further be supplemented by the Sociological
Method.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 6: Carpenter's _Principles of Comparative Physiology_, pp.
616-17.]

[Footnote 7: With the exception, perhaps, of the Myxinoid fishes, in
which what is considered as the nasal orifice is single, and on the
median line. But seeing how unusual is the position of this orifice, it
seems questionable whether it is the true homologue of the nostrils.]

[Footnote 8: In the _Westminster Review_ for April, 1857; and now
reprinted in this volume.]

[Footnote 9: See Essay on "Progress: its Law and Cause."]

[Footnote 10: This was written before the publication of the _Origin of
Species_. I leave it standing because it shows the stage of thought then
arrived at.]

THE NEBULAR HYPOTHESIS.

[_First published in_ The Westminster Review _for July,_ 1858. _In
explanation of sundry passages, it seems needful to state that this
essay was written in defence of the Nebular Hypothesis at a time
when it had fallen into disrepute. Hence there are some opinions
spoken of as current which are no longer current._]

Inquiring into the pedigree of an idea is not a bad means of roughly
estimating its value. To have come of respectable ancestry, is _prima
facie_ evidence of worth in a belief as in a person; while to be
descended from a discreditable stock is, in the one case as in the
other, an unfavourable index. The analogy is not a mere fancy. Beliefs,
together with those who hold them, are modified little by little in
successive generations; and as the modifications which successive
generations of the holders undergo do not destroy the original type, but
only disguise and refine it, so the accompanying alterations of belief,
however m