The Human Intellect; with an Introduction Upon Psychology and the Soul.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1883. Excerpt: ... tog narrowly at every phenomenon, of mcasnring the force of every energy, of discrhninatinj every shade of difference, and of separating carefully every element. While, then, on the one hand, man, in constructing his wise questionings and in framing his theories, may claim a likeness to God; in submitting his theories to the task of experiment, he concedes his inferiority. Indeed, every act of experiment is a confession of human limitations. Rightly conceived, it is an act of reverent worship. § 500. It was for giving prominence to this part of the in eminent »erTi-ductive process that Lord Bacon has received such high and merited honor as the expounder of the inductive method. It was because he insisted upon the necessity of a constant and close observation of the facts of nature, and enjoined the duty of careful and reiterated experiments, as well as prescribed the rules and methods for prosecuting the same, that he was called the Father of Experimental Philosophy. He did not overlook nor undervalue the other elements of the process which we have noticed. He recognized them more or less distinctly. There was no special need that they should be enforced in his own time. The Philosophy of the Schools paid sufficient homage to hypothesis, however much it may have failed to understand its nature or to analyze ha processes. But experiments upon nature had not been understood, nor had it entered fully into the minds of men to inquire what were the rules for conducting them wisely and with success. It certainly had not at all entered into their thoughts to imagine or anticipate how much there was to be learned by this method, how vast a store of secrets was concealed for man's exploration, nor how the discovery of one property and law was to prepare ...