In this
process, the feature which presents itself most forcibly to the
untrained inquirer may not be that which is considered most
fundamental by the experienced man of science; for the success of any
physical investigation depends on the judicious selection of what is
to be observed as of primary importance, combined with a voluntary
abstraction of the mind from those features which, however attractive
they appear, we are not yet sufficiently advanced in science to
investigate with profit.
Intellectual processes of this kind have been going on since the first
formation of language, and are going on still. No doubt the feature
which strikes us first and most forcibly in any phenomenon, is the
pleasure or the pain which accompanies it, and the agreeable or
disagreeable results which follow after it. A theory of nature from
this point of view is embodied in many of our words and phrases, and
is by no means extinct even in our deliberate opinions.
It was a great step in science when men became convinced that, in
order to understand the nature of things, they must begin by asking,
not whether a thing is good or bad, noxious or beneficial, but of what
kind is it? and how much is there of it? Quality and Quantity were
then first recognized as the primary features to be observed in
scientific inquiry.
Pages:
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27