THE METHODS OF SCIENCE

objects about which science concerns itself are, as

-L we saw in the last chapter, threefold : they are, in the

first place, the material bodies, inanimate and animate, which

surround us, together with all those of their relations, qualities,

and energies, which our senses and our reason combine to

inform us about. In the second place, they are the various

mental facts and processes which are revealed to us by

consciousness and introspection. In the third place, they are

problems concerning the essences and causes of whatever can

be to us an object of knowledge, including the universe

itself, in all its parts and considered as one whole. The

method by which science proceeds with its investigations of

the objects of its study is essentially the same in all cases,

though variously modified according to the kind of matter

about which it is for the time occupied.

But it is in no way the object of this work to describe the

special methods whereby the various sciences have been

brought to their present state of cultivation, nor the several

modes in which each of them is now being pursued. Our

only purpose is to point out, in the most general terms,

certain characteristics, certain necessary conditions, which

are common to the study of all, or of a great many of them.

Physical science the science occupied about the first of

the three categories of objects distinguished at the beginning

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objects about which science concerns itself are, as

-L we saw in the last chapter, threefold : they are, in the

first place, the material bodies, inanimate and animate, which

surround us, together with all those of their relations, qualities,

and energies, which our senses and our reason combine to

inform us about. In the second place, they are the various

mental facts and processes which are revealed to us by

consciousness and introspection. In the third place, they are

problems concerning the essences and causes of whatever can

be to us an object of knowledge, including the universe

itself, in all its parts and considered as one whole. The

method by which science proceeds with its investigations of

the objects of its study is essentially the same in all cases,

though variously modified according to the kind of matter

about which it is for the time occupied.

But it is in no way the object of this work to describe the

special methods whereby the various sciences have been

brought to their present state of cultivation, nor the several

modes in which each of them is now being pursued. Our

only purpose is to point out, in the most general terms,

certain characteristics, certain necessary conditions, which

are common to the study of all, or of a great many of them.

Physical science the science occupied about the first of

the three categories of objects distinguished at the beginning

89