Edward Gibbon has told us that diligence and accuracy are the only
merits which an historical writer can ascribe to himself. Without doubt
they are fundamental qualities necessary for historical research,
but in order to bear fruit they require to be exercised by one whose
mental qualities are such as to enable him to analyze the data brought
together by his diligence, to discriminate between the false and the
true, to possess an insight into the complex motives that determine
human action, to be able to recognize those facts and incidents which
had exercised either a primary or only a secondary influence on the
affairs of nations, or on the thoughts and doings of the person whose
character he is depicting.
In scientific research, also, diligence and accuracy are fundamental
qualities. By their application new facts are discovered and tabulated,
their order of succession is ascertained and a wider and more intimate
knowledge of the processes of nature is acquired. But to decide on
their true significance a well-balanced mind and the exercise of
prolonged thought and reflection are needed. William Harvey, the father
of exact research in physiology, in his memorable work, ‘De Motu Cordis
et Sanguinis,’ published more than two centuries ago, tells us of the
great and daily diligence which he exercised in the course of his
investigations, and the numerous observations and experiments which
he collated. At the same time he refers repeatedly to his cogitations
and reflections on the meaning of what he had observed, without which
the complicated movements of the heart could not have been analyzed,
their significance determined and the circulation of the blood in a
continuous stream definitely established. Early in the present century,
Carl Ernst von Baer, the father of embryological research, showed the
importance which he attached to the combination of observation with
meditation by placing side by side on the title page of his famous
treatise ‘Ueber Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere’ (1828) the words
_Beobachtung und Reflexion_.
Though I have drawn from biological science my illustrations of the
need of this combination, it must not be inferred that it applies
exclusively to one branch of scientific inquiry; the conjunction
influences and determines progress in all the sciences, and when
associated with a sufficient touch of imagination, when the power of
seeing is conjoined with the faculty of foreseeing, of projecting the
mind into the future, we may expect something more than the discovery
of isolated facts; their coördination and the enunciation of new
principles and laws will necessarily follow.
Scientific method consists, therefore, in close observation, frequently
repeated so as to eliminate the possibility of erroneous seeing;
in experiments checked and controlled in every direction in which
fallacies might arise; in continuous reflection on the appearances and
phenomena observed, and in logically reasoning out their meaning and
the conclusions to be drawn from them. Were the method followed out in
its integrity by all who are engaged in scientific investigations, the
time and labor expended in correcting errors committed by ourselves
or by other observers and experimentalists would be saved, and the
volumes devoted annually to scientific literature would be materially
diminished in size. Were it applied, as far as the conditions of life
admit, to the conduct and management of human affairs, we should not
require to be told, when critical periods in our welfare as a nation
arise, that we shall muddle through somehow. Recent experience has
taught us that wise discretion and careful provision are as necessary
in the direction of public affairs as in the pursuit of science, and in
both instances, when properly exercised, they enable us to reach with
comparative certainty the goal which we strive to attain.