a scientific reasoner, of the average man of the
Stone Age.

A few of the more tangible superstitions of primitive man have been
banished from even the popular mind by the clear demonstration of
science, but a host remains. I venture to question whether, if the test
could be made in the case of ten thousand average persons throughout
Christendom, it would not be found that a majority of these persons
entertain more utterly mistaken metaphysical ideas regarding natural
phenomena than they do truly scientific conceptions. We pride ourselves
on the enlightenment of our age, but our pride is largely based on an
illusion. Mankind at large is still in the dark age. The historian
of the remote future will see no radical distinction between the
superstitions of the thirteenth century and the superstitions of the
nineteenth century. But he will probably admit that a greater change
took place in the world of thought between the year 1859 and the close
of the nineteenth century than had occurred in the lapse of two thousand
years before If this estimate be correct, it is indeed a privilege to
be living in this generation, for we are on the eve of great things,
and beyond question the revolution that is going on about us denotes the
triumph of science and its inductive method. Just in proportion as we
get away from the old metaphysical preconceptions, substituting for them
the new inductive method, just in that proportion do we progress. The
essence of the new method is to have no preconceptions as to the
bounds of nature; to regard no phenomenon, no sequence of phenomena, as
impossible; but, on the other hand, to accept no alleged law, no theory,
no hypothesis, that has not the warrant of observed phenomena in its
favor.

The great error of the untrained mind of the primitive man was that he
did not know the value of scientific evidence. He made wide leaps from
observed phenomena to imagined causes, quite overlooking the proximal
causes that were near to hand. The untrained observer of to-day makes
the same mistake; hence the continued prevalence of those superstitious
misconceptions which primitive man foisted upon our race. But each new
generation of to-day is coming upon the field better trained in at least
the rudiments of scientific method than the preceding generation, and
this is perhaps the most hopeful feature of present-day education. Some
day every one will understand that there is no valid distinction between
the na