tural and the supernatural; in fact, that no such thing as a
supernatural phenomenon, in the present-day acceptance of the word, can
conceivably exist.

All conceivable manifestations of nature are natural, nor can we
doubt that all are reducible to law--that is to say, that they can be
classified and reduced to systems. But the scientific imagination, as
already pointed out, must admit that any and every scientific law of
our present epoch may be negatived in some future epoch. It is always
possible, also, that a seeming law of to-day may be proved false
to-morrow, which is another way of saying that man's classification
improves from generation to generation. For a "natural law," let it
be repeated, is not nature's method, but man's interpretation of that
method.

LOGICAL INDUCTION VERSUS HASTY GENERALIZATION

A great difficulty is found in the fact that men are forever making
generalizations--that is, formulating laws too hastily. A few phenomena
are observed and at once the hypothesis-constructing mind makes a guess
as to the proximal causes of these phenomena. The guess, once formulated
and accepted, has a certain influence in prejudicing the minds of future
observers; indeed, where the phenomena involve obscure principles the
true explanation of which is long deferred, a false generalization
may impress itself upon mankind with such force as to remain a
stumbling-block for an indefinite period. Thus the Ptolemaic conception
of the universe dominated the thought of Europe for a thousand years,
and could not be substituted by the true theory without a fierce
struggle; and, to cite an even more striking illustration, the early
generalizations of primitive man which explain numberless phenomena of
nature as due to an influence of unseen anthropomorphic beings remain
to this day one of the most powerful influences that affect our race--an
influence from which we shall never shake ourselves altogether free
until the average man--and particularly the average woman--learns to be
a good observer and a logical reasoner.

Something towards this end is being accomplished by the introduction of
experimental research and scientific study in general in our schools
and colleges. It is hoped that something towards the same end may be
accomplished through study of the history of the development of science.
Scarcely anything is more illuminative than to observe critically the
mistakes of our predecessors, noting how natural th