Thus eveiy science, in order to become science, passes through
three stages, the facts, the law, and the verification. First, the
phenomena are collected and observed, scrutinized, turned over and
over, placed on the rack of experiment, then firom them is drawn
their generic constant element ; finally, the law thus discovered is
anew tested by application to facts, just as a seal is verified when
applied to its impression. This last process — ^verification — is
essential

Without verification there is no science, because this process
alone can give to our theories an objective value. It is a
complete mistake to suppose that what is not true can be
scientifically established. There are a hundred ways of looking
at facts, of interpreting, and of generalizing them. Of course, these
are not all correct, but who is to decide between them? In such
case science gets only the individual, personal opinion of one man,
his special mode of understanding and accounting for the facts.
But this is an entirely subjective doctrine, which may indeed be
science, but if so is science only by accident, nor have we any
means of knowing that it is science, or any grounds for affirming
that it is.
It may be said, parenthetically, that this is what distinguishes

metaphysics fix>m science.
9



If--, .r.'



184 Heredity.
