Page:The Harveian oration ; delivered at the Royal College of Physicians, June 26th, 1879 (IA b24976465).pdf/34

30 Bacon denounced, of framing fanciful theories according to preconceived mental conceptions were all as he says, valueless; at the same time a simple collection of facts, which some have declared was Bacon's reformed method, will also load to nothing, for no new idea can flow from it. The true method of scientific enquiry is the combination of both systems, each alone being barren of results; speculation and imagination alone are valueless, a simple collection of facts is meaningless, but the combination of the theorising and observing qualities must exist in the truly scientific man. No better example of this can be found than in the late Michael Faraday, who would work week after week in his laboratory with apparatus chemical or electrical, never making an assertion which could not be supported by facts, and who would yet at the same time be speculating on the subject in hand with all the spirit of a poet. There are plenty of persons who can sit in their studies and frame vain speculations, but to do this is not a rare talent; there are others who can observe facts without possessing the power of analysis; this too is of no great value, although the faculty of seeing clearly is far rarer and more