An extension of a well-established theory to the explanation of new facts excites admiration as a discovery; but it is a discovery of a lower order than the theory itself.
Aphorism LVII.
The practical inventions which are most important in Art may be either unimportant parts of Science, or results not explained by Science. 234
Aphorism LVIII.
In modern times, in many departments. Art is constantly guided, governed and advanced by Science.
Aphorism LIX.
Recently several New Arts have been invented, which may be regarded as notable verifications of the anticipations of material benefits to be derived to man from the progress of Science.
1. BY the application of inductive truths, we here mean, according to the arrangement given in chap. I. of this book, those steps, which in the natural order of science, follow the discovery of each truth. These steps are, the verification of the discovery by additional experiments and reasonings, and its extension to new cases, not contemplated by the original discoverer. These processes occupy that period, which, in the history of each great discovery, we have termed the Sequel of the epoch; as the collection of facts, and the elucidation of conceptions, form its Prelude.
2. It is not necessary to dwell at length on the processes of the Verification of Discoveries. When the Law of Nature is once stated, it is far easier to devise and execute experiments which prove it, than it was to discern the evidence before. The truth becomes one of the standard doctrines of the science to which it belongs, and is verified by all who study or who teach the science experimentally. The leading doctrines of Chemistry are constantly exemplified by each chemist in his Laboratory; and an amount of verification is thus obtained of which books give no adequate conception. In Astronomy, we have a still stronger example of the process of verifying discoveries. Ever since the science assumed a systematic form, there have been Observatories, in which the consequences of the theory were habitually compared with the results of observation. And to facilitate this comparison, Tables of great extent have been calculated, with immense labour, from each theory, showing the place which the 235 theory assigned to the heavenly bodies at successive times; and thus, as it were, challenging nature to deny the truth of the discovery. In this way, as I have elsewhere stated, the continued prevalence of an errour in the systematic parts of astronomy is impossible[49]. An errour, if it arise, makes its way into the tables, into the ephemeris, into the observer’s nightly list, or his sheet of reductions; the evidence of sense flies in its face in a thousand Observatories; the discrepancy is traced to its source, and soon disappears for ever.
[49] Hist. Ind. Sc. b. vii. c. vi. sect. 6.