Years before the publication of
the "Novum Organum," he gave, in his "Commentaries on the Motions of
Mars," a specimen of the logic of Induction whose circular sweep has
never been matched. Prolific in the generation of hypotheses, he was
yet remorseless in bringing them to the test of experiment. "Hypotheses
which are not founded in Nature please me not," wrote he,--as Newton
inscribed "_Hypotheses non fingo_" on the "Principia." Surely never was
such heroic self-denial. Centurial vigils of baffling calculations
--(remember, there was then little Algebra, and neither Calculus
nor Logarithms)--were sacrificed without a regret except for
the time expended, his tireless intellect pressing on to new heights of
effort. His first work, the "Mysterium Cosmographicum," is the record
of a splendid blunder that cost him five years' toil, and he spent ten
years of fruitless and baffled effort in the deduction of the laws of
areas and orbital ellipticity.
But this audacious diviner knew well the use of Hypothesis, and he
applied it as an instrument of investigation as it had never been
applied before. The vast significance of Hypothesis in the theory of
Scientific Method has never been recognized.
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