We regard it as a curious piece of machinery, very subtle, elaborate, and ingenious, but not worth constructing, because all the work it could do may be done more easily another way."-- _Works_, iii.

171.
What his method really was is itself a matter of question.

Mr.Ellis speaks of it as a matter "but imperfectly apprehended." He differs from his fellow-labourer Mr.Spedding, in what he supposes to be its central and characteristic innovation.

Mr.Ellis finds it in an improvement and perfection of logical machinery.

Mr.Spedding finds it in the formation of a great "natural and experimental history," a vast collection of facts in every department of nature, which was to be a more important part of his philosophy than the _Novum Organum_ itself.