Observe facts, and then look for their linkages. That is the one maxim of my procedure, — the maxim of descriptive science stated in its most abstract form. The choice of a specialty is indeed a personal matter; and because of human narrowness any one man has to confine himself to his own specialty. But all specialties have, from this point of view, their place in the endless task of describing the world. Was haben Sie neues gefunden? — this is the question which they ask of the laboratory specialist in Germany. Anything will do, if only it belongs to the range of one’s specialty. The great world is there in the background all the time, awaiting the discriminating attention, now of this and now of that specialist. What you find must indeed be new, and, nevertheless, capable of being linked to the old. For, after all, even mere discrimination is an expression of the will, which seeks novelty. But the plan of one's discriminating procedure is indeed a self-surrendering plan. There is a heroism of sacrifice about it. I will give myself up to the facts so far as in me lies. I will find myself, only by losing myself in attentive observation of what is already there. My construction shall always be merely an acknowledgment of what I find.
But now, for such a method of work, not only any fact will do to begin with; but any point of view from which I set out will lead me to the same ideal result if only I continue this process of description. This world of facts, arranged in these abstractly conceived series, is anybody’s world. All of us start from different points of view. We all, if we find this sort of truth, shall come in the end to define our results in terms of corresponding series.
