SYNTHESIS (σύν θέσις, a putting together, composition) — "consists in assuming the causes discovered and established as principles, and by them explaining the phenomena proceeding from them and proving the explanation." — Newton, Optics

Every synthesis which has not started with a complete analysis ends at a result which, in Greek, is called hypothesis ; instead of which, if synthesis has been preceded by a sufficient analysis, the synthesis founded upon that analysis leads to a result which in Greek is called system. The legitimacy of every synthesis is directly owing to the exactness of analysis ; every system which is merely an hypothesis is a vain system ; every synthesis which has not been preceded by analysis is a pure imagination : but at the same time every analysis which does not aspire to a synthesis which may be equal to it, is an analysis which halts on the way. On the one hand, synthesis without analysis gives a false science; on the other hand, analysis without synthesis gives an incomplete science. An incomplete science is a hundred times more valuable than a false science ; but neither a false science nor an incomplete science is the ideal of science. The ideal of science, the ideal of philosophy, can

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