methinks (methingks)

impers.; pret. methought. [ME. me think eth, and succe ion, the more striking as the le expected. Cole ridge, Method, §ii. ( Encyc . Dict .) 2. A system, or complete set, of rules of procedure for attaining a given end; a short way to a desired result; specifically, in logic, a general plan for setting forth any branch of knowledge whatever; that branch of logic which teaches how to arrange thoughts for investigation or exposition. Method hath been placed, and that not ami , in logic, as a part of judgment:... the doctrine of method contain eth the rules of judgment upon that which is to be deliv Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. ered. Method is procedure according to principles. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (tr. by Meikle john), p. 516. 3. Any way or manner of conducting any bus i ne . In this method of life it was once his fate to approach a Bacon, Moral Fables, iii. clear fountain. 4. A plan or system of conduct or action; the way or mode of doing or effecting something: as, a method of instruction; ction; method of cla if i cation; the English method of pronunciation. Therefore to know what more thou art than man, Another method I must now begin. Milton , P. R., iv. 540. Let such persons... not quarrel with the Great Physician of souls for having cured them by easy and gentle methods. South , Sermons, IX. i. Still le respectable appears this extreme concern for those of our own blood which goes along with utter unconcern for those of other blood, when we observe its methods. H. Spencer , Man vs. State, p. 71. 5. In music: (a) Manner of performance; technique; style. (b) A manner or system of teaching. (c) An instruction-book, systematically arranged.-Acroamatic, analytic, an tec edental method. See the adjectives. Arbogast's method. [Named after the inventor, the Alsatian mathematician Louis François Antoine Arbogast, 1759-1803, who himself named it the calculus of derivations.] A method for the development of the function of a function according to the powers of the variable of the latter function.-Bacon i an method. See Bacon i an. -Catechetic method, the method of teaching by questions addre ed to the mem ory. - Centrobaric method. See centrobaric. Comparative method, any method of investigation which rests upon the comparison of several groups of objects. Compositive method. Same as synthetic method. - Correlative method. See correlative. - Deductive meth od. See deductive. - Definitive or divisive method. See divisive.-Dialogic method. See dialogic.-Differential method. (a) A method of estimating the value of a physical quantity by comparing it with another of the same kind the value of which is known and estimating the difference. See differential, and differential galvanometer. (b) A method, introduced by Frischen, in duplex telegraphy for eliminating the effect of the transmitted current on the instruments at the transmitting station while leaving them available to record any me age received at the same time. See telegraphy. - Epidermic, erotema tic, Eule rian, exoscopic, expectant method. See the adjection. Genetic, graphical, historical method. See the adjectives. - Horner's method of approximation. See approximation. - Iatraliptic method. Same as epi dermic method. - Inductive or experimental method, a method which depends upon making new observations. -Introspective method. See introspective. - Lag rangi an, lunar, magistral method. See the adjectives. Mance's method, a method of measuring the electrical resistance of a circuit in which there is an electromotive force. See resistance.- Metaphysical or subjective method, one which rests on the a umption that the po ibilities of thought are coextensive with the po i bilities of things. - Method of adhesions. See the quotation. method elimination. See elimina At the recent meeting of the British A ociation, Dr. E. B. Tylor read an interesting paper on the laws of marriage and descent, illustrative of his ingenious method of studying ethnological phenomena. All myths and customs, on a close study, may by analysis be disintegrated, and are found to consist certain elements. Dr. Tylor Science, XII. 211. arranges these elements statistically, and, by inquiring which occur simultaneously among various peoples, proves that certain groups of such elements belong genetically together. This he calls the method of adhesions. Method of agreement, that method of experimental inquiry in which, some experiment being tried under a great variety of circumstances and found always to yield the same result, it is inferred that this result would be reached under all circumstances. - Method of ap proaches. See approach. Method of avoidance, a method of experimentation in which the circumstances methodism of the observation are specially chosen so that one usual source of error does not enter into the result. - Method of compensation, a method in which a source of error of unknown amount is got rid of by a special mechanical contrivance. - Method of concomitant variations, the method in which the known quantities on which the results of an experiment depend are made to vary with a view to ascertaining the values of the unknown quantities.Method of correction, a method of experimentation in which a source of error is allowed for by calculation. This differs from the method of residues only in that the nature of the causes of the residual phenomena are known, and only their quantities remain to be determined. - Method of difference, that method in which an experiment is tried under conditions seeming to differ in but one material circumstance, and the difference in the two results is ascribed to that circumstance. - Method of dimensions, divisors, exclusions, fluxions. See di mension, divisor, etc. Method of exhaustion, the method of approximation to the area of a curvilinear figure by means of inscribed and circumscribed polygons. - Method of increments, of indivisibles, of infusion, of limits. See increment, indivisible, etc.of least squares. See square. - Method of residues. (a) That method of experimental inquiry in which from an observed quantity is subtracted the effects of known causes in order that the effects of unknown causes may be studied by themselves. (b) A method invented by Cauchy of treating the integral calculus. See residual. Method of reversal, a method in which two experiments are made under different circumstances, in such a way that their results can be combined by calculation, so that the error shall be determined and eliminated. - Natural method, a method in which the order of nature is observed. See Ju ieuan. - Null-method, a method of measurement in which the equality of two physical quantities is indicated when, on performing a specified operation, no effect is produced on the testing apparatus: for example, the Wheat stone bridge method of measuring electrical resistance. - Progre ive method. Same as synthetic method. - Regre ive or resolutive method. Same as analytic method. - Scientific method, a method of investigation proceeding in a scientific manner, and setting out from fundamental and elementary principlesti especially the method moder by scient ions cratic method, the method of teaching addre ed to the understanding. - Subjective method. Same as metaphysical method. - Symbolical method. (a) A method in which symbols of operations are treated as if they were symbols of quantities. (b) A method in which, in analytical geom., the functions which vanish on straight lines, etc., are represented by single letters. (c) In algebra, a method in which, by the aid of umbræ, quantics are written as powers of polynomials. - Synthetic, progre ive, or compositive method, a method in which we set out with general principles and proceed to deduce their consequences.-Tabular or tabellary method, the method of exhibiting the divisions of a subject by tables. - Total method, the method of a whole science; partial method, the method of a particular part of a science. - Universal or general method, a method applicable to all problems, or to a very wide cla of problems; special or particular method, one applicable to a small cla of problems.