BACONIAN METHOD is the method of "interpreting na ture" (or studying natural phenomena) formulated by Francis Bacon (q.v.). It was intended to replace the method of citing the views of "authorities" or of having recourse to fanciful guesses. It insisted on dismissing prejudices and preconceptions of all kinds, and on the close and methodical observation of the facts can cerned. It was essentially an empirical method, and consisted of three main steps: first comes a description of the facts; next, a tabulation or classification of them into three classes showing (i.) instances of the presence of the characteristic or quality, etc., under investigation, (ii.) instances of its absence, and (iii.) in stances of its presence in varying degrees; thirdly, the rejec tion or elimination of whatever appears, in the light of these tables, not to be connected with the phenomenon under investigation, and the determination of what is connected with it. In their essence Bacon may be credited with the recognition of the methods of agreement, the joint method, and the method of concomitant variations. (See SCIENTIFIC METHOD.) But he exaggerated the mechanical element in scientific investigation when he assumed that by following his method anybody might make sound scientific discoveries, much in the same way as anybody might, with the help of a pair of compasses, construct an almost perfect circle.