266 INDUCTION AND DEDUCTION. 



teacbes ns that it rests on a i^roperly intellectual labor, in wbicb tbe un- 

 derstanding* participates as a useful counsellor and assistant, but -witb- 

 out guiding it and witbout its being dependent tbereupou. 



In science, as well as in common life, tbe operations of tbe mind are 

 executed not according to tbe rules of logic, but tbe conception of a 

 trutb, tbe idea of a process or tbe cause of a pbenomenon, generally 

 precedes tbe demonstration ; tbe conclusion is not reacbed tbrougb tbe 

 premises, but tbe conclusion goes before, and tbe premises are tben first 

 souglit out as proof. In a conversation witb a celebrated Frencb matb- 

 ematician, on tbe part wbicb tbe imaginative faculty bears in scientific 

 labors, be expressed bimself to tbe effect tbat by far tbe greater number 

 of matbematical trutbs are obtained, not by deduction, but tbrougb 

 tbe inventive or imaginative power, and in tbis be bad a view even to 

 tbe properties of tbe triangle, tbe ellipsis, &c., wbicb is saying- little 

 else tban tbat tbe matbematician, as well as tbe pbysicist, can do notb- 

 ing for bis science witbout artistic endowment. 



It is scarcely necessary to say tbat for deductive as well as inductive 

 researcb, if any results are to follow, a certain extent of information is 

 prerequisite ; for tbe deductive researcb, a well-grounded knowledge of 

 laws already discovered, to wbicb previous reading and boolis are con- 

 tributary ; for inductive, a comprebensive acquaintance witb mate- 

 rial pbenoraena wbicb is to be acquired in cbemical, pbysical, and pbysi- 

 ological laboratories. As scbools, tbese last are a modern creation, and 

 tbeir influence in tbe development of all departments of pbysical sci- 

 ence is, to tbe reflecting observer, a tiling not to be questioned. 



To an acquaintance witb sensible pbenomena or tbe knowledge of tbe 

 nature and action of tbings, must be united in tbe case of the inductive 

 inquirer, if be would duly resolve tbe problems presented to bim, a mem- 

 ory for sensible pbenomena, a memory, it might be said, of sight, taste, 

 and smell, together with a certain degree of artistic expertness and dex- 

 terity. Tbe broader and more comprebensive his knowledge of facts 

 and pbenomena, or, as it is usual to say, tbe greater his experience, so 

 much the more will bis labor be lightened ; an experienced man makes 

 much fewer experiments than tbe inexperienced, who must make him- 

 self acquainted with many i^henomena wbicb to tbe other are already 

 familiar ; to the former, indeed, for the attainment of many ends, numer- 

 ous exi)eriments would be superfluous, since tbe combination of pro- 

 cesses and facts already within bis knowledge, abundantly suffices. 



In the solution of their respective problems, tbe deductive and induc- 

 tive inquirer begin in tbe same manner; the one, like tbe other, starts 

 from a comjilex idea of the understanding or the imaginative power, of 

 which in general only a part is true, while the other parts rest on erro- 

 neous inferences or combinations. Tbe deductive inquirer tests and ex- 

 periments with intellectual conceptions in order to find tbe trutb, just 

 as tbe inductive inquirer does with sensible ideas in order to find the 

 thing sought for ; both, in the prosecution of tbeir inquiries, strip away, 



