f. PHENOMENA OF ORGANIC NATURE’ 367 
_ sense, we should call that an experimental verifica- 
tion. And, if still opposed, you go further, and 
_ say, “I have heard from the people in Somerset- 
shire and Devonshire, where a large number of 
apples are grown, that they have observed the 
same thing. It is also found to be the case in 
Normandy, and in North America. In short, I 
_ find it to be the universal experience of mankind 
_wherever attention has been directed to the sub- 
ject.’ Whereupon, your friend, unless he is a 
very unreasonable man, agrees with you, and is 
convinced that you are quite right in the conclu- 
sion you have drawn. He believes, although per- 
haps he does not know he believes it, that the 
more extensive verifications are,—that the more 
4 "frequently experiments have been made, and re- 
sults of the same kind arrived at,—that the more 
1 varied the conditions under which the same results 
are attained, the more certain is the ultimate con- 
clusion, and he disputes the question no further. 
_ He sees that the experiment has been tried under 
all sorts of conditions, as to time, place, and people, 
with the same result; and he says with you, 
therefore, that the law you have laid down must 
‘be a good one, and he must believe it. 
_ Inscience we do the same thing ;—the philo- 
sopher exercises precisely the same faculties, 
though in a much more delicate manner. In 
Scientific inquiry it becomes a matter of duty to 
expose a supposed law to every possible kind of 
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