THE NATDKE OF LIKENESS IN REASONING AND AKT. 151 



hand, it is a familiar truth that the attributing to a body iu 

 consequence of some of its properties, all those other prop 

 erties in virtue of which it is referred to a particular class, 

 is an act of inference. And., on the other hand, the form 

 ing of a generalization is the putting together in one class, 

 all those cases which present like relations ; while the draw 

 ing a deduction is essentially the perception that a particu 

 lar case belongs to a certain class of cases previously gener 

 alized. So that as classification is a grouping together of 

 like things / reasoning is a grouping together of like rela 

 tions among things. Add to which, that while the perfec 

 tion gradually achieved in classification consists in the form 

 ation of groups of objects which are completely alike ; the 

 perfection gradually achieved in reasoning consists in the 

 formation of groups of cases which are completely alike. 



Once more wo may contemplate this dominant idea of 

 likeness as exhibited in art. All art, civilized as well as 

 savage, consists almost wholly in the making of objects like 

 other objects ; cither as found in Nature, or as produced 

 by previous art. If we trace back the varied art-products 

 now existing, we find that at each stage the divergence 

 from previous patterns is but small when compared with 

 the agreement ; and in the earliest art the persistency of 

 imitation is yet more conspicuous. The old forms and 

 ornaments and symbols were held sacred, and perpetually 

 copied. Indeed, the strong imitative tendency notoriously 

 displayed by the lowest human races, ensures among them 

 a constant reproducing of likenesses of things, forms, signs, 

 sounds, actions, and whatever else is imitable ; and we may 

 even suspect that this aboriginal peculiarity is in some way 

 connected with the culture and development of this gen 

 eral conception, which we have found so deep and wide 

 spread in its applications. 



And now let us go on to consider how, by a further 

 unfolding of this same fundamental notion, there is a grad- 



