VIII 

 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 



ri^IIAT proclivity to generalization which is possessed in 

 i. greater or less degree by all minds, and without which 

 indeed, intelligence cannot exist, has unavoidable incon 

 veniences. Through it alone can truth be reached ; and 

 yet it almost inevitably betrays into error. But for the 

 tendency to predicate of every other case, that which has 

 been found in the observed cases, there could be no ra 

 tional thinking ; and yet by this indispensable tendency, 

 men are perpetually led to found, on limited experience, 

 propositions which they wrongly assume to be universal or 

 absolute. In one sense, however, this can scarcely be re 

 garded as an evil; for without premature generalizations 

 the true generalization would never be arrived at. If we 

 waited till all the facts were accumulated before trying to 

 formulate them, the vast unorganized mass would be un 

 manageable. Only by provisional grouping can they be 

 brought into such order as to be dealt with ; and this pro 

 visional grouping is but another name for premature gen 

 eralization. 



How uniformly men follow this course, and how need 

 ful the errors are as steps to truth, is well illustrated in the 

 history of Astronomy. The heavenly bodies move round 



