332 INDUCTION. 



tions, it was because a number of new facts had now been 

 added, which it was necessary to combine with the old facts 

 into one general description. But this did not affect the cor 

 rectness of the former expression, considered as a general state 

 ment of the only facts which it was intended to represent. And 

 so true is this, that, as is well remarked by M. Comte, these 

 ancient generalizations, even the rudest and most imperfect of 

 them, that of uniform movement in a circle, are so far from 

 being entirely false, that they are even now habitually em 

 ployed by astronomers when only a rough approximation to 

 correctness is required. &quot; L astronomie moderne, en de- 

 truisant sans retour les hypotheses primitives, envisagees 

 comme lois reelles du monde, a soigneusement maintenu leur 

 valeur positive et permanente, la propriete de representer com- 

 modement les phenomenes quand il s agit d une premiere 

 ebauche. Nos ressources a cet egard sont meme bien plus 

 etendues, precisement a cause que nous ne nous faisons aucune 

 illusion sur la realite des hypotheses; ce qui nous permet 

 d employer sans scrupule, en chaque cas, celle que nous jugeons 

 la plus avantageuse.&quot;* 



Dr. Whewell s remark, therefore, is philosophically correct. 

 Successive expressions for the colligation of observed facts, or 

 in other words, successive descriptions of a phenomenon as a 

 whole, which has been observed only in parts, may, though 

 conflicting, be all correct as far as they go. But it would 

 surely be absurd to assert this of conflicting inductions. 



The scientific study of facts may be undertaken for three 

 different purposes : the simple description of the facts ; their 

 explanation ; or their prediction : meaning by prediction, 

 the determination of the conditions under which similar facts 

 may be expected again to occur. To the first of these three 

 operations the name of Induction does not properly belong : 

 to the other two it does. Now, Dr. Whewell s observation is 

 true of the first alone. Considered as a mere description, the 

 circular theory of the heavenly motions represents perfectly 

 well their general features : and by adding epicycles without 



* Coura de Philosophic Positive, vol. ii. p. 202. 



