98 INDUCTION. 



no other than A ; but, that if it he no other than A it must he 

 A, is not proved, by these instances at least, but taken for 

 granted. There is no need to spend time in proving that the 

 same thing is true of the other Inductive .Methods. The 

 universality of the law of causation is assumed in them all. 



But is this assumption warranted ? Doubtless (it may be 

 said) most phenomena are connected as effects with some 

 antecedent or cause, that is, are never produced unless some 

 assignable fact has preceded them ; but the very circumstance 

 that complicated processes of induction are sometimes neces 

 sary, shows that cases exist in which this regular order of 

 succession is not apparent to our unaided apprehension. If, 

 then, the processes which bring these cases within the same 

 category with the rest, require that we should assume the 

 universality of the very law which they do not tit first sight 

 appear to exemplify, is not this a petitio principii ? Can we 

 prove a proposition, by an argument which takes it for 

 granted ? And if not so proved, on what evidence does it 



rest ? 



For this difficulty, which I have purposely stated in the 

 strongest terms it will admit of, the school of metaphy 

 sicians who have long predominated in this country find a 

 ready salvo. They affirm, that the universality of causation 

 is a truth which we cannot help believing ; that the belief in 

 it is an instinct, one of the laws of our believing faculty. As 

 the proof of this, they say, and they have nothing else to say, 

 that everybody does believe it ; and they number it among 

 the propositions, rather numerous in their catalogue, which 

 may be logically argued against, and perhaps cannot be 

 logically proved, but which are of higher authority than 

 logic, and so essentially inherent in the human mind, that 

 even he who denies them in speculation, shows by his 

 habitual practice that his arguments make no impression upon 



himself. 



Into the merits of this question, considered as one of 

 psychology, it would be foreign to my purpose to enter here : 

 but I must protest against adducing, as evidence of the truth 

 of a fact in external nature, the disposition, however strong or 



