188 OPERATIONS SUBSIDIARY TO INDUCTION. 



We thus see that it is impossible to express in words any 

 result of observation, without performing an act possessing 

 what Dr. Whewell considers to be characteristic of Induction. 

 There is always something introduced which was not included 

 in the observation itself; some conception common to the 

 phenomenon with other phenomena to which it is compared. 

 An observation cannot be spoken of in language at all without 

 declaring more than that one observation ; without assimilating 

 it to other phenomena already observed and classified. But 

 this identification of an object this recognition of it as pos 

 sessing certain known characteristics has never been con 

 founded with Induction. It is an operation which precedes all 

 induction, and supplies it with its materials. It is a percep 

 tion of resemblances, obtained by comparison. 



These resemblances are not always apprehended directly, 

 by merely comparing the object observed with some other 

 present object, or with our recollection of an object which is 

 absent. They are often ascertained through intermediate 

 marks, that is, deductively. In describing some new kind of 

 animal, suppose me to say that it measures ten feet in length, 

 from the forehead to the extremity of the tail. I did not ascer 

 tain this by the unassisted eye. I had a two-foot rule which I 

 applied to the object, and, as we commonly say, measured it; 

 an operation which was not wholly manual, but partly also 

 mathematical, involving the two propositions, Five times 

 two is ten, and Things which are equal to the same thing are 

 equal to one another. Hence, the fact that the animal is ten 

 feet long is not an immediate perception, but a conclusion 

 from reasoning ; the minor premises alone being furnished by 

 observation of the object. Nevertheless, this is called an 

 observation or a description of the animal, not an induction 

 respecting it. 



To pass at once from a very simple to a very complex 

 example : I affirm that the earth is globular. The assertion 

 is not grounded on direct perception ; for the figure of the 

 earth cannot, by us, be directly perceived, though the asser 

 tion would not be true unless circumstances could be supposed 

 under which its truth could be so perceived. That the form 



