212 Induction. [CHAP. ix. 



circumstances under which men live and die remaining the 

 same, we did not feel warranted in inferring that four men 

 out of ten would continue to live to fifty, because in the case 

 of those whom we had observed this proportion had hitherto 

 done so, it is clear that we should be admit ting, that the 

 same antecedents need not be followed by the same con 

 sequents. This uniformity being what the Law of Causation 

 asserts, the truth of the law is clearly necessary to enable us 

 to obtain our generalizations : in other words, it is necessary 

 for the Inductive part of the process. But it seems to be 

 equally clear that causation is not necessary for that part of 

 the process which belongs to Probability. Provided only 

 that the truth of our generalizations is secured to us, in the 

 way just mentioned, what does it matter to us whether or 

 not the individual members are subject to causation ? For 

 it is not in reality about these individuals that we make 

 inferences. As this last point has been already fully treated 

 in Chapter VI., any further allusion to it need not be made here. 

 11. The above description, or rather indication, of the 

 process of obtaining these generalizations must suffice for the 

 present. Let us now turn and consider the means by which 

 we are practically to make use of them when they are ob 

 tained. The point which we had reached in the course of the 

 investigations entered into in the sixth and seventh chapters 

 was this : Given a series of a certain kind, we could draw 

 inferences about the members which composed it ; inferences, 

 that is, of a peculiar kind, the value and meaning of which 

 were fully discussed in their proper place. 



We must now shift our point of view a little ; instead of 

 starting, as in the former chapters, with a determinate series 

 supposed to be given to us, let us assume that the individual 

 only is given, and that the work is imposed upon us of find 

 ing out the appropriate series. How are we to set about the 



