214 Induction. [CHAP. ix. 



is a consumptive man say, and a native of a northern climate. 

 Being a man he is of course included in the class of ver 

 tebrates, also in that of animals, as well as in any higher 

 such classes that there may be. The property of being con 

 sumptive refers him to another class, narrower than any of 

 the above ; whilst that of being born in a northern climate 

 refers him to a new and distinct class, not conterminous with 

 any of the rest, for there are things born in the north which 

 are not men. 



13. When therefore John Smith presents himself to 

 our notice without, so to say, any particular label attached to 

 him informing us under which of his various aspects he is to 

 be viewed, the process of thus referring him to a class be 

 comes to a great extent arbitrary. If he had been indicated 

 to us by a general name, that, of course, would have been 

 some clue ; for the name having a determinate connotation 

 would specify at any rate a fixed group of attributes within 

 which our selection was to be confined. But names and 

 attributes being connected together, we are here supposed 

 to be just as much in ignorance what name he is to be 

 called by, as what group out of all his innumerable attributes 

 is to be taken account of; for to tell us one of these things 

 would be precisely the same in effect as to tell us the other. 

 In saying that it is thus arbitrary under which class he is 

 placed, we mean, of course, that there are no logical grounds 

 of decision ; the selection must be determined by some ex 

 traneous considerations. Mere inspection of the individual 

 would simply show us that he could equally be referred 

 to an indefinite number of classes, but would in itself give 

 no inducement to prefer, for our special purpose, one of these 

 classes to another. 



This variety of classes to which the individual may be 

 referred owing to his possession of a multiplicity of attri- 



