230 Induction. [CHAP. IX. 



elude, it may be asked, about this particular man John 

 Smith s prospects when we are thus offered two different 

 values for his life ? Nothing whatever, it must be replied ; 

 nor could we in reality draw a conclusion, be it remembered, 

 in the former case, when we were practically confined to one 

 set of statistics. There also we had what we called the 

 value of his life, and since we only knew of one such value, 

 we came to regard it as in some sense appropriate to him as 

 an individual. Here, on the other hand, we have two values, 

 belonging to different series, and as these values are really 

 different it may be complained that they are discordant, but 

 such a complaint can only be made when we do what we 

 have no right to do ; viz. assign a value to the individual 

 which shall admit of individual justification. 



29. Is it then perfectly arbitrary what series or class 

 of instances we select by which to judge ? By no means ; it 

 has been stated repeatedly that in choosing a series, we must 

 seek for one the members of which shall resemble our indi 

 vidual in as many of his attributes as possible, subject only 

 to the restriction that it must be a sufficiently extensive 

 series. What is meant is, that in the above case, where we 

 have two series, we cannot fairly call them contradictory; the 

 only valid charge is one of incompleteness or insufficiency for 

 their purpose, a charge which applies in exactly the same 

 sense, be it remembered, to all statistics which comprise 

 genera unnecessarily wider than the species with which we 

 are concerned. The only difference between the two differ 

 ent classes of cases is, that in the one instance we are on a 

 path which we know will lead at the last, through many 

 errors, towards the truth (in the sense in which truth can be 

 attained here), and we took it for want of a better. In the 

 other instance we have two such paths, perfectly different 

 paths, either of which however will lead us towards the truth 



