44 THE SCIENCE OF LOGIC 



natures, these stable tendencies, have their ultimate explanation in the omni 

 potent will of an all-wise ruler of the universe (224). 



The views of an individual author on these latter ultimate presuppositions 

 and foundations of induction are pretty sure to influence and colour his concep 

 tion of the various steps in the mental process itself by which the mind moves 

 inductively from particular to general, from fact to law. Some such views, 

 propounded by recent writers, will be examined in due course. 



211. ANALYSIS AND ILLUSTRATION OF THE PROCESS OF 

 SCIENTIFIC INDUCTION. From the preceding paragraphs of the 

 present chapter we can gather what the main problem of induc 

 tion is, and what its method of procedure ought to be. It seeks 

 a scientific knowledge of the concrete, particular phenomena of our 

 experience, i.e. a knowledge of them through their causes and 

 laws, a knowledge, which, bringing to light their nature, their 

 origin, the purpose of their existence or occurrence, will lay hold 

 of what is universal, permanent, abiding, in them. Amid the 

 changing and chaotic elements that make up our world of unanal- 

 ysed and unexplored sense experience, induction will try to trace 

 the permanent connexions of cause and effect, to eliminate the 

 variable conditions and surroundings of each phenomenon, and to 

 lay bare its connexion with its real ground or cause. Now, in 

 order to do this, we must not merely observe with accuracy the 

 phenomenon we wish to explain ; but next, and necessarily, we 

 must suppose that amid all its immediate conditions and surround 

 ings some element or elements constitute its determining cause, 

 and yield the law of its occurrence ; and then we must proceed 

 to test or verify our supposition by deducing consequences from the 

 latter, and comparing our conclusions with actual facts, analysed 

 by further observation and experiment. This process of testing 

 we must prosecute until we reach a full conviction that the sup 

 posed cause of the phenomenon is the necessitating and indispens 

 able, and therefore the true or real, cause, of the facts examined. 

 When we have thus established an isolated law, we may on the 

 one hand endeavour to explain this law itself by seeking its 

 connexions with other already known laws, and on the other 

 hand apply the law itself to the explanation of all facts that come 

 under it. 



(i) Preliminary observation of facts; (2) supposition as to 

 their cause ; (3) verification of our supposition ; (4) explanation, 

 and (5) application, of the established law : such are the essential 

 steps in the inductive discovery and proof of scientific truths. 

 The deductive application of the general law to the facts is the 



