Chauncey Wright. 85 



utility. His opinions were determined only by 

 direct evidence, and to this he always accorded a 

 hospitable reception. A mind more placid in its 

 working, more unalloyed by emotional prejudice 

 or less solicited by the various temptations of 

 speculation, I have never known. Judicial can- 

 dour and rectitude of inference were with him 

 inborn. On many points his judgment might 

 need further enlightenment, but it stood in no 

 need of a rectifying impulse. No craving for 

 speculative consistency, or what Comte would 

 have called " unity " of doctrine, ever hindered 

 him from giving due weight to opposing, or even 

 seemingly incompatible, considerations. For, in 

 view of the largeness and complexity of the uni- 

 verse, he realized how treacherous the most plau- 

 sible generalizations are liable to prove when a 

 vast area of facts is to be covered, and how great 

 is the value of seemingly incongruous facts in 

 prompting us to revise or amend our first-formed 

 theories. 



With these mental characteristics Mr. Wright 

 seems to have been fitted for the work of sceptical 

 criticism, or for the discovery and illustration of 

 specific truths, rather than for the elaboration of 

 a general system of philosophy. As our very 

 sources of mental strength in one direction may 



