318 INDUCTION. 



We shall fall into no error, then, if in treating of Induction, 

 we limit our attention to the establishment of general proposi- 

 tions. The principles and rules of Induction as directed to this 

 end, are the principles and rules of all Induction ; and the logic 

 of Science is the universal Logic, applicable to all inquiries in 

 which man can engage. 



timate an operation, but substantially the same operation, as that of ascending 

 from known cases to a general proposition ; except that the latter process has 

 one great security for correctness which the former does not possess. In Science, 

 the inference must necessarily pass through the intermediate stage of a general 

 proposition, because Science wants its conclusions for record, and not for in- 

 stantaneous use. But the inferences drawn for the guidance of practical affairs, 

 by persons who would often be quite incapable of expressing in unexceptionable 

 terms the corresponding generalizations, may and frequently do exhibit intel- 

 lectual powers quite equal to any which have ever been displayed in Science : 

 and if these inferences are not inductive, what are they ? The limitation im- 

 posed on the term by Dr. Whewell seems perfectly arbitrary ; neither justified 

 by any fundamental distinction between what he includes and what he desires 

 to exclude, nor sanctioned by usage, at least from the time of Reid and Stewart, 

 the principal legislators (as far as the English language is concerned) of modern 

 metaphysical terminology. 



