394 



INDUCTION. 



affording it to others, and even of serving as the ultimate ex- 

 planation of things in general. 



One of the ablest recent supporters of the Volitional 

 theory has furnished an explanation, at once historically true 

 and philosophically acute, of the failure of the Greek philo- 

 sophers in physical inquiry, in which, as I conceive, he un- 

 consciously depicts his own state of mind. " Their stumbling- 

 hlock was one as to the nature of the evidence they had 

 to expect for their conviction. . . . They had not seized the 

 idea that they must not expect to understand the processes 

 of outward causes, but only their results : and consequently, 

 the whole physical philosophy of the Greeks was an attempt 

 to identify mentally the effect with its cause, to feel after 

 some not only necessary but natural connexion, where they 

 meant by natural that which would per se carry some pre- 

 sumption to their own mind. . . . They wanted to see some 

 reason why the physical antecedent should produce this par- 

 ticular consequent, and their only attempts were in directions 

 where they could find such reasons."* In other words, they 

 were not content merely to know that one phenomenon was 

 always followed by another ; they thought that they had not 

 attained the true aim of science, unless they could perceive 

 something in the nature of the one phenomenon from which 

 it might have been known or presumed previous to trial that 

 it would be followed by the other : just what the writer, who 

 has so clearly pointed out their error, thinks that he per- 

 ceives in the nature of the phenomenon Volition. And to 

 complete the statement of the case, he should have added 

 that these early speculators not only made this their aim, 

 but were quite satisfied with their success in it ; not only 

 sought for causes which should carry in their mere statement 

 evidence of their efficiency, but fully believed that they had 

 found such causes. The reviewer can see plainly that this 

 was an error, because he does not believe that there exist 

 any relations between material phenomena which can account 

 for their producing one another : but the very fact of the per- 



* Prospective Review for February 1850. 



