COMPOSITION OF CAUSES. 413 



laws, more or less dissimilar to those to which it conformed in 

 its previous state. The recognition, therefore, of any such 

 law of proportionality, is superseded by the more comprehen- 

 sive principle, in which as much of it as is true is implicitly 

 asserted. 



The general remarks on causation, which seemed necessary 

 as an introduction to the theory of the inductive process, may 

 here terminate. That process is essentially an inquiry into 

 cases of causation. All the uniformities which exist in the 

 succession of phenomena, and most of the uniformities in their 

 coexistence, are either, as we have seen, themselves laws of 

 causation, or consequences resulting from, and corollaries 

 capable of being deduced from, such laws. If we could deter- 

 mine what causes are correctly assigned to what effects, and 

 what effects to what causes, we should be virtually acquainted 

 with the whole course of nature. All those uniformities 

 which are mere results of causation, might then be explained 

 and accounted for; and every individual fact or event might 

 be predicted, provided we had the requisite data, that is, the 

 requisite knowledge of the circumstances which, in the parti- 

 cular instance, preceded it. 



To ascertain, therefore, what are the laws of causation 

 which exist in nature ; to determine the effect of every 

 cause, and the causes of all effects, is the main business of 

 Induction ; and to point out how this is done is the chief 

 object of Inductive Logic. 



