14 ON THE RELATION OF 



causality, we deny in toto the possiblity of referring at least one 

 of the ways in which our mental activity expresses itself to a 

 rigorous law. 



We might possibly, in opposition to logical induction which 

 reduces a question to clearly denned universal propositions, call 

 this kind of reasoning cesthetie induction, because it is most con- 

 spicuous in the higher class of works of art. It is an essential 

 part of an artist's talent to reproduce by words, by form, by 

 colour, or by music, the external indications of a character or a 

 state of mind, and by a kind of instinctive intuition, uncon- 

 trolled by any definable rule, to seize the necessary steps by 

 which we pass from one mood to another. If we do find that 

 the artist has consciously worked after general rules and abstrac- 

 tions, we think his work poor and commonplace, and cease to 

 admire. On the contrary, the works of great artists bring be- 

 fore us characters and moods with such a lifelikeness, with such 

 a wealth of individual traits and such an overwhelming con- 

 viction of truth, that they almost seem to be more real than the 

 reality itself, because all disturbing influences are eliminated. 



Now if, after these reflections, we proceed to review the 

 different sciences, and to classify them according to the method 

 by which they must arrive at their results, we are brought face 

 to face with a generic difference between the natural and the 

 moral sciences. The natural sciences are for the most part in 

 a position to reduce their inductions to sharply defined general 

 rules and principles; the moral sciences, on the other hand, have, 

 in by far the most numerous cases, to do with conclusions 

 arrived at by psychological instinct. Philology, in so far as it 

 is concerned with the interpretation and emendation of the 

 texts handed down to us, must seek to feel out, as it were, the 

 meaning which the author intended to express, and the accessory 

 notions which he wished his words to suggest : and for that pur- 

 pose it is necessary to start with a correct insight, both into the 

 personality of the author, and into the genius of the language 

 in which he wrote. All this affords scope for {esthetic, but 

 not for strictly logical, induction. It is only possible to pass 

 judgment, if you have ready in your memory a great number of 



