xxviii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



Scientific Method, and not a book on psychology and 

 philosophy. 



It may be objected, indeed, as the Spectator objects, 

 that Mill's System of Logic is particularly strong in the 

 discussion of the psychological foundations of reasoning, 

 so that Mill would appear to have successfully treated 

 that which I feel myself to be incapable of attempting at 

 present. If Mill's analysis of knowledge is correct, then 

 I have nothing to say in excuse for my own deficiencies. 

 But it is well to do one thing at a time, and therefore 

 I have not occupied any considerable part of this book 

 with controversy and refutation. What I have to say of 

 Mill's logic will be said in a separate work, in which 

 his analysis of knowledge will be somewhat minutely 

 analysed. It will then be shown, I believe, that Mill's 

 psychological and philosophical treatment of logic has not 

 yielded such satisfactory results as some writers seem to 

 believe, 1 



Various minor but still important criticisms were made 

 by Professor Eobertson, a few of which have been noticed 

 in the text (pp. 27, 101). In other cases his objections 

 hardly admit of any other answer than such as consists 

 in asking the reader to judge between the work and the 

 criticism. Thus Mr. Eobertson asserts 2 that the most 

 complex logical problems solved in this book (up to p. 102 

 of this edition) might be more easily and shortly dealt 

 with upon the principles and with the recognised methods 

 of the traditional logic. The burden of proof here lies 

 upon Mr. Eobertson, and his only proof consists in a 

 single case, where he is able, as it seems to me accidentally, 

 to get a special conclusion by the old form of dilemma. 

 It would be a long labour to test the old logic upon every 

 result obtained by my notation, and I must leave such 



1 Portions of this work have already been published in my articles, 

 entitled "John Stuart Mill's Philosophy Tested," printed in the Contem- 

 porary Review for December, 1877, vol. xxxi. p. 167, and for January and 

 April, 1878, vol. xxxi. p. 256, aud vol. xxxii. p. 88. (Note added in 

 November, 1878.) z Mind, vol. i. p. 222. 



