INDUCTIONS IMPROPERLY SO CALLED. 353 



been ascertained to be true of every individual in it, 

 so that the nominal conclusion is not really a conclu- 

 sion, but a mere reassertion of the premisses. If we 

 were to say, All the planets shine by the sun's light, 

 from observation of each separate planet, or All the 

 Apostles were Jews, because this is true of Peter, 

 Paul, John, and every other apostle, these, and such 

 as these, would, in the phraseology in question, be 

 called perfect, and the only perfect, Inductions. This, 

 however, is a totally different kind of induction from 

 ours ; it is no inference from facts known to facts 

 unknown, but a mere shorthand registration of facts 

 known. The two simulated arguments, which we have 

 quoted, are not generalizations; the propositions pur- 

 porting to be conclusions from them, are not really 

 general propositions. A general proposition is one in 

 which the predicate is affirmed or denied of an unlimited 

 number of individuals ; namely, all, whether few or 

 many, existing or capable of existing, which possess the 

 properties connoted by the subject of the proposition. 

 " All men are mortal" does not mean all now living, 

 but all men past, present, and to come. When the 

 signification of the term is limited so as to render 

 it a name not for any and every individual falling 

 under a certain general description, but only for each 

 of a number of individuals designated as such, and as it 

 were counted off individually, the proposition, though 

 it may be general in its language, is no general pro- 

 position, but merely that number of singular proposi- 

 tions, written in an abridged character. The opera- 

 tion may be very useful, as most forms of abridged 

 notation are ; but it is no part of the investigation of 

 truth, though often bearing an important part in the 

 preparation of the materials for that investigation. 

 VOL. i. 2 A 



