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CHAPTER VII. 

 OF OBSERVATION AND EXPERIMENT. 



1 . IT results from the preceding exposition, that 

 the process of ascertaining what consequents, in nature, 

 are invariably connected with what antecedents, or 

 in other words what phenomena are related to each 

 other as causes and effects, is in some sort a process of 

 analysis. That every fact which begins to exist has 

 a cause, and that this cause must be found some- 

 where among the facts which immediately preceded 

 its occurrence, may be taken for certain. The whole 

 of the present facts are the infallible result of all past 

 facts, and more immediately of all the facts which 

 existed at the moment previous. Here, then, is a 

 great sequence, which we know to be uniform. If 

 the whole prior state of the entire universe could 

 again recur, it would again be followed by the whole 

 present state. The question is, how to resolve this 

 complex uniformity into the simpler uniformities which 

 compose it, and assign to each portion of the vast 

 antecedent that portion of the consequent which is 

 attendant upon it. 



This operation, which we have called analytical, 

 inasmuch as it is the resolution of a complex whole 

 into the component elements, is more than a merely 

 mental analysis. No mere contemplation of the phe- 

 nomena, and partition of them by the intellect alone, 

 will of itself accomplish the end we have now in view. 

 Nevertheless, such a mental partition is an indispen- 

 sable first step. The order of nature, as perceived at 

 a first glance, presents at every instant a chaos followed 



