VI CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XXV. Of the Grounds of Disbelief . 



PAGE 



1. Improbability and impossibility . . . 181 



2. Examination of Hume's doctrine of miracles . . 182 



3. The degrees of improbability correspond to differences in the 



nature of the generalization with which an assertion 

 conflicts . . . . .187 



4. A fact is not incredible because the chances are against it . 192 



5. An opinion of Laplace examined . . .194 



BOOK IV. 

 OF OPERATIONS SUBSIDIARY TO INDUCTION. 



CHAPTER I. Of Observation, and Description. 



1. Observation, how far a subject of logic . . 201 



2. A great part of what seems observation is really inference . 202 



3. The description of an observation affirms more than is con- 



tained in the observation . . . . 206 



4. namely an agreement among phenomena ; and the compa- 



rison of phenomena to ascertain such agreements is a pre- 

 liminary to induction .... 209 



CHAPTER II. Of Abstraction, or the Formation of 

 Conceptions. 



1. The comparison which is a preliminary to induction implies 



general conceptions . . . .212 



2. but these need not be pre-existent . . . 214 



3. A general conception, originally the result of a comparison, 



becomes itself the type of comparison . . 218 



4. What is meant by appropriate conceptions . . 222 

 5 and by clear conceptions .... 225 

 (x. Cases in which the conception must pre-exist . . 227 



CHAPTER III. Of Naming, as subsidiary to 

 Induction. 



1. The fundamental property of names as an instrument of 



thought ...... 230 



2. Names are not indispensable to induction . . 231 



3. In what manner subservient to it . . 232 



4. General names not a mere contrivance to economise the use 



of language ..... 234 



