40 INDUCTION. 



other antecedents the sequence is contingent, but we 

 are convinced that it is contingent upon something ; 

 because the homogeneousness of the antecedent 

 with the consequent, the close resemblance of the 

 seedling to the tree in all respects except magnitude, 

 and the graduality of the growth, so exactly resem- 

 bling the progressively accumulating effect produced 

 by the long action of some one cause, leave scarcely 

 a possibility of doubting that the seedling and the tree 

 are really two terms in a series of that description, the 

 first term of which is yet to seek. The conclusion is 

 further confirmed by this, that we are able to prove 

 by strict induction the dependence of the growth of 

 the tree, and even of the continuance of its existence, 

 upon the continued repetition of certain processes of 

 nutrition, the rise of the sap, the absorptions and 

 exhalations by the leaves, &c., and the same experi- 

 ments would probably prove to us that the growth of 

 the tree is the accumulated sum of the effects of these 

 continued processes, were we not, for want of suffi- 

 ciently microscopic eyes, unable to observe correctly 

 and in detail what those effects are. 



