APPROXIMATE GENERALIZATIONS. 141 



habits, which in an individual case are seldom exactly 

 known; and classes grounded on these distinctions 

 would never precisely accord with those into which 

 mankind are necessarily divided for social purposes. 

 All propositions which can be framed respecting the 

 actions of men as ordinarily classified, or as classified 

 according to any kind of outward indications, are 

 merely approximate. We can only say, Most men of a 

 particular age, profession, country, or rank in society, 

 have such and such qualities, or, Most persons when 

 placed in certain circumstances act in such and such 

 a way. Not that we do not in general know well 

 enough upon what causes the qualities depend, or 

 what sort of persons they are who act in that parti- 

 cular way ; but we have seldom the means of knowing 

 whether any individual person has been under the 

 influence of those causes, or is a person of that parti- 

 cular sort. We could replace the approximate gene- 

 ralizations by propositions universally true ; but these 

 would hardly ever be capable of being applied to 

 practice. We should be sure of our majors, but we 

 should not be able to get minors corresponding to 

 them : we are forced, therefore, to draw our conclu- 

 sions from coarser and more fallible indications. 



4. Proceeding now to consider, what is to be 

 regarded as sufficient evidence of an approximate 

 generalization ; we can have no difficulty in at once 

 recognising that when admissible at all, it is admis- 

 sible only as an empirical law. Propositions of the 

 form, Every A is B, are not necessarily laws of causa- 

 tion, or ultimate uniformities of coexistence ; propo- 

 sitions like Most A are B, cannot be so. Propositions 

 hitherto found true in every observed instance, may 



