234 OPERATIONS SUBSIDIARY TO INDUCTION. 



bered accurately, by putting it carefully into words, 

 and committing the words either to writing or to 

 memory. 



The function of Naming, and particularly of 

 General Names, in Induction, may be recapitulated 

 as follows. Every inductive inference which is good 

 at all, is good for a whole class of cases: and, that the 

 inference may have any better warrant of its correct- 

 ness than the mere clinging together of two ideas, a 

 process of experimentation and comparison is neces- 

 sary; in which the whole class of cases must be 

 brought to view, and some uniformity in the course 

 of nature evolved and ascertained, since the existence 

 of such an uniformity is required as a justification for 

 drawing the inference in even a single case. This 

 uniformity, therefore, may be ascertained once for 

 all; and if, being ascertained, it can be remembered, 

 it will serve as a formula for making in particular 

 cases all such inferences as the previous experience 

 will warrant. But we can only secure its being 

 remembered, or give ourselves even a chance of 

 carrying in our memory any considerable number of 

 such uniformities, by registering them through the 

 medium of permanent signs; which (being, from the 

 nature of the case, signs not of an individual fact but 

 of an uniformity, that is, of an indefinite number of 

 facts similar to one another) are general signs; uni- 

 versals; general names, and general propositions. 



4. And here I cannot omit to notice an over- 

 sight committed by some eminent metaphysicians ; 

 who have said that the cause of our using general 

 names is the infinite multitude of individual objects, 

 which, making it impossible to have a name for each, 

 compels us to make one name serve for many. This 



