334 FALLACIES. 



supply an immediate corrective), such erroneous in- 

 ferences are as frequent if not more frequent than 

 correct inferences, correct interpretations of experi- 

 ence. Even in the speculations to which the highest 

 intellects systematically devote themselves, and in 

 reference to which the collective mind of the scientific 

 world is always at hand to aid the efforts and control 

 the aberrations of individuals, it is only from the 

 more perfect sciences, from those of which the sub- 

 ject-matter is the least complicated, that opinions not 

 resting upon a correct induction have at length, gene- 

 rally speaking, been expelled. In the departments of 

 inquiry relating to the more complex phenomena of 

 the universe, and especially those of which the sub- 

 ject is man, whether as a moral and intellectual, a 

 social, or even as a physical being; the diversity of 

 opinions still prevalent among instructed persons, and 

 the equal confidence with which those of the most 

 contrary ways of thinking cling to their respective 

 tenets, are a proof not only that right modes of philo- 

 sophising are not yet generally adopted on those sub- 

 jects, but that wrong ones are ; that philosophers have 

 not only in general missed the truth, but have often 

 embraced error ; that even the most cultivated portion 

 of our species have not yet learned to abstain from 

 drawing conclusions for which the evidence is in- 

 sufficient. 



The only complete safeguard against reasoning ill, 

 is the habit of reasoning well; familiarity with the 

 principles of correct reasoning, and practice in apply- 

 ing those principles. It is, however, not unim- 

 portant to consider what are the most common modes 

 of bad reasoning; by what appearances the mind is 

 most likely to be seduced from the observance of true 

 principles of induction j what, in short,, are the most 



