GENERAL REMARKS. 477 



ledgment been placed beyond dispute, must be con- 

 sciously and deliberately applied to those more diffi- 

 cult inquiries. If there are some subjects on which 

 the results obtained have finally received the unani- 

 mous assent of all who have attended to the proof, 

 and others on which mankind have not yet been 

 equally successful ; on which the most sagacious 

 minds have occupied themselves from the earliest date, 

 with every assistance except that of a tried scientific 

 method, and have never succeeded in establishing any 

 considerable body of truths, so as to be beyond denial 

 or doubt; it is by generalizing the methods success- 

 fully followed in the former inquiries, and applying 

 them to the latter, that we may hope to remove this 

 blot upon the face of science. The remaining chap- 

 ters are an attempt to facilitate this most desirable 

 object. 



2. In attempting this, I am not unmindful how 

 little can be done towards it in a mere Treatise on 

 Logic, or how vague and unsatisfactory all precepts of 

 Method must necessarily appear, when not practically 

 exemplified in the establishment of a body of doctrine. 

 Doubtless, the most effectual way of showing how 

 the sciences of Ethics and Politics may be constructed, 

 would be to construct them: a task which, it needs 

 scarcely be said, I am not about to undertake. But 

 even if there were no other examples, the memorable 

 one of Bacon would be sufficient to demonstrate, that 

 it is sometimes both possible and useful to point out 

 the way, though without being oneself prepared to 

 adventure far into it. And if more were to be 

 attempted, this at least is not a proper place for the 

 attempt. 



In substance, whatever can be done in a work like 



