xxvi..] GENERALISATION. 



destroyed in any time to be proportional to the matter 

 then remaining, and not to the original quantity ; under 

 this hypothesis even a finite quantity of original matter 

 could never wholly disappear from the universe. For like 

 reasons we cannot hold that the doctrine of the conserva- 

 tion of energy is really proved, or can ever be proved to 

 be absolutely true, however probable it may be regarded. 



Tendency to Hasty Generalisation. 



In spite of all the powers and advantages of generali- 

 sation, men require no incitement to generalise ; they are 

 too apt to draw hasty and ill-considered inferences. As 

 Francis Bacon said, our intellects want not wings, but 

 rather weights of lead to moderate their course. 1 The 

 process is inevitable to the human mind ; it begins with 

 childhood and lasts through the second childhood. The 

 child that has once been hurt fears the like result on all 

 similar occasions, and can with difficulty be made to dis- 

 tinguish between case and case. It is caution and dis- 

 crimination in the adoption of conclusions that we have 

 chiefly to learn, and the whole experience of life is one 

 continued lesson to this effect. Baden Powell has excel- 

 lently described this strong natural propensity to hasty 

 inference, and the fondness of the human mind for tracing 

 resemblances real or fanciful. " Our first inductions." he 

 says, 2 "are always imperfect and inconclusive ; we advance 

 towards real evidence by successive approximations ; and 

 accordingly we find false generalisation the besetting error 

 of most first attempts at scientific research. The faculty 

 to generalise accurately and philosophically requires large 

 caution and long training, and is not fully attained, espe- 

 cially in reference to more general views, even by some 

 who may properly claim the title of very accurate scientific 

 observers in a more limited field. It is an intellectual 

 habit which acquires immense and accumulating force 

 from the contemplation of wider analogies." 



Hasty and superficial generalisations have always been 

 the bane of science, and there would be no difficulty in 



' Afovum Oryanum, bk. i Aphoiism 104. 



2 TJie Unity of Worlds and'of Nature, 2nd edit. p. 116. 



