THE TEST OF TRUTH 



of the matter, for though the belief in the uni- 

 versality of causation is not a universal belief, 

 the belief in its necessity in each particular case 

 is undoubtedly universal. And, as we have seen, 

 the Kantian denies the power of accumulated 

 experience to produce the belief that the future 

 must inevitably resemble the past. He reminds 

 us that for many ages it was supposed that all 

 swans were white, until finally swans were dis- 

 covered in Australia which were not white ; and 

 he asks what better warrant can uniformity of 

 experience give us than it gave in this case. If 

 after three thousand years a black swan turns 

 up, must we not suppose it possible that in 

 three thousand years more we may see a candle 

 burn in an atmosphere of pure nitrogen ? 



In answering this query, let us begin by ob- 

 serving that in many cases, the mere accumula- 

 tion of experiences is a matter of but little 

 consequence. A child believes, after one experi- 

 ence, that fire will burn. When the chemist has 

 shown, by a single experiment, that nitrogen 

 will not support combustion, we believe that it 

 will be just the same through all future time. 

 If we withhold our assent, " it is from a doubt 

 whether the one experiment was properly made, 

 not whether if properly made it would be con- 

 clusive." ^ Here, then, as Mr. Mill says, " is a 

 general law of nature inferred without hesitation 

 ^ Mill, System of Logic y vol. i. p. 352. 



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