COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



caused the headache, or that the medicine cured 

 the indigestion. This is not legitimate induc- 

 tion. The sequence may be accidental and not 

 causal. The headache may have been caused 

 by eating hot risen biscuit, by inhaling carbonic 

 oxide sent up from the furnace, by overwork, 

 or by loss of sleep ; or it may be the premoni- 

 tory symptom of a typhoid fever due to imper- 

 fect drainage. The indigestion may have been 

 cured by a ride on horseback, or by a walk on 

 a frosty morning, or by a piece of good news, 

 or by a rhythmical increase in the rate of nu- 

 trition for which no definite external cause is 

 assignable. It is the business of induction to 

 eliminate, as far as possible, all these coexistent 

 possible causes, so as to ascertain, after the elimi- 

 nation, whether the sequence between the pre- 

 sumed cause and the effect is invariable. If it 

 turns out to be so, and, still better, if by reason- 

 ing deductively from the experimentally ascer- 

 tained action of the coffee or the medicine upon 

 the organic tissues involved in the case, fur- 

 ther proof of the invariableness of the given 

 sequences can be obtained, — then we say that 

 we have detected a case of true causation. 

 When we have extended our inquiries in any 

 case so far as to be able to predicate invariable 

 sequence, then we predicate causation. 



A moment's reflection, however, will show 

 us that there are sequences which have been in- 



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