LAPLACE. 503 



94^5. The next section is entitled, Des divers moi/ens d'ap- 

 l^rocher de la certitude; it occupies six pages. Laplace says, 



L'inductioii, Tanalogie, des hypotheses fondees siir les faits et recti- 

 fiees sans cesse par de nouvelles observations, un tact heureux donne 

 par la nature et fortifie par des comparaisons nonibreuses de ses indi- 

 cations avec I'experience; tels sont les priucipaux moyens de parvenir 

 a la verite. 



A paragraph beginning on page cxxix. with the words Kous 

 jugeons is new in the third edition, and so are the last four lines 

 of page cxxxii. Laplace cites Bacon as having made a strange 

 abuse of induction to demonstrate the immobility of the earth. 

 Laplace says of Bacon, 



II a donne pour la recherche de la verite, le precepte et non I'ex- 

 emple. Mais en insistant avec toute la force de la raison et de I'elo- 

 quence, sur la necessite d'abandonner les subtilites insignifiantes de 

 I'ecole, pour se livrer aux observations et aux experiences, et en indi- 

 quant la vraie niethode de s'elever aux causes general es des phenomenes; 

 ce grand philosophe a contribue aux progres immenses que I'esprit 

 humain a faits dans le beau siecle ou il a terniine sa carriere. 



Some of Laplace's remarks on Analogy are quoted with ap- 

 probation by Dugald Stewart; see his Works edited hy Hamilton^ 

 Vol. IV. page 290. 



946. The last section of the introduction is entitled. Notice 

 historique sur le Calcid des Prohabilites ; this is brief but very 

 good. The passage extending from the middle of page cxxxix. 

 to the end of page CXLI. is new in the third edition; it relates 

 principally to Laplace's development in his first supplement of 

 his theory of errors. Laplace closes this passage with a reference 

 to the humble origin of the subject he had so much advanced; he 

 says it is remarkable that a science which began with the consi- 

 deration of games should have raised itself to the most important 

 objects of human knowledge. 



A brief sketch of the plan of the Theorie...des Proh., which 

 appeared on the last page of the introduction in the second edi- 

 tion, is not repeated in the third edition. 



947. The words in which at the end of the introduction La- 



