IX 

 RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 



THE SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE OF MIND 



A^Y one who has not had a rigid training in science 

 may advantageously reflect at some length upon 

 the meaning of true scientific induction. Various il- 

 lustrations in our text are meant to convey the idea 

 that logical thinking consists simply in drawing cor- 

 rect conclusions as to the probable sequence of events 

 in nature. It will soon be evident to any one who 

 carefully considers the subject that we know very little 

 indeed about cause and effect in a rigid acceptance of 

 these words. We observe that certain phenomena al- 

 ways follow certain other phenomena, and these ob- 

 servations fix the idea in our mind that such phenomena 

 bear to one another the relation of effect and cause. 

 The conclusion is a perfectly valid one so long as we 

 remember that in the last analysis the words "cause" 

 and "effect" have scarcely greater force than the 

 terms "invariable antecedent" and "invariable con- 

 sequent" that is to say, they express an observed 

 sequence which our experience has never contra- 

 dicted. 



Now the whole structure of science would be hope- 

 lessly undermined had not scientific men come to have 

 the fullest confidence in the invariability of certain of 



230 



