RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT 



day education. Some day every one will understand 

 that there is no valid distinction between the natural 

 and the supernatural; in fact, that no such thing as a 

 supernatural phenomenon, in the present-day accept- 

 ance of the word, can conceivably exist. 



All conceivable manifestations of nature are natural, 

 nor can we doubt that all are reducible to law that is 

 to say, that they can be classified and reduced to sys- 

 tems. But the scientific imagination, as^ already 

 pointed out, must admit that any and every scientific 

 law of our present epoch may be negatived in some 

 future epoch. It is always possible, also, that a seem- 

 ing law of to-day may be proved false to-morrow, which 

 is another way of saying that man's classification im- 

 proves from generation to generation. For a " natural 

 law," let it be repeated, is not nature's method, but 

 man's interpretation of that method. 



LOGICAL INDUCTION VERSUS HASTY GENERALIZATION 



A great difficulty is found in the fact that men are 

 forever making generalizations that is, formulating 

 laws too hastily. A few phenomena are observed and 

 at once the hypothesis-constructing mind makes a 

 guess as to the proximal causes of these phenomena. 

 The guess, once formulated and accepted, has a certain 

 influence in prejudicing the minds of future observers ; 

 indeed, where the phenomena involve obscure princi- 

 ples the true explanation of which is long deferred, a 

 false generalization may impress itself upon mankind 

 with such force as to remain a stumbling-block for an 

 indefinite period. Thus the Ptolemaic conception of 

 the universe dominated the thought of Europe for a 



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