General Methods 69 



nency or constancy of natural law is assumed. Con- 

 sequently, from an examination of a large number 

 (not all) of particulars, the truth of the general is 

 assumed; as, what is true of many of a kind is prob- 

 ably true of all. Thus, if after examining a large 

 number of horses we find they have incisors in both 

 jaws, we infer that all horses have incisors in both 

 jaws. The truth of this inference depends on the 

 constancy of the natural law. Should that constancy 

 fail, our inference would be erroneous. 



There is, too, what may be called (a) conscious, 

 (b) unconscious induction. It is very probable that 

 many of our general ideas appear in consciousness 

 as a result of sense experience and subconscious 

 cerebrations, with no conscious effort, on our part, 

 to form such ideas. This is doubtless true in the 

 earliest years of child-life. Manifestly such uncon- 

 scious induction is subject to such errors as result 

 from unguided activity. Thus, subjective states often 

 influence the physiological activities of the senses, 

 as in hallucinations; and, as when a child sees ghosts/* 

 People are sometimes said to see what they want to 

 see, i. e., the sense-organs may be affected by the 

 states of consciousness, making the testimony of the 

 senses unreliable; hence, carelessness, prejudice, pre- 

 conceived notions, over- enthusiasm, indifference, and, 

 above all, slovenliness, are liable to vitiate results. 



Conscious induction may, perhaps, be best described 

 as inference from material of knowledge, gained through 

 the senses, under the control of the will. Manifestly 

 such conscious induction must follow the unconscious 

 induction, and is, perhaps, only possible after general 

 ideas have arisen by the unconscious processes. Con- 

 scious induction may, therefore, be partly a voluntary 

 application of the senses for the purpose of proving or 

 disproving the correctness of our general conceptions 

 gained through unconscious induction. 



