326 PART V. WORKING STAGE. 



SECTION XXIIL GENERALISATION. 



CONCLUSION 25. 



Need of Strenuous Mental Application in the Process of Generali- 

 sation, and need of the Generalisations being Graded, Com- 

 prehensive, Important, Numerous, Full, Rational and Relevant, 

 Original, Automatically Initiated, and Methodically Developed. 



163. Guided by Conclusion 20, we examine (1) the pre- 

 liminaries (Conclusions 1-13); we begin then (2) to determine 

 as precisely as possible the nature of the problem io be in- 

 vestigated (Conclusions 14-15); and (3) commence our observa- 

 tions (Conclusions 16-24). Having accomplished this, we embark 

 on the process of (4) generalisation. Just as we cautiously pass 

 from this fact as apprehended at this moment to the fact, so 

 we pass from the fact to the class which comprehends all most 

 closely resembling facts, and thence to remoter resemblances 

 and more extensive classes. By fact we mean, of course, any 

 and every kind of static and dynamic fact physical, vital, and 

 cultural. 



164. (a) INTENSE CONCENTRATION. In generalising, 

 as in observing and deducing, we need intently and continuously 

 to concentrate all our faculties and to shun both over-confidence 

 and over-anxiety. (See 154.) 



165. (b) GRADED GENERALISATIONS. The principles 

 of prudence applied to observation equally apply to what is 

 ordinarily termed generalisation. The formation of large generali- 

 sations based on slender data is hence as unjustifiable as state- 

 ments concerning individual facts based on scanty evidence. 

 Generalisations should be therefore graded, and investigators 

 should cautiously feel their way from class to class, seeing 

 that many generations of thinkers are frequently required for 

 developing a truly comprehensive and sound generalisation, as 

 is illustrated, for instance, by the evolution of astronomical 

 theory from Ptolemy to Copernicus and from Copernicus to 

 Laplace. In generalising, then, we should gradually pass from 

 closer to remoter resemblances, as from the falling of heavier 

 substances to the falling of lighter substances, to the falling of 

 the moon and the earth, and thence, progressively, to the 

 framing of the universal law of gravitation, forming in this 

 manner ever more extensive classes of facts. "The safest course, 

 when it can be followed, is to rise by inductions carried on 

 among laws, as among facts, from law to law; perceiving, as 

 k we go on, how laws which we have looked upon as unconnected 

 become particular cases, either one of the other, or all of one 

 still more general, and, at length, blend altogether in the point 

 of view from which we learn to regard them." (Sir John 

 Herschel, Discourse, [217.].) 



Where, as in the example which follows, the more general 

 facts are established, it is of incalculable advantage to rise from 



