332 INDUCTION. 



CHAPTER XX. 



OF ANALOGY. 



§ 1. The word Analogy, as the name of a mode of reasoning, is gen- 

 erally taken for some kind of argument supposed to be of an inductive 

 nature, but not amounting to a complete induction. There is no 

 word, however, which is used more loosely, or in a greater variety of 

 senses than Analogy. It sometimes stands for arguments which may 

 be examples of the most rigid Induction. Archbishop Whately, for 

 instance, following Ferguson and other Mriters, defines Analogy con- 

 formably to its primitive acceptation, that which was given to it by 

 mathematicians, Resemblance of Relations. In this sense, when d 

 country which has sent out colonies is termed the mother countiy, the 

 expression is analogical, signifying that the colonies of a country stand 

 in the same relation to her in which children stand to their parents. 

 And if any inference be drawn from this resemblance of relations, as, 

 for instance, that the same obedience or affection is due from colonies 

 to the mother country which is due from children to a parent, this is 

 called reasoning by analogy. Or if it be argued that a nation is most 

 beneficially governed by an assembly elected by the people, from the 

 admitted fact that other associations for a common purpose, such as 

 joint stock companies, are best managed by a committee chosen by the 

 parties interested ; this is an argument from analogy in Archbishop 

 Whately's sense, because its foundation is not, that a nation is like a 

 joint stock company, or Parliament like a board of directors, but that 

 Parliament stands in the same relation to the nation in which a board 

 of directors stands to a joint stock company. Now, in an argument of 

 this nature, there is no inherent inferiority of conclusiveness. Like 

 other arguments from resemblance, it may amount to nothing, or it 

 may be a perfect and conclusive induction. The circumstance in which 

 the two cases resemble, may be capable of being shovra to be the 

 material circumstance ; to be that on which all the consequences, 

 necessary to be taken into account in the particular discussion, depend. 

 In the case in question, the resemblance is one of relation ; ihefunda- 

 mentmn relationis being the management, by a few persons, of affairs 

 in which a much greater number are interested along Avith them. 

 Now, some may contend that this circumstance which is common to 

 the two cases, and the various consequences which follow fi'om it, have 

 the chief share in determining all those effects which make up what we 

 term good or bad administration. If they can establish this, their 

 argument has the force of a rigid induction : if they cannot, they are 

 said to have failed in proving the analogy between the two cases ; a 

 mode of speech which implies that when the analogy can be proved, 

 the argument founded upon it cannot be resisted. 



§ 2. It is on the whole more usual, however, to extend the name of 

 analogical evidence to arguments from any sort of resemblance, pro- 

 vided they do not amount to a complete induction ; without peculiarly 

 distinguishing resemblance of relations. Analogical reasoning, in this 

 sense, may be reduced to the following formula : Two things resemble 



