413 OPERATIONS SUBSIDIARY TO INDUCTION. 



There s scarcely anything which can materially retard the arrival 

 of this salutax-y reaction, except the shallow conceptions and incautious 

 proceedings of mere logicians. It sometimes happens that towards 

 the close of the downward period, when the words have lost part of 

 'their significance and have not yet begun to recover it, persons arise 

 whose leading and favorite idea is the importance of clear conceptions 

 and precise thought, and the necessity, therefore, of definite language. 

 These persons, in examining the old formulas, easily perceive that 

 words are used in them without a meaning ; and if they are not the 

 sort of persons who are capable of rediscovering the lost signification, 

 they natui^ally enough dismiss the foraiula, and define the name 

 without any reference to it. In so doing they fasten down the name 

 to what it connotes in common use at the time when it conveys the 

 smallest quantity of meaning ; and introduce the practice of employing 

 it, consistently and uniformly^ according to that connotation. The 

 word in this way acquires an extent of denotation far beyond what it 

 had before; it becomes extended to many things to which it was 

 previously, in appearance capriciously, refused. Of the propositions 

 in which it was fonnerly used, those which were true in virtue of the 

 forgotten part of its meaning are now, by the clearer light which the 

 definition diffuses, seen not to be true according to the definition; 

 which, however, is the recognized and sufficiently correct expression 

 of all that is perceived to be in the mind of any one by whom the term 

 is used at the present day. The ancient formulas are consequently 

 treated as prejudices ; and people are no longer taught, as before, 

 though not to understand them, yet to believe that there is truth in 

 them. They no longer remain in men's minds suiTOunded by respect, 

 and ready at any time to suggest their original meaning. The truths 

 which they convey are not only, under these circumstances, redis- 

 covered far more slowly, but, when rediscovered, the prejudice with 

 which novelties are regarded is now, in some degree at least, against 

 them, instead of being on their side. 



An example may make these remarks more intelligible. In all ages, 

 except where moral speculation has been silenced by outward compul- 

 sion, or where the feelings which prompt to it have received full satis- 

 faction from an established faith unhesitatingly acquiesced in, one of 

 the subjects which have most occupied the minds of thinking men is 

 the inquiry. What is virtue 1 or. What is a virtuous character ] Among 

 the diffej-ent theories on the subject which have, at different times, 

 grown up and obtained currency, every one of which reflected as in 

 the clearest miiTor the express image of the age which gave it birth; 

 there was one, brought forth by the latter half of the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, according to which virtue consisted in a correct calculation of our 

 own personal interests, either in this world only, or also in the next. 

 There probably had been no era in history, except the declining period 

 of the Roman empire, in whicli this theory could have grov\ai up and 

 made many converts. It could only have originated in an age essen- 

 tially unheroic. It was a condition of the existence of such a theory, 

 that the only beneficial actions which people in general were much 

 accustomed to see, or were therefore much accustomed to praise, should 

 be such as were, or at least might without contradicting obvious facts 

 be supposed to be, the result of the motive above characterized. 

 Hence the words really connoted no more in common acceptation, 



