FtJNCTIONS AKD VALtJE OF THE SYLLOGISM. 



123 



form into which we choose to throw 

 it can make greater than it is : and 

 since that evidence is either sufficient 

 in itself, or, if insufficient for the one 

 purpose, cannot be sufiicient for the 

 other ; I am unable to see why we 

 should be forbidden to take the short- 

 est cut from these sufficient premises 

 to the conclusion, and constrained to 

 travel the " high priori road," by the 

 arbitrary fiat of logicians. I cannot 

 perceive why it should be impossible 

 to journey from one place to another 

 unless we " march up a hill, and then 

 march down again." It may be the 

 safest road, and there may be a rest- 

 ing-place at the top of the hill, 

 affording a commanding view of the 

 surrounding country ; but for the 

 mere purpose of arriving at our 

 journey's end, our taking that road is 

 perfectly optional ; it is a question of 

 time, trouble, and danger. 



Not only may we reas«m from par- 

 ticulars to particulars without passing 

 through generals, but we perpetually 

 do so reason. All our earliest infer- 

 ences are of this nature. From the 

 first dawn of intelligence we draw in- 

 ferences, but years elapse before we 

 learn the use of general language. 

 The child who, having burnt his 

 fingers, avoids to thrust them again 

 into the fire, has reasoned or inferred, 

 though he has never thought of the 

 general maxim. Fire burns. He 

 knows from memory that he has been 

 burnt, and on this evidence believes, 

 when he sees a candle, that if he puts 

 his finger into the flame of it, he will 

 be burnt again. He believes this in 

 every case which happens to arise ; 

 but without looking, in each instance, 

 beyond the present case. He is not 

 generalising ; he is inferring a par- 

 ticular from particulars. In the same 

 way, also, brutes reason. There is 

 no ground for attributing to any of 

 the lower animals the use of signs of 

 such a nature as to render general 

 propositions possible. But those ani- 

 mals profit by experience, and avoid 

 what they have found to cause them 

 pain, in the same manner, though not 



always with the same skill, as a human 

 creature. Not only the burnt child, 

 but the burnt dog, dreads the fire. 



I believe that, in point of fact, when 

 drawing inferences from our personal 

 experience, and not from maxims 

 handed down to us by books or tra- 

 dition, we much oftener conclude from 

 particulars to particulars directly, 

 than through the intermediate agency 

 of any general proposition. We are 

 constantly reasoning from ourselves 

 to other people, or from one person to 

 another, without giving ourselves the 

 trouble to erect our observations into 

 general maxims of human or external 

 nature. "When we conclude that some 

 person will, on some given occasion, 

 feel or act so and so, we sometimes 

 judge from an enlarged consideration 

 of the manner in which human beings 

 in general, or persons of some particu- 

 lar character, are accustomed to feel 

 and act ; but much oftener from 

 merely recollecting the feelings and 

 conduct of the same person in some 

 previous instance, or from considering 

 how we should feel or act ourselves. 

 It is not only the village matron, whQ 

 when called to a consultation upon 

 the case of a neighbour's child, pro- 

 nounces on the evil and its remedy 

 simply on the recollection and autho- 

 rity of what she accounts the similar 

 case of her Lucy. We all, where we 

 have no definite maxims to steer by, 

 guide ourselves in the same way ; and 

 if we have an extensive experience, 

 and retain its impressions strongly, 

 we may acquire in this manner a very 

 considerable power of accurate judg- 

 ment, which we may be utterly incap- 

 able of justifying or of communicating 

 to others. Among the higher order 

 of practical intellects there have been 

 many of whom it was remarked how 

 admirably they suited their means to 

 their ends, without being able to give 

 any sufficient reasons for what they 

 did ; and applied, or seemed to apply, 

 recondite principles which they were 

 wholly unable to state. This is a 

 natural consequence of having a mind 

 stored with appropriate particulars, 



