282 



INDUCTION. 



ground for believing, that there is 

 in one human individual, one sex, or 

 one race of mankind over another an 

 inherent and inexplicable superiority 

 in mental faculties, could only sub- 

 stantiate their proposition by sub- 

 tracting from the differences of in- 

 tellect which we in fact see all that 

 can be traced by known laws either 

 to the ascertained differences of physi- 

 cal organisation, or to the differences 

 which have existed in the outward 

 circumstances in which the subjects 

 of the comparison have hitherto been 

 placed. What these causes might 

 fail to account for would constitute 

 a residual phenomenon, which, and 

 which alone, would be evidence of an 

 ulterior original distinction, and the 

 measure of its amount. But the as- 

 sertors of such supposed differences 

 have not provided themselves with 

 these necessary logical conditions of 

 the establishment of their doctrine. 



The spirit of the Method of Resi- 

 dues being, it is hoped, sufficiently 

 intelligible from these examples, and 

 the other three methods having al- 

 ready been so fully exemplified, we 

 may here close our exposition of the 

 four methods, considered as employed 

 in the investigation of the simpler and 

 more elementary order of the com- 

 binations of phenomena. 



§ 6. Dr. Whewell has expressed 

 a very unfavourable opinion of the 

 utility of the Four Methods, as well 

 as of the aptness of the examples by 

 which I have attempted to illustrate 

 them. His words are these : * — 



"Upon these methods the obvious 

 thing to remark is, that they take for 

 granted the very thing which is most 

 difficult to discover, the reduction of 

 the phenomena to formvdse such as 

 are here presented to us. When we 

 have any set of complex facts offered 

 to us, — for instance, those which were 

 offered in the cases of discovery which 

 I have mentioned, — the facts of the 

 planetary paths, of falling bodies, of 



* PhiUf9opli^ 0/ Discoveiii, pp. 263, 264. 



refracted rays, of cosmical motions, 

 of chemical analysis ; and when, in 

 any of these cases, we would discover 

 the law of nature which governs them, 

 or, if any one chooses so to term it, 

 the feature in which all the cases 

 agree, where are we to look for our 

 A, B, C, and a, 6, c? Nature does 

 not present to us the cases in this 

 form ; and how are we to reduce 

 them to this form? You say, when 

 we find the combination of A B C 

 with a b c and A B D with a b d, 

 then we may draw our inference. 

 Granted ; but when and where are 

 we to find such combinations ? Even 

 now that the discoveries are made, 

 who will point out to us what are the 

 A, B, C, and a, b, c, elements of the 

 cases which have just been enumer- 

 ated ? Who will tell us which of the 

 methods of inquiry those historically 

 real and successful inquiries exem- 

 plify ? Who will carry these formulae 

 through the history of the sciences, 

 as they have really grown up ; and 

 show us that these four methods have 

 been operative in their formation ; or 

 that any light is thrown upon the 

 steps of their progress by reference to 

 these formulae ? " 



He adds that, in this work, the 

 methods have not been applied "to 

 a large body of conspicuous and un- 

 doubted examples of discovery, ex- 

 tending along the whole history of 

 science ; " which ought to have been 

 done in order that the methods might 

 be shown to possess the "advantage" 

 (which he claims as belonging to his 

 own) of being those "by which all 

 great discoveries in science have really 

 been made " (p. 277). 



There is a striking similarity be- 

 tween the objections here m^de against 

 Canons of Induction, ana what was 

 alleged, in the last century, by as able 

 men as Dr. Whewell, against the ac- 

 knowledged Canon of Ratiocination. 

 Those who protested against the Aris- 

 totelian Logic said of the Syllogism, 

 what Dr. Whewell says of the In- 

 ductive Methods, that it "takes for 

 granted the very thing which is most 



