GROUNDS OF DISBELIEF. 



411 



principally that the marvellous stories 

 related by travellers are apt to be at 

 variance, as of men with tails or with 

 wings, and (until confirmed by experi- 

 ence) of flying fish ; or of ice, in the 

 celebrated anecdote of the Dutch tra- 

 vellers and the king of Siam. Facts 

 of this description, facts previously 

 unheard of, but which could not from 

 any known law of causation be pro- 

 nounced impossible, are what Hume 

 characterises as not contrary to ex- 

 perience, but merely imconformable 

 to it ; and Bentham, in his treatise 

 on Evidence, denominates them facts 

 disconforniable m specie, as distin- 

 guished from such as are disconform- 

 able in toto or in degree. 



In a case of this description, the 

 fact asserted is the existence of a new 

 Kind, which in itself is not in the 

 slightest degree incredible, and only 

 to be rejected if the improbability 

 that any variety of object existing at 

 the particular place and time should 

 not have been discovered s<x)ner, be 

 greater than that of error or men- 

 dacity in the witnesses. Accordingly, 

 such assertions, when made by cre- 

 dible persons, and of unexplored places, 

 are not disbelieved, but at most re- 

 garded as requiring confirmation from 

 subsequent observers ; unless the al- 

 leged properties of the supposed new 

 Kind are at variance with known pro- 

 perties of some larger kind which in- 

 cludes it ; or, in other words, unless, 

 in the new Kind which is asserted to 

 exist, some properties are said to have 

 been found disjoined from others which 

 have always been known to accom- 

 pany them ; as in the case of t*liny's 

 men, or any other kind of animal of 

 a structure different from that which 

 has always been found to co-exist 

 with animal life. On the mode of 

 dealing with any such case, little 

 needs be added to what has been 

 said on the same topic in the twenty- 

 second chapter. * When the uni- 

 formities of co-existence which the 

 alleged fact would violate are such 

 as to raise a strong presumption of 

 » Supra, pp. 383» 384- 



their being the result of cauBation, 

 the fact which conflicts with them 

 is to be disbelieved, at least pro- 

 visionally, and subject to further in- 

 vestigation. When the presumption 

 amounts to a virtual certainty, as in 

 the case of the general structure of 

 organised beings, the only question 

 requiring consideration is whether, 

 in phenomena so little understood, 

 there may not be liabilities to coun- 

 teraction from causes hitherto un- 

 known ; or whether the phenomena 

 may not be capable of originating in 

 some other way, which would pro- 

 duce a different set of derivative uni- 

 formities. Where (as in the case of 

 the flying-fish, or the omithorhyn- 

 chus) the generalisation to which the 

 alleged fact would be an exception 

 is very special and of limited range, 

 neither of the above suppositions can 

 be deemed very improbable ; and it is 

 generally, in the case of such alleged 

 anomalies, wise to suspend our judg- 

 ment, pending the subsequent in- 

 quiries, which will not fail to confirm 

 the assertion if it be true. But when 

 the generalisation is very comprehen- 

 sive, embracing a vast number and 

 variety of observations, and covering 

 a considerable province of the domain 

 of nature, then, for reasons which 

 have been fully explained, such an 

 empirical law comes near to the cer- 

 tainty of an ascertained law of causa- 

 tion, and any alleged exception to it 

 cannot be admitted, unless on the evi- 

 dence of some law of causation proved 

 by a still more complete induction. 



Such uniformities in the course of 

 nature as do not bear marks of being 

 the results of causation, are, as we 

 have already seen, admissible as uni- 

 versal truths with a degree of cre- 

 dence proportioned to their generality. 

 Those which are true of all things 

 whatever, or at least which are totally 

 independent of the varieties of Kinds, 

 namely, the laws of number and ex- 

 tension, to which we may add the law 

 cf causation itself, are probably the 

 only ones, an exception to which is 

 absolutely and permanently incre- 



