i'ALLACIES OF SIMPLK INSPECTIOX. 



491 



tuns est they said vixit ; nnJ "be the 

 event fortunate or otherwise,^' instead 

 of adverse. The name Malcventum, 

 «)f which Sahnasius so sagaciously de- 

 tected the Thessalian origin (MaXdeis, 

 MaXoeVros, ) they changed into the 

 liighly propitious denomination Bene- 

 ventum ; Egesta into Segesta ; and 

 Epidamnus, a name so interesting in 

 its associations to the reader of Thu- 

 cydides, they exchanged for Dyrrha- 

 chium, to escape the perils of a word 

 suggestive of damnum or detriment. 



"If an hare cross the highway," 

 says Sir Thomas Browne,* "there are 

 few above threescore that are n(jt 

 perplexed thereat ; which notwitli- 

 standing is but an augurial terror, 

 according to that received expres- 

 sion, Inuuspicatiuii dat iter ohlatus 

 lepus. And the ground of the conceit 

 was probably no greater than this, 

 that a fearful animal passing by us 

 portended unto us something to be 

 feared ; as upon the like considera- 

 tion the meeting of a fox presaged 

 some future imposture." Such super- 

 stitions as these last must be the 

 result of study ; they are too recon- 

 dite for natural or spontaneous growth. 

 But when the attempt was once made 

 to construct a science of predictions, 

 any association, though ever so faint 

 or remote, by which an object could 

 be connected, in however far fetched 

 a manner, with ideas either of pros- 

 perity or of danger and misfortune, 

 was enough to determine its being- 

 classed among good or evil omens. 



An example of rather a different 

 kind from any of these, but falling 

 under the same principle, is the famous 

 attempt, on which so much labour and 

 ingenuity were expended by the al- 

 chemists, to make gold pq^able. Th^ 

 motive to this was a conceit that 

 potable gold could be no other than 

 the universal medicine : and why 

 gold ? Because it was so precious. 

 It must have all marvellous properties 

 as a physical substance, because the 

 mind was already accustomed to mar- 

 vel at it. 



* Vulgar Errors, book v. chap. 21. 



From a similar feeling, "every 

 substance," says Dr. Paris,* "whose 

 origin is involved in mystery, has at 

 different times been eagerly applied 

 to the purposes of medicine. Not 

 long since, one of those showers which 

 are now known to consist of the ex- 

 crements of insects fell in the north 

 of Italy ; the inhabitants regarded it 

 as manna, or some supernatural pana- 

 cea, and they swallowed it with such 

 avidity, that it was only by extreme 

 address that a small quantity was 

 obtained for a chemical examination." 

 The superstition, in this instance, 

 though doubtless partly of a religious 

 character, probably in part also arose 

 from the prejudice that a wonderful 

 thing m\ist of course have wonderful 

 properties. 



§ 3. The instances of a 2^riorl fal- 

 lacy w^hich we have hitherto cited 

 belong to the class of vulgar errors, 

 and do not now, nor in any but a 

 rude age ever could, impose upon 

 minds of any considerable attain- 

 ments. But those to which we are 

 about to proceed have been, and still 

 are, all but universally prevalent 

 among thinkers. The same disposi- 

 tion to give objectivity to a law of 

 the mind — to suppose that what is 

 true of our ideas of things must be 

 true of the things themselves — ex- 

 hibits itself in many of the most ac- 

 credited modes of philosophical in- 

 vestigation, both on physical and on 

 metaphysical subjects. In one of its 

 most undisguised manifestations it 

 embodies itself in two maxims, which 

 lay claim to axiomatic truth : Things 

 which we cannot think of together 

 cannot co-exisf; and Things which 

 we cannot help thinking of together 

 must CO- exist. I am not sure that 

 the maxims were ever expressed in 

 these precise words, but the history 

 both of philosophy and of popular 

 opinions abounds with exemplifica- 

 tions of both forms of the doctrine. 



To begin with the latter of them : 



* Pharmacologia, Historical Introduc- 

 tion, p. 16. 



