84 Chauncey Wright. [vr. 



slightly, in his philosophic attitude by such a con- 

 sideration of utility. His opinions were determined 

 only by direct evidence, and to this he always 

 accorded a hospitable reception. A mind more 

 placid in its working, more unalloyed by emotional 

 prejudice, or less solicited by the various temptations 

 of speculation, I have never known. Judicial candour 

 and rectitude of inference were with him inborn. 

 On many points his judgment might need further 

 enlightenment, but it stood in no need of a rectify- 

 ing impulse. No craving for speculative consistency, 

 or what Comte would have called " unity " of doc- 

 trine, ever hindered him from giving due weight to 

 opposing, or even seemingly incompatible, considera- 

 tions. For, in view of the largeness and complexity 

 of the universe, he realised how treacherous the most 

 plausible generalisations are liable to prove when a 

 vast area of facts is to be covered, and how great iis 

 the value of seemingly incongruous facts in prompt- 

 ing us to revise or amend our first-formed theories. 

 With these mental characteristics Mr. Wright seems 

 to have been fitted for the work of sceptical criticism, 

 or for the discovery and illustration of specific truths, 

 rather than for the elaboration of a general system of 

 philosophy. As our very sources of mental strength 

 in one direction may become sources of mental weak- 



