HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



525 



go hand in hand, and ought to be carried on at 

 the fame time, more efpecially if the matter is 

 very complicated, for there the clue of theory is 

 necefTary to direct the obferver. Though a man 

 may begin to obferve without any hypotheiis, he 



cannot continue long without feeing fpme 



ge- 



neral conclulion arife , and to this nafcent theo- 

 ry it is his bufinefs to attend, becaufe, by feek- 

 ing either to verify or to difprove it, he is ]ed 

 to new experiments, or new obfervations. 



He 



is led alfo to the very experiments and obferva- 

 tions that are of the greateft importance, namely, 

 to thofe injlantice crucis, which are the criteria 

 that naturally prefbnt themfelves for the trial of 

 every hypothefis. He is conduced to the places 

 where the tranlitions of nature are moft percepti- 

 ble, and where the ab fence of former, or the pre- 

 fence of new circumflanccs, excludes the adion of 

 imaginary caufes. ^y this corredion of his firil 

 opinion, a new approximation is 



made to the 



truth 5 and by the repetition of the fame procefs, 

 certainty is finally obtained. Thus theory and 

 obfervation mutually affift one another ; and the 



fpirit of fyftem, againll which there 





re fo ma 



ny and fuch juft complaints, appears, nevcrthe- 

 lefs, as the animating principle of indudive 



m- 



vefligation. The bufinefs of found philofophy is 

 not to extinguifli this fiiirit, but to retrain and 

 dired its efforts. 



/ 



458. It 



