WAYS OF NATURE 



ferring the deductive method of reasoning to the 

 more modem and more scientific inductive method ? 

 But I doubt if the inductive method would avail 

 one in trying to prove that the old cow really jumped 

 over the moon. We do deny certain things upon 

 general principles, and affirm others. I do not 

 beUeve that a rooster ever laid an egg, or that a 

 male tiger ever gave milk. If your alleged fact con- 

 tradicts fundamental principles, I shall beware of 

 it; if it contradicts universal experience, I shall 

 probe it thoroughly. A college professor wrote me 

 that he had seen a crow blackbird catch a small 

 fish and fly away with it in its beak. Now I have 

 never seen anything of the kind, but I know of no 

 principle upon which I should feel disposed to 

 question the truth of such an assertion. I have 

 myself seen a crow blackbird kill an English spar- 

 row. Both proceedings I think are very unusual, 

 but neither is antecedently improbable. If the pro- 

 fessor had said that he saw the blackbird dive head 

 first into the water for the fish, after the manner of 

 the kingfisher, I should have been very skeptical. 

 He only saw the bird rise up from the edge of the 

 water with the wriggling fish in its mouth. It had 

 doubtless seized it in shallow water near the shore. 

 But I should discredit upon general principles the 

 statement of the woman who related with much de- 

 tail how she and her whole family had seen a pair 

 "of small brown birds" carry their half -fledged 

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