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    conclude that the tide has ebbed and left the weed where I perceive it lying . " He remarks that for such inferences one condition is always necessary— "The seamen must have been acquainted with a similar case or similar cases . " In examples such as the above the conclusions are particular inferences j but from analogous premises general or universal conclusions may equally be inferred , e . g .: — " Collective Fact . " A . 11 men , as far as observation lias extended , have been found fallible . " Universal law : " Particular inference : " Therefore all men are " Therefore the man fallible . Peter is fallible . "

    Here the particular inference is not logically subsequent to the universal law . Both axe probable inferences , for which the real evidence is the same . Great confusion , it is remarked , has arisen from not distinguishing between the " collective fact , " which is simply a summary of the evidence and the general or universal law inferred , which goes beyond the evidence . Furthermore , from every act of reasoning some general principle may thus be educed , which may be called the principle of the reasoning . In the present instance the principle of the reasoning is , that " similar events or phenomena take place in similar cases . " Hence the chief cases of similarity being those of accusation , the two main subordinate

    principles in contingent reasoning may be stated to be " like causes produce like effects , and like effects proceed from like causes . " The drawing out and formal statement of the general principle implied in , or educible from the argument , is of no avail in strengthening the force of the argument , although the contrary has been frequently assumed , and even expressly asserted . With reference to the general principle of con--fTngent reasoning , viz ., that similar events take place in similar cases , Mr . Bailey remarks that it was the opinion of Hume that such inferences as it warrants are truly drawn , but by some unknown medium or chain of reasoning . And he adds : — "If an inference is unavoidably and justly drawn , no medium or chain of reasoning is needed to enable us to draw it . Drawing an inference is reasoning , and between the inference and the fact from which it is drawn , nothing can , in the nature of the case , be interposed . " And a little further on he says : — " Reid , Dugald Stewart , and Thomas Brown , do not follow Hume in his demand for a medium , but they unite with him in declaring that inferences of the kind in question are not drawn by reasoning . If we construe this declaration literally , it amounts in fact to saying that ivc do not reason by reasoning , which may be true , but is at all events nugatory . We cannot with any propriety be said to do an act by the act itself ; but who would think of making the assertion ?" The truth is , as Mr . Bailey ' s subsequent remarks really imply , that Reid , Dugald Stewart , and Brown here used the term reasoning in a more restricted sense than lie has done . They meant by it demonstrative or deductive reasoning—that which consists in perceiving that one fact is necessarily involved in another , or in drawing from a given fact some other which is thus necessarily involved in it . They spoke , indeed , of other kinds of inference as probable reasoning ' , experimental reasoning , &c . ; but in no doiri £ , they did not intend to imply that they were a particular species of demonstrative rew soninq ; but used the terms by way of analogy ; the ground of that analogy , probably , being the circumstances that the same forms , the same illative and causal conjunctions , therefore , because , &c , aro employed in the expression of these processes an in the expression of demonstrative inference . Demonstrative reasoning , in Mr . Bailey ' s account , includes other forms than mathematical and syllogistic or " class reasoning , * ' e . g . : — •' That portrait in a striking likeiuaB of two different peiHons ; therefore , they inuBt readable each other . " In every example of demonstrative inference , some axiom or universal necessary truth is exemplified Aristotle ' s dictum " d « omni et nullo" is one such axiom , the Hell-evident truths of geometry aro others . Tlio tfcnerul axiom involved in the preceding example would , in accordance with Mr . Bailey ' H views , he : —If a given thing is like , in the same nenae of likeneHH , to two other things , those thing" are like to each other . With reference to the objection against the utility of the dictum " de omni /* ike , \\ v .., that the major preminseB not " only impluu , but contains the conalueion * " Mr , Bailey thinks that it * application i « not loa « on ihif account an example of inference .

    One important consequence flowing from the above doctrine is , that many arguments which are demonstrative in form , are contingent in reality : — "Mydoctrine is , that all such reasoning as consists in inferring unobserved facts from general propositions , although strictly demonstrative in form , is in reality contingent , and that it is represented by the formula . " All other men have been found fallible . ** Therefore , this man ( whose fallibility has never been observed ) is fallible . "

    In other words , the interposition of the universal premiss , which is itself deduced by contingent reasoning from the facts of observation , and between those facts and the particular inference , does not change the character of the reasoning ; and , indeed , forms no essential point of it , although often recommended by convenience . This doctrine , which is chiefly valuable as a protest against the extravagant pretensions of the logic of the schools , is set forth by Mr . Bailey with great force of argument and much felicity of illustration .

    The general reader will , perhaps , find more to interest him in the chapters on " Observation and Induction , " and on " The Sources of Erroneous Conclusions , " than in those we have examined , which are necessarily to some extent occupied with technical discussions . The Appendix , containing examples of applied logic of the Analysis of Trains of Reasoning , &c , will fully repay attention . In closing our task , it remains to say a few words upon the general doctrine , of which we have endeavoured to present a brief summary . We

    agree with Mr . Bailey in thinking that m every step of reasoning , however limited to particular instances or individuals its conclusion may be , some general principle is exemplified . We assent , also , to his statement of the principle concerned in contingent or probable reasoning ( under which head might properly be included the logic of analogy ) , and we entirely accept his view that demonstrative reasoning is not confined to the syllogism ; and that the dictum de omni et nullo is not the universal principle of reasoning , nor even of the syllogism itself . We hold too , with him , that the formal

    statement of axioms in demonstrative reasoning , as well as of universal premisses collected from particular facts , and serving for particular inference , in contingent reasoning , does not add to the cogency of proof , or , indeed , form any essential part of the process of reasoning . We conceive , however , that Mr . Bailey has not sufficiently apprehended the peculiar , and perhaps central , relation which " class reasoning " occupies among all other forms of reasoning , whether demonstrative or probable . For , although there are a multitude of perfectly correct arguments , in which class reasoning is not really employed , yet there are none which cannot , granting the statement of axioms or of inductive laws , be reduced

    to an application of class reasoning . We admit that they thereby gain nothing in cogency , nay , that they often lose in convenience . Still , ihe fact we noticed seems to us to constitute a remarkable and distinctive feature of " classreasoning , " and one which gives to it a speculative or scientific interest altogether independent of its practical importance . As in the constitution of the external world we behold the constant inclusion of individuals in classes , the constant subordination of particular facts to general laws , so in the constitution of the mind , as developed in the phenomena of class reasoning , we discern a clear adaptation to this outward condition of things in which it is placed .

    Whether the theory of class reasoning has aaaumed , or is likely to assume , a scientific form , is a question into which we have not space to enter . Different writers appear to have entertained different views upon the mode of attaining thin consummation . Sir W . Hamilton has endeavoured to lay down the one universal canon of syllogism . Mr . De Morgan has introduced the principle of numerical definition , and has drawn from it incomparably the most complete list of the allowable forms of syllogism that has yet been given to the

    world . We cannot , while grateful to these eminent names , conceal our conviction that there exists Nome prior ground of law in which the ultimate foundations of the possible science must repose . Such a supposition ( Joes not entail the consequence that the mind , like external nature , is subjected to the condition of an unchangeable necessity . In the outward world of necessity , indeed , it is the oflics of Jaw to indicate that which muat be . In the inner world of freedom it m * y b » its orflos to prescribe that which ought to be .

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    BOOKS ON OUR TABLE . Half-Hours of English History . Selected and Illustrated by Charles Knight . C . Knight . The first part of a new undertaking suggested by the immense suceess of the Hmlf ^ Eours with the Beat Authors . The glimpses of English history here given are culled from various sourcea- —historical and poetical—from Dion Caasius , the Venerable Bede , Shakespare , Beaumont and Fletcher , Palgrave , Guiaot , Joanna Baillie , Sheridan Knowles , and Wordsworth . How to see the Exhibition in Four Visits . By "W . Blanchard Jerrold . Visit First : The Transept , Nave , and 8 outh-Western Section of the British Department . Bradbury and Evans . Everyone who has been to the Exhibition remembers to have seen crowds of people with catalogues in their hands , and scarcely a soul consulting them . In fact , the catalogues , though indispensable , are not for immediate use while traversing the building . To supply a handbook which shall really explain in the briefest possible terms all that you would seek for in the catalogue during your visit , Mr . Blanohard Jerrold has given us the present little work . It has another merit : it gives something like a practicable and coherent plan for seeing every thing in four visits . It is to be used in the building , or to refresh the memory after a visit . Portable in size , and cheap in price , it must be successful . The Comic History of Rome . By the Author of the Comic History of England Illustrated by John Leech . Part II . Bradbury and Evans . The second number of this elaborate joke is even more laughable than the first . The way in which almost every sentence is made to yield its fun is surprising— e . g ., " Though Brutus assumed the look of an idiot , and generally had his eye on vacancy , it was only to conceal the fact that a vacancy on the throne was what he really had his eye upon . " The whole number runs on in this strain . A Little Earnest Book upon a Great Old Subject . By William Wilson , author of a " House for Shakspeare . " Darton and Co . Desultory but agreeable remarks on poetry , poets , and things poetical , interspersed with verses , and illustrated by Alfred Crowquil . It is rather the jottings down of a reflective mind than a work of any coherent purpose . The Heir of Wast Wayland . A Tale . By Mary Howitt . ( Parlour Library . ) ' Bimms and M'Intire . Messrs . Simms and M'Intyre , not content with having started the bold undertaking of the •« Parlour Library , " have been encouraged by success , so far as to produce several new and original novels at the same cheap rate . The novel before us might have formed an attractive three volumes , yet it is published at a shilling . Mary Howitt has here painted Yorkshire life with an agreeable pencil , and told a simple story , simply . There is nothing peculiarly novel in the story or in its incidents ; but the mise en scene speaks of actual experience , and gives U 8 glimpses into conditions of life which have all the charm of freshness , and thua the Heir of Wast Wayland becomes a pleasant railway companion , or will occupy an evening ' s leisure by the sea-side .

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    Familiar Letters on Chemistry in its Relation to Physiology , Dietetics , Agriculture , Commerce , and Poliiical Economy . Uy Justus Non Liebeg . Taylor , Walton , and Maberly . An Introduction to Geology , and its Associate Sciences , Mineralogy , fossil Botany and Couchology , and Pabacontology . By the late O . K . Richardson . A new edition , revised and enlarged . By Thomas Wright , M . D . H . G . Bohn . Lecturea on Political Economy . By Francis William Newman . J . Chapman The Daltons ; or , Three Roads in Life . By CharleB Lever . Chapman and Hall . General History of the Christian Religion and Church . Translated from the German of Dr . Augustus Meander . By Joseph Torrey . Vol . 111 . H . G . Bohn . The Fasti , Tristia , Pontici , Kpistles , Ibis , and Halicuticon of O * id . Uy Henry T . Riley , B . A . H . O . Bohn . Tho Dootrino of the Trinity a Doctrine not of Divine Origin ; ami the Duty of ChrUtun Men in lUUUou thereto . By ( . »• 8 . Hawthorne . AI . IX E . T , Whitfleld . St . Giles and 8 t . Jamca . Collected edition of the writing * of Douglas Jerrold . Part 6 . Briulbury and Evans . Liuihinl ' ij Handbook ( iuide to London . J . Limbird . lluiry- ( Jra |) hrt ; or , Sketches of Scenery , Celebrities , and Society , taken from Life . Uy N . Parker Willis . H . U . Bohn . The Ilouuo of the Seven Qable « . A Romance . \\ y N . Hawthorne . H . O . Bohn . On the Reformation of Society , and How all Classes way contribute to it . A Lecture . Uy the Reverend Profevsor Muurico , M . A . J- Tupling . A World Kmhrunlng Faith ; or Ueligioim Whispers from tho Exhibition of Industry . Uy Kdward Higfginvoii . fc . T . Whitftold . Timethrifi ; or AH Houra turned to ( Jood Account . Conducted by i \ Irn . Wurreu . Lonffmau , Drown , and Co . The Looker-on ; a Record of the Liturury , Artintic . mid Kciontilic World . Part I . Hull , Virtue , and Co . Fuiif . 'iur Thing * . A CyclopuidU of Kiitortainiug Kuowledgo _ Md . O . Hall , Vutue , and Co Knight * * CyolopmdU of London . Part 7 . C . Knight . Knight ' * Cycloputdia of Industry . Part 1 . C . Knight . Knight ' * Piotorlal Shaktipdaro ( Uainlet ) . O . Knight . Pictorial Half-Mourn . Part IS . C . Knight . Chupmuii ' t * Penny Map . 1 ' nrt . U . < lb . ft . pinftn » nd U * HTlui Inlliute ltupuUlic ; » Spiritual Involution . Uy Williwi North . | l , Q . Chute wnd OPooniH . lly Gcorgf * M « rt > dtth . J . W . lW « r . The Kanctury of f 5 pirUiii » U « m ; a Study p' thq Human Houl , « . " <' of the Relations with the T 7 nlver » e , through Ck ) mn » mb 4 "siri ndKcstftcv . By L . A . O « fthagn « t . G «* i « O Fierce .

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    562 « fle fUafren [ Satohday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 14, 1851, page 562, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1887/page/14/