It  is  the  attainment  of  this  kind  of  certainty
which  is  regulated  by  the  various  methods  that  have
come  in  since  the  time  of  i3acon,  and  which  have
been  elaborated  by  Mill  under  the  name  of  the
Methods  of  Induction.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  these
methods  were  an  object  of  comparative  indifference
and  neglect  to  the  Scholastic  and  Aristotelian  philo-
sophy. The  pre-reformation  world  did  not  recog-
nize the  importance  of  those  modern  discoveries  and
inventions  which  have  revolutionized  the  world  since
the  days  of  Bacon.  With  the  Aristotelian  philo-
sophy dominant,  the  steam-engine,  gas,  the  electric
light,  the  steam-loom,  sewing-machines,  and  all  the
mechanical  substitutes  for  human  labour,  would,  in
all  probability,  either  not  have  existed  at  all,  or
never  arrived  at  their  present  perfection.  The
a  priori  method  had  no  fondness  for  hypotheses,
and  hypothesis  is  the  fertile  mother  of  physical
research  and  discovery.  Whether  all  these  have
really  fostered  human  progress,  whether  they  have
made  men  stronger,  healthier,  more  honest,  virtuous,
and  happy,  is  a  point  which  does  not  concern  us.
We  have  already  wandered  too  far  away  from  the
question  before  us,  which  is  this :  Are  we  to  admit
into  Logic  in  its  wider  sense  what  are  called  the
Inductive  Methods,  and  which  are  elaborated  with
wonderful  skill  and  ability  by  John  Stuart  Mill  ?

If  we  look  at  the  matter  with  the  strictness  and
accuracy  of  the  philosophic  logician,  who  knows  no
certainty  save  absolute  certainty,  no  universal  laws


HYPOTHETICAL  CERTAINTY.  387

save  those  which  are  founded  on  the  inner  nature  of
things,  we  must  answer  this  question  in  the  negative.
