vi PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. by far more numerous and intricate examples. But, on the other hand, it is more interesting both to the teacher and to the student; and, being a comparatively recent study, is less hampered by conventionalities of treatment. Since the time of Bacon, it has always, with more or less of success, claimed a place in liberal education, and many, to whom the technical terms and subtle distinctions of the older logic are justly repulsive, have experienced a peculiar delight in attempting to discover and test the grounds on which the results of modern science mainly rest. The study of Deductive Logic can be of little service unless it be supplemented by, at least, some knowledge of the principles of Induction, which supplies its premisses. Many of the objections directed against the study of Logic are due to the narrow conceptions which are entertained of its province, and might be easily met by showing that the study, when we include both its parts, has a much wider range than is popularly assigned to it. Though the present work is mainly intended for students in the Universities, it is hoped that it will be found to present some interest for the general reader, and that be useful to students of medicine and the physical it may sciences, as well as to some of the more advanced scholars in our Public Schools. The number of scientific examples adduced throughout the work renders it necessary, perhaps, that the Author should state emphatically that the work is intended as an introduction, not to science, but to scientific method. Its object is not to give a résumé of the sciences, physical or social, a task to which the Author would be wholly incompetent, but to show the grounds on which our scientific knowledge rests, the methods by which it has been built up, and the defects from which it must be free. Notwithstanding its frequent incursions into the domain of science, the purport of the work must be regarded as strictly logical. The examples have, as a rule, been selected from the physical rather than the social sciences, as being usually less open to dispute, and lying within a smaller compass. Wherever it has been possible, they have been given in the exact words of the author from whom they are taken. Some of the more complicated cases of inductive reasoning, such as those which deal with Progressive Causes or Intermixture of Effects, have, if alluded to at all, been only briefly noticed. Any detailed examination of these more intricate questions seemed to lie without the scope of the treatise. The student who has leisure to pursue the subject will find ample information in the pages of Mr. Mill's Logic. It only remains for the Author to express his grateful acknowledgments to those who have assisted him in the execution of the work. These are, in the first place, due to Dr. Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, through whose hands the sheets have passed, and who, in addition to revising the proofs, has, from time to time, offered many very valuable suggestions. They are due also, in no small degree, to Sir John Herschel and Professor Bartholomew Price, who most kindly undertook to revise the scientific examples; to Professors Rolleston and Clifton, who have frequently allowed the Author to consult them on questions connected with the subjects of their respective chairs, and to the Rev. G. W. Kitchin, the Organising Secretary of the Clarendon Press Series. The Author must, however, be regarded as alone responsible for any errors which may occur either in the theoretical portion of the work or in the examples. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. SOME misprints, and some inaccuracies or ambiguities of expression, which occurred in the former edition, have been corrected in the present one. A few alterations also have been made which cannot, perhaps, be referred to either of these heads, and one or two examples have been added. The discussion of the questions raised by some of the Author's reviewers (as, for instance, in the Scotsman, the Saturday Review, and the Academy) would occupy more space than could be conveniently devoted to them in a work which is intended to be mainly educational. The Author, therefore, feels, at least for the present, compelled to waive their consideration. however, any adverse criticism has seemed to him to be justified, he has either modified the passage criticised, or has attempted to re-state it in such a manner as to prevent future misunderstanding. When, The Author has here, as in his recent edition of the Deductive Logic, to thank Professor Park, of Belfast, for several suggestions, some of which he has gladly adopted. He can only regret that the plan and object of the work prevent him from availing himself of them to as full an extent as he could otherwise have desired. LINCOLN COLLEGE, |