power, or previous instruction, to enable him fully to take in the author's drift; while another again perfectly comprehends the whole.

"The object that strikes the eye is to all of these persons the same; the difference of the impressions produced on the mind of each is referable to the differences in their minds.

"And this explains the fact, that we find so much discrepancy in the results of what are called Experience and Common-sense, as contradistinguished from Theory. In former times, men knew by experience, that the earth stands still, and the sun rises and sets. Common-sense taught them that there could be no antipodes, since men could not stand with their heads downwards, like flies on the ceiling. Experience taught the King of Bantam that water could not become solid. And (to come to the consideration of human affairs) the experience and common-sense of one of the most observant and intelligent of historians, Tacitus, convinced him, that for a mixed government to be so framed as to combine the elements of Royalty, Aristocracy, and Democracy, must be next to impossible, and that if such a one could be framed, it must inevitably be very speedily dissolved."*

The word Analogy again is generally Analogy. employed in the case of Arguments in which

the instance adduced is somewhat more remote from that to which it is applied; e. g. a physician would be said to know by experience the noxious effects of a certain drug on the human constitution, if he had frequently seen men poisoned by it; but if he thence conjectured that it would be noxious to some other species of animal, he would be said to reason from analogy; the only difference being that the resemblance is less, between a man and a brute, than between one man and another; and accordingly it is found that many brutes are not acted upon by some drugs which are pernicious to man.

Political Economy, Lect. iii. pp. 69–71.

But more strictly speaking, Analogy ought to be distinguished from direct resemblance, with which it is often confounded in the language even of eminent writers (especially on Chemistry and Natural History) in the present day. Analogy being a "resemblance of ratios," that should strictly be called an Argument from Analogy, in which the two things (viz. the one from which, and the one to which, we argue) are not, necessarily, themselves alike, but stand in similar relations to some other things; or, in other words, that the common genus which they both fall under, consists in a relation. Thus an egg and a seed are not in themselves alike, but bear a like relation, to the parent bird and to her future nestling, on the one hand, and to the old and young plant on the other, respectively; this relation being the genus which both fall under: and many Arguments might be drawn from this Analogy. Again, the fact that from birth different persons have different bodily constitutions, in respect of complexion, stature, strength, shape, liability to particular disorders, &c. which constitutions, however, are capable of being, to a certain degree, modified by regimen, medicine, &c. affords an Analogy by which we may form a presumption, that the like takes place in respect of mental qualities also; though it is plain that there can be no direct resemblance either between body and mind, or their respective attributes.

In this kind of Argument, one error, which is very common, and which is to be sedulously avoided, is that of concluding the things in question to be alike, because they are analogous ;-to resemble each other in themselves, because there is a resemblance in the relation they bear to certain other things; which is manifestly a groundless inference. Another caution is applicable to the whole class of Arguments from Example; viz. not to consider the resemblance or analogy to extend further (i. e. to more particulars) than it does. The * Λογῶν ὁμοιότης. Aristotle.

resemblance of a picture to the object it represents, is direct; but it extends no further than the one sense, of In the parable of the unjust seeing, is concerned. steward, an argument is drawn from analogy, to recommend prudence and foresight to Christians in spiritual concerns; but it would be absurd to conclude that fraud was recommended to our imitation; and yet mistakes very similar to such a perversion of that argument are by no means rare.*

Important and unim

semblances

are,

Sound judgment and vigilant caution are no where more called for than in observing portant Re- what differences (perhaps seemingly small) and differen- do, and what do not, nullify the analogy beAnd the same may be ces of cases. tween two cases. said in regard to the applicability of Precedents, or acknowledged Decisions of any kind, such as Scripturein their essence, precepts, &c.; all of which indeed of the nature of Example; since every recorded declaration, or injunction, (of admitted authority) may be regarded-in connexion with the persons to whom, and the occasion on which, it was delivered-as a known case; from which consequently we may reason to any other parallel case; and the question which we must be careful in deciding will be, to whom, and to what, it is applicable. For, as I have said, a seemingly small circumstance will often destroy the analogy, so as to make a precedent-precept, &c.-inapplicable and often, on the other hand, some difference, in itself im

:

*"Thus, because a just Analogy has been discerned between the metropolis of a country, and the heart of the animal body, it has been sometimes contended that its increased size is a diseasethat it may impede some of its most important functions, or even be the cause of its dissolution." See Copleston's Inquiry into the Doctrines of Necessity and Predestination, note to Disc. iii. q. v. for a very able dissertation on the subject of Analogy, in the course of an analysis of Dr. King's Discourse on Predestination. (See Appendix [E]) In the preface to the last edition of that Discourse I have offered some additional remarks on the subject; and I have again adverted to it (chiefly in reply to some popular objections to Dr. King) in the Dissertation on the Province of Reasoning, subjoined to the Elements of Logic. Ch. v. § 1, note, p. 265.

portant, may be pointed out between two cases, which shall not at all weaken the analogy in respect of the argument in hand. And thus there is a danger both of being misled by specious arguments of this description, which have no real force, and also of being staggered by plausible objections against such examples or appeals to authority, &c. as are perfectly valid. Hence Aristotle observes, that an opponent, if he cannot show that the majority of instances is on his side, or that those adduced by his adversary are inapplicable, contends that they, at any rate, differ in something from the case in question; διαφοράν γέ τινα ἔχει.*

Many are misled, in each way, by not estimating aright the degree, and the kind, of difference between two cases. E. G. it would be admitted that a great and permanent diminution in the qnantity of some useful commodity, such as corn, or coal, or iron, throughout the world, would be a serious and lasting loss; and that if the fields and coal-mines yielded regularly double quantities, with the same labour, we should be so much the richer; hence it might be infer red, that if the quantity of gold and silver in the world were diminished one-half, or were doubled, like results would follow; the utility of these metals, for the purposes of coin, being very great. Now there are many points of resemblance, and many of difference, between the precions metals on the one hand, and corn, coal, &c. on the other; but the important circumstance to the supposed argument, is, that the utility of gold and silver (as coin, which is far the chief) depends on their value, which is regulated by their scarcity; or rather, to speak strictly, by the difficulty of obtaining them; whereas, if corn and coal were ten times more abundant, (i. e. more easily obtained,) a bushel of either would still be as useful as now. But if it were twice as easy to procure gold as it is, a sovereign would be twice as large; if only half as easy, it would be of the size of a half

* Rhet. b. ii. ch. 27.

sovereign and this (besides the trifling circumstance of the cheapness or dearness of gold-ornaments) would be all the difference. The analogy, therefore, fails in the point essential to the argument.

Again, the Apostle Paul recommends to the Corinthians celibacy as preferable to marriage: hence some religionists have inferred that this holds good in respect of all Christians. Now in many most important points, Christians of the present day are in the same condition as the Corinthians; but they were liable to plunder, exile, and many kinds of bitter persecutions from their fellow-citizens; and it appears that this was the very ground on which celibacy was recommended to them, as exempting them from many afflictions and temptations which in such troublous times a family would entail; since, as Bacon observes, "He that hath a wife and children hath given pledges to fortune." Now, it is not, be it observed, on the intrinsic importance of this difference between them and us that the question turns; but on its importance in reference to the advice given.

On the other hand, suppose any one had, at the opening of the French revolution, or at any similar conjuncture, expressed apprehensions, grounded on a review of history, of the danger of anarchy, bloodshed, destruction of social order, general corruption of morals, and the long train of horrors so vividly depicted by Thucydides as resulting from civil discord, especially in his account of the sedition at Corcyra; it might have been answered, that the example does not apply, because there is a great difference between the Greeks in the time of Thucydides, and the nations of modern Europe. Many and great, no doubt, are the differences that might be enumerated: the ancient Greeks had not the use of fire-arms, nor of the mariner's compass; they were strangers to the art of printing; their arts of war and of navigation, and their literature, were materially influenced by these differences: they had domestic