Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

4G68 REASONING AND DEDUCTIVE EVIDENCE.
world. Nidor is this wonderful; for, were things differently constituted, it would be impossible for man to derive benefit from
experience; and the powers of observation and memory would
be subservient only to the gratification of an idle curiosity.* Inl
consequence of those uniform laws by which the succession of
events is actually regulated, every fact collected with respect to
the past is a foundation of sagacity and of skill with respect to
the future; and, in truth, it is chiefly this application of experience to anticipate what is yet to happen, which forms the intellectual superiority of one individual over another. The
remark holds equally in all the various pursuits of mankind,
whether speculative or active. As an astronomer is able, by
reasonings founded on past observations, to predict those phenomena of the heavens which astonish or terrify the savage;as the chemist, from his previous familiarity with the changes
operated upon bodies by heat or by mixture, can predict the
result of innumerable experiments, which to others furnish only
matter of amusement and wonder; — so a studious observer of
human afailrs acquires a prophetic foresight (still more incomprehensible to the multitude) with respect to the future fortunes
of mankind; - a foresight which, if it does not reach, like our
anticipations in physical science, to particular and definite
events, amply compensates for what it wants in precision, by
the extent and variety of the prospects which it opens. It is
from this apprehended analogy between the f2ture and the past,
that historical knowledge derives the whole of its value; and were
the analogy completely to fail, the records of former ages would,
in point of utility, rank with the fictions of poetry. Nor is the
case different in the business of common life. Upon what does
the success of men in their private concerns so essentially depend as on their own prudence; and what else does this word
mean, than a wise regard, in every step of their conduct, to the
lessons which experience has taught them?
Ullustrations of the uniformity of natural laws. - The departE[See note to page 214.]