der to weaken the logical consequences of
deductions they are the first to be the victims of this childish trick.

That which is called false deduction is rarely aught save the desire to
escape a resolution which a just appraisement would not fail to dictate.

It might be, also, that this twisting of judgment comes from a person
having been, in some past time, subjected to unfortunate influences.

By devoting oneself to the evolution of thought, of which we have already
spoken when presenting the symbolical fan, and above all, by adopting the
precepts which, following the method of Yoritomo, we are going to develop
in the following lessons, we shall certainly succeed in checking the
errors of false reasoning.

"The important thing," said he, "is not to let wander the thought, which,
after resting for a moment on the subject with which we are concerned and
after touching lightly on ideas of a similar character, begins to stray
very far from its basic principles.

"Have you noted the flight of certain birds?

"They commence by gathering at one point, then they describe a series of
circles around this point, at first very small, but whose circumference
enlarges at every sweep.

"Little by little the central point is abandoned, they no longer approach
it, and disappear in the sky, drawn by their fancy toward another point
which they will leave very soon.

"The thoughts of one who does not know how to gather them together and to
concentrate them are like these birds.

"They start from a central point, then spread out, at first without
getting far from this center, but soon they lose sight of it and fly
toward a totally different subject that a mental representation has
just produced.

"And this lasts until the moment when, in a sudden movement, the first
one is conscious of this wandering tendency.

"But it is often too late to bring back these wanderers to the initial
idea, for, in the course of their circuits, they have brushed against a
hundred others, which are confounded with the first, weaken it, and take
away its exact proportions.

"The great stumbling-block again is that of becoming lost in the details
whose multiplicity prevents us from discerning their complete function in
the act of practising deduction.

"It is better, in the case where our perception finds itself assailed by
the multitude of these details, to proceed by the process of elimination,
in order not to become involved in useless and la