is the
absence of any fact that would support the negative conclusion.

The point of the whole matter is that from the observation of a large
number of cases, we may establish the _probable_ truth of a proposition,
but emphasis needs to be laid upon the probability. We cannot be sure. Not
all crows are black, though you may never have seen a white one. The sun
may not rise to-morrow, though it has never failed up to this time. Still
it is by this observation of many individual cases that the truth of the
propositions that men do believe has been established. We realize that our
inductions are often imperfect, but the general truths so established will
be found to underlie every process of reasoning, and will be either
directly or indirectly the basis upon which we build up all argument.

We may then redefine inductive reasoning as the process by which from
many individual cases we establish the _probable_ truth of a general
proposition.

EXERCISES

Notice in the following selections that the truth of the conclusion is
shown by giving particular examples:--

1. It is curious enough that _we always remember people by their worst
points_, and still more curious that _we always suppose that we ourselves
are remembered by our best_. I once knew a hunchback who had a well-shaped
hand, and was continually showing it. He never believed that anybody
noticed his hump, but lived and died in the conviction that the whole town
spoke of him no otherwise than as the man with the beautiful hand,
whereas, in fact, they only looked at his hump, and never so much as
noticed whether he had a hand at all. This young lady, so pretty and so
clever, is simply the girl who had that awkward history with So-and-so;
that man, who has some of the very greatest qualities, is nothing more
than the one who behaved so badly on such an occasion. It is a terrible
thing to think that we are all always at watch one upon the other, to
catch the false step in order that we may have the grateful satisfaction
of holding our neighbor for one who cannot walk straight. No regard is
paid to the better qualities and acts, however numerous; all the attention
is fixed upon the worst, however slight. If St. Peter were alive he would
be known as the man who denied his Master; St. Paul would be the man who
stoned Stephen; and St. Thomas would never be mentioned in any decent
society without allusions to that unfortunate request for further
evidence. Probably