hey bear in
other ways. But here again the relation to the judgments we have to
form in the moral, political, practical sphere, is too remote and too
indirect. The judgments, in this region, of the most brilliant and
successful explorers in physical science, seem to be exactly as liable
to every kind of fallacy as those of other people. The application of
scientific method and conception to society is yet in its infancy, and
the _Novum Organum_ or the _Principia_ of moral and social phenomena
will perhaps not be wholly disclosed to any of us now alive. In any
case it is clear that for the purposes of such an institution as this,
if the rules of evidence and proof and all the other safeguards for
making your propositions true and relevant, are to be taught at all,
they must be taught not only in an elementary form, but with
illustrations that shall convey their own direct reference and
application to practical life. If everybody could find time to master
Mill's _Logic_ or so instructive and interesting a book as Professor
Jevons's _Principles of Science_, a certain number at any rate of the
bad mental habits of people would be cured; and for those of you here
who have leisure enough, and want to find a worthy keystone of your
culture, it would be hard to find a better thing to do for the next
six months than to work through one or both of the books I have just
named--pen in hand. The ordinary text-books of formal logic do not
seem to meet the special aim which I am now trying to impress as
desirable--namely, the habit of valuing, not merely speculative nor
scientific truth, but the truth of practical life; a practising of the
intellect in forming and expressing the opinions and judgments that
form the staple of our daily discourse.

It is now accepted that the most effective way of learning a foreign
language is to begin by reading books written in it, or by conversing
in it--and then after a certain empirical familiarity with vocabulary
and construction has been acquired, one may proceed to master the
grammar. Just in the same way it would seem to be the best plan to
approach the art of practical reasoning in concrete examples, in cases
of actual occurrence and living interest; and then after the processes
of disentangling a complex group of propositions, of dividing and
shifting, of scenting a fallacy, have all become familiar, it may be
worth while to find names for them all, and to set out rules for
reasoning rightl