act_, and in which proof amounts to
_demonstration_, in the strict sense of the term. This anomaly will be
recurred to and explained farther on.

Soon after the invention of printing, with its resulting multiplication
of books and increased intellectual activity, the mind of Europe began
to emerge from the deep darkness in which it had been shrouded for
centuries, and a number of great intellects engaged in the search after
knowledge by the close and laborious examination of the actual
existences and operations of nature around them. Leonardo da Vinci and
Galileo in Italy; Copernicus, Kepler, and Tycho Brahe in Central Europe;
and Gilbert in England, peered into the hidden depths of the universe,
collected Facts, and established those Principles which are the
foundations of the magnificent structures of modern Astronomy and
Physics. About the same time, Francis Bacon put forth the formal and
elaborate statement of that Method of acquiring knowledge which is often
called after him the Baconian, but more commonly the Inductive Method;
substantially the Method pursued by the great scientific dicoverers whom
we have just named.

The characteristic of this Method is the precise Observation of Facts or
Phenomena and the Induction (drawing in) or accumulation of these
accurate Observations as the basis of knowledge. (This is seemingly the
first or etymological reason for the use of the term _Induction_; a term
subsequently transferred, as we shall see, to the establishment of the
Laws, from which then _ulterior_ Facts are to be _deduced_.) When a
sufficient number of Facts have been accumulated and classified in any
sphere of investigation, and these are found uniformly to reveal the
same Law or Principle, it is assumed that all similar Phenomena are
invariably governed by this Principle or Law, which, in reality
_deduced_ or derived, is, by this inversion of terms, said to be
_induced_ from the observed Facts. The Law so established has
thenceforth two distinct functions: I, all the Facts of subsequent
Observation, by the primitive Method of observation, are ranged under
the Law which, to this extent, serves merely as a superior mode of
classification; and, II, the Law itself, now assumed to be known and
infallible, becomes an instrument of prevision and the consequent
discovery through it of new Facts, the same which were meant by the
expression 'ulterior Facts' above used. It is this _deduction_ of new
Facts from an estab