which tend to any other conclusion, but they are never quite
sufficient, as in Demonstrative or _true_ Deductive reasoning, to
_necessitate_ the conclusion, and render any other impossible.

A Method of Scientific investigation which proceeds from self-evident
truths to necessary results by undeniable steps, would of course be
preferable to one which, starting from truths whose precision and
certainty might be doubtful, advances by more or less probable
inferences to a more or less probable conclusion, did there not exist
some powerful cause for a contrary action. A difficulty thus far
insurmountable has, indeed, stood in the way of the adoption of the
Deductive Method in any department of investigation, save the one
already referred to. This Method, we have seen, leads to truth or error
accordingly as the Principles or Laws from which it commences its
reasoning process are true or false. In the Mathematics, the basic
truths, being of a simple character, were arrived at by easy and
instinctive mental processes, and the Method achieved in this department
great success. But the other domains of human knowledge being more
complex, involving more qualities or characteristics than mere Number
and Form and Force, which are all that come within the scope of
Mathematics, their fundamental bases or truths were not so easily
attainable. Hence, when Principles or Ideas which men believed to
contain all the fundamentals of a specific domain of thought were
adopted as starting points of reasoning, they were generally lacking in
some important element, which caused the conclusion to be in some way
incorrect. We have seen the historical results of this mode of procedure
in what is denominated the Anticipative or Hypothetical Method. The
failure of this to secure good results, and the absence of any standard
by which to be certain when a Law or Principle was fundamental, exact,
and inclusive, when it was a valid basis to reason from, led to the
abandonment of the Deductive Method, except in its application to
Mathematics, where true starting points were known. The Observation and
Classification of Facts was then resorted to, first, in a loose way, in
Greece, and afterward, in a more rigorous way, in the world at large,
for the purpose of endeavoring to discover, by the only mode considered
effective--the examination of Phenomena--the fundamental Principles,
which, like those of Mathematics, should include all the essentials of
the spec