for  the  facts  which  must  form  the  basis  of  a  positive  "p''"?
theory  could  not  be  collected  to  any  purpose  without  some  prelimi-
nary theory  which  should  guide  their  collection.  Our  understand-
ing can  not  act  without  some  doctrine,  false  or  true,  vague  or
precise,  which  may  concentrate  and  stimulate  its  efforts,  and  afford
ground  for  enough  speculative  continuity  to  sustain  our  mental
activity.  Our  meteorological  observations,  as  we  call  them,  show
us  how  useless  may  be  vast  compilations  of  facts,  and  how  really
unmeaning,  while  we  are  destitute  of  any  theory  whatever.  Those
who  expect  that  the  theory  will  be  suggested  by  the  facts,  do  not
understand  what  is  the  course  necessarily  pursued  by  the  human
mind,  which  has  achieved  all  real  results  by  the  only  effectual
method, — of  anticipating  scientific  observations  by  some  concep-
tion (hypothetical  in  the  first  instance)  of  the  corresponding  phe-
nomena. Such  a  necessity  has  already  been  shown  to  be  especially
marked  in  the  case  of  social  speculations,  not  only  from  their  com-
plexity, but  from  the  peculiarity  that  a  long  preparatory  develop-
ment of  the  human  mind  and  of  society  constitutes  the  phenomena
of  the  case,  independently  of  all  preparation  of  observers,  and  all
accumulation  of  observations.  It  may  be  worth  observing,  that  all
the  partial  verifications  of  this  fundamental  proposition  that  we
meet  with  in  the  different  sciences  confirm  each  other,  on  account
of  our  tendency  to  unity  of  method  and  homogeneousness  of  doc-
trine, which  would  incline  us  to  extend  the  theological  philosophy
from  one  class  of  speculations  to  another,  even  if  we  should  not  so
treat  each  one  of  them  separately.
