[38]. The conception of probability here set forth is substantially that first developed by Mr. Venn, in his Logic of Chance. Of course, a vague apprehension of the idea had always existed, but the problem was to make it perfectly clear, and to him belongs the credit of first doing this.
[39]. I do not here admit an absolutely unknowable. Evidence could show us what would probably be the case after any given lapse of time; and though a subsequent time might be assigned which that evidence might not cover, yet further evidence would cover it.
[40]. Popular Science Monthly, April, 1878.
[41]. Strictly we should need an infinite series of numbers each depending on the probable error of the last.
[42]. “Perfect indecision, belief inclining neither way, an even chance.”—De Morgan, p. 182.
[43]. Logique. The same is true, according to him, of every performance of a differentiation, but not of integration. He does not tell us whether it is the supernatural assistance which makes the former process so much the easier.
[44]. Popular Science Monthly, June, 1878.
[45]. [See Santayana, Reason in Religion.]
[46]. For the present purpose, the negative of a character is to be considered as much a character as the positive, for a uniformity may either be affirmative or negative. I do not say that no distinction can be drawn between positive and negative uniformities.
[47]. There being 5 simple characters, with their negatives, they could be compounded in various ways so as to make 241 characters in all, without counting the characters existence and non-existence, which make up 243 or 35.