I
The origin of human endowment lies hidden in an obscure and
unrecorded past; the fact of development, of the gradual unfoldment
of capacity, stands out conspicuously throughout the historical
record of human achievement, and is equally recognizable in the
extensive remains of prehistoric humanity. The story of the mental
development of man is constructed from travelers' accounts of
primitive peoples, from the records of early civilizations, from the
sequences of thought and belief that are considered in the history
of culture, from the study of the intellectual growth of childhood,
from the observation of the less progressive elements of current
civilizations. The present essay attempts to portray the status
of one form of intellectual process, or of mental attitude, which
characterizes undeveloped stages of human thought, and has played
an important and variable part in the drama of mental evolution. I
propose to present the "Natural History of Analogy,"--meaning thereby
the treatment, according to the methods of natural science, of a type
of mental action, interesting at once as a psychological process, and
again from its practical results as a factor in the anthropological
history of the race.
An analogy is a type of reasoning, and as such is referred to the
logician for more precise definition. His briefest explanation of
the term may be stated as the inference of a further degree of
resemblance from an observed degree of resemblance; the argument
that because the Earth and Mars agree in the common possession of a
solid crust, an atmosphere, presence of water, changes of season,
the possibilities of rain and snow, and other observed qualities,
they will also agree in the further respect of being inhabited.
This may serve as an exemplar of the analogical argument in its
purest and most developed form; but in the survey of the varieties
and distribution of this natural product of rationality, it will
be necessary to include many forms of thought diverging more or
less from, though always retaining, a recognizable relation to this
type. The analogical inference, indeed, goes back to an inarticulate
form, in which it merges into a feeling rather than an argument, a
susceptibility to an influence supported by undefined plausibility,
rather than a conclusion from tangible evidence. But however lacking
in definiteness or formulation, however unconsciously realized
and barely expressible, the tendency or disposition to believe is
communicated to others and becomes an influential factor in the
ultimate fixation of belief and in the guidance of conduct. Logically
considered, analogy is always a weak argument; and becomes weaker,
as the range of observed resemblance is more and more limited, as
the resemblances belong to accidental, unessential traits, and
as the underlying basis of the inference is removed from direct
verification. Psychologically, its power to influence belief may be
very strong, and when this is not the case, there still may exist
a disposition to be influenced by analogical considerations, even
when these are successfully resisted or suppressed. The instinctive
proclivity towards the use of analogies, whether it be logical or
anti-logical in effect, forms an interesting psychological trait.
Logic counsels how we may think most profitably and correctly;
psychology describes how we actually do think or tend to think. The
logician is the gardener bent upon training certain selected flowers
according to an ideal standard, and eradicating all others as weeds;
while the psychologist is the botanist to whom all plants, weeds, and
flowers alike are worthy objects of study, and who, indeed, traces
significant resemblances between the despised weed and the choice
flower.
The natural history account of analogy will consider the status in
less advanced stages of human development, and the evolution of
this form of thought, which scientists to-day use only with the
greatest caution, and to which they at best assign but a limited
and corroborative value. It will appear that analogy is dominant
in primitive types of thought; that it has an important cultural
history; and has left an unmistakable impress upon many beliefs of
our civilization, marked as obsolete, perhaps, in the dictionary
of the cultured, but current still in the parlance of average and
untutored humanity.