"Secondly, the event which is in question will therefore have the same
consequences as the previous one, since it is presented under the same
conditions.

"Or again:

"Being granted the principle that like causes produce like effects, as I
have just affirmed, and that there exist certain incompatibilities
between the contingencies of the past and those of to-day, one must allow
that these incompatibilities will produce different results.

"And, after this reasoning, the deductions will be established by
constituting a comparison in favor of either the present or past state
of things."

But the philosopher, who thinks of everything, has foreseen the case
where false ideas have obscured the clearness of the deductions, and he
said to us:

"The association of false ideas, if it does not proceed from the
difficulty of controlling things, is always in ungovernable opposition to
the veracity of the deduction.

"What would be thought of a man of eighty years who, coming back to
his country after a long absence, said, on seeing the family roof from
a distance:

"'When I was twenty years old, in leaving here, it took me twenty
minutes to reach the home of my parents, so I shall reach the threshold