17. It is true that in the case of a man's prospect of death we should each qualify our judgment by what we knew or reasonably supposed as to his health, habits, profession, and so on, and should thus arrive at varying estimates. But no one could _justify_ his own estimate without appealing explicitly or implicitly to the statistical grounds on which he had relied, and if these were not previously available to other persons, he must now set them before their notice. In other words, the judgments we entertain, here as elsewhere, are only relative so long as we rest them on grounds peculiar to ourselves. The process of justification, which I consider to be essential to logic, has a tendency to correct such individualities of judgment, and to set all observers on the same basis as regards their data. It is better therefore to regard the conclusions of Probability as being absolute and objective, in the same sense as, though doubtless in a far less degree than, they are in Induction. Fully admitting that our conclusions will in many cases vary exceedingly from time to time by fresh accessions of knowledge, it is preferable to regard such fluctuations of assent as partaking of the nature of precipitate judgments, founded on special statistics, instead of depending only on those which are common to all observers. In calling such judgments precipitate it is not implied that there is any blame in entertaining them, but simply that, for one reason or another, we have been induced to form them without waiting for the possession of the full amount of evidence, statistical or otherwise, which might ultimately be looked for. This explanation will suit the facts equally well, and is more consistent with the general philosophical position maintained in this work. 1. "Is it not self-evident that internal improbabilities of all kinds weaken external proof? Doubtless, but to what practical purpose can this be alleged here, when it has been proved before, that real internal improbabilities, which rise even to moral certainty, are overcome by the most ordinary testimony." Part II. ch. III. 2. "Miracles must not be compared to common natural events; or to events which, though uncommon, are similar to what we daily experience; but to the extraordinary phenomena of nature. And then the comparison will be between the presumption against miracles, and the presumption against such uncommon appearances, suppose as comets,".... Part II. ch. II.