A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive, 7th Edition, Vol. I
John Stuart Mill · en
All likeness and unlikeness of which we have any cognizance, resolve
themselves into likeness and unlikeness between states of our own, or
some other, mind. When we say that one body is like another, (since we
know nothing of bodies but the sensations which they excite,) we mean
really that there is a resemblance between the sensations excited by the
two bodies, or between some portions at least of those sensations. If we
say that two attributes are like one another, (since we know nothing of
attributes except the sensations or states of feeling on which they are
grounded,) we mean really that those sensations, or states of feeling,
resemble each other. We may also say that two relations are alike. The
fact of resemblance between relations is sometimes called _analogy_,
forming one of the numerous meanings of that word. The relation in which
Priam stood to Hector, namely, that of father and son, resembles the
relation in which Philip stood to Alexander; resembles it so closely
that they are called the same relation. The relation in which Cromwell
stood to England resembles the relation in which Napoleon stood to
France, though not so closely as to be called the same relation. The
meaning in both these instances must be, that a resemblance existed
between the facts which constituted the _fundamentum relationis_.
This resemblance may exist in all conceivable gradations, from perfect
undistinguishableness to something extremely slight. When we say, that a
thought suggested to the mind of a person of genius is like a seed cast
into the ground, because the former produces a multitude of other
thoughts, and the latter a multitude of other seeds, this is saying that
between the relation of an inventive mind to a thought contained in it,
and the relation of a fertile soil to a seed contained in it, there
exists a resemblance: the real resemblance being in the two _fundamenta
relationis_, in each of which there occurs a germ, producing by its
development a multitude of other things similar to itself. And as,
whenever two objects are jointly concerned in a phenomenon, this
constitutes a relation between those objects, so, if we suppose a second
pair of objects concerned in a second phenomenon, the slightest
resemblance between the two phenomena is sufficient to admit of its
being said that the two relations resemble; provided, of course, the
points of resemblance are found in those portions of the two phenomena
respectively which are connoted by the relative names.