Item 143 - William Whewell to Richard Jones

3 pp.

WW would like to hear as soon as possible how RJ has got on with his efforts to become the next Professor of Political Economy at King's College. He will be sending RJ his new book: 'I go on urging the difference between induction and deduction, without at all disturbing myself about the chance of nobody minding what I say. This you will see in the preface and the whole construction of the book is founded upon the same notion - Each chapter (except one) consists of a historical inductive and a mathematical deductive portion, and I am persuaded that this is the way in which scientific books of instruction ought to be written'. Deductive people 'go on following, illustrating, expanding, a given notion which of the nature of it must be defined and [?] and so restricted to the range of our primitive knowledge. But the minds that feel a conviction of principles of unity as yet undetected, that believe in the existence of truths wider than they can limit by phrases habitually current, and that assert to the possibility of a connexion among laws that seem far asunder, while they acknowledge their ignorance what the connexion is; these are minds which have the best chance of discovering new principles and new generalisations and such habits of thought lead naturally to the persuasion of a supreme principle of unity and connexion'. If RJ finds 'in the course of your reading any good phrases, thought, or story, illustrating the narrow-mindedness of mathematicians, and their ineptitude for judging well about real and practical matters, I think I could make some use of it'.