"Taking arsenic is followed by death" is a good empirical
generalization; it may have exceptions, but they will be rare.
The result of to-day, which haunts the mind and cannot be escaped, will presently be abridged into a word, and the principle that seemed to explain nature will itself be included as one example of a bolder
generalization. In the thought of to-morrow there is a power to upheave all thy creed, all the creeds, all the literatures of the nations, and marshal thee to a heaven which no epic dream has yet depicted.
Levin was confirmed in this
generalization by observing that his brother did not take questions affecting the public welfare or the question of the immortality of the soul a bit more to heart than he did chess problems, or the ingenious construction of a new machine.
She scored that sheet very effectively, and, choosing a fresh one, began at a great rate with a
generalization upon the structure of human society, which was a good deal bolder than her custom.
This was the impression he got of them--a
generalization tempered by knowledge that there was bound to be a certain percentage of scoundrels among them.
But he was not capable of
generalization. He saw only the antagonism between the concrete, flesh-and-blood Genevieve and the great, abstract, living Game.
Thus in a succession of characters Plato represents the successive stages of morality, beginning with the Athenian gentleman of the olden time, who is followed by the practical man of that day regulating his life by proverbs and saws; to him succeeds the wild
generalization of the Sophists, and lastly come the young disciples of the great teacher, who know the sophistical arguments but will not be convinced by them, and desire to go deeper into the nature of things.
"Why do you say that?" asked my wife, who never would let a
generalization pass unchallenged.
Already he had made the
generalization that of the two, the captain was the superior god, giving many orders that the mate obeyed.
I wondered if Moxon knew the significance and breadth of his thought--the scope of this momentous
generalization; or had he arrived at his philosophic faith by the tortuous and uncertain road of observation?
It is your own empirical
generalization, and it is correct.
The most usual
generalizations adopted by almost all the historians are: freedom, equality, enlightenment, progress, civilization, and culture.