92. The Object of Induction. -- The experiments which determine the law of a chemical combination reach the formal cause of the body, since they reveal the properties springing from that formal cause. These same experiments also determine the material cause of chemical compounds, because they determine the proportional quantities of the components. They may also regard the final cause of the combinations, or the tendencies, in pursuance of which the combinations are formed.

Nevertheless whatever cause in particular may be sought by these researches, they have one object: to determine a property and, by means of it, the specific nature of a being and consequently, the law of its action.

We may say, then, that the object of inductive researches is sometimes the discovery of causes (proof of fact, hoti, sometimes -- and more profoundly -- the discovery of natural laws and the definition of the types of nature (demonstration, dioti).

The nature of the being is revealed by its properties; on them its laws are based.

Note that inductive conclusions pass through different degrees of generalization.