paralogistic

Updated: May 7, 2025

Reasoning from what has been to what will be is apt to be paralogistic at the best. Much influence must still be left to chance, much accounted for by what pagans called Fate, and we Providence. We can only say, Victrix causa diis placuit, and Cato must make the best of it.

James Russell Lowell - The Writings of James Russell Lowell in Prose and Poetry, Volume V: Political Essays