Hunting and Snooping: Understanding the Neyman-Pearson Predesigna tionist Stance

If in sampling any class, say theM's, we first decide what the character Pis for which we propose to sample that class, and also how many instances we propose to draw, our inference is really made before these latter are drawn, that the proportion of P's in the whole class is probably about the same as among the instances that are to be drawn .... But suppose we were to draw our inferences without the predesignation of the character P; then we might in every case find some recondite character in which those instances would all agree. That, by the exercise of sufficient ingenuity, we should be sure to be able to do this, even if not a single other object of the class M possessed that character, is a matter of demonstration. For in geometry a curve may be drawn through any given series of points.