LECTURES AND ESSAY‘ WILLIAM KINGDON CLIFFORD; LESLIE STEPHEN SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK nv iS Petes Mondt MACMILLAN AND CO, Lawnan rye THE ETHICS OF BELIEF? ITE DUTY oF rxquIRY A sunvowser was about to send to sea an femigrant-ship. He knew that she wat old, and fot overomll bull at the fist; that she had eon many scar and climes, and often had ‘needed repairs. Doubts had been suggested to hhim that possibly” she was not seaworthy ‘These doubis preyed upon his mind and made him unhappy ; he thought that perhaps he ‘ought to have ber thoroughly overhauled and relited, even though this should pot him to treat expense. Before the ship sailed, however, he suceseded, in overcoming these melancholy ‘elections. He sid to himeelf that she bad gone safely through so many voyages and weathered so many storms that i was idle to suppore the would not come safely home from thie trp also, He would put his trstin Providence, which could hardly ‘ail to. protect ll theee Unhappy families that were leaving their father- canary Rony 7ot LECTURES AND ESSAYS land to seck for better times dlewhere He would dismiss fom his mind all ungenerous surpcioos about the Bonesty of builders and contractors. In such ways be acquired a fincere and comfortable conviction that his vessel was thoroughly safe and seaworthy; he tratched her departure ith a light ear, and Benevolent wishes for the success of the exiles in ther strange new home that was to be; and he got bis Insurance-mosey when she ‘went down in mid-ocean and told no tales, ‘What shall we say of him? Surly this, that he was verily guilty of the death of those men, It is admitted that he did. sincerely believe in the soundness of his ship; but the Sincerity of his conviction can in no wise help him, beeause Ae had mo right Baler om cach svidows as maz before im. He had acjired Is belet not by honesty eaming it patent Investigation, bat by stfing his doubts, And although in the end he may hive felt 20 sure bout it that he coeld not hike otherwise, yet ‘inasmuch as he had knowingly and willingly vrorked himself into thar frame of mind, he tnust be held responsible for Let us alter the cae a litle and suppose ‘that the ship was aot unsound alter all; that she made her voyage safely, and many others afer it Will that diminish the gull cf her fomner®? Not one jot When an action is ence ‘rae ered oF wetter Ey done, tis right or wrong for ever; no acsdental failure of it good or evil fruits can. possibly alter that, The man wosld not have been inaoces, he would only have been not found ‘out The question of right or wrong has to do with the origin of his belief not the matter of Ft; not what it was, but bow he got it; sot whether it tured out to be true or false, bat ‘whether he had a right to believe on such ‘evidence as was before him. ‘There was once an island in which some of the inhabitants profesed a religion teaching either the doctrine of original sin nor that cof eternal punishment. A stepicion got abroad that the professors of this religion bad made use of unfair means to get thelr doctrines taught to children. They were accused of wrsting the laws of their country im such a sway an to remove chideen from the care of thels natural and lopal guardians; and even of stealing them away and Keeping them concealed ftom their fdends and relations, A certain number of men formed themselves into. Society for the purpose of agitating the public bout this matter They. published grave Sccusations agunst individual ctzens of the highest position and character, and did all a their power to injure these eidzeas in. the ‘exercise of their professions So. great was the noise they made, that a Commision wasa LECTURES AND ESSAYS appolted to investigate the facts; but after the Commission had carefully ingoited into all the evidence that could be got it appeared that the acused were innocent. Not only bad they ‘been acenced on insufcient evidence, but the evidence of thelr nmccence war such as the agitators might easily have obtsined, if they had attempted a fair inquiry. After thee dlsclomures the inhabitants of that country looked upon the members of the agitating feciety, not only a persons whose judgment ‘was to be distrusted, but alo as no longer to be counted honourable men. For although they bad sincerely and conscientiously believed in the charges they had made, get thy had no right to belive om such evidence a8 wat before ‘hem Their sincere convitions, instead of being. honestly earmed by patient. ing ‘wer stolen by listening to the vie of prejudice other things remaining ‘more accurate investigation proved the accused to have been realy guilty. Would this malee any dilference in the guilt of the azcurers? Clearly nt the question i not sthether their bale was te or fab, but whether they enter- tained ton wrong grovads. They would no doubt say, "Now you see that xe were sight afterall; next tte perhaps you will believe [THE ETvucs oF BELIEF Us" “And they might be believed, but they would not thereby ‘become honourable men. ‘They would not be innocent, they would only bbe not found out. Every ove of them if he chose to examine himself tn for coment, ‘would know that he had acquired and noarshed 2 belief when he had so right to believe on uch evidence as was before him and therein ‘he would know that he had done a wrong thing. Te may be sad, however, that in both of these supposed cases itis not the Beli which is Sacged to be wrong, but the action fllowing ‘upon it The” shipowner might say, “Ia perfectly certain that my ship Is sound, bat still, Teel it my daty to have her exaue, before trusting the lives of 20 many people &o her” ‘And it might be aid to the agitator,“ How: ‘ever convinced you were of the Justice of your ‘ause and the tuth of your convictions, you fought not to have made a public attack upon ny man's character until you had examined the evidence on both sides with the utmost patienoe and care” Tithe Gist place, let us admit that, so far ss it goes, this view of the case is right and necessary ght, because even when a man’s belief isso Fixed that he cannot think otherwise, he stil has a cholce ia regatd to the action suggested by it, and so cannot escape the duty of iavestgating on the ground of the strength@ {LECTURES AnD ESSAYS. ‘of his convictions; and nectasary, ecanse those who are sot yet capable of controlling ‘her felngs and thoughts ust have a plain rile dealing wth overt acts But thi being. premised a necesery, it becomes clear that it de not saint, and that four previous judgment is required to supple- tment it. For it not posible 0 to sever the Dele from the action it suggest a= to con- ems the one without condemning the other No man holding strong belef on one sie of ‘ quation, or even wishing to hold 2 belief on foe side, can investigate it with such faimene land completeness ar if he were realy in doubt fad unblassed so thatthe existence of a belief rot founded on fat ingiry unfts a man for the peformarce of this necearary duty. Nor is that truly a belief at all which has ot some influence upon the actions of him tho olés it He who truly believes that ‘which prompts him to an action has looked Upon the action to lust after it he has com sited it already in his heart "Wf 2 belie is fot realised immediately in open deeds, its Stored up for the guidance of the frre. Tt toes to male a part ofthat aggregate of beliefs Which s the link between sensation and action at every moment of al our lives, aad which is fo organised and compacted together that no par of fan be fvolated from the rest, but ‘THE ETHICS OF ELIE % every new addition modes the structure of the whole, No real belief, however trifling. and fragmentary it may seem, is ever truly insig- nifeant; it prepares us to receive move of its ke, confems those which resembled it before, and weakens others; and so gradually it lays 4 stealthy tin in oar inmost thoughts, which ‘may some day explode into overt setion, and leave its stamp upon our character for eve. "And no one mans belief is in any case private matter which concems himself alone (Our Hives are guided by that general conception ofthe course of things which has been created by society for social parposes. Our words, ox phrases, our forms and. processes and modes fof thought, are common property, fashioned and perfected from age to age | an heirloom which every sconeding generation inherits as a. pre- ous deposit and a sacred trast to be handed fn tothe next one, nat unchanged but enlarged land. purfed, with some clear marks of its proper handiwork. Into this for good or il, [woven every belief of every man who has speech of his fellows. An aviul privilege, and {ap sel responsibilty, that we should help to ‘rete the word in which posterity will ive Tn the two supposed cases which have been considered it has been judged wrong to believe fon insufiient evidence, or to nourish belief by suppressing doubts and avoiding investigation‘The reason ofthis judgment is ot far to seek itis that in both these cars the belief held by fone man was of great importance to other men. ‘Bat forasmoch a5 no belief held by one man, however seemingly teal the belief and how ever obscure the belever, is ever actually ine ‘Significant or without its effect on the fate of mankind, we have no choie bat to extend ‘ur judgeent to all cases of baief whatever. Bel, that sacred faculty which prompts the ecisions of our wil, and knits Into harmonious working all the compacted energies of our Ueig, sours nt for ourselves, bt for huanity. Tei rightly weed on truths which have been established by lng experience and waiting to, and which have stod in the Beree light of fee and fearless questioning. Then it helps 10 bind men together, ond fo strengthen and dire ‘ther common action. Te is desecrated when five tounproved and uaquetioed statement, forthe solace and private pleasure of the be. lieve; to add tinsel splendour to the pain staight road of our life and display «bight image beyond jt; or even to. drown’ the common sorrows of our Kod by a seledecep. ‘on which allows them not caly to eact down, ‘ut also & degrade us, Whoso woald deserve ‘well of is flows fa this mater wil guard the party of his belief with a very fanaticism of Jealous eae, lest at any time it should rest on ‘Tae erwucs oF neLtEr nt an unworthy object, and eatch a stain which fan never be wiped away. is not only the leader of men, statesman, pllosopher, or poet, that owes this bounden duty 19 mankind. Every mastic who delivers Jn the wllage alehouse bis slow, infrequent sentences, may help to kil or keep alive the fatal supestidons which clog his race. Every hard-worked wife ofan artis may transmit to her children ‘beliefs which shall knit society together, or rend it in ples. No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape the universal duty of questioning all that We believe, Tes true that this duty isa hard ove, and ‘the doubt which comes out of itt often» very bitter thing. Te leaves us bare and powerles: where we thought that we were safe and suong. ‘To know all about anything isto know how to deal with i under all cieumstances. We fee ‘uch happier and more secure when we think ‘we know precisely what to do, no matter what Ihappens, than shen we have lst our way and do not know where to turn. And if we have Supposed ourselves to know all about anything, and to be capable of doing what is 6t in regard toi, we oatorally do not Hke to Snd that we are realy ignorant and powerless, that we have to begin again at the beginning, and try to learn what the thing is and how itis to be deat witha [ERCTORES AND ESSAYS if indeed anything can be Jeamt about ft Tt iy the sense of power attached to 2 sense ‘of knowledge that makes men desirous of Deteving, and arid of doubting. ‘This sense of power isthe highest and best of pleases when the belief on which it is founded i a true belief, and has been fairly famed by investigation. For then we may july feel that i is common property, and holds good for others at well ax for ourselves ‘Then ie may be pad, not that have learned secrets by which T aa safer and stonger, bat that we mer have got mastery over more of the word; and we all be sttong, not for os selves, but in the name of Man and in his Strength. But i che belie! has been accepted on insuficient evidence, the pleasure i stolea fone. Not only doss it deceive ourselves by iving us a sense of power which we do not really poses, but if sinful, because it is stolen in defance of our duty to mankind ‘That duty is to. guard curelves fom such Doelts as om a pestilence which may shorty master our ovn body and then spread to the rest of the town, What would be thought of fone who, for the sake of » sweet frlt, should Seiberately run the rae of bringing 4 plague pon his fay and Bis neighbours? “And, a5 in other such cases, it fs not the ak only which has to be considered for & ‘bad action is always bad at the time when iis lone, no" matter what happens afterwards Every time we let ourselves belive for un ‘wordy reasons, we weaken our powers of sl control, of doubting, of judicially and fiy ‘weighing evidence, | We all sufer severely enough from the maintenance and support of false beliefs and the faaly wrong actions which they lead to, andthe ev! hom when one such belief is entertained i great and wide, But treater and wider ei arises when the cedolous characteris maintained and supported, when a habit of ‘elleving’ for unworthy reesons is fostered and made permanent. If T steal, ‘monty ftom any person, there may be no harm done by the mete tansler of posession ; he may not feel the los, or It may prevent in fom using the money tadly. But 1 cannot help doing this great wrong towards May that Take myself dishonest. What hurts socieky isnot that it should lose its property, but that it should become @ den of thieves; for then it ‘ust cease to be society. This is why we ‘ought not todo evil that good may come for ‘at any rate this great el has come, chat we have done evil and are made wicked thereby. Tn like manner, fT lt myself believe anything ‘on insufficient evidence, there may be no great harm done by the mere belief; it may be tre ater all, or T may never have occasion to™ ‘LECTURES AND ESSAYS ‘exhibit i in outward acts, But I cannot help Going this great wrong towards Mao, that T fnake myself credulous. The danger to society {snot merely that [t should believe wrong ‘things, thoogh that is great enoagh ; but that it should become credulous, aod lose the habit fof tesing things and inquiring into them ; for then it must sik bak into savagery. "The harm which is done by credlity in a rman not confined to the festering of a Cedulous character In others, and consequent “Sipport of false belies. Habitual want of ere about what believe leads to habitual want of fare in others about the truth of whats told tome Mea speak the trith to one another ‘when each reveres the truth in hin own wd End fa the other's mind; but’ how shall my fiend revere the truth in ay mind when T myself am careless about it, when I believe things because T want to believe them, and becalse they are comforting and pleasant? Will be not learn to cry, "Peace to me, when there is no peace? By such a course T shall surround emysel with 2 thick atmosphere of falsehood and faud, and in that I must live. Te may matter lite’ to me in my cloud-astle of weet ilsions and dading es but matter much to Man that T have made my neighbours ready to deceive. The to La Sacto to Geta 'Atsey or fo Iotesor exatpie oe end Stating tupenttin, 1 oly toy posi Bet a to grow wp London oande by an Sen of ‘belies fe only or ta sage? wich tay In oor ove tie been Bada feud and propagate by edly Laying mide, then, suk lion as sch of witht tng by sccesive gene. tons leu cooler tat which & tly bul ‘pot of the common. exprece of maskind i peat bic te fo te pudance of cur ough and through ew four acting, Sochln the oral and io the mate world En the monl worl, for examp it ges us the oncptom orig fo geggl of st, of toh of Beosennos and the Wie” The Se en at concep, ot ao sleet e¢ fropulis; they ange tata des Exot ich ae cesiy win omever they came ere, ‘Tat ight t be Doe eal ingle of lomedate peronal ape eet" for wea a man ries win Nasa ted Were Ends meng, wer and ore Hog than his saltary personally, wich ys STivant todo ightscewel ay"f wantt 30 to an? he eka vel by det cera. Sor da one inte owed pon aedPy LECTURES AND ESSAYS sarees flly with the other. And it is his duty 0 to verify this and ll similar statements ‘The tradition says also, at a definite place sed time, that such and sch aetions are jst, for wus, or Beneficent. For all such rules a farther inquiry is necesary, since they are sometimes established by an authority other than that ofthe moral sense founded on ex perience Until recent, the moral tradition of ‘ur own country—and indeed ofall Europe— taught that it was beneficent to give money Indlseienately to beggars. But the question lng of this rule, and. fevestgation into iy led men to see that true bencicence is that which helps a man to do the work which he is most fitted for, ot that which Keeps and encourages him in tleness; and that to neyect this dae tinction in the present is to prepare pauperens and misery forthe fare. By this teing and iscussion not only has practice been peribed fand made more beneficent, but the very cot- ception of beneficence has been made wide: and wiser. Now here the great socal belt= loom ‘consists of two parts! the intinct of beneficence, which makes a certain side of our ature, when predominant, wish to do good to ‘men j and the intellectual conception of benef cence, which we can compare with any Pro posed course of conduct and aak, "Is thi beneficent or not?” By the continual asking ‘THE ETHICS OF BELIEF 1s ‘and answering of such questions the conception (grows in breadth and distinctness, and the Instinct becomes strengthened and pried, Tt appears, thea, that the great use of the con- ception, the intellectual part of the heicloom, is to enable us to asl questions ; that it grows and is kept straight by means of these ques loos ; and if we do not use it fr that purpose wwe shall gradually love it altogether, and. be left with a mere code of regulations which cannot rightly be called morality at all ‘Such considerations apply even more ob- ously and clearly, if possible, to the store of beliefs and conceptions’ which ‘our fathers have amassed for us in respect of the material world. ‘We are eady to laugh atthe rule of thumb of the Australian who continues to te his hatchet to the side of the handle, although, the Bir ‘mingham Sitter bas made a hole oo purpose for him to put the handle fa. His people have ‘Hed up hatchets 40 for ages: who is be that he should set himself up against their wisdom ? He has snk 20 low that be eannot do. what some of them must have done fa thefar distant ‘past—call in question an established wage, and favent or lear something better. Yet hers, the dim beginning of knowledge, where scicce fand art ate ong, we Bnd only the same simple tule which applies to the highest and deepest Growth of tat coumie Tree; to its lofiest« [LECTURES AND ESSAYS fowertipped branches as sell as to the pro- foundest ofits den roots; the rule, namely, that what is stored sp and handed down to us is rightly are by thowe who act as the makers ‘acted, when they stored it up; those who use ie to. ask farther questions, to examine, to investigate; who try honestly and solemnly to find obt what is the right way of looking at things and of dealing with them. ‘A question rightly asked is already half answered, said Jacobi; we may add that the ‘method of solution is the other half of the answer, and that the actual result counts for nothing by the side of these two. For an ex- Ample let us go to the telegraph, where theory fn practice, grown each to years of discretion, aremanellouly wedded fr the fitful service of ‘men, Obm found thatthe strength ofan electric Curent is directly proportional tothe strength of the battery which produces it, and inversely a8 the length of the ize along which t has to travel This is called Obm's law ; but the result, regarded ar a statement to be believed, is not the valuable part of it. The feet hal i the question; what relation holds good between these quantities? "So pat the question involves already the conception of strength of current, and of strength of battery, as quantities to be measured and compared ; it hints clearly that these are the things €0 be attended to in the ‘THE Eruics oF BELIEF stody of electric curents, The second half ie the method of investigation; how to measure these quantities, what fatruments are required for the experiment, and how are they to be ‘sed? The student who begias to leara about lecticity is not asked to believe ig Ohm's law: he is made to understand the question, be is placed before the apparatus, and he is taught to verify it He learns to” do things, not to think he knows things; to use struments and to ask questions, not to accept @ traditional Statement. The guest which required. a genius to ask it rightly is answered by a tra Ae Ons law were suddenly lst and forgotten by all men, while the question and the method of solution remained, the result could be re- discovered nan hour. But the rest by itech If known toa people who eould not comprehend the value of the question or the means of sole ing i, would be lke a watch inthe hands of a savage who could not wind it up, oF an iron Steamship worked by Spanish engineers, In regard, then, fo the sacred tradition of mamanity, we learn tht i cont, notin pro- postions or statements which are to be accepted Ad believed on the authority of the tradition, but in. questions rightly asked, in conceptions which enable us to ask farther questions, and im methods of anewering questions The valve ofall these things depends on thee being tested” [LECTURES AND ESSAYS day by day, The very sacredness of the precious deposit imposes upon us the duty and the responsibilty of testing it, of purifying and talaging it tothe stmost of our power, He ‘who males use of its results to stifle his own doubts, or to bamper the inguty of others, i guilty ofa sacrilege which ceturies shall never be able to blot out. When the labours and aguestioings of honest and brave men shall Ihave bullt up the fabric of known truth to a glory which we fp this generation can neither hope for nor imagine, in that pure and holy’ temple he shall have no. part nor lo, but his ‘name and ‘is works shall be cast ott ito the darknes of oblivion for ever, ‘The question in what cases we may believe that which goes beyond our experience, is a very large and delicate one, extending to the ‘whole range of scientife method, and requiring 4 considerable increase in the- application of it before it can be answered with anything spprosching to completeness But one rule, lying on the threshold ofthe subject of extreme simplicity and vast practical importance, may here be touched upon and shortly laid down, A little reflection will show us that every” Dele even the simplest and most fundamental, ‘Tue ETHICS OF BELIEF » goes beyond experience when regarded as a guide te our actions A burnt child. dreads the fre because it believe that the fre will ‘bum it today just as it did yesterday; but this beef goes beyond experience, and assumes that the unknown Gre of to-day is like the knows fre of yesterday, Even the belie that the child was burnt yesterday goes beyond riimt experience, which contains only the ‘memory of baring, and not the burning itself; Tt assumes, therefore, that this memory is trustworthy, although we Know that a memory may often be mistaken. But if it is to be used as a guide to action, what the fture isto be, it must assume some- thing about that fature, namely, that i will be ‘consistent withthe supposition thatthe burning really took place yesterday ; which is going ‘beyond experience, Even the fundamental “I am" which cannot be doubted, is n0 guide to action until it takes to itself T shall ba” which foes beyond experience The question 5 not, therefore, "May we believe what goes beyond experience?” for this is involved in the very nature of belief; but “How far and in what manner may we add to our experience in forming oar beliefs?” "And an answer, of utter simplicity and universality, is suggested by the example we have taken a burnt child dveads the fire. We= {LECTORES AND ESSAYS may go beyond experience by assuming that Ivhat we do not know i ike what we do know ‘of in other words we may add to our experience fon the assumption of uniformity in nature. ‘What this uniformity precisely is, how we grow in the kmowiedge of it from generation 0 generation, these are questions which for the present we ly aside, being content to examine {wo instances which may serve to make plainer the nature of the rule From certain observations made with the spectroscope, we infer the existence of hydrogen Inthe sun. By looking into the spectrescope ‘when the sun’ is shining on its aly we see Certain defite bright lines and experiments rade upon bodies on the earth have taught us that when these bright lies are seen hydrogen isthe source of them, We assume, then that the unknown bright lines in the sun are lke the lenown bright lines of the laboratory, and that hydrogen in the sun behaves ax hydrogen under similar circumstances would behave onthe earth Bot are we not trsting our spectroscope too much? " Surely, having found it to be trustworthy for terrestrial substances, where ite sMatements can be verlfed by man, we are Justied in accepting its testimony in other lke cases; ut not when it gives us information bout things in the san, where its textimony ‘cannot be diet verified by man? Certainly, we want to know a litle more before thie inference can be justified ; and fortunately we do know this. The spectroscope testifies to exactly the same thing in the two ctses; namely, that light-vibratons of certain fate are being seat through it Is construction is such that if it were wrong. about this fo one case, it would be wrong in the other. When wwe come to look into the matter, we Bod that we have really assumed the matter of the sun to be like the matter of the earth, made up of & certain number of distinct substances ; and that each of these, when very hot, has a distinct rate of vibration, by which it may be resized And singled out from the rest. But thi isthe kind of assumption which we are jastfed io ‘using when we add to our experience It is ‘an assumption of uniformity in nature, and ean only be checked by comparison with many similar assumptions which we have t make in other such cages But i this @ tre belief of the existence of hydrogen in the sun? Can it belp in the right guidance of hurnan action ? Certainly not fit fs accepted on unworthy rounds, and without some understanding. of the process by which it is got at But when this proces is taken in as the ground of the Dele it becomes a very serious and practical matter. For if there is no bydrogen in the= [LECTURES AND ESSAYS sun, the spectroscope —that is to say, the ‘measurement of rates of wibration—amust be an ‘uncertain guide in recognising diferent sub- ‘ances; and consequently it ought not to be ‘used in chemical analysis-—in assaying, for ‘example—to the great Saving of time, troable, fand money. Whereas the acceptance of the spectroscopic method as trustworthy has en- fiched us not only with new metals whichis iret thing, but wth new proceses of investiga- tn, which is vastly greater. "For another example, let us consider the sway in which we infer the truth of an historical event — say the siege of Syracue io the Feloponnesian war, Our experience is that ‘manuscripts exist which are said to be and ‘which call themuelves manuserpts of the history Of Thucydides; that in other manuscript, Stated to be by later historians, he is described a living during the time of the war ; and that books, supposed to date from the revival of teaming, tell us how these manuscripts had been preserved and were then acquired. We fin also that men do not, as a rule, ferge books and bistories without a special motive; we Sisume that ip this respect men io the past were like men in the present ; and we observe {hat in ths case no special motive was present ‘That is, we add to our expericace on the assumption of a uniformity in the characte of ‘THE ETIICS OF BELIEF * mea. Because ou knowledge of thi uniformity is far less complete and exact thaa our know ledge ofthat which obtains in physics, inferences of the historical kind are more precarious and Jess exact than inferences in. many other sciences ‘But if there is any special reason to suspect the character of the persons who wrote or transmitted certain books, the case becomes altered. Ifa group of documents give internal evidence that they were prodaced among people ‘who forged books in the names of others, and Who, ia descrbing events, suppressed those things which did not suit them, while they amplifed such as did sult them ; who not only ‘committed these crimes, bt glored in them as proofs of hurility and zeal; then we must soy hat upon such documents’ 0. true historical Inference can be founded, but only unsatisfactory conjecture. ‘We may, then, 2dd to our experience on the asrumption of a uniformity ia nature; we ‘may fil fo our picture of what is and. has been, ts experience gives it us in such a way a8 t0 tale the whole consistent with this uniformity. ‘And practically demonstrative inferenoe—that which gives us a right to believe i the result of it—is a dear showing that fo no other ‘way than by the truth of this result can the Uniformity of nature be save.= ‘Lecruas AND EssaYs No evidence, therefore, can justify us in believing the truth of a statement which is contrary to, or outside of the uniformity of nature If our experience is such that ‘cannot be filled up consistently with wniformity, all we have aright to conclude is that there is Something wrong somewhere; but the possiblity, of inference is taken away; we must rest in cur experience, aod not go beyond itat all. Tf ‘an event really happened which was not a part Of the uniformity of uature it would have two properties: no evidence cold give the right tw believe it to any except those whose actual experience it was; and no inference worthy of bale could be founded upon it tall ‘Are we then bound to believe that nature is absolutely and universally uniform? Certainly. not; we have no right to believe anything of this ‘Kind, ‘The rule only tells us that in forming beliefs which go beyond our experience, wwe may make the assumption that nature is practically uniform so far a8 we are concerned. ‘Within the range of human action and verifies tion, we may form, by help ofthis assomption, actual beliefs; beyond it only those hypotheses which serve for the more accurate asking of questions “To sum up — We may believe what goes beyond our experience, ony when it is Inferred from that “Tne Exnics oF BELIEF ws ‘experience by the assumption that what we {do not Know is ike what we know, We may believe the statement of another person, when there is reasonable ground for Supposing that he knows the matter of which hhe speaks, and that he is speaking the truth so far a8 be knows ie Te is wrong in all cases to believe on in- sufficient evidence ; and where it is presumption to doubt and to investigate, there itis worse than presumption to belive,