MR. BALFOUR'S DIALECTICS. 329 



may minister to needs and aspirations which science can not 

 meet." * And then, further on, respecting a certain " patchwork 

 scheme of belief," he says " If and in so far as it really meets 

 their needs I have nothing to say against it, and can hold out 

 small hope of bettering it. It is much more satisfactory as re- 

 gards its content than Naturalism." f 



Is there not in these passages an indirect begging of the ques- 

 tion ? The title of Mr. Balfour's work is The Foundations of Be- 

 lief. Belief in what ? Not in any of those doctrines which he 

 groups together under the name of Naturalism ; but in the op- 

 posed doctrine, Supernaturalism belief in a Ruling Power such 

 as that which the current creed asserts. If the existence of such 

 a Power is tacitly assumed by the arguments urged in proof of it, 

 the reasoning is circular. But unless the existence of such a 

 Power is assumed, how can it be assumed that the constitution of 

 things is one which " ministers " to men's " needs and aspirations," 

 or provides a theory which is " satisfactory" ? In the absence of 

 the assumption that things have been by some agency prearranged 

 for men's benefit, there seems no reason to expect the order of the 

 Universe to be one which provides for men's mental "needs and 

 aspirations " ; and that the truth of a theory may be judged by 

 the degree in which it conforms to such expectation. 



Tests furnished by other creeds clearly show this. If a North 

 American Indian, confidently looking forward to a " happy hunt- 

 ing-ground" after death, is told that there is no such place, is the 

 fact that the creed offered to him negatives his hopes a reason for 

 rejecting it ? When the baselessness of his belief in an unlimited 

 supply of houris to be hereafter provided, is shown to a Mahom- 

 medan, may he urge that his " needs and aspirations " can not be 

 otherwise satisfied, and that therefore his faith must be true ? Or 

 once more, if to the half-starved and over-worked Hindoo, to whom 

 it is a consolatory thought that by placing himself under the 

 wheel of Juggernaut's car he may forthwith ascend to heaven, 

 there comes the demonstration that he can not thus gain happi- 

 ness, is the fact that the alternative belief is not " satisfactory " a 

 sufficient ground for adhering to his superstition ? Doubtless the 

 needs and satisfactions which Mr. Balfour has in view are of a 

 higher order than those instanced, but that does not alter the is- 

 sue. The question is whether the comforting character of a belief 

 is an adequate reason for entertaining it ; and the answer to this 

 question is not to be determined by the quality of the comfort 

 looked for, as high or low. 



The truth is that Mr. Balfour's view, here tacitly implied, is a 

 more refined form of that primitive view which regards things as 



* The Foundations of Belief p. 186. f Ibid., p. 187. 



vol. xlvii. 27 



