" THE METAPHYSICAL SOCIETY:' 807 



been made had not that working hypothesis been assumed. Indeed, 

 what evidence has any man even for the existence of his own home 

 and family, better than that of a fruitful hypothesis, which has time 

 after time resulted in the expected verification ? No man can be 

 absolutely certain that the home he left an hour ago is standing where 

 it did, or that the family he left in it are still in life ; still, if he acts 

 on the hypothesis that they are there, he will, in innumerable cases, 

 be rewarded for making that assumption, by finding his expectations 

 verified, and in but a very few cases indeed be disappointed. 



If, then, Dr. Ward asks, said Professor Huxley, whether or not 

 I hold that experience can, in a mathematical sense, prove the uni- 

 formity of Nature, I answer that I do not believe it ; that I believe 

 only that, in the assumption of that uniformity of Nature, we have a 

 working hypothesis of the most potent kind, which I have never found 

 to fail me. But further, if I might use the word " believe " loosely, 

 though with much less looseness than that with which men who are 

 not students of science habitually use it, I should not hesitate to avow 

 a belief that the uniformity of Nature is proved by experience, for I 

 should be only too glad to think that half the " demonstrated " beliefs 

 of metaphysicians are even a tenth part as trustworthy as the great 

 working hypothesis of science. The man of science, however, " who 

 commits himself to even one statement which turns out to be devoid 

 of good foundation, loses somewhat of his reputation among his fel- 

 lows, and if he is guilty of the same error often he loses not only his 

 intellectual but his moral standing among them ; for it is justly felt 

 that errors of this kind have their root rather in the moral than in the 

 intellectual nature." That, I suppose, is the reason why men of sci- 

 ence are so chary of investigating the trustworthiness of the soi-disant 

 miracles to which Dr. Ward is so anxious that we should pay an at- 

 tention much greater than any which in my opinion they deserve. 

 For the scientific man justly fears that, if he investigates them thor- 

 oughly, he shall wound many amiable men's hearts, and that if he does 

 not wound amiable men's hearts he shall compromise his own character 

 as a man of science. 



As Professor Huxley's rich and resonant voice died away, Father 

 Dalgairns, after looking modestly round to see whether any one else 

 desired to speak, began in tones of great sweetness : Professor 

 Huxley has implied that to the scientific student the words " I be- 

 lieve " have a stricter and more binding force than they have to us 

 theologians. If it really be so, it is very much to our shame, for no 

 words can be conceived which are to us more solemn and more charged 

 with moral obligation. But I confess that the drift of Professor 

 Huxley's remarks hardly bore out to my mind the burden of his pero- 

 ration. It seems that " a working hypothesis " is the modest phrase 

 which represents even the very maximum of scientific belief, for 

 would Professor Huxley admit that he has any belief, except of course 



