i o8 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



of science and religion set out to convince us of the truth of the 

 Sublime Vision. They all wear armour and are seated on white 

 war-steeds. We learn from the Introduction that they conducted 

 the tournament in a place called Browning Hall at Walworth, 

 London, in November, 1914, and were quite victorious. 

 " Materialism had a very bad time of it at their hands. Haeckel 

 was dismissed as ' hopelessly out-of-date and antiquated.'" In 

 other words, those who questioned the truth of the Sublime 

 Vision were routed. As each Knight advanced in turn, dressed 

 in full armour, with his plumes streaming on the wind, he 

 invariably upset his Paynim adversary. We can understand 

 the roars of applause which arose from the crowd ; for what is 

 not the Sublime Vision worth to each of us — more than comfort 

 to the bereaved, more than old age pensions to the poor, more 

 than health to the sick, more than strength to the feeble, victory 

 to the weak, assurance to the coward, and finally life everlasting 

 to the dying. Is not all this the greatest possible boon to 

 humanity ; and what is there in health, wealth, prosperity or 

 long life that can equal such a gift ? And yet we can all acquire 

 it at a moment merely by thinking with the eyes closed. 

 Naturally then the victors in this combat were acclaimed, and 

 will be acclaimed by thousands. 



We would not for worlds disturb this complacency if we 

 could ; but still, really, some of the deeds performed appear to 

 the old soldier scarcely quite up to form. In fact there is some- 

 what too much of the great per saltum feat, by which the knight 

 in the tournament takes all the opposing difficulties at a single 

 bound. The redoubtable leader of the band, Sir Oliver himself, 

 seems never to tire of exhibiting this somewhat questionable 

 performance. We first force our adversary to admit that some- 

 thing can or may just possibly exist, and then we immediately 

 assume, because he cannot prove the contrary, that it really 

 does exist. In fact the ruse succeeds by causing a clever con- 

 fusion in the minds of the dull audience between a " may be" 

 and an " is." Now unfortunately there is a very great interval 

 between these things. Using Cartesian co-ordinates, we should 

 say that an absolute positive certainty consists of an infinity of 

 positive reason-units. Gradually, as negative reason-units are 

 introduced, the certainty shrinks first to a mere probability, 

 then to a zero, and the judgment then begins to emerge upon 

 the negative side of the origin, until, when the negative units 



