1 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



suggest to the man of science that such conclusions are not 

 always justifiable. 



We are very apt to wander here into the thickets of dogma. 

 Men have become accustomed to consider themselves to be all 

 equally heirs of heaven. They like to maintain that their 

 faculty of reasoning is a part of the spirit which they all 

 possess ; and from this datum they assume that they can all 

 reason equally well. But if we analyse the strands of which 

 reasoning is woven we shall begin to doubt such a doctrine. 

 We perceive that all the other faculties of the mind are subject 

 to great variation in different individuals. Take the musical 

 faculty, for example : most men and women are able to enjoy 

 the pleasures of melody and harmony ; but some have " no ear 

 for music," while others are so eminently gifted with it that 

 they become Mozarts and Wagners. The same holds with 

 regard to the appreciation of poetry, painting, sculpture, and 

 architecture. Science itself is a remarkable case in point, 

 because, while some persons can scarcely endure even to 

 think of a scientific problem, and others become Newtons 

 and Kelvins, the mass of mankind can do no more than com- 

 prehend with difficulty what they are taught as to the great 

 laws discovered by people more gifted than themselves. Similar 

 variations are to be seen as regards the lower faculties of the 

 mind — the hand-and-eye faculty which gives us success in sports, 

 the dexterity necessary in many arts, the readiness of speech 

 required in Parliament and the law courts, and even the clever- 

 ness which certainly so often leads to success in life. Yet we 

 seem to think that we can all reason, if we choose, with equal 

 exactitude, and are very much hurt if others doubt our capacity 

 in this respect. 



The extreme degrees of irrationalism constitute insanity; 

 and lower degrees are found in a large proportion of persons 

 who cannot be called insane, but are recognised as being 

 stupid — slow in apprehension and inaccurate in judgment. But 

 irrationalism covers more than insanity and stupidity. It is 

 frequently found in men and women of very quick appre- 

 hension and of very good judgment in many affairs — especially 

 in those which concern their every-day life. They are often 

 agreeable, good, well-instructed, accomplished, successful, and 

 even capable or distinguished ; and in their own business or 

 profession may excel better reasoners than themselves. But 



