CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE. 189 



courts of law, is the other way ; and I think it more than probable, 

 had Captain Donellan now been put upon his trial (whatever opi- 

 nion we may form of his actual guilt), that the judicial result 

 would have been different. 



All scientific investigation leads to rules of art, which have been 

 most accurately described to be " a collection of general observa- 

 tions, suggested by long experience, with respect to the most com- 

 pendious methods of performing- every different step of the process 

 which the art involves." J There are "indolent discoverers," as 

 Lord Bacon terms them, who, " seeing nothing but sea and sky, ab- 

 solutely deny that there can be any land beyond them." If time 

 permitted, we might satisfactorily deduce from experience and obser- 

 vation a series of rules, like so many moral safety lamps, for the 

 conduct of the understanding in matters of controverted facts depend- 

 ing upon circumstantial evidence, calculated to lead to the formation 

 of correct and exact judgment, and to leave no other source of uncer- 

 tainty or fallacy than the possibility of error which, by an inherent 

 necessity, belongs to every human judgment. Infallibility belongs 

 not to man, and his strongest assurance must ever be accompanied 

 by the possibility of mistake ; but the existence of society, no less 

 than that of individuals, requires that we form our most important 

 determinations upon conflicting and upon circumstantial evidence. 

 Nor is the difficulty or uncertainty greater in this than in many 

 other equally important subjects. No one has ever yet been able 

 to define the line which separates lunacy from malignity, impunity 

 from accountability. No chart has yet marked every sunken rock, 

 and even the pointings of the needle are subject to disturbing causes, 

 and cannot always save the mariner from shipwreck. 



Too much stress is often laid, in the discussion of moral evidence, 

 and particularly in cases of circumstantial evidence, upon unimpor- 

 tant discrepancies. Variations in the relations by different persons, 

 in respect of unimportant circumstances, are not necessarily indica- 

 tive of fraud or falsehood, provided there be substantial agreement. 

 True strength of mind consists in not allowing our judgments, when 

 founded upon convincing evidence, to be disturbed because there 

 may be immaterial discrepancies which cannot be reconciled. Con- 

 sider the vast inherent differences in individuals with respect to their 

 natural faculties, and acquired habits of accurate observation, faith- 

 ful recollection, and precise narration, and the influence of intellec- 

 tual and moral culture, and it will not be surprising that we seldom 



X Stewart, Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. i., p. 50. 



