18 
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BELIEF, IN 
REFERENCE TO ILLUSIONS AND 
HALLUCINATIONS. 
By Rev. T, ORMEROD, B.Sc. 17th January, 19065. 

Belief.is a condition of mind intermediate between Imagination 
and Certainty. Imagination is the pure product of mind unfet- 
tered by considerations of reality. For example, seated in an 
arm-chair smoking a pipe I can imagine myself killing a lion with 
a blow of my fist, but I can hardly believe that any such achieve- 
ment is possible. The field of imagination is much wider than 
that of belief. This is evidently the case, for belief is restricted 
by external considerations of likelihood and probability, as well 
as by our knowledge of and perception of reality in the world 
around us. The sphere of certainty or knowledge is even more 
limited, it is belief which has been verified by comparison with 
and agreement with ascertained fact. ‘To say “I believe that 
two and two make four ”’ is strictly a misuse of language ; this is 
a matter of knowledge, not belief. The way in which we arrive 
at what we call knowledge is instructive in the study of the nature 
of belief, because the formative processes of the two things are 
almost identical. We arrive at the facts of knowledge in two or 
three ways :— 
1. By the regular observation of constant occurrences and 
sequences, however many times we repeat our experiment the 
same invariable reeult presents itself. The rising of the sun 
in the East every morning is an example in point. 
2. The statements made to us by some trusted teacher or 
friend we regard as almost, if not quite, equal in authority to 
absolute observations of our own. ‘Thus, a Missionary friend 
describes the manners and customs of a race living in Central 
Africa, and his description may well be regarded as an item 
of knowledge. 
3. The method adopted by the Scientist in the formulation 
of his theories brings us to the borderline between knowledge 
and belief. He marshals an array of facts bearing upon the 
subject in hand, and then devises an explanation which 
