ii2 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1868- 



must lie at the foundation of all explanations of human 

 knowledge and belief. The sifting of the masses of 

 evidence where the character of the witness is not access 

 ible does fall under the rules of mere probability ; but 

 no one can deny that it is possible for one human soul 

 to penetrate into another with such full appreciation and 

 sympathy as to render faith in that other something 

 far deeper than a mere balancing of probabilities. 



Clearly it is a faith of this sort that must lie at the 

 bottom of Christianity. A faith in mere probable 

 evidence may be good ground for calling a man acute or 

 stupid, but can never be a subject for moral blame or 

 approbation. But my faith in a fellow-man is a subject 

 on which I am not only allowed but bound to show 

 warmth of feeling. If a man doubts the veracity of my 

 friend, whose pure and guileless character he has had 

 every means of learning, I am bound to resent the insult. 

 A truth that I believe on a friend s testimony becomes 

 morally sacred to me. Here and here only do we find 

 the type of the feeling with which every Christian regards 

 divine truth. 



A belief in certain truths resolving itself ultimately 

 into a belief in a person may of course have various 

 degrees. I may so far understand and believe in a man 

 without that thorough interpretation of character above 

 described. All certainty in history may be referred to 

 this. History that merely balances probabilities is never 

 certain ; but where we have a historian in whose works 

 we may so far read his character, we have a basis for 

 higher certainty. In estimating the evidence of an 

 event, each man must learn for himself to enter into the 

 historian s mind. The argument can never be reduced 

 to mere calculation. And yet we do not find that the 

 standard of historical truth is necessarily vague or doubt 

 ful, and therefore we must conclude that one man can 

 really be known by others even if we have only his writings 

 or actions before us, and never met him face to face. 



