xv INFALLIBILITY AND TOLERATION 275 



it is more than dubious. It is most unpleasantly and 

 directly suggestive of sceptical inferences. If it is held 

 that most men most of the time are deluded when they 

 suppose themselves to be enunciating absolute truth, if it 

 is impossible to show that any one ever succeeds in 

 enunciating such a thing, what does the doctrine of 

 absolute truth become but a subtle and insidious means of 

 discrediting all human truths ? Is not this the explana 

 tion of that paradox of philosophic history, viz. that 

 consistent rationalism always in the end collapses into 

 scepticism ? 



It is clear then that absolute truth is not really an 

 operative idea. It is an ideal that ever recedes into the 

 distance when we try to grasp it. Men are not really 

 infallible, and cannot treat each other as such. The truths 

 they actually deal in are not absolute. The common-sense 

 belief that they are is really an ill-considered prejudice. 



Let us candidly confess, therefore, that not only do 

 we not have absolute truth, but that what we have is 

 enough to content us. Let us boldly say that we do not 

 need absolute truth, that it is a superfluity and an encum 

 brance, and get rid of it in theory as well as in practice. 

 Let us frame a new conception of Truth. Let us strip 

 her aegis of the rigours and terrors that compelled 

 reluctant assent but rendered her unapproachable in her 

 warlike armour, and teach her to dwell peaceably in our 

 midst, to speak our language, and to interest herself in 

 our life. Let us, in a word, humanize Truth, instead of 

 idolizing her as a goddess who is more than half a 

 demon. Let us define the true no longer as what is 

 cogent and compulsory and irresistible, but as what is 

 attractive and valuable and satisfying. Let Truth mean 

 whatever can satisfy our cognitive cravings, whatever can 

 answer a logical problem. And let it mean our best 

 answer for the time being. Let it be conceived, that is, 

 as essentially progressive and improvable, and therefore 

 as superseded by new truth and turning into error so 

 soon as something superior to the old dawns upon any 

 human soul. 



