SECT. 10.] Measurement of Belief . 129 



ceeded for the most part in controlling this tendency in 

 games of chance, the spirit of reckless speculation has 

 scarcely yet been banished from commerce. On examination, 

 this tendency will be found so prevalent in all ages, ranks, 

 and dispositions, that it would be inadmissible to neglect it in 

 order to bring our supposed instincts more closely into ac 

 cordance with the commonly received theories of Probability. 

 10. There is another aspect of this question which has 

 been often overlooked, but which seems to deserve some 

 attention. Granted that we have an instinct of credence, 

 why should it be assumed that this must be just of that in 

 tensity which subsequent experience will justify ? Our 

 instincts are implanted in us for good purposes, and are in 

 tended to act immediately and unconsciously. They are, 

 however, subject to control, and have to be brought into 

 accordance with what we believe to be true and right. In 

 other departments of psychology we do not assume that 

 every spontaneous prompting of nature is to be left just as 

 we find it, or even that on the average, omitting individual 

 variations, it is set at that pitch that will be found in the 

 end to be the best when we come to think about it and assign 

 its rules. Take, for example, the case of resentment. Here 

 we have an instinctive tendency, and one that on the whole 

 is good in its results. But moralists are agreed that almost 

 all our efforts at self-control are to be directed towards sub 

 duing it and keeping it in its right direction. It is assumed 

 to be given as a sort of rough protection, and to be set, if 

 one might so express oneself, at too high a pitch to be 

 deliberately and consciously acted on in society. May not 

 something of this kind be the case also with our belief? 

 I only make a passing reference to this point here, as on 

 the theory of Probability adopted in this work it does not 

 appear to be at all material to the science. But it seems 

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