VII. 

 ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BELIEF. 



[The Roscoc lecture, delivered before the Literary and Philosophical 

 Society of Liverpool, Novcmtx-T 24, 1873.] 



THK progress of thought has been likened, by an able writer of 

 our time, to a succession of waves which sweep over the minds of 

 men at distant intervals : 



&quot; There are periods of comparative calm and stagnation, and 

 &quot;then times of gradual swelling and upheaving of the deep, till 

 &quot; some great billow slowly rears its crest above the surface, higher 

 &quot;and still higher, to the last; when, with a mighty convulsion, 

 &quot;amid foam and spray, and noise of many waters, it topples 

 &quot; over and bursts in thunder up the beach, bearing the flood line 

 &quot; higher than before.&quot; 



&quot; In the eyes of those who have watched intelligently the signs 

 &quot;of the times,&quot; continued Miss Cobbe, &quot;it seems that some such 

 &quot; wave as this is even now gathering beneath us, a deeper and 

 &quot; broader wave than has ever yet arisen. No partial and tcm- 

 &quot;porary rippling of the surface is it now, but a whole mass of 

 &quot;living thought seems steadily and slowly upheaved, and the 

 &quot;ocean is moved to its depths.&quot; * 



The experience of the last ten years has so fully justified this 



grave warning, that it clearly becomes all who duly care for their 



own and their children s welfare, to look well to the foundations of 



their beliefs, which are likely soon to be tested by such a wave as 



* Preface to the collected works of Theodore Parker, 1863. 



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