AS TO OURSELVES 



Now the contrasts between true skepti- 

 cism and incredulity are these. Skepticism 

 is deliberate, distrustful of appearances, 

 grave, and candid. Incredulity needs no 

 thought, but is peremptory and scornful, 

 and not being reasonable it cannot be rea- 

 soned with. The one is a high and strong 

 mental virtue, because it acknowledges no 

 authority but that of reason. The other is 

 a sign of mental debility, since the sup- 

 posed verdict of the bodily senses is its 

 all-sufficient authority. Because intrin- 

 sically they are of the same nature, both 

 credulity and incredulity may be found in 

 the same person. There are those who 

 contemptuously brush aside the greatest 

 achievements of medical science as they 

 would a gnat, and then readily swallow a 

 whole line of camels laden with the cures 

 of so-called Christian Science. Incredu- 

 lity was illustrated by a king of Siam who 

 angrily ordered a traveller out of his pres- 

 181 



