206 POSSIBILITIES AND IMPOSSIBILITIES vi 



taken as true, in the latter as untrue ; until some- 

 thing arises to modify the verdict, which, however 

 properly reached, may always be more or less 

 wrong, the best information being never complete, 

 and the best reasoning being liable to fallacy. 



To quarrel with the uncertainty that besets us 

 in intellectual affairs, would be about as reasonable 

 as to object to live one's life, with due thought for 

 the morrow, because no man can be sure he will 

 be alive an hour hence. Such are the conditions 

 imposed upon us by nature, and we have to make 

 the best of them. And I think that the greatest 

 mistake those of us who are interested in the pro- 

 gress of free thought can make is to overlook these 

 limitations, and to deck ourselves with the dog- 

 matic feathers which are the traditional adorn- 

 ment of our opponents. Let us be content with 

 rational certainty, leaving irrational certainties to 

 those who like to muddle their minds with them. 

 I cannot see my way to say that demons are im- 

 possibilities ; but I am not more certain about any- 

 thing, than I am that the evidence tendered in 

 favour of the demonology, of which the Gadarene 

 story is a typical example, is utterly valueless. I 

 cannot see my way to say that it is " impossible " 

 that the hunger of thousands of men should be 

 satisfied out of the food supplied by .half-a-dozen 

 loaves and a fish or two ; but it seems to me mon- 

 strous that I should be asked to believe it on the 

 faith of the five stories which testify to such an 



