INTIMIDA TION. 



could neither be in great haste to decide, nor would he 

 desire to be excused from deciding, although he would 

 yield nothing out of fear that if he refused to yield a little 

 at once he might be forced to yield very much more than 

 he was disposed at a future time. He would be ready to 

 yield all to reason, but would not be led away by sophistry, 

 or frightened into acquiescence by intimidation. His 

 actions would be uninfluenced by panic or by threats, and, 

 in short, he would be far less likely to be misled than the 

 accommodating man, who suggested to his friends that if 

 such and such a notion did after all turn out to be true, 

 only a slight change in front would be necessitated only a 

 slight shifting of the point of view, and nothing more than 

 modification of opinion rendered imperative. The position 

 of those who aim at truth only, although certain to be un- 

 popular, must in fact be strong and unassailable in any case. 

 To me it seems almost a ridiculous proposition that 

 many intelligent persons should be persuaded to discard 

 history and the beliefs of thousands of the best and most 

 thoughtful of our predecessors, because some few calling 

 themselves philosophers affirm, without any good reason for 

 such assertions, that our brains have been built by the sun, 

 that man is mere matter, and that consciousness has its 

 mechanical equivalent. These and many other statements 

 that have been arrogantly put forward are not true. Well- 

 informed people know that they are not true, though most 

 are too timid, or indisposed for other insufficient reasons, to 

 formally contradict or condemn these positive assertions, or 

 they consider it a waste of time to advance arguments against 

 them. 



