38 APHORISMS AND REFLECTIONS 



The development of exact natural knowledge in 

 all its vast range, from physics to history and 

 criticism, is the consequence of the working out, 

 in this province, of the resolution to "take nothing 

 for truth without clear knowledge that it is such " ; 

 to consider all beliefs open to criticism ; to regard 

 the value of authority as neither greater nor less 

 than as much as it can prove itself to be worth. 

 The modern spirit is not the spirit "which always 

 denies," delighting only in destruction ; still less is 

 it that which builds castles in the air rather than 

 not construct ; it is that spirit which works and 

 will work "without haste and without rest," gather- 

 ing harvest after harvest of truth into its barns 

 and devouring error with unquenchable fire. 



In truth, the laboratory is the fore-court of the 

 temple of philosophy ; and whoso has not offered 

 sacrifices and undergone purification there has little 

 chance of admission into the sanctuary. 



The memorable service rendered to the cause 

 of sound thinking by Descartes consisted in this : 

 that he laid the foundation of modern philosophical 

 criticism by his inquiry into the nature of certainty 



There is no question in the mind of anyone 

 acquainted with the facts that, so far as observation 

 and experiment can take us, the structure and the 

 functions of the nervous system are fundamentally 





