32 ON IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE 



of an immeasurable series of predecessors. Moreover, 

 every step they have made in natural knowledge has 

 tended to extend and rivet in their minds the conception 

 of a definite order of the universe which is embodied 

 in what are called, by an unhappy metaphor, the laws 

 of Nature and to narrow the range and loosen the 

 force of men's belief in spontaneity, or in changes other 

 than such as arise out of that definite order itself. 



Whether these ideas are well or ill founded is not 

 the question. No one can deny that they exist, and 

 have been the inevitable outgrowth of the improve- 

 ment of natural knowledge. And if so, it cannot be 

 doubted that they are changing the form of men's 

 most cherished and most important convictions. 



And as regards the second point the extent to 

 which the improvement of natural knowledge has 

 remodelled and altered what may be termed the intel- 

 lectual ethics of men, what are among the moral 

 convictions most fondly held by barbarous and semi- 

 barbarous people? 



They are the convictions that authority is the sound- 

 est basis of belief; that merit attaches to a readiness 

 to believe; that the doubting disposition is a bad one, 

 and scepticism a sin; that when good authority has 

 pronounced what is to be believed, and faith has ac- 

 cepted it, reason has no further duty. There are many 

 excellent persons who yet hold by these principles, and 

 it is not my present business, or intention, to discuss 

 their views. All I wish to bring clearly before your 

 minds is the unquestionable fact, that the improvement 

 of natural knowledge is effected by methods which 

 directly give the lie to all these convictions, and assume 

 the exact reverse of each to be true. 



