492 EDUCATION 



training in habits of thought was due, apparently, to an unusual 

 combination of accidents. There existed an enthusiasm for mental 

 development, the religion offered little or no opposition, the supply 

 of verified and systematized knowledge was small ; therefore the 

 teachers could train, and did train their pupils in little besides 

 methods of thought. In modern times the supply of facts is so 

 enormous that the tendency is to teach nothing else facts of 

 language, history, geography, zoology, and the like. 



807. Third, the * fact ' that the world is flat may be conveyed 

 to the pupil in such a way that he holds it, as an article of faith, 

 with a sentimental devotion that has for its correlate an active 

 dislike or blank disregard of all evidence that tends to controvert 

 it. Of course, all men do not hold their faiths in this way. 

 Faith, even religious faith, may be associated with an open mind. 

 But there is evidence all around us that men may be taught to 

 hold it thus. This kind of thinking is essentially sectarian, and 

 is very different from that which we have just considered. It, also, 

 deals with the relation of cause and effect; but the criteria for 

 evidence and proof are not the same. The learner is taught to 

 appeal not to reality, but to authority, and to value his facts and 

 hypotheses not in proportion as they are capable of verification 

 and of being linked together by chains of reasoning, but in pro- 

 portion as the facts have been gathered in a particular field (e.g. 

 Christian, Mohammedan, Hindoo, experimental) and the hypo- 

 theses have been formulated by particular persons. Under 

 the influence of such teaching, not only is a given * fact ' 

 accepted by the pupil, but an attitude of mind is created which 

 co-religionists (e.g. modern Mohammedans) describe as one of 

 simple or steadfast faith, but which opponents (e.g. modern 

 Christians) term superstitious or fanatical. Both descriptions are 

 correct. A superstition is a religious prejudice which is fanatical 

 when the emotional bias is very strong. It is not necessarily 

 an untrue, but only an unverified belief held in a certain 

 obstinate, unreasoning way, which renders the mind more or 

 less incapable of profiting from fresh experience. A faith that 

 will be maintained in spite of evidence that it is untrue, is both 

 simple and steadfast, and superstitious and prejudiced. Obviously ', 

 then, as regards mental habits, it is not the truth or untruth of 

 a doctrine that matters, but the attitude of mind. Doubtless, all 

 of us hold many untrue beliefs. They are not prejudices if founded 

 on ignorance or on mere bad judgment. On the other hand, a 

 truth, which its pioneers discovered because they had open minds, 



