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 arid 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- 



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



CT&ristian, Mohammedan, Hindoo, experimental) and the hypo- 



thes^es have been formulated by particular persons. Under 



the ^influence f sucn 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 



simplep 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/i the emotional bias is very strong. It is not necessarily 



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



obstinate, unreasoning way, which renders the mind more or 



lejjss incapable of profiting from fresh experience. A faith that 



via'ill be maintained in spite of evidence that it is untrue, is both 



ysimple 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, 



