IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE 349 



Such are a few of the new conceptions implanted in our 

 minds by the improvement of natural knowledge. Men 

 have acquired the ideas of the practically infinite extent 

 of the universe and of its practical eternity ; they are 

 familiar with the conception that our earth is but an 

 infinitesimal fragment of that part of the universe which 

 can be seen ; and that, nevertheless, its duration is, as 

 compared with our standards of time, infinite. They have 

 further acquired the idea that man is but one of innumerable 

 forms of life now existing in the globe, and that the present 

 existences are but the last 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 improvement 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 intellectual 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 soundest 

 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 accepted 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. 



The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to 



