14 THE DOCTRINE OF DESCENT. 



stands in connection with these objects, if its conditions 

 are moral and not arbitrary, it is not contrary to nature 

 and its purpose, but in the highest sense conformable 

 to it." 



Thus as soon as belief in miracle comes into conflict 

 with the investigation of nature, it says : " You overstep 

 your limits, and must here suspend your judgment 

 It is a question of a higher moral object ; the domain 

 of ethics is higher than that of physics, and therefore 

 a higher causality, which physicists have no right to 

 criticise, has suspended the chain of cause and effect 

 with which you naturalists are familiar." This passage 1 , 

 in which one of the most learned and honoured 

 champions of the belief in miracle lays down, like a 

 sophist, the limits of the investigation of nature, is, 

 however, among the most moderate of its kind. But our 

 point of view and our logic differ radically from that 

 of antagonists of this description, in one particular, 

 namely, that to us the opposite to knowledge is igno- 

 rance, whereas they supplement knowledge by a so- 

 called higher knowledge, and by faith. 



While holding by the maxim of Pico della Mirandola, 

 " Philosophy seeks, Theology finds, Religion possesses 

 the Truth," 2 it is forgotten that there are truths and 

 truths. The subjective visions and sensations of sound 

 by which the mentally diseased are excited and alarmed, 

 are to them a reality, yet a reality quite different to that 

 of the sights and sounds received through the healthy 

 organs of the senses. Philosophy and science seek that 

 truth which is deduced from the palpable connection 

 of things. But the other truths, so often negatived by 

 the former, are generally impalpable, and are incom- 



