CHAPTER XIV 



FREEDOM OF THOUGHT 



Authority aud Knowledge in Science — The Duty of Doubt — 

 Authority and Individual Judgment in Religion — The 

 Protestant Position — Sir Charles Lyell and the Deluge — 

 Infallibility — The Church and Science — Morality and 

 Dogma — Civil aud Religious Diberty — Agnosticism and 

 Clericalism — Meaning of Agnosticism — 'Knowledge and 

 Evidence — The Method of Agnosticism. 



IN the practice of modern law-courts, a witness rarely 

 is allowed to offer as evidence any statement for 

 which he himself is not the direct authority. What he 

 himself saw or heard or did with regard to the matter 

 at issue — these, and not what others told him thej^ had 

 seen or heard or done, are the limits within which he is 

 allowed to be a competent witness. As a matter of 

 fact, in the business of life we have to act differently. 

 A large proportion of our opinions, beliefs, and reasons 

 for conduct must come to us on the authorit}^ of others. 

 We have no direct experience of the past ; of the pre- 

 sent we can see little and onlj- the little immediately 

 surrounding us. In a multitude of affairs we have to 

 act on authority, to accept from books or from persons 

 what we have not ourselves the opportunity of know- 

 ing. It would seem, then, to be a primary duty to 



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