THOUGHTS ON OUR CONCEPTIONS OF PHYSICAL LAW. 9 



the act, and has no opinion in the matter. About \\it fact there is no uncer- 

 tainty : the ball is either in the box or not. No discussion can affect the matter 

 in the least. The uncertainty is purely a mental affair, its degree depending upon 

 the ability of the observers, their opportunities for investigation, and their previ- 

 ous training. Their differences on this subject will be wholly obliterated by an 

 exposure of the interior of the box, and without the necessity for any discussion 

 whatever. If the box cannot be opened, the matter will remain a legitimate sub- 

 ject for dispute. The fact that competent men think a subject worthy of dispute 

 seems to me a good indication that the matter is, humanly speaking, uncertain. 

 That unpleasant thing called intolerance, in those cases in which it is accom- 

 panied with sincerity, arises from an inability to see these points, and hence we 

 have A making strenuous efforts to convert B and C to his own opinion, failing in 

 which, he proceeds to burn them, to imprison them, to lampoon them in the 

 newspapers, or to do some of the more quiet, but scarcely less effective things, 

 characteristic of our own times, that the spirit of the age will permit. Perhaps no 

 blame is to be attached to such acts. If they are failings, they are simply to be 

 counted in with the other failings to which well meaning men are liable, and 

 when the evil effects fall heavily upon us, it is perhaps wise to endure them with 

 philosophic calmness, along with the other misfortunes which for some reason or 

 other seem incident to human life. 



In conclusion, allow me to say, that it seems quite probable that human wel- 

 fare does not require us to sit in judgment on the ideas of others. Thoughtful 

 men are becomhig more and more impressed with the vastness of the unknown, 

 and the comparative insignificance of human achievement, while the demonstra- 

 ted fallibility of human reason leads them to temperance and modesty of thought 

 and expression ; to appreciation, as well as toleration, of opposition and doubt. 

 • Certain it is, that if we preserve our intellectual integrity, we shall be unable to 

 settle many of the problems that interest us most. If we decide upon some of 

 them, and other persons still reserve their Judgment or decide differently, we need 

 not lose our tempers ; they have not only decided differently from us, but we 

 have also decided differently from them. It is important to notice that neither of 

 these decisions has affected the truth in the least. If we feel called upon to defend 

 the truth, we are, after all, only defending ysi\idX\NQ believe lo be truth, and possibly 

 against men as honest and as able as ourselves- But why should we defend the 

 truth? So long as the heart of humanity shaU pulsate, will not truth be cherished 

 there ? Why would it not be far better for each one to put himself in the attitude 

 of a reverent searcher iox truth? remembering always, that the little decisions that 

 we may reach are possibly wrong, that all of the honesty and ability in the world 

 is not concentrated within ourselves, and the comparatively few who think as we 

 do, and that one can do nothing nobler, than to make himself as intelligent and 

 humane as possible, resolutely following out his highest convictions, and living 

 at peace with himself, and with all men. 



