VII. 

 ON THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BELIEF. 



[The Roscoe lecture, delivered before the Literary and Philosophical 

 Society of Liverpool, November 24, 1873.] 



The progress of thought has been likened, by an able writer of 

 our time, to a succession of waves which sweep over the minds of 

 men at distant intervals : — 



" There are periods of comparative calm and stagnation, and 

 " then times of gradual swelling and upheaving of the deep, till 

 " some great billow slowly rears its crest above the surface, higher 

 "and still higher, to the last; when, with a mighty convulsion, 

 "amid foam and spray, and 'noise of many waters,' it topples 

 " over and bursts in thunder up the beach, bearing the flood line 

 " higher than before." 



" In the eyes of those who have watched intelligently the signs 

 " of the times," continued Miss Cobbe, " it seems that some such 

 " wave as this is even now gathering beneath us, a deeper and 

 " broader wave than has ever yet arisen. No partial and tem- 

 " porary rippling of the surface is it now, but a whole mass of 

 " living thought seems steadily and slowly upheaved, and the 

 "ocean is moved to its depths." * 



The experience of the last ten years has so fully justified this 



grave warning, that it clearly becomes all who duly care for their 



own and their children's welfare, to looic well to the foundations of 



their beliefs, which are likely soon to be tested by such a wave as 



* Preface to the collected works of Theodore Parker, 1863. 



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