THE PSYCHOLOGY OF BELIEF. 233 



it is habitually exercised, and that the nerve-tracks then laid down 

 are maintained through life, even though disused, far more per- 

 sistently than any that result from subsequent mental modifica- 

 tions, will most fully realize to himself the extreme importance of 

 this No/.tos — the influence unconsciously exerted by the family life, 

 the public opinion of the school and college, and the usages and 

 habits of thought and feeling of the particular social class as a 

 member of which the youth makes his first entrance into the 

 world — not only in moulding the moral character, but in building 

 up the fabric of thought. And it operates in this special way — 

 that it shapes our mental recesses to the forms and dimensions of 

 certain ancestral pieces of furniture that are waiting to be put into 

 them ; so that as the fabric is growing up, and one room is ready 

 after another, these respectable beliefs find their appropriate 

 places ; the recipient never dreams of questioning their inherent 

 use and value, because they " fit " in so perfectly ; and so long as 

 nothing occurs to make him doubt the security of his walls, and 

 he does not experience any special inconvenience from the antique 

 awkwardness of his furniture, he continues to give it a place, to 

 the exclusion of articles of newer fashion and more attractive 

 exterior. 



In so far, then, as the fabric of thought of each individual 

 has been built up by influences external to himself, he cannot be 

 regarded as in any sense responsible for his acceptance of beliefs 

 which that fabric has been shaped to receive ; but he does 

 become responsible, when the time comes for him to think for 

 himself, to examine into the foundations of his knowledge, to test 

 the goodness of its materials, and to try the security of its con- 

 struction. Any one who is restrained from doing this, whether by 

 passive indolence or by timorous apprehension of the possible 

 results of inquiry, either to his own worldly interests or to those 

 of others, is liable some time or other to find his fabric of thought 

 overthrown, and himself buried in its ruins ; and even though no 

 wave should dash, no lightning-flash should shatter, it may ulti- 

 timately fall to pieces from sheer decay. Every one, on the other 

 hand, who recognizes his obligation to make the best use in his 

 power of the faculties with which he finds himself gifted, and who 

 looks at the search for truth as his noblest object, the attainment 



