Essays on Life 



may be said, of course, that the action of the 

 offspring in each of these cases was due to 

 accidental coincidence only. Anything can 

 be said, but the question turns not on what an 

 advocate can say, but on what a reasonably 

 intelligent and disinterested jury will believe ; 

 granted they might be mistaken in accepting 

 the foregoing stories, but the world of science, 

 like that of commerce, is based on the faith 

 or confidence, which both creates and sustains 

 them. Indeed the universe itself is but the 

 creature of faith, for assuredly we know of 

 no other foundation. There is nothing so 

 generally and reasonably accepted not even 

 our own continued identity but questions 

 may be raised about it that will shortly prove 

 unanswerable. We cannot so test every six- 

 pence given us in change as to be sure that 

 we never take a bad one, and had better some- 

 times be cheated than reduce caution to an 

 absurdity. Moreover, we have seen from the 

 evidence given in my preceding article that 

 the germ-cells issuing from a parent's body 

 can, and do, respond to profound impressions 



made on the somatic-cells. This being so, 



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