250 ANIMAL AUTOMATISM v 



would tell a mere common, imconsecrated, lay- 

 man : that it is not necessary for any man to 

 occupy himself with problems of this kind unless 

 he so choose ; life is filled full enough by the per- 

 formance of its ordinary and obvious duties. But 

 that, if a man elect to become a judge of these 

 grave questions; still more, if he assume the 

 responsibility of attaching praise or blame to his 

 fellow-men for the conclusions at which they 

 arrive touching them, he will commit a sin more 

 grievous than most breaches of the Decalogue, 

 unless he avoid a lazy reliance upon the informa- 

 tion that is gathered by prejudice and filtered 

 through passion, unless he go back to the prime 

 sources of knowledge the facts of Nature, and 

 the thoughts of those wise men who for genera- 

 tions past have been her best interpreters. 



