OPINION AND CONVICTION. 85 



very rarely be disputed or mistaken, but Opinion can 

 never justifiably claim to be acquiesced in. It may be 

 modestly stated, but never as more than an Opinion, and 

 it would be better even then that it should wait till it is 

 asked for. 



We have endeavoured, and the task is by no means 

 an easy one, nor one on the results of which we can very 

 greatly congratulate ourselves, to popularise within a 

 reasonable limit one of the most abstruse and important 

 departments of philosophy, strictly in unison with, though 

 antecedent to the subject of Natural Magic, and which 

 deserves from mankind a much more respectful attention 

 than it obtains as a means of self-knowledge, demonstra- 

 tion, and mental direction. Many of our readers will 

 probably have tired of the subject before reaching the 

 present page, even though our matter has been necessarily 

 limited to our space, and to the aim of dealing lucidly 

 and fully with a few, rather than ponderously and exhaus- 

 tively with many things ; for our facts have been selected 

 and explained at considerable length for the purpose 

 of showing that there are elements essential to accuracy 

 of judgment which are greatly neglected in the age 

 in which we live : an age in which correct and com- 

 petent judgment is pre-eminently required to guard 

 against deceptions ever increasing, and becoming more 

 subtle and intricate in their character from the ad- 

 vancing discovery of new scientific facts and appli- 

 ances. If these chapters are the means of showing 

 without undue tediousness to those who do care for 

 such subjects the powers of accurate perception and 

 conviction at our command, and the absence of any 

 necessity for forming fixed and positive opinions on 

 matters of which we are not thoroughly certain that 

 no mere opinion is worth forming after all that the 

 judgment may in all cases be safely and wisely suspended 



