FALLACIES OF OBSERVATION. 



509 



while the ship is in full sail, it does 

 not fall exactly at the foot of the 

 mast, but nearer to the stem of the 

 vessel. The Copernicans would have 

 silenced these objectors at once if they 

 had tried dropping a ball from the 

 mast-head, since they would have 

 found that it does fall exactly at the 

 foot, as the theory requires : but no ; 

 they admitted the spurious fact and 

 struggled vainly to make out a dif- 

 ference between the two cases. " The 

 ball was no part of the ship — and 

 the motion forward was not natural, 

 either to the ship or to the ball. The 

 stone, on the other hand, let fall from 

 the top of the tower was a part of 

 the earth, and, therefore, the diurnal 

 and annular revolutions which were 

 natural to the earth were also natural 

 to the stone : the stone would, there- 

 fore, retain the same motion with the 

 tower, and strike the ground precisely 

 at the bottom of it." * 



Other examples, scarcely less strik- 

 ing, are recorded by Dr. Whewell,t 

 where imaginary laws of nature have 

 continued to be received as real, 

 merely because no person had steadily 

 looked at facts which almost every one 

 had the opportunity of observing. "A 

 vague and loose mode of looking at 

 facts very easily observable, left men 

 for a long time under the belief that 

 a body ten times as heavy as another 

 falls ten times as fast ; that objects 

 immersed in water are always magni- 

 fied, without regard to the form of 

 the surface ; that the magnet exerts 

 an irresistible force ; that crystal is 

 always found associated with ice, and 

 the like. These and many others are 

 examples how blind and careless man 

 can be even in observation of the 

 plainest and commonest appearances, 

 and they show us that the mere facul- 

 ties of perception, although constantly 

 exercised upon innumerable objects, 

 may long fail in leading to any exact 

 knowledge." 



If even on physical facts, and these 

 of the most obvious character, the 



* Play fair's Diisertation, sect. 4. 

 t Nov. Org. Renov., p. 61. 



observing faculties of mankind can 

 be to this degree the passive slaved 

 of their preconceived impressions, w6 

 need not be surprised that this should 

 be so lamentably true as all experi- 

 ence attests it to be, on things more 

 nearly connected with their stronger 

 feelings— on moral, social, and reli- 

 gious subjects. The information 

 which an ordinary traveller bring.'* 

 back from a foreign country, as the 

 result of the evidence of his senses^ 

 is almost always such as exactly con- 

 firms the opinions with which he sets 

 out. He has had eyes and ears for 

 such things only as he expected to 

 see. Men read the sacred books of 

 their religion, and pass unobserved 

 therein multitudes of things utterly 

 irreconcilable with even their own 

 notions of moral excellence. With 

 the same authorities before them, dif- 

 ferent historians, alike innocent of in- 

 tentional misrepresentation, see only 

 what is favourable to Protestants or 

 Catholics, Royalists or Republicans, 

 Charles I. or Cromwell ; while others, 

 having .set out with the preconception 

 that extremes must be in the wrong, 

 are incapable of seeing truth and jus- 

 tice when these are wholly on one side. 

 The influence of a preconceived the- 

 ory is well exemplified in the super- 

 stitions of barbarians respecting the 

 virtues of medicaments and charms. 

 The negroes, among whom coral, as 

 of old among ourselves, is worn as an 

 amulet, affirm, according to Dr. Paris,* 

 that its colour " is always affected by 

 the state of health of the wearer, it 

 becoming paler in disease." On a 

 matter open to universal observation, ' 

 a general proposition which has not 

 the smallest vestige of truth is re- ' 

 ceived as a result of experience ; the 

 preconceived opinion preventing, it 

 would seem, any observation what- 

 ever on the subject 



§ 4. For illustration of the first 

 species of non-observation, that of In- 

 stances, what has now been stated 



* Pharmacologia, p. 21. ' 



