THE PRIDE OF IGNORANCE. 257 



laugh at the " mere theorists " who investigate 

 the causes and nature of disease? Yet the "mere 

 theorists " have ah-eadv succeeded in all but re- 

 straining the ravages of small-pox, and are now 

 engaged in stemming the tide of cholera, with 

 remarkable results, throughout the South of 

 Europe. 



One very noteworthy way in which the pride 

 of ignorance is frequently exhibited is the pre- 

 sumptuous readiness with which utterly unlearned 

 people will sometimes demolish at a single blow 

 Newton's theory of gravitation or the Copernican 

 system of the solar family. Nothing is commoner 

 than to find a silly schoolgirl or an ignorant boy 

 demonstrate at once with a few simple arguments 

 the flatness of the earth or the untenability of the 

 Newtonian hypothesis. Such people have no idea 

 of the long, slow, and laborious method by which 

 the results they attack have been originally 

 reached and gradually tested. They do not know 

 that innumerable experiments have been carefully 

 tried, innumerable measurements accurately made, 

 innumerable precautions continually taken against 

 the slightest error or vitiating element. They do 

 not understand that a great philosopher, sitting 

 down to investigate a profound problem, works at 

 it long from every side, eliminates every possible 

 source of mistake, starts every conceivable objec- 

 tion himself, and meets them all by every subtle 



