CHARACTER AND LIMITS OF BELIEF AND CERTAINTY. 521 
to the older child the privilege of a like reliance on spiritual guides, who, by greater purity 
of life, quicker perception of religions truth, consciences more sensitive to the pointings 
of duty, and continual aspirations for a “closer walk with God,” have obtained a degree 
of religious experience that the mass of mankind, absorbed in the struggles of daily care 
and toil, could never hope to reach ? 
238. If I cannot follow all the steps of a Laplace or a Leverrier, I may at least be al- 
lowed to rejoice in the faith that the. glorious results of their calculations have opened 
new fields for knowledge and for future investigation. If I cannot understand all the 
teachings of Paul and John, I have a right to assume, on sufficient evidence, that their 
lives were purer and their spiritual insight keener than my own; and discarding all hope 
of attaining to their clearness of vision, I may feel thankful even for the dim perceptions 
of heavenly glory for which I am indebted to their guidance. 
239. The true philosopher should guard carefully against everything like conceit and 
dogmatism. And especially should those who claim a charitable indulgence for their own 
conscientious convictions be ever ready to extend a like charity to others. 
240. Every one will admit that truth, whether intuitive or demonstrative, revealed or 
discovered, is always consistent and harmonious, but fancied inconsistency and the conse- 
quent fancied fallacy will often prove to be merely imaginary. Because a man’s belief, as ~ 
I understand it, appears to be at variance with some fundamental principles of truth, I 
have no right to pronounce it false as it is held in his own mind. On the contrary, my 
sense of the entire consistency of all my own personal views should teach me that, although 
his sphere of vision may be either broader or narrower than my own, he may be compen- 
sated by a clearer perception of some points that are shrouded from my eyes in an im- 
penetrable mystery, for his oversight of other points that are to me self-evident. If I 
charge him with absurdity or folly for professing to believe what is contrary to reason, the 
charge may recoil on my own head, for it may prove that the folly is mine in assuming my 
version of his creed to be the correct one. ‘That I should misunderstand him is neither 
remarkable nor improbable, for even the record of a Divine Revelation, that is worded 
with all the precision of which human speech is capable, is variously interpreted according 
to the educational prejudices or mental temperaments of its different readers. 
241. The realms of faith and reason, though both harmonious,* are both distinct, and 
must ever remain so, while we remain less than perfect, and mere learners in the Book of 
the Universe. If at any future period, during the infinite cycles of eternity, our minds 
become so thoroughly enlightened that we can blend the two, it must be in the light of a 
* Hamilton, Discussions, pp. 69, 91, has some very clever remarks on the harmony of truth. 
