HABIT AND INTELLIGENCE. 



IN THEIR CONNEXION WITH 



THE LAWS OF MATTER AND FORCE. 



INTEODUCTION. 



IT is felt by all intelligent men, that there is a decided inteliec- 

 and even a profound difference between the intel- racter 'of 

 lectual tendencies of the present age and those of the last. ^^^ ^S^- 

 It is felt that the point of view from which we regard 

 the problems, both of science and of human life, is not the 

 same as that of our forefathers of the last century. But, 

 though this difference is universally felt, it is not easy to 

 explain it in words, and it is quite impossible to sum it up 

 so as to be intelligible in a single sentence. 



Some of the most prominent characteristics of this age, 

 however, and those perhaps the most important of all, are 

 in no way peculiar to it, bu.t are an inheritance from 

 the last century. We inherit from our ancestors of the The rejec- 

 eighteenth century the habit of rejecting authority in ^jfo'^i^^s^' 

 matters of belief, or at least of demanding that authority inherited 

 shall justify itself; and, with this, the resolution to go to lasrceu- 

 the sources of belief and knowledge for ourselves, and the t'^^y. 

 conviction that the ultimate appeal in all questions what- 

 ever, whether speculative or practical, must be neither to 

 authority nor to custom, but to intelligence. In a word, 

 we inherit from the eighteenth century the belief that the 

 intellect of man has a right to rule the world. This belief 

 belongs, at least primarily, r.ather to morals and politics 



B 



