HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY. 



17 



(3) Scepticism. Its basic principle is All our knowledge is 

 mere appearance, and the realities existing behind all appearances 

 are and for ever must be unknown." This is the attitude of the 

 Agnostic, or to translate his Greek name into the commoner 

 Latin, the Ignoramus. 



David Hume, the prince of Sceptics, whose arguments, once 

 his premises are granted, are considered invulnerable to attack 

 and impossible to refute, writes : " Should it be asked me whether 

 I sincerely assent to this argument which I seem to take such 

 pains to inculcate, and whether I be really one of those sceptics 

 who hold that all is uncertain, and that our judgment is not in 

 any thing possessed of any measure of truth or falsehood, I 

 should reply that this question is entirely superfluous, and that 

 neither I nor any other person was ever sincerely and constantly 

 of that opinion." 



Why, Mr. Hume ? Mr. Hume answers : " Nature, by an 

 absolute and uncontrollable necessity, has determined us to 

 judge as well as to breathe and feed ; nor can we any more forbear 

 viewing certain objects in a stronger and fuller light upon account 

 of their necessary connection with a present impression, than we 

 can hinder ourselves from thinking as long as we are awake, or 

 seeing surrounding bodies when we turn our eyes toward them 

 in broad sunshine. Whoever has taken pains to refute the cavils 

 of this total scepticism has really disputed without an antagonist, 

 and endeavoured by arguments to establish a faculty which 

 Nature has antecedently implanted in the mind and rendered 

 unavoidable." 



And once again : " Nature is always too strong for principle. 

 And, though a Sceptic may throw himself or others into a momen- 

 tary amazement and confusion by his profound reasonings, the 

 first and most trivial event in life will put to flight all his doubts 

 and scruples and leave him the same, in every point of action and 

 speculation, with the philosophers of every other sect, or with those 

 who never concerned themselves in any philosophical researches." 



What is the fundamental error that lies behind these systems ? 



Let me put it in Sir Conan Doyle's words in respect to Spiritism 

 what this fundamental error is. He writes, " the agnostic atti- 

 tude, which is the ideal starting-point for the truly scientific 

 mind." That is to say, if we put out one eye of our intelligence, 

 either Sense or Self -consciousness, so that we can only apprehend 

 Spirit or Matter to be the one or only substance, or better still 

 all our eyes, so that we voluntarily put ourselves in the position 



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