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axioms, nor scientifically established, like the law of gravita- 
tion, but which are simply probable. IN or does it in strictness 
apply to all of these. Where the probability arises from argu- 
ment and from the nature of the case, our assent is not belief, 
but opinion. Faith or belief properly arises when our ground for 
accepting a statement is the testimony given in its favour. 
In the excellent definition of Bishop Pearson, “ Belief is an 
assent to that which is credible, as credible ” — not, that is, 
so far as it is probable, still less so far as it is demonstrable, 
but simply so far as it is supported by the evidence of 
credible witnesses. If we admit the testimony of Conscience 
as that of a kind of independent authority, beai’ing its witness 
within each individual soul, we may bring under this defini- 
tion those primary religious and moral truths, to which, as 
Kant observed, our assent has the character of faith rather 
than of opinion. We can hardly expect a very accurate dis- 
cussion of the Ethics of Belief when belief is thus confounded 
with another mental operation; and it is similarly imprac- 
ticable to form a just estimate of the claims of the Christian 
Faith when it is treated not as that which is credible, but as 
that which is knowable. 
4. Accordingly it may be described as the main doctrine of 
the article under discussion that the principles of scientific in- 
quiry ought to be predominant not merely within the sphere of 
knowledge, but within the whole sphere covered by this vague 
extension of the word Belief. It commences by insisting on the 
duty of inquiry, and it treats this duty as always and every- 
where incumbent upon us. “ No simplicity of mind, no obscu- 
rity of station, can escape the universal duty of questioning all 
that we believe.” Now this maybe a very good rule within the 
domain of science, and may be a very proper attitude of mind 
for a scientific man ; though it may be surmised with some con- 
fidence that Professor Clifford would not listen with much pa- 
tience to any of those ingenious persons who exercise this 
universal duty by questioning the roundness of the earth, or 
the Newtonian system, or the impossibility of squaring the 
circle. But it may be safely said that, as applied to the prac- 
tical business of life, such a principle is not only impracti- 
cable, but morally wrong. The daily course of life and the 
organization of society are made up of relations between man 
and man. Upon what are those relations founded ? They are 
based, as a matter of fact, upon a general habit of mutual 
trust and faith. The child’s first necessity is to believe what 
is told it, and to believe this in respect to matters which it has 
no power whatever of investigating for itself. Its instinct, the 
