5 
3. In a work entitled “ On Final Causes/* published more 
than thirty years ago with some foresight of an approaching 
disruption of opinion, one postulate was thought sufficient, 
viz., “ that the facts of Human Nature be taken 
as the grounds for a science of Human Nature.** on^ownai- 
We ask no more in the present inquiry. None ^ r ® d viz fo ^ a d c ^ 
can disallow this without saying that all ex- 
perience is delusive, and that all consciousness is false. 
Logicians, mathematicians, and moralists can have no real 
dissension here. For every honest mind delights to deal 
with facts ; nor is there a worse sign in any class, or 
any generation, than a disinclination to reality, and to 
that painstaking which it demands. If any are for recon- 
structing the social system of our times, we say in the 
name of common uprightness, let it not be on the basis of 
some poor compromise between facts and principles. The 
attempt would but show intellectual feebleness, and a moral 
scepticism vainly reactionary. Let us examine the facts 
of human existence and reflect on their meaning. 
There are in some crises of nations attempts at re- 
action which simply indicate the worst signs of civilization 
in extremity. As an ancient example of this we might point 
to the reassertion of heathenism under the Emperor 
Julian; and as a modern instance to Pius IX.*s deprecated be 
revival of Ultramontanism. Let us hope better 
for our country than any such collision with facts. The 
dream of a status quo ante would possibly betray a fatal 
symptom of the last throes of a worn-out social system. 
4. Even Positivism has its hopeful aspect, if we may take it 
to imply that the world is not to go on merely scoffing at 
“ dogma,** or simply smiling at “ metaphysics.** Too long 
it has been content to accept certain results in ethics and 
polity while discrediting the theories implied. It is nobler, at 
least, to aspire to a philosophy of its own; and this may 
effectually bring us into close quarters in the battle for truth 
and right. 
For to go on without a philosophy is to build without a 
foundation. And more than this : if it be done And fatal 
long and deliberately, it is practically to dispense even if possf 
with conscience — a danger by no means remote. e ‘ 
To form an opinion, or to take a side, without feeling bound 
to the utmost of our power to form the right opinion and take 
the right side, (as if to know right and be right were un- 
important or indifferent), must be demoralizing. Self-respect 
alone should oblige the hope, if not the conviction, that we 
have not committed ourselves deliberately or wantonly to 
