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    1148 THE LEADER. [Saturday,

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    The Geoujsds Of Belief. Westminster Bevi...

    Scepticism , and Hypothetical Realism . We must pass over his excellent criticism of Berkeley , Hume , and Kant , and arrive at tke conclusion : — . - ' . ... "Do we not thus , then , reach the desired reconciliation between Philosophy and Common Sense ? We have seen , first , that the existence of beliefs is , in so far as our reasoning faculties are concerned , the fundamental fact , next , that beliefs which invariably exist are those which , both logically and of necessity , we must adopt ; further , that those are invariably existent beliefs , of which we cannot conceive the negations ; and lastly , that whether beliefs having this warrant be

    infallible or not , it must equally happen that the fewer times we assume the validity of such warrant in reaching any conclusion , the more certain must that conclusion be . These positions being granted , it inevitably results , as we have found , that the current belief in objects as external independent entities , has a higher ^ guarantee than any other belief whatever—that our cognition of existence considered as noumenal has a certainty which no cognition of existence , considered as phenomenal , can ever approach ; or , in other words—that , judged logically as well as instinctively , Realism is the only rational creed ; and that all adverse creeds are self-destructive .

    " From our present point of view , not only does the seeming discordance between the verdicts of abstract and practical reason wholly disappear , but their verdicts explain each other . On the one hand , the extreme vividness and unconquerable strength of our common-sense convictions correspond with the extreme brevity of the process by which each of them is arrived at ; or , in other wordswith the single assumption of the Universal Postulate which each of them involves . On the other hand , the shadowy and unconvincing character of metaphysical inferences corresponds with the extreme complexity of the arguments by ¦ which they are drawn ; that is—with the numerous assumptions of the Universal Postulate they severally imply . Thus our involuntary adhesion to the first , and our inability to hold the last , answer to their respective claims as measured by the fundamental test of credibility . The instinct justifies the logic : the logic accounts for the instinct .

    " Here , too , we may remark the identity of the illusion common to all metaphysical reasonings ; the illusion , namely , that our cognition of logical necessity has a higher certainty than our cognition of anything else . Not recognising the fact , that for the validity of every step in an argument , we have no better guarantee than we have for an intuition of sense , but assuming , on the contrary , that whilst our simple perceptions of external existences are fallible , our complex perceptions of internal co-existences are infallible—assuming this , men have sought to reach by reasoning a knowledge that transcends ordinary knowledge . That it is possible by a chain of syllogisms to gain a conviction more positive than any conviction immediately derived from the senses , is the assumption which every metaphysical argument tacitly makes . The endeavour by one school to establish an Ontology , and the assertion by another , that we cannot prove the existence of noumena , alike take for granted that demonstration has a validity exceeding that of intuition .

    "It remains but to notice Scepticism's last refuge ; namely , the position that we can never truly faiow that things are as they seem ; and that whilst it may be impossible for us to think of them as otherwise , yet they may be otherwise . This position we shall find to be as logically inadmissible as it is practically unthinkable . For one of two things must be true of it : it must either admit of no justification by reason , or it must admit of some justification . If it admits of no justification by reason , then it amounts to a tacit negation of all reason . It posits that as possible which by its own admission can be entertained not as a

    conceivable proposition , but only as a verbally intelligible one ; and if it be allowable , without assigning grounds , to do this in the present case , it is allowable to do it in any case ; whence it will follow that every conclusion can be met by a counter conclusion which may be posited as possible ; and all conclusions being thus rendered worthless , intelligence is abolished . If , on the other hand , reasons in justification of the position be assigned—if it be alleged that we cannot know that things are as they seem because we cannot transcend consciousness—then there is at once taken for granted the validity of that test whose validity is called in question . The Universal Postulate is assumed and denied in the same breath . "

    It may not perhaps be possible in tlie space at command to satisfactorily act forth our differences with the author , issuing from the one small point previously indicated , but in the way of rough memoranda on this subject take the following : — 1 . Our belief in the existence of an external world is our experience of such an existence ; but our experience is relative , not absolute ; it is limited ^ to the way objects affect us , and does not encroach upon the domain of things per so . 2 . This belief in a decomposable act of thought , quite as much so as the belief in the rising and setting of the hum ; and just as science corrects the positive testimony of the senses with respect to the sun ' s rotation , ho also it corrects the testimony of the flenses with respect to things what th know

    heimj ey seem . We that the sun does not set , but only seems to do so ; we know that the external world if ) not the coloured , scented , sounding ivorld it seams to he , and " although it is impossible for us to think of it otherwise , yet it may be ( must bo ) otherwise . " . Limited to tho simple evidence of our senses , we should always have believed tho sun to rise and wet ; limited to the simple evidence of our senses we should always have believed tho world to he what it seems Both beliefs would have been invariable both truo ; but true only iii the way all beliefs are true , i . e . relatively , i . e . as forms of human experience . Enlarge tho experionco and you alter the belief ; to tho philosopher tho sun does not set , the world is not what it Heoim ; it is , but it is something necessarily different /^/ - so from tho world as perceived through his senses .

    1148 The Leader. [Saturday,

    1148 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

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    A © PRB & fl'firiB & Ba Pfi £ lBBa © KOff » BRIt + [ Oirit interlocutor , in ( his case , did not mark tluVdifforonco between the philosophy and religion of the Spiritualists , with sujflTiciont distinctnoBs . Jioligiousueea and poetic fooling are tho same in all minds ; and if tjioy

    tend to bear weak souls , leaning on philosophies , into fanaticism and absurdity , to the strong they are inexhaustible springs of joy ; beauty , goodness , and truth . The Spiritualists ate now attempting to give objectivity to their beliefs . Weak swimmers , having left the terra forma of faith to breast the darkly rolling tide of scepticism , cry out for all manner of lifepreservers . The strong strike put and on for the opposite land of Positivism , while the weak , who have ventured too far to return , get on the floating islands of Spiritualism , where they try what can be done , in the way of supernatural pontoons and wind-bags , to keep up the connexion with either shore . ]

    " The nonsense of the Spiritualists is not impious ; it is serious . When new to what you call their jargon , I thought of it as you do . But one unlearns sense in some companies , as he unlearns his native language among foreigners . Before my third visit to their head-quarters—what they call the Camp—I could speak of living a biography—of being an apprentice to the fact that one circle can be put round another—of becoming God in worshipping him—of getting nearer to Plato than to my wife— -of everything as one thing , and of that as incarnated in me , or flowing through me , like pure water -through a sewer , flushing my soul ! When one has been long in the dark it becomes light to him ; and then when he comes into the broad day , lo , it is darkness ! I went so far into the error of the Spiritualists , I wonder that I came to see it iras error . Once I fancied I comprehended their philosophy ! Eew of

    them go so far . Judge how near I was to insanity ! " It is one of their fundamental doctrines that words were given to men for business purposes only ; that as concerns common things they have definite meanings , while in religion and philosophy they are a sort of pointers , to show the direction in which thoughtslie . Accordingly , in the affairs . of every day life they appear to be ordinary men , but become extraordinary whenever either of the above-mentioned subjects is trenched upon . As all their thoughts on these lie in the depths of their souls , and as they profess that they have no word-tackle by which to fish them up for exhibition , you would expect them to be very silent when they were mentioned . On the contrary , however , there are no men so noisy about

    both . Some of them , it is true , set a high value on silence , which they say is golden ; but I think they are those to whom nature gave scanty vocabularies . Nature is always just ; and having given them a great fondness for conversation , she provided them with peculiar sympathies anticipating speech . They often know what you mean before you have spoken ; and can converse with one another for hours on the deepest questions in philosophy merely by looks and gestures . It makes one solemn to look at their conversations . One is relieved when the golden stillness is broken by such expressions as ' you see ! ' 'I need not explain ! ' 'Do you notice the direction ?' " It is a question how far the great variety of animated beings on our the

    globe is due to the force of circumstances . I have no opinion on globe is due to the force of circumstances . 1 have no opinion on me subject , but it has struck me how in the case of the Spiritualists nature has provided them with just those qualities necessary to their enjoyment of life ; and how , when a man joins himself to them who is deficient in those qualities , she instantly sets to work to make him comfortable . I Wnl give you a few instances of the differences of nature to which I allude . When a Spiritualist begins a sentence which he is unable to finish ( as is often the case ) he does not look stupid as another would , but on the contrary lie looks the more intelligent the less he has to say . It is another curious fact that a Spiritualist cannot be worsted in an

    argument : that he cannot be convinced of an error however plain it may appear to his friends that ho has committed it . I have often reflected how kindly nature has concerned herself about tho preservation of some of the most contemptible of beings . You know how she has provided tho ink-fish with tho means of escape from its enemies , by enabling it to discharge a fluid from its abdomen which forms au atmosphere around it , through which the eye of its pursuer cannot p ierce . Whero nature is kind I love her ; where sho is ingenious I admire her . Her device for nreaervinf the Smritualist is nnuallv Irind and ingenious ; she has made

    hhn as free of the universal soul as an Undine of the ocean . Accordingly when ho has erred he plunges into his spiritual depths dragging his errors with him , and when he reappears it is afar off in a haze , coming from tho ' inner chambers . ' Once tho plunge is taken pursuit is impossible . " There lies for me a striking proof of tho existence of design in tho universe , in tho wonderful fitness of creeds to those who hold them . Xt is a great pity that those who have hithorto undertaken to provide ua with proofs of design should have confined their researches to the physical world . I feel assured that if the distribution of religions and plulosophiefl over tho globe were to be made tho subject of investigation it would be found that every people , ay , and every person , was in possession or the creed best suited to it and him . I derived this assurance from studying Spiritualism in relation to Spiritualists . You are aware that as ye > they have not formed themsolvcs into a church . A church is a conspiracy tureto t her to fit creeds to by

    deteragainst na , arres tendency persons , mining what each must believe under terror of certain fearful penalties-Well , as I said , tho Spiritualists have not yet formed themselves mto a church , and I have observed that ,-while an undefined fooling or notion unites them , no two agroo , oven in roHpoct to tho most important doctrines . These differences are constitutional . A room full of thorn , tu wholo of their congregation may agree in saying , . Mr . So and bo e - presses what we mean by the Over-soul ; but ' take them man and ma and you will find their ' interpretations turn upon their < l ) lox f 1 p , ' Such of thorn as are languid and sentimental moan nothing at all . i-J ^ would herd with lotos-eaters were thoro a party of them in the count y-Windrush would not bo there wero it not the field par emineneo w oratory and imaginative speculation . Mistymind was cap tivated y tho immensity of view which tho religion at every turn presented to m j M . Fiiboo is a clover , argumentative ' gentleman , who greatly enjoys company I . .. . i \ y " There nbvor was a shoo made , but thoro was a foot to , lit it exao j

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 26, 1853, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_26111853/page/20/