Man has been called the plaything of chance, but there is no logic more
close and inflexible than that of human life: all is entwined together;
and for him who is able to disentangle the premises and patiently await
the conclusion it is the most correct of syllogisms.--Jules Sandau:
People's Journal, No. 87.
'To quote authors,' says Harris, in his preface to his Hermes,' 'who
have lived in various ages, and in distant countries; some in the full
maturity of Grecian and Roman literature; some in its declension;
and others in periods still more barbarous and depraved; may afford,
perhaps, no unpleasing speculation, to see how the same reason has
at all times prevailed; how there is one truth like one sun, that has
enlightened human intelligence through every age, and saved it from the
darkness both of sophistry and error.' This is the assurance which right
reason will ever impart. Underneath all the change after which we pant,
amid all the variety which surrounds us, and seem the very aliment of
our nature, lies the instinct after the permanent. It is the province of
sound logic to guarantee this in conclusion.
The novelty, change, fluctuation, which scientific discovery has
brought, and will yet bring, into the formerly settled worlds of opinion
and social condition, will unsettle men's minds, and pave the way to an
age of scepticism. Sound logic is necessary to provide that this doubt
is transitional and not ultimate.
Scepticism is of two kinds, that of Pyrrho, and that of examination. The
followers of Pyrrho, it is said, made doubting a profession, until at
last they doubted whether they did doubt. This is the scepticism of the
scorner and trifler.
He did not know that he did not know it, and if he did know it it was
more than he knew. This is as far as the philosopher, of this school can
go. Dickens has drawn the portrait of these, logicians in Mr. Tigg:--
'When a man like Slyme,' said Mr. Tigg, 'is detained for such a thing as
a bill' I reject the superstition of ages, and believe nothing. I don't
even believe that I don't believe, curse me if I do.'
Hood is ironical on the professors of uncertainty. 'On a certain day
of a certain year, certain officers went, on certain information, to
a certain court, in a certain city, to take up a certain Italian for
a certain crime. What gross fools are they who say there is nothing
certain in this world.'
But scepticism is not capable of disturbing the well-grounded repose
of the wise; for when the sceptic thinks he has involved everything in
doubt, everything is still left in as much certainty as his scepticism.
In the great maze of conflicting opinion, it matters little that we are
cautioned that reason is not all-sufficient--it is the best sufficiency
we have. If reason will not serve us well, will anything serve us
better? Bishop Berkeley may demonstrate that we are not sure of matter's
existence--but are we more sure of any thing else? We are not thus to
be cajoled. But it is right to say that Mr. J. S. Mill contends that
Berkeley has been misunderstood--but if he did argue, as popularly
believed, to such argument, the answer of Byron is sufficient--
When Berkeley said there was no matter,
It was no matter what he said.
If all is delusion, the delusion is very orderly--it observes regular
laws, and we proceed in logical method to inform each other, how
the delusion of things appears to our understandings or affects our
fortunes.
Where nothing is, and all things seem,
And we the shadows of a dream,
We discuss the seemings with the same gravity as realities.' If a man
seems to do wrong, and I seem to prevent him, and the wrong, therefore,
seems not to be done, I am satisfied.
The 'wise considerate scepticism' of inquiry has been well expressed by
Emerson, in his recent lecture on Montaigne.--'Who shall forbid a wise
scepticism, seeing that there is no practical question on which anything
more than a proximate solution is to be had? Marriage itself is an open
question: those "out" wish to be "in:" those "in" to be "out."
The state. With all its obvious advantages, nobody loves it. Is
it; otherwise with the Church? Shall the young man enter trade or a
profession without being vitiated? Shall he stay on shore or put out to
sea? There is much to be said on both sides. Then there is competition
and the attractions of the co-operative system. The labourer has a poor
hut, is without knowledge, virtue, civilisation. If: we say, "Let us
have culture," the expression awakens a new indisposition; for culture
destroys spontaneous and hearty unencumbered action. Let us have a
robust manly life; let us have to do with realities, not with shadowy
ghosts. Now this precisely is the right ground of the sceptic; not of
unbelief, denying or doubting--least of all of scoffing and profligate
jeering at what is stable and good. He is _the considerer_. He has,
too many enemies around him to wish to be his own. The position of the
sceptic is one taken up for defence; as we build a house not too high or
too low; under the wind, but out of the dust. For him the Spartan vigour
is too-austere. St. John too thin and aerial. The wise sceptic avoids to
be fooled by any extreme; he wishes to, see the game. He wishes to see
all things, but mainly men. Really our life in this world not of so easy
interpretation as preachers and school-books are accustomed to describe
it.' These have not so efficiently solved the problem, that the sceptic
should yield himself contentedly to their interpretation. True, he does
not wish to speak harshly of what is best in us,--to turn himself into a
"devil's attorney." But he points out the room there is for doubt;--the
power of moods;--the power of complexion, and so forth. Shall we, then,
because good-nature inclines us to virtue's side, smoothly cry: "There
are no doubts!"--and lie for the right? We ask whether life is to be led
in a brave or a cowardly way: whether the satisfaction of our doubts be
not essential to all manliness: whether the name of virtue is to be a
barrier to that which is virtue? The sceptic wants truth, wants to have
things made plain to him, and has a right to be convinced in his own
way. In such scepticism there is no malignity; it is honest, and does
not hinder his being convinced; and this hard-headed man, once convinced
will prove a giant in defence of his faith. The true and final answer
in which all scepticism is lost is the moral sentiment: that never
forfeits the supremacy. It is the drop that balances the universe.'
Science and logic have so far advanced as to abridge the field of
doubtful questions. When syllogism answered syllogism, uncertainty
reigned absolute--but now that the appeal is to facts, we can, wherever
facts can be had, weigh or number them, and decide on one side or the
other.
When Ali Pacha was at Janina, the case of a poor woman, who accused a
man of the theft of all her property, was brought before him; but the
plaintiff having no witnesses, the case was discharged, as the other
asserted his innocence, and insisted as a proof, that he had not a
farthing in the world. On their leaving his presence, Ali ordered
both to be weighed, and then released them without further notice. A
fortnight afterwards, he commanded both into his presence, and again
weighed them; the accuser had lost as much as the defendant had
gained in weight. The thing spoke for itself, and Ali decided that the
accusation was just. Ali Pacha was the Burlamiqui of justice. Induction,
too, has its scales, and seldom leaves us in doubt when it gets truth
and falsehood in them. Scepticism is now happily restricted to those
questions resting on conjectures, and which do not pertain to the
practical affairs of this life. On matter-of-fact questions, only the
weak are perplexed. After men have been in deliberation till the time of
action approach, if it be not then manifest what is best to be done,
it is a sign the difference of motives the one way and the other is
not great; therefore, not to resolve then is to lose the occasion by
weighing of trifles, which is pusillanimity.
Quaint old Bunyan tells us, that when he had completed his 'Pilgrim's
Progress' he took the opinions of various friends on the propriety of
publishing it. Some said 'John, do;' others 'John, don't.' But solid
old John was not to be thus confounded. 'Then I will print it,' said
he, 'and thus the case decide.' To this good sense the public owe that
immortal dream.
In the great field of physical investigation, science has conquered
doubt. 'Contingency and versimilitude are the offspring of human
ignorance, and, with an intellect of the highest order, cannot be
supposed to have any existence.'*
*Edinburgh Review, September 1814, article Probabilities
'Probability,' says Laplace,' has reference partly to our ignorance, and
partly to our knowledge.'
'Chance,' observes Mr. Mill, 'is usually spoken of in direct antithesis
to _law_; whatever (it is supposed) cannot be ascribed to law, If
attributed to chance. It is, however, certain, that whatever happens
is the result of some law; is an effect of causes, and could have been
predicted from a knowledge of the existence of those causes, and from
their laws. If I turn up a particular card, that is a consequence of its
place in the pack. Its place in the pack was a consequence of the manner
in which the cards were shuffled, or of the order in which they were
played in the last game; which, again, were the effects of prior causes.
At every stage, if we had possessed an accurate knowledge of the causes
in existence, it would have been abstractedly possible to foretell the
effect.'*
'In the domain of morals, too, a certainty, not dreamed of in past
times, now prevails. However much man, as an individual, may be an
enigma, in the aggregate he is a mathematical problem.'**
In the great world of opinion it is the duty of honest reasoners to
endeavour to find out the truth, and take sides, undeterred by the
philosophical frivolity now growing fashionable. If men are silent
concerning objects and principles, it is said they have none, and it is
impatiently asked 'where is their bond of union?' And no sooner is it
explained than they are told 'it is very unphilosophical to think of
setting up a creed.' Where the alternatives are thus put against them
they should take their own course. Creeds are the necessary exponents
of conviction. The creedless philosopher is out on the sea of opinion,
without compass or chart. To bind yourself for the future to present
opinions is doubtless unwise, but he who has inquired to any purpose has
come to some conclusion, affirmative, negative, or neutral; and it is
the province of a creed to avow the actual result, and the consequent;
conduct intended to be followed. It is the vice of free thinking that
it spreads universal uncertainty, and assumes right and wrong to be so
protean that no man can tell one hour what opinion he shall hold the
next. Logic should correct this unsatisfactory extreme, and extirpate
the tiresome race whom Shelley described in Peter Bell:--
To Peter's view, all seems one hue;
He is no Whig, he is no Tory;
No Deist and no Christian he--
But is so subtle, that to be
Nothing is all his glory**
* Logic, pp. 57-8, vol. 2
** Vestiges.