The inquiry into the truth or falsehood of a matter of history is just
as much a question of pure science as the inquiry into the truth or
falsehood of a matter of geology, and the value of evidence in the
two cases must be tested in the same way. If anyone tells me that the
evidence of the existence of man in the miocene epoch is as good as that
upon which I frequently act every day of my life, I reply that this
is quite true, but that it is no sort of reason for believing in the
existence of miocene man.
Surely no one but a born fool can fail to be aware that we constantly,
and in very grave conjunctions, are obliged to act upon extremely
bad evidence, and that very often we suffer all sorts of penalties in
consequence. And surely one must be something worse than a born fool
to pretend that such decision under the pressure of the enigmas of life
ought to have the smallest influence in those judgments which are made
with due and sufficient deliberation.