APPENDIX.

(Referred to at Note, p. 182.)

It is well said by Hume, that "no priestly dogmas ever shocked common sense so much as the infinite divisibility of matter, with its consequences." He gives other examples of the similar insurmountable difficulties which beset us in every path of speculation.

The true mode of dealing with objections, merely, to any conclusion, is well expressed by the sagacious Locke, the careful study of whose great work would guard many a young intellect from the chief dangers of the present day. "The way to find truth, as far as we are able to reach it in this our dark and short-sighted state, is to pursue the hypothesis that seems to us to carry with it the most light and consistency, as far as we can, without raising objections, or striking at those that come in our way, till we have carried our present principle as far as it will go, and given what light and strength we can to all the parts of it. And when that is done, then to take into our consideration any objec tions that lie against it. . . . . . Such is the weakness of our understandings, that, unless where we have clear demonstration, we can scarce make out to ourselves any truth which will not be liable to some exception beyond our power wholly to clear it from; and therefore, if upon that ground we are presently bound to

give up our former opinion, we shall be in perpetual fluctuation, every day changing our minds, and passing from one side to another; we shall lose all stability of thought, and at last give up all probable truths as if there were no such thing, or, which is not much better, think it indifferent which side we take...... The comparison of the evidence on both sides is the fairest way to search after truth, and the surest not to mistake on which side she is. There is scarce any controversy which is not a full instance of this, and if a man will embrace no opinion but what he can clear from all difficulties, and remove all objections, I fear he will have but very narrow thoughts, and find very little that he shall assent to. What, then, will you say, shall he embrace that for truth which has improbabilities in it that he cannot master? This has a clear answer. In contradicting opinions, one must be true, that he cannot doubt: which, then, shall he take? That which is accompanied with the greatest light and evidence, that which is freest from the grosser absurdities, though our narrow capacities cannot penetrate it on every side.” — Lord King's Life of Locke, 4to, p. 315.

On several of the important subjects touched in the present little volume, the reader will find much valuable matter in the Course of "Bampton Lectures" for the year 1852, by J. E. Riddle, M. A.

THE END.