CHAPTER VII.

THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH.

THE Art of Thinking is intellectual-the Pursuit of Truth is moral; the one has to do with the method of arriving at convictions-the other with faithfulness to them. By truth we mean rectitude, and principally moral rectitude -rectitude of opinion as well as rectitude in fact; rightness, and the love of rightness. It cannot be too often maintained and illustrated that error, and ignorance, which is the parent of error, are the chief foes of man, and that truth, and knowledge, which is the parent of truth, are the chief friends of man.

But in the pursuit

of truth, success must always depend upon the moral disposition-upon the unbiassed state of the mind-upon its determination to preserve its moral independence and freedom. The absence of these important qualities has caused ever in the minds of men an inveterate disregard to truth, and a predetermination to follow the course of thought to which they had committed themselves.

A number of anecdotes are on record, illustrating the slavery of man to his prejudices. Many men, in every age, have obstinately turned away from light when it has been offered to them, if such light seemed at all likely to

THE BRAHMIN AND THE MICROSCOPE.

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subvert the established opinions they held. have, in the course of the world's history, beheld the strange spectacle of men attempting to write down the truths and clear inductions of science. When Galileo discovered the satellites of Jupiter by the telescope, the followers of Aristotle refused to look through it, lest they should find their master's dogmas, or rather their own overthrown by it; and the story is a similar one, in our day, of a Brahmin in India, and a microscope. A friend had sent out to India, to a missionary, a very powerful and beautiful microscope; he exhibited it to a Brahmin, and among other things, showed to him a drop of stagnant water through it. When the Brahmin beheld the myriads of creeping things in it, a world swarming with life, and was told that he had both drunken such water, and was in the habit of drinking it, he became most uneasy in his mind; after a short time he came to the missionary, and offered him an immense sum for the microscope, and, byand-by, the missionary was induced to sell it. As soon as the Brahmin had fairly obtained possession of it, he cast it vehemently on the pavement of the city, and dashed it. to pieces. Amazed and grieved, the missionary asked for a reason for so singular an action, and the only reason he could give was, the water with those unsightly objects; he could neither eat, drink, nor sleep, for thinking upon them; and never, apparently, recollecting that the water remained the same, he wreaked his vengeance on the illuminating glass, and destroyed that. So it is with thousands; so has it always been. There seems to be

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in the human mind an antipathy to truth; and the first thing indispensable to the pursuit of it, is to remove the antipathy to it. When Lord Bacon, the father of modern philosophy, published his "Novum Organum," which may be said to have changed all the habits of scientific thinking, he divided his book into two parts, and he devoted nearly one half to breaking up the prejudices, and laying the foundations of those moral dispositions for the attainment of truth, which are before all intellectual energies and powers; and this book, the "Novum Organum," is the one which all young thinkers should sedulously and earnestly peruse; its aphorisms and sententious sayings may be conned day by day, as texts for the intellectual and moral life. We will cite a few; the reader will know how to beat wisdom out of every one by hearty reflection.

"1. Man, as the minister and interpreter of Nature, does, and understands as much, as his observations on the order of Nature, either with regard to things or the mind, permit him, and is incapable of more.

“2. There are, and can be but two ways of investigating and discovering truth. The one hurries on rapidly from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms; and from them as principles, and their supposed indisputable truth, derives and discovers the intermediate axiom.This is the way now in use. The other constructs its axioms from the senses and particulars, by ascending continually and gradually, till it finally arrives at the most general axioms, which is the true but unattempted way.

"3. There is no small difference between the idols of the human mind, and the ideas of the divine mind—that is to say, between certain dogmas and the real stamp and impression of created objects, as they are found in Nature. "4. When the human mind has once begun to despair of discovering truth, everything begins to languish.

"5. Experience is by far the best demonstration, provided it adheres to the experiment actually made; for that experiment may be transferred to other subjects apparently similar; unless with proper and methodical caution it becomes fallacious.

"6. No one has yet been found possessed of sufficient firmness and severity to resolve upon entirely abolishing common theories and notions, and applying the mind afresh, when thus cleansed and levelled, to particular researches. Hence our human reasoning is a mere farrago and crude mass, made up of a great deal of credulity and accident, and the puerile notions it originally contracted.

"7. We must, then, not add wings, but lead and ballast to the understanding, to prevent its jumping and flying, which has not yet been done; but whenever this takes place, we may hope more for the sciences.

"8. We (should) look for experiments that afford light rather than profit, imitating the divine creation, which, as we have often observed, only produced light on the first day, and assigned that whole day to its creation, without adding any material work.

"9. Truth and utility are perfectly identical.

"10. Let none be alarmed at the objection of the arts and sciences becoming depraved to malevolent and luxurious purposes, and the like; for the same can be said of every worldly good-talent, courage, strength, beauty, riches, light itself, and the rest. Only let mankind regain their rights over Nature assigned to them by the gift of God, and obtain that power whose exercise will be governed by right, reason, and true religion.

"11. He who is acquainted with the paths of Nature will more readily observe her deviations, and vice versa, he who has learned her deviations will be able more accurately to describe her paths.

"12. It will, perhaps, be as well to distinguish three species and degrees of ambition. First, that of men who are anxious to enlarge their own power in the country, which is a vulgar and degenerate kind; next, that of men who strive to enlarge the power and empire of their country over mankind, which is more dignified, but not less covetous; but if one were to endeavour to renew and enlarge the power and empire of man over the universe, such ambition, if it may be so termed, is both more sound and more noble than the other two. Now the empire of man over things is founded on the arts and sciences alone, for Nature is only to be commanded by obeying her."

Paragraphs like these (and the book from whence we have cited, abounds with them) stir within us the thinking powers. They are not to be hastily and lightly read, but