The Universe Ought To Be Presumed Too

We Shall Do Better To Abandon The Whole Attempt To Learn The Truthunless We Can Trust To The Human Mind's Having Such A Powerof Guessing Right That Before Very Many Hypotheses Shall Have Been Tried, Intelligent Guessing May Be Expected To Lead Us To One Which Will Support All Tests, Leaving The Vast Majority Of Possible Hypotheses Unexamined.

Law Is Par Excellence The Thing That Wants A Reason. Now The Only Possible Way Of Accounting For The Laws Of Nature, And For Uniformity In General, Is To Suppose Them Results Of Evolution.

It Has Often Been Argued That Absolute Scepticism Is Self-contradictory; But This Is A Mistake: And Even If It Were Not So, It Would Be No Argument Against The Absolute Sceptic, Inasmuch As He Does Not Admit That No Contradictory Propositions Are True. Indeed, It Would Be Impossible To Move Such A Man, For His Scepticism Consists In Considering Every Argument And Never Deciding Upon Its Validity; He Would, Therefore, Act In This Way In Reference To The Arguments Brought Against Him.

To Suppose Universal Laws Of Nature Capable Of Being Apprehended By The Mind And Yet Having No Reason For Their Special Forms, But Standing Inexplicable And Irrational, Is Hardly A Justifiable Position. Uniformities Are Precisely The Sort Of Facts That Need To Be Accounted For. Law Is Par Excellence The Thing That Wants A Reason. Now The Only Possible Way Of Accounting For The Laws Of Nature, And For Uniformity In General, Is To Suppose Them Results Of Evolution.

It Is Not Too Much To Say That Next After The Passion To Learn There Is No Quality So Indispensable To The Successful Prosecutionof Science As Imagination. Find Me A People Whose Early Medicine Is Not Mixed Up With Magic And Incantations, And I Will Find You A People Devoid Of All Scientific Ability.