Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/82

54 , must here be noticed, as tending to obviate any disappointment which may arise in the reader's mind from finding that the results and conclusions reached in this system are not at all times—we not, indeed, at any time during his ordinary moods, and these must occupy about ninety-nine parts of his existence—present to his conviction with the force and the vivacity which he might think desirable if they were true. But this is neither desirable nor necessary. Their perpetual presence would convert him from an agreeable human being into a nuisance, both to himself and others. It is the wont species of pedantry to entertain and parade the conclusions of science, either to ourselves or others, when engaged in the common business and intercourse of life; just as it is the wont species of prudence to embrace the plausibilities of common opinion, the maxims of the salons and of the thoroughfares, when ministering at the altars of science. The two things should be kept everlastingly apart. All that is necessary is, that the reader should know that what is laid before him is the truth;—it is not necessary that he should feel it to be so. The knowledge of it is all in all; the want of feeling about it is of no moment whatever, and ought not to be listened to for an instant as any argument against its certainty. The interests of Truth would indeed be in a poor way, and our conception of her character not very exalted, were we to allow