Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/86

 72 A. F. BAVENSHEAR : relation to the character of the assertor. This does not amount to saying that every one will be carried away if there be any inducement to deceit, but merely recognises that as some undoubtedly will, the evidential value of all uncor- roborated assertion is thereby depressed. As regards accuracy of memory and expression, the time that elapses after an occurrence before it is recorded or reported is one of the chief circumstances. Care would seem to be another. But it should be noticed that care- fulness belongs rather to sincerity than to accuracy. Care is doubtless necessary to the attainment of accuracy, but that after all is only the way in which sincerity combines with ability in the production of accuracy. These two conditions will not be discussed at this point. The brief remarks already made are only intended to indicate the meaning of the phrases condition of sincerity and condition of accuracy of memory and expression. The conditions arising out of the processes of obtain- ing information are also two. The ascertainment of facts, events and other matters of observation or experiment demands both means or opportunity for ascertaining them, and competence in observation, or judgment. The condi- tions that must be satisfied are then that the assertor must have had sufficient opportunity or means for becoming acquainted with the matter asserted ; and that he must be a person of skill or capacity adequate to the acquisition of the knowledge professed. The question is here again : How are we to know whether some certain matter is or is not within the cognizance of one whose testimony we are examining ? This may some- times be difficult to answer ; but need not always be so. If we are unable in any given case to answer it satisfactorily, the testimony is of little value ; but if we can, we are on the way towards its evaluation. In some cases the answer may be easy. We should naturally hesitate to accept as fact an account of an occurrence by some one we knew had not been present ; or in accepting as fact the statements of some one volunteering to inform us as to what was passing in another person's mind, or to give us information as to any other matter that we believed to be beyond human faculty. Such considerations are summarised in the phrase opportunity or means for knowing, which is the name by which this condition will be mentioned in the pages that follow. Special keenness or genius are of course not demanded unless the matter testified to renders them essential. But in many matters it is absolutely necessary to rely on the