Page:The Harveian oration for 1874.djvu/73

 And it is thus, I believe, and in this spirit, that we shall avoid all danger of dogmatising or of concluding rashly from our most imperfect view of things that come under the cognizance of our senses with reference to those higher things which are beyond our ken. There is indeed a happiness enjoyed by those who with firm conviction yield to some truths an assent more undoubting than any to which reason alone would lead, and to which none but they can attain. Thus it was that Pascal followed his scientific pursuits, with no solicitude as to the conclusions to which they would conduct him, safe in the ‘more sure word of prophecy’ to which it behoved him to take heed.

But even for those who are not able to subscribe to Pascal’s creed, there is yet enough in all the changes of scientific theory and opinion to lead them when doing battle for some hypothesis that may seem opposed to old beliefs, to bear in mind that after all they may be mistaken, that the ancient creed may have more