obabilities argument-
rather too narrow a basis for a World-faith to stand upon. Try all
'mythic' theories, Straussite and others, by honest Dialectics. Try
your own thoughts and experiences, and the accredited thoughts and
experiences of wise men, by the same method. Mesmerism and 'The
Development of Species' may wait till they have settled themselves
somewhat more into sciences; at present it does not much matter what
agrees or disagrees with them. But using this weapon fearlessly and
honestly, you will, unless Socrates and Plato were fools, arrive at
absolute eternal truths, which are equally true for all men, good or
bad, conscious or unconscious; and I tell you-of course you need not
believe me till you have made trial-that those truths will coincide
with the plain honest meaning of the Catholic Creeds, as determined
by the same method-the only one, indeed, by which they or anything
else can be determined."

"You forget Baconian induction, of which you are so fond."

"And pray what are Dialectics, but strict Baconian induction applied
to words, as the phenomena of mind, instead of to things, the
phenomena of-"

"What?"

"I can't tell you; or, rather, I will not. I have my own opinion
about what those trees and stones are; but it will require a few
years' more verification before I tell."

"Really, you and your Dialectics seem in a hopeful and valiant state
of mind."

"Why not? Can truth do anything but conquer?"

"Of course-assuming, as every one does, that the truth is with you."

"My dear fellow, I have seldom met a man who could not be a far
better dialectician than I shall ever be, if he would but use his
Common Sense."

"Common Sense? That really sounds something like a bathos, after
the great big Greek word which you have been propounding to me as
the cure for all my doubts."

"What? Are you about to 'gib' after all, just as I was flattering
myself that I had broken you in to go quietly in harness?"

"I am very much minded to do so. The truth is, I cannot bring
myself to believe that the universal panacea lies in an obscure and
ancient scientific method."

"Obscure and ancient? Did I not just say that any man might be a
dialectician? Did Socrates ever appeal to any faculty but the
Common Sense of man as man, which exists just as much in England
now, I presume, as it did in Athens in his day? Does he not, in
pursuance of that method of his, draw his arguments and
illustrations, to