Vili. 
PREFACE. 
And this method is approved in scientific as well as 
ecclesiastical circles. The supporters of scientific theory 
desire that it should be doubted and discussed in order 
that it may be fully believed and realised. But if the dis 
cussion does not produce this result, then he who is 
seriously defending unpopular heresy against an accepted 
belief, and putting his opinion in opposition to the popular 
view, does not always fare well at the hands of oppo 
nents, and would sometimes do well to remember the 
kindly humorous warning of Oliver Wendell Holmes, 
when discoursing on The Stability of Science:— 
“ The feeble sea-birds, blinded in the storms, 
On some tall lighthouse dash their little forms, 
And the rude granite scatters for their pains 
Those small deposits that were meant for brains. 
Yet the proud fabric in the morning’s sun 
Stands all unconscious of the mischief done ; 
Still the red beacon pours its evening rays 
For the lost pilot with as full a blaze, 
Nay, shines, all radiance, o’er the scattered fleet 
Of gulls and boobies brainless at its feet. 
I tell their fate, though courtesy disclaims 
To call our kind by such ungentle names ; 
Yet, if your rashness bid you vainly dare, 
Think of their doom, ye simple, and beware ! ” 
—{Poems, p. log.) 
And, indeed, when a man finds himself in an over 
whelming minority on some important topic which has 
long exercised the thought of the wisest of his day and 
generation, it might be supposed that common modesty 
would compel him to mistrust his own judgment; and 
seeing that he is doubtless making some foolish mistake, 
common prudence might well suggest that he should keep 
his folly to himself as much as possible ; and if he is a 
fool, at any rate, not to proclaim that fact from the 
house-tops. But if such a man should come to feel, not