Our medicine men : a few hints / by H. Strickland Constable.

  • Constable, H. Strickland (Henry Strickland), 1821-1909
Date:
[1876]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Our medicine men : a few hints / by H. Strickland Constable. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    live by faith ; faith often amounting to practical cer- tainty, but still only faith. No man has any business in strict reason to say '^it is certain” about anything, al- though he can say I am certain ” about a vast number of things. It is certain ’’ means, that the thing which is called certain can be proved to the understanding of any intelligent person. But no one thing in the world can be proved to the understanding of every intelligent person. All proof must rest ultimately upon premises. But all premises have been denied by extremely intelli- gent men. Some have denied the truth of Euclid’s Axioms. And J. S. Mill, Bishop Berkley, and a host of unusally clear-headed and logical reasoners have denied the existence even of matter, time, and space. On the other hand we can all with truth sav I am j certain” about a vast number of things, meaning by this phrase, faith amounting to subjective certitude. For instance, we all of us, except a few philosophers and a few of the criminal classes, can say I am certain there is a God, but it is only by faith that we can do so. But there is a degree of certainty, even greater than this. There is absolute and complete subjective certainty. A grateful man can say, for instance, with absolute cer- tainty, There is such a thing as gratitude.” A Godly man can say with absolute certainty, ‘‘ there is such a thing as holiness.” A poet can say ‘‘ There is such a thing as beauty.” A musician can say “ There is such a thing as lovely harmony.” But nobody has a right to say of any of these things ‘At is certain”. Who can prove the beauty of musical harmony to the man with- out a soul for it, however intelligent he may be ? But if this cannot be proved to every intelligent person, the expression of “ it is certain” is a wrong expression and not true in this case.