Half the
books--nay, all of them that deal with thought and its ways in the
academic spirit--are but so many of these hedges in various stages of
decay.
God and Philosophies
All philosophies, if you ride them home, are nonsense; but some are
greater nonsense than others. It is perhaps because God does not set
much store by or wish to encourage them that he has attached such
very slender rewards to them.
Common Sense, Reason and Faith
Reason is not the ultimate test of truth nor is it the court of first
instance.
For example: A man questions his own existence; he applies first to
the court of mother-wit and is promptly told that he exists; he
appeals next to reason and, after some wrangling, is told that the
matter is very doubtful; he proceeds to the equity of that reasonable
faith which inspires and transcends reason, and the judgment of the
court of first instance is upheld while that of reason is reversed.
Nevertheless it is folly to appeal from reason to faith unless one is
pretty sure of a verdict and, in most cases about which we dispute
seriously, reason is as far as we need go.
The Credit System
The whole world is carried on on the credit system; if every one were
to demand payment in hard cash, there would be universal bankruptcy.
We think as we do mainly because other people think so. But if every
one stands on every one else, what does the bottom man stand on?
Faith is no foundation, for it rests in the end on reason.
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