ABSTRACT
The reluctance to admit that it is permissible to believe without evidence even in a truth so undisputed as the Uniformity of Nature, is also in part due to yet another cause. It is felt that to admit belief without regard to evidence is to invite intellectual anarchy, and to leave mankind the helpless prey of ignorance, error, and superstition. The error has been clearly exposed by Professor Huxley, who, after pointing out that reason, ratiocination, is based on faith. It is, then, quite honest and logical to have faith sometimes; and, without evidence, to believe some things, e.g. the Uniformity of Nature. Hence, too, the zeal with which other minds call for the destruction of every belief, but especially religious belief, not based on evidence, and with which they denounce faith as the one unpardonable sin.
