it is hard to deduce new truths from the study of nature, it is still
harder to get them recognized by other people.

"These difficulties, however, are on the whole more beneficial than
hurtful to the cause of science; for it is through them that a number of
eccentric, though perhaps plausible speculations, perish in their
infancy, and are never again heard of. Sometimes, indeed, valuable ideas
are thus lost; but it is better that a truth, when once caught sight of,
should have to struggle for a long time without meeting the attention it
deserves, than that every outcome of a heated imagination should be
readily received.

"The more I reflect upon the numerous causes which affect our judgments,
the more convinced I am that, with the exception of such physical and
moral facts as no one can now throw doubt upon, all else is matter of
opinion and argument; and we know well that there is hardly an argument
to be found anywhere, against which another argument cannot plausibly be
adduced. Hence, though it is plain that the various opinions of men
differ greatly in probability and in the weight which should be attached
to them, it seems to me that we are wrong when we blame those who differ
from us.

"Are we then to recognize no opinions as well founded but those which
are generally received? Nay--experience teaches us plainly that the
highest and most cultivated minds must be at all times in an exceedingly
small minority. No one can dispute this. Authority should be told by
weight and not by number--but in good truth authority is a hard thing
to weigh.

"Nor again--in spite of the many and severe conditions which a judgment
must fulfil before it can be declared good--is it quite certain that
those whom public opinion has declared to be authorities, are always
right in the conclusions they arrive at.

"Positive facts are the only solid ground for man; the deductions he
draws from them are a very different matter. Outside the facts of nature
all is a question of probabilities, and the most that can be said is
that some conclusions are more probable than others."

Lamarck's poverty was perhaps one main reason of the ease with which it
was found possible to neglect his philosophical opinions. Science is not
a kingdom into which a poor man can enter easily, if he happens to
differ from a philosopher who gives good dinners, and has "his sisters
and his cousins and his aunts" to play the part of chorus to him.
Lamarck's two