mutual interaction, according to definite laws, of the forces
possessed by the molecules of which the primitive nebulosity of
the universe was composed. That acute champion of teleology,
Paley, saw no difficulty in admitting that the 'production of
things' may be the result of mechanical dispositions fixed
beforehand by intelligent appointment and kept in action by a
power at the centre."

CHAPTER XIV

FREEDOM OF THOUGHT

Authority and Knowledge in Science--The Duty of Doubt--Authority
and Individual Judgment in Religion--The Protestant Position--Sir
Charles Lyell and the Deluge--Infallibility--The Church and
Science--Morality and Dogma--Civil and Religious
Liberty--Agnosticism and Clericalism--Meaning of
Agnosticism--Knowledge and Evidence--The Method of Agnosticism.

In the practice of modern law-courts, a witness rarely is allowed to
offer as evidence any statement for which he himself is not the direct
authority. What he himself saw or heard or did with regard to the
matter at issue--these, and not what others told him they had seen or
heard or done, are the limits within which he is allowed to be a
competent witness. As a matter of fact, in the business of life we
have to act differently. A large proportion of our opinions, beliefs,
and reasons for conduct must come to us on the authority of others. We
have no direct experience of the past; of the present we can see
little and only the little immediately surrounding us. In a multitude
of affairs we have to act on authority, to accept from books or from
persons what we have not ourselves the opportunity of knowing. It
would seem, then, to be a primary duty to learn to distinguish in our
minds those matters which we know directly from those matters which we
have accepted on trust; and, secondly, to learn and to apply the best
modes of choosing the good and of rejecting the bad authorities. The
work of the scientific man is a lifelong exercise of these primary
duties. From the first moment he begins to observe living things or to
dissect their dead frameworks, to mix chemical substances, to make
experiments with magnets and wires, he begins to build, and as long as
he continues to work he continues to build for himself a body of
first-hand knowledge. But, however he work arduously or through long
years, he can visit only the smallest portion of the field of nature
in which he is working. It