of the ship; of which, consequently, its motion is independent. This solution was admitted by some, but opposed by others, and the controversy went on with spirit; nor was it till one hundred years after the death of Copernicus that, the experiment being tried, it was ascertained that the stone thus dropped from the head of the mast does fall at the foot of it![1]
Let it be observed that I am not now impugning any one particular narrative; but merely showing generally, that what is unquestioned is not necessarily unquestionable; since men will often, at the very moment when they are accurately sifting the evidence of some disputed point, admit hastily, and on the most insufficient grounds, what they have been accustomed to see taken for granted.
The celebrated Hume[2] has pointed out, also, the readiness with which men believe, on very slight evidence, any story that pleases their imagination by its admirable and marvellous character. Such hasty credulity, however, as he well remarks, is utterly unworthy of a philosophical mind; which should rather suspend its judgment the more, in proportion to the strangeness of the account, and yield to none but the most decisive and unimpeachable proofs.
Let it, then, be allowed us, as is surely reasonable, just to inquire with respect to the extraordinary story I have been speaking of, on what evidence we believe it. We shall be told that it is notorious; that is, in plain English, it is very much
- ↑ Οὅτως ἀταλαίπωρος τοῑς πολλοῑς ἡ ζήτησις τῆς ἀληθείας καὶ ἐπὶ τὰ ἕτοιμα μᾱλλον τρέπονται. Thucyd. b. i. c.20.
- ↑ "With what greediness are the miraculous accounts of travellers received, their descriptions of sea and land monsters, their relations of wonderful adventures, strange men, and uncouth manners!"—Hume's Essay on Miracles, p. 179, 12mo.; p. 185, 8vo. 1767; p. 117, 8vo. 1817.
N. B.—In order to give every possible facility of reference, three editions of Hume's Essays have been generally employed,—a 12mo. London, 1756, and two 8vo. editions.
