64

O.61

lit upon since our appearance on earth; so that the odds would be 10⁵⁰ to 1,—which means "utterly overwhelming,"—against the right explanation of any given fact having ever yet entered into the mind of man by chance; to say nothing of the labor of testing each hypothesis. Therefore, as I said, the recorded success of physical science amply proves that man has a power of divining the truth, not sufficient, indeed, to render his first conjecture always right, yet such that he will light on the truth or very near to it, after a few conjectures have been tried and found to be erroneous.

All animals rise far above the general level of their mental powers when they come to do those things which are their most proper functions, such as nest-making among ordinary birds. Now what is the peculiar function of man, if it be not to embody ideas in cognition and in conduct? To distrust his own consciousness of power to guess at the truth would be as silly in a man as for a