35

58

was that it must not suppose anything
that you are not able directly to observe.
From such a rule it would be fair to infer that
he would permit Mr. Schliemann to suppose
he was going to find arms and utensils at Hissarlik,
but would forbid him to suppose
that they were either made or used by any
human being, since no such beings could
ever be detected by direct percept. He ought on the same principle
to forbid us to suppose that a fossil
skeleton had ever belonged to a living
ichthyosaurus. This seems to be substantially
the opinion of M. Poincaré at this
day. The same doctrine would forbid us
to believe in our memory of what happened