The Universe Ought To Be Presumed Too

It Is Impossible Not To Envy The Man Who Can Dismiss Reason, Although We Know How It Must Turn Out At Last.

We May Say That Feelings Have Two Kinds Of Intensity. One Is The Intensity Of The Feeling Itself, By Which Loud Sounds Are Distinguished From Faint Ones, Luminous Colors From Dark Ones, Highly Chromatic Colors From Almost Neutral Tints, Etc. The Other Is The Intensity Of Consciousness That Lays Hold Of The Feeling, Which Makes The Ticking Of A Watch Actually Heard Infinitely More Vivid Than A Cannon Shot Remembered To Have Been Heard A Few Minutes Ago.

To Suppose Universal Laws Of Nature Capable Of Being Apprehended By The Mind And Yet Having No Reason For Their Special Forms, But Standing Inexplicable And Irrational, Is Hardly A Justifiable Position. Uniformities Are Precisely The Sort Of Facts That Need To Be Accounted For. Law Is Par Excellence The Thing That Wants A Reason. Now The Only Possible Way Of Accounting For The Laws Of Nature, And For Uniformity In General, Is To Suppose Them Results Of Evolution.

Truly, That Reason Upon Which We Plume Ourselves, Though It May Answer For Little Things, Yet For Great Decisions Is Hardly Surer Than A Toss Up.

The Final Upshot Of Thinking Is The Exercise Of Volition, And Of This Thought No Longer Forms A Part; But Belief Is Only A Stadium Of Mental Action, An Effect Upon Our Nature Due To Thought, Which Will Influence Future Thinking.