The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1878-08-28
MISCELLANY.
CREDULI7Y AND TRUST.

the establishment of habitua and careful We
racity in community is the decline of credul-
ity. 1t would seem more natural for the re-
verse to be the case. Certainly when people
are truthful they are deserving of more belief
than when they are false, and it appears only
just that they should meet with proportion
ate degree of confidence. So those who are
accustomed to make careless and incorrect
statements might be thought to be the most
suspicious of those to whom they listen,
while the careful and exact speaker, taking
Others to be equally trustworthy, might be
supposed to give them a ready credence.
Yet both in communities and in individuals
this order is reversed. In ancient times of
barbarism and among savage nations of the
present day, where falsehood and pervarication
are most common, and oftentimes untruths
are uttered without any motive, the people
are ready to believe whatever is told them.
without asking for the least evidence. It is in
such countries that the grossest superstitions
reign and flourish. simply for the very lack of
any spirit Of criticism. A traveller in Egypt
describes the people as being strongly addict
ed to and even proud of uttering clever lies,
yet declares that when listening to the stories
of the Arabian Nights the same persons loud
ly protested against the skepticism when he
suggested that they must not be accepted as
veritable histories. In civilized lands, ON the
contrary, though falsehood is esteemed dis
graceful and only resorted to in secret and
with shame, no such credulity is manifest
Evidence is demanded in proof of any extra
ordinary assertion, and if it is not forthcom-
ing it is deemed folly to believe it. Motives
are weighed, character sifted and probabili-
ties considered, when truth is to be tested, and
in fact, it seems that wherever truth is best
established it has to endure the sharpest crit
icism.
The same is true of individuals as we'll as
of nations. AS u general thing, he who is
the least veracious is the most credulous.-
Careless in his own statements he demands
but little carefulness in others, and is ready to
accept as true what to another seems absurd.
There are some who still retain a degree of
belief in witches, ghosts, fairies, &C., and as
general thing their own statements are
found TO be almost as unreliable as the super
stitions which they SO eagerly accept. On the
other hand, those who are the most truthful
and accurate in their own speech are the most
critical in receiving evidence. The judge on
the bench or the scientist in his laboratory,
carefully adjusting their statements so as to
convey the exact shade of meaning as they
perceive it, are also reticent in accepting what
is said, unless supported by evidence. This
is not, as may be thought, the result of a sus-
picious or distrustful nature. 1t is not that
as truth fourshes the faith in truthfulness
diminishes. There is not less, but more belief
in human veracity now than formerly, and,
as rule, the most scrupulous adherents of
truth are the most ready to accord honest mo-
tves to others. But as they advance in the
knowledge of truth, and in the accurate ex-
preston of it, they discover how difficult both
are. They find that, with the best intentions,
persons arrive at resided, partial and often
erroneous views, and, even when their ideas
are mainly correct, their power of expression
frequently fails to present them fairly. 1t is
this discovery, and not suspicion and distrust,
that makes the increasing demand for evil
dence in support of assertions. AS a nation
or an individual becomes more civilized and
better educated, the complex nature OF truth
and the difficulty of its accurate expression
come to be realized, and thus more and more
searching criticism is extended to all state
ments.
No one should feel hurt or injured by this,
much less resent it as an impertinence. The
imputation of dishonest motives would, in
deed, be an insult, but the seeking for evil
dence, or the sitting of what we say, is but
reminder that we are human and liable to er-
ror. Thus we see the difference between
trust and credulity. The one puts faith in
character, while reserving the right TO ques-
tion statements the other blindly accepts
anything however absurd, without even ex-
aiming its source the one is the cultured
growth of knowledge, the other the rank
weed of ignorance the one rests upon firm
and well tried principle, the other upon an IL
fusion, which the first breath of true knowl-
edge will dispel. The decline of credulity is
ever accompanied, not only by the spread of
truth and the spirit of inquiry, but even more