We choose our doctor upon faith, for how
little independent judgment can we form concerning his capacity?
We choose schools for our children chiefly upon faith. The most
important things a man has are his body, his soul, and his money.
It is generally better for him to commit these interests to the
care of others of whom he can know little, rather than be his own
medical man, or invest his money on his own judgment; and this is
nothing else than making a faith which lies deeper than reason can
reach, the basis of our action in those respects which touch us
most nearly.
On the other hand, as good a case could be made out for placing
reason as the foundation, inasmuch as it would be easy to show that
a faith, to be worth anything, must be a reasonable one--one, that
is to say, which is based upon reason. The fact is, that faith and
reason are like desire and power, or demand and supply; it is
impossible to say which comes first: they come up hand in hand,
and are so small when we can first descry them, that it is
impossible to say which we first caught sight of. All we can now
see is that each has a tendency continually to outstrip the other
by a little, but by a very little only. Strictly they are not two
things, but two aspects of one thing; for convenience sake,
however, we classify them separately.
It follows, therefore--but whether it follows or no, it is
certainly true--that neither faith alone nor reason alone is a
sufficient guide: a man's safety lies neither in faith nor reason,
but in temper--in the power of fusing faith and reason, even when
they appear most mutually destructive.
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