Their position is strongest when they maintain that these topics have a tendency to befog the intellect.

A desire to prove the existence of "new forces" may beget indifference to logic and to the laws of evidence.

This is true, and we have several dreadful examples among men otherwise scientific.

But all studies have their temptations.

Many a historian, to prove the guilt or innocence of Queen Mary, has put evidence, and logic, and common honesty far from him.