CHAPTER IX.
THE LOGIC OF SCIENTIFIC NEGATION.
_I am Sir Oracle, And when I ope my mouth let no dog bark._ Before beginning to analyse the forces that are decomposing religious belief, it will be well to remark briefly on the means by which these forces are applied to the world at large.

To a certain extent they are applied directly; that is, many of the facts that are now becoming obvious the common sense of all men assimilates spontaneously, and derives, unbidden, its own doubts or denials from them.

But the chief power of positivism is derived otherwise.

It is derived not directly from the premisses that it puts before us, but from the intellectual prestige of its exponents, who, to the destruction of private judgment, are forcing on us their own personal conclusions from them.

This prestige, indeed, is by no means to be wondered at.