Church, wherever the Church is known; but where the Church is yet unknown, or while it was yet non-existent in its present organized form, he seeks this more general Reason in the common sense or unanimous consent of the race at large, and affirms that this is the sole ground of Certitude, and the ultimate standard of appeal in every question respecting the truth or falsity of our individual opinions.[243] He holds that the authority both of the Church and of the Race is _infallible_; and that its infallibility neither requires nor admits of proof.[244] With the view of establishing this one and exclusive criterion of Certitude, he assails the evidence of sense, the evidence of consciousness, the evidence of memory, the evidence even of axiomatic truths and first principles, and involves everything except ecclesiastical authority or general reason in the same abyss of Skepticism.[245] He ventures even to affirm that "Geometry itself, the most exact of all the Sciences, rests, like every other, on common consent!" No wonder, then, that he should also found exclusively on _authority_ our belief in the existence and government of God. An intelligent member of his own communion propounds a very different, and much more reasonable, opinion: "Il n'y a pas d'autorite morale qui n'ait besoin de se prouver ellememe, d'une maniere quelconque, et d'etablir sa legitimite. En definitive, c'est a l'individu qu'elle s'addresse, car on ne croit pas par masse, on croit chacun pour soi. L'individu reste donc toujours juge, et juge inevitable de l'autorite intellectuelle qu'il accepte, ou de celle qui s'offre a lui. Nous n'avons pas a examiner si cette disposition constitutive de l'esprit humain est bonne ou mauvaise; la seule question que l'on en fait est vaine et sterile. Nous sommes necessairement amenes par l'observation physchologique a constater qu'il faut que l'homme croie a la fidelite du temoignage de ses sens individuels, et a la valeur de sa raison personelle, avant de faire un pas au-dela."[246]