THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT OF THE AGE AND OTHER PLEAS AND DISCUSSIONS BY FRANCES POWER COBBE AUTHOR OF “AN ESSAY ON INTUITIVE MORALS,” “RELIGIOUS DUTY,” “BROKEN LIGHTS,” “THE HOPES OF THE HUMAN RACE,” “THE PEAK IN DARIEN,” “THE DUTIES OF WOMEN,” “A FAITHLESS WORLD,” ETC. BOSTON GEO. H. ELLIS, 141 FRANKLIN STREET 1888 CONTENTS. ESSAY PAGE PREFACE v I. THE SCIENTIFIC SPIRIT OF THE AGE 1 II. THE EDUCATION OF THE EMOTIONS 35 III. PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM 69 IV. THOUGHTS ABOUT THINKING 111 V. TO KNOW, OR NOT TO KNOW 147 VI. THE TOWN MOUSE AND THE COUNTRY MOUSE 173 PREFACE. We are all possessed of friends who, when any serious belief or matter of practical conduct is in question, take up at the outset a thesis of their own which they press on our acceptance with the best arguments at their disposal. It is a rarer privilege to enjoy the intercourse of one who does not invariably start with a ready-made opinion of what may be true, right, or expedient in the doubtful case on which we wish to consult him, but who will patiently turn over the matter with us, suggest and register the various “pros and cons,” refer to admitted principles and facts, and thus aid us to form a comprehensive judgment for ourselves rather than induce us to accept his own. The discourse of the first order of friends is an Argument, a Plea, a Contention; that of the second, a Discussion. In the same way, of course, an Essay may be either a Plea or a Discussion. The author may take the position of Counsel for one side or other of the case before the reader, or else he may charge as Judge, and sum up the substance of such arguments as might have been used by two advocates on the opposite sides. Either style of writing is perfectly legitimate; and each has its particular fitness and utility. Misunderstanding and perplexity only occur when the hasty reader (newspaper critics being signally guilty in this matter) chooses to assume that an avowedly one-sided Plea is intended for a Judicial Discussion,[1] or treats a Discussion as a Plea for the side which the critic dislikes. In the present little collection of Essays, written at various times and for various objects, it will be found that the first three belong to the class which I have described as Pleas, and the last three more or less to that of Discussions.