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CHAPTER II.
OF THE PRINCIPAL SOURCE OF BELIEF AMONG DEMOCRATIC NATIONS.
At different periods dogmatical belief is more or less abundant
It arises in different ways, and it may change its object or its form;
but under no circumstances will dogmatical belief cease to exist, or,
in other words, men will never cease to entertain some implicit opinions
without trying them by actual discussion. If every one undertook
to form his own opinions, and to seek for truth by isolated
paths struck out by himself alone, it is not to be supposed that any
considerable number of men would ever unite in any common belief.
But obviously without such common belief no society can prosper—say rather no society does subsist; for without ideas held in common, there is no common action, and without common action, there may still be men, but there is no social body. In order that society should exist, and, a fortiori, that a society should prosper, it is required that all the minds of the citizens should be rallied and held together by certain predominant ideas; and this cannot be the case, unless each of them sometimes draws his opinions from the common source, and consents to accept certain matters of belief at the hands of the community.
If I now consider man in his isolated capacity, I find that dogmatical belief is not less indispensable to him in order to live alone, than it is to enable him to co-operate with his fellow creatures. If man were forced to demonstrate to himself all the truths of which he makes daily use, his task would never end. He would exhaust his strength in preparatory exercises, without advancing beyond them. As, from the shortness of his life, he has not the time, nor, from the limits of his intelligence, the capacity, to accomplish this, he is reduced to take upon trust a number of facts and opinions which he has not had either the time or the power to verify himself,
