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THE KING’S BUSINESS
bad man as you do the testimony of one whom you know to be virtuous, a man of integrity. You may believe a statement that the evil person makes, but you will not have the same feel ing about it if you know the witness’ evil character, as you will if you know the witness to be worthy. Often times the property interests of men, some times even the lives of men depend solely upon the character of the wit ness. The competence of the witness is a very different qualification, but it is equally real, though less important. You do not trust the testimony of a man ignorant of the subject on which he speaks, even if he is a good man, as you do the testimony of a man thoroughly informed, even should he be less worthy. There may be cases where character will overcome incom petence, but this is not the rule. A person who wishes to be trusted in any given field is bound to inform himself. No man has a right to ask to be be lieved unless he will establish a char acter and acquire a body of informa tion which will enable sane people to believe what he says. It is obvious that the number of wit nesses has also a bearing on the belief of testimony. If many good witnesses testify to a certain state of fact, and one or two equally good witnesses tes tify to the contrary state of fact, you are driven by the constitution of your mind to believe the larger number. If the smaller number should be more fit, the larger number may be over ruled in your thinking, but the case being as first supposed, the witnesses being equal in character and equal in competence, you must believe the larger number. The distance in time and place of witnesses also has a bearing on human belief. If equally good witnesses, equal in number and in competence, testify in one way and an equal num-
of my topic by urging that all persons who wish to think accurately and help fully, give a little attention to the sources of human knowledge. It will always be impossible to tell what ac tion Congress has taken on a given case through taste or sight. We shall have to have testimony; that is to say, we must learn, if we are not personally present, from those who were present or who have become informed. We shall never be able to know what a given landscape is through conscious ness alone, since perception must be called into action. We shall never be able to arrive at the knowledge of in finity in space, time, or cause through the senses, through consciousness, through testimony or through reason ing. The reason will give us infinity directly or we shall never attain it at all. The Value of Testimony Passing from the general subject which we have thus imperfectly and hastily dealt with to the topic of testi mony as a source of knowledge, we have narrowed our field and may, therefore, see more in detail. What is it which makes you believe one witness while you doubt a second and disbelieve a third? Why is it that some facts received upon testimony you believe as firmly as you believe in your own existence, while other al leged facts intimated by testimony do not influence you at all? Your mind simply drops them out. You consider them valueless. It is evident that this introduces us to the question, “Upon what does the value of testimony de pend?” and I remark first it depends upon The Character of the Witness You do not believe the testimony of a man whom you know to be a
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