9–15 January 1832

I cannot help quoting from Mendelssohn's Phado the following ruk, "All that which, be- ing admitted as true, would procure the human race a real advantage or a feeble consolation, acquires by that alone a high degree of proba- bility." •• When the skeptics," says his Socrates, " object against the belief in God and virtue that it Is a simple political invention imagined for the good of society, I reply, ' O, imagine a doctrine as indispensable to man, and I will pledge my- self upon its truth.' " This is a true account of our instinctive faith. Why do I believe in a per- fect system of compensations, that exact justice is done? Certainly not upon a narrow experi- ence of a score, or a hundred instances. For I boldly affirm and believe the universality of the law. But simply that it is better in the view of the mind than any other way, therefore must be the true way. Whatever is better must be the truer way.