Excerpt from Testimony Its Posture in the Scientific World
But when Mr Faraday proceeds to say that for any person to draw a heavy object by his fingers, would be creating a force, "which cannot be," he clearly goes beyond the limits of his axiom. Suppose that a heavy object were to follow the fingers of an experimentalist, the cause of it might be only some already existing, though unknown and mysterious force - one force simply overcoming another. This is not saying that any such force exists in the fingers of the human subject: it is only saying that, if any sufficient number of persons allege that such has been with them matter of observation, an a priori objection, to the effect that no such force exists, can only be considered as a petitio principii. That there are recognised forces by which gravitation can be overcome, and these of a sufficiently mysterious character too, is known to the merest tyro that ever used a magnet in raising a few iron filings; and, it may be reasonably asked, who can tell how many such forces there may be? "In the world around us," says Dean Trench (On Miracles), "we continually behold lower laws held in restraint by higher, mechanic by dynamic, chemical by vital, physical by moral." Instead of ignoring this obvious text, Mr Faraday would need to supply us with a rule by which we might ascertain that the alleged new facts do not belong to a higher law than any now recognised.
In short, this sceptical method consists very much in vicious circles. You cannot know whether a fact be a fact till you have ascertained the laws of nature in the case, and you cannot know the laws of nature till you have ascertained facts. You must not profess to have learned anything till you have ascertained if it be possible, and this you cannot ascertain till you have learned everything.
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