TWO:In their theory of cognition the Stoics chiefly followed Aristotle; only with them the doctrine of empiricism is enunciated so distinctly as to be placed beyond the reach of misinterpretation. The mind is at first a tabula rasa, and all our ideas are derived exclusively from the senses.37 But while knowledge as a whole rests on sense, the validity of each particular sense-perception must be determined by an appeal to reason, in other words, to the totality of our acquired experience.38 So also the first principles of reasoning are not to be postulated, with Aristotle, as immediately and unconditionally certain; they are to be assumed as hypothetically true and gradually tested by the consequences deducible from them.39 Both principles well illustrate the synthetic method of the Stoicstheir habit of bringing into close16 connexion whatever Aristotle had studiously held apart. And we must maintain, in opposition to the German critics, that their method marks a real advance on his. It ought at any rate to find more favour with the experiential school of modern science, with those who hold that the highest mathematical and physical laws are proved, not by the impossibility of conceiving their contradictories, but by their close agreement with all the facts accessible to our observation.The name of having been an apprentice to a famous firm may sometimes have an influence in enabling an engineer to form advantageous commercial connections, but generally an apprenticeship is of value only as it has furnished substantial knowledge and skill; for every one must sooner or later come down to the solid basis of their actual abilities and acquirements. The engineering interest is by far too practical to recognise a shadow instead of true substance, and there is but little chance of deception in a calling which deals mainly with facts, figures, and positive demonstration.
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