SCEPTIC (1 one who doubts, who deliberates, who cir cumspecta. Such is the primary meaning of the word, but like most words it has been wrested from its primary signification by ignorance or prejudice, and is now, beyond its philosophical meaning, used to express a dissenter from an established religion. In one sense it denotes a philoeopher; for doubt is the first step in science ; it is the refusal to take for granted any explanation of phenomena that may be offered; and the circumspection of the grounds and truth of this expla nation. In common usage, Sceptic denotes, loosely enough. an atheist, deist, pantheist, &o., or, more Rrecieely, the holder of any heterodox opinions. Common usage is here, as is usually the case, wrong. To set the matter in its true light, we must remark that scepticism is simply doubt, while heterodoxy is disbelief ; something manifestly ./istinct from doubt, which is a mere oscillation of the mind between opinions; the belief of this moment passing into the contrary belief of the next ; whereas disbelief is the belief in something contradictory. Reid, and others of the Scotch school, class disbelief as an independent power of the mind, equally with belief. We hold that the two are one and the same power exercised on contrary opinions. The mind must believe a thing or disbelieve it (that is, believe something else which is contradictory), or must oecillate—one moment believing this thing, and the next believing another thing. If then this distinction be borne in mind—if we have rightly demarcated doubt from disbelief—the erroneous application of sceptic JO common usage will be obvious. An unbeliever and an infidel are convertible terms in ordinary lan guage ; but nothing can be more erroneous. An unbeliever, in u sense, is the believer In some other religion, and as dogmatic in is belief as the moat orthodox (and hence the early Christians were called atheists by the Greeks, because they disbelieved in their gods), and might turn round upon the orthodox believer with the charge of unbelief in Ms religion. Thus a 31obammedan ie an unbeliever to the
Christians, and rice row, An Infidel, on the other hand, as the word implies, is one with no belief, a doubter, a sceptic. The Infidel, when truly such, does not dissent because ho believes something else—not because he has a contrary faith—but because he cannot believe for any length of time either the one or the other ; he oscillates between them This lad is the true sceptic ; this he always remains; he doubts, he de liberates, he circumspecta to the last day of his existence : as aeon as he ceases to doubt, deliberate, and circumspect, and takes up a distinct faith his character as a sceptic vaniehes; he becomes a believer. When considering the great and awful subjects of religion or philosophy, the weakness of the human mind must ever keep it in this state of scepticism, when once it has renounced its faith in things higher than its own logic :—when once reason is set up as the standard, measure, and exponent of all things, the human being is hwt in the ahoreless sera of scepticism.
In one sense, there are few who are not sceptics on certain points and on the other hand, few who can properly be designated as sceptica ; for to deserve this they must continue in the state of doubt which admits of no affirmation. Most men begin, as was said of Descartes, in doubting everything, and end In believing everything. The few who have consistently preserved the character of sceptic have been among the moat celebrated in the history of philosophy.