[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.") must confess to have
experienced a certain amount of difficulty in apprehending the exact force of Mr. Galton's argu- ment with regard to what he considers "strategic points " in the present discussion.
He asserts that those who deny the right of appeal to statistical inquiry upon the efficacy of prayer implicitly assume two pro- positions, viz., that the desire to pray is intuitive, and that the cogency of intuition is greater than observation. These two pro- positions he proceeds to disprove. Now, granting for the moment that he has succeeded in doing so, I do not clearly see how he considers that he has advanced his position with regard to the in- efficacy of prayer. It appears to me that Mr. Galton's argument is entirely a work of supererogation.
I am not aware that those who profess belief in the efficacy of prayer are under the necessity of arguing that the reason of hold- ing such a belief is a matter of intuition with them. The reason- able Christian, no more, I suppose, than the scientific man, is liable to maintain that a proposition which is not of the nature of an axiom is incapable of proof. Yet Ur. Galton's letter seems to be based on a contrary opinion. The process of his reasoning is very simple. He first makes the assumption that those who oppose his view consider intuition to be the only ground for prayer. He proceeds to prove that the desire to pray is not intui- tive. This he considers equivalent to proving that the belief in the efficacy of prayer is absurd. Surely the demonstration is not quite complete.
The objection of those who deny the right of appeal to statis- tical inquiry in this matter is not that such a method is an appeal to experience, when it should be an appeal to intuition, but rather that it is an appeal to only one branch of experience, and that a branch which science is not competent to investigate. If Mr. Galton means to maintain that there is nothing which is not within the range of scientific inquiry, he should say so. The discussion would be much simpler. To tuned that there is no efficacy in prayer because there is no God to pray to would be a plain enough statement. Perhaps this is a "strategic point" in reserve ?—I am, Sir, &e.,
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