138 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING
tion which we feel to be permissible is as to whether the conditions of perception are normal. If we are convinced that they are normal it puts an end to hesitation.
Now, should this mental reaction be called belief? I think so. If I ask why I thus unhesitatingly accept the testimony of my senses or the truth of the mathematical axiom, the only answer that can be given is that I believe my senses give a correct report of reality or that I believe my mind is so constituted as to know truth. The fact that this belief is developed into full consciousness in philosophical meditation after the experience and is not a part of the conscious experience at the moment of perception makes no essential difference. It was implicit in the act. I accept and must accept the testimony of my senses or the truth of the axiom when such a presentation is made under normal conditions ; but this necessity does not change its character as belief.
2. The mind may passively admit the presentation as true. In this case the new presentation, being not of the sensory or axiomatic order, does not call forth the sense of necessity. It does not in any positive or significant way agree with the already existing mental content or organization. It simply does not consciously conflict with anything in the mental system. It is simply negative with respect to the present mental content. So far as what is already in consciousness is concerned there is no positive reason for accepting or rejecting it. It is then passively admitted, taken as true. It finds ample room in the world of belief as constituted. The best examples of this kind of belief are found in children. The child, for instance, is told the story of Santa Claus. Its limited experience contains nothing that is inconsistent with the story ; it, therefore, accepts, believes it. At first this experience may be thought to be identical in principle with that described in James illustration; but this would be a mistake. In the acceptance of Santa Claus as real the child is acting with an already organized consciousness, whereas in the first presentation to the new-born babe there is no previous experience, no organized
