The blind
man's doubt would be rational, if he did not know by experience that
others have a power which he himself wants: but what perspicacity has
Mr. Clark which Nature has withheld from me or the rest of mankind?
'The true state of the parallel must be this. Suppose a man, with eyes
like his neighbours, was told by a boasting corporal, that the troops,
indeed, wore red clothes for their ordinary dress, but that every
soldier had likewise a suit of black velvet, which he put on when the
King reviews them. This he thinks strange, and desires to see the fine
clothes, but finds nobody in forty thousand men that can produce either
coat or waistcoat. One, indeed, has left them in his chest at Port
Mahon; another has always heard that he ought to have velvet clothes
somewhere; and a third has heard somebody say, that soldiers ought to
wear velvet. Can the enquirer be blamed if he goes away believing that a
soldier's red coat is all that he has?
'But the most obdurate incredulity may be shamed or silenced by acts. To
overpower contradictions, let the soldier shew his velvet-coat, and the
Fingalist the original of Ossian[788].
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