"We know the past and its great events, the present in its multitudinous complications, chiefly through faith in the testimony of others"
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History, Simpson reminds us, is mostly a secondhand religion. The line lands with the quiet confidence of a clergyman who understands how much of daily life runs on trust: not just doctrine, but newspapers, institutions, even family lore. “We know” sounds firm, almost empirical, then he slips the floor out from under it: what we call knowledge of “great events” and today’s “multitudinous complications” is “chiefly” an act of faith in other people’s testimony.
The intent isn’t to sneer at credulity; it’s to normalize belief as the infrastructure of modern society. Simpson is writing in a 19th-century world thick with expanding print culture, contested narratives of nationhood, and religious debate. When archives are distant and expertise is consolidating, most people can’t verify the past firsthand. So the question becomes less “Is faith irrational?” and more “Which witnesses have earned our trust?”
The subtext is pastoral and political at once. Pastors ask congregations to accept apostolic testimony; citizens are also being asked to accept the testimony of historians, journalists, and officials. By pairing “the past” with the chaotic “present,” Simpson blurs sacred and secular epistemology: even the here-and-now arrives filtered through other mouths, other pens, other incentives. The phrasing “chiefly through faith” does subtle work, too. It admits partial verification without pretending it’s the norm.
Read this way, Simpson isn’t defending gullibility; he’s warning that every public reality is a chain of trust, and chains are only as honest as their links.
The intent isn’t to sneer at credulity; it’s to normalize belief as the infrastructure of modern society. Simpson is writing in a 19th-century world thick with expanding print culture, contested narratives of nationhood, and religious debate. When archives are distant and expertise is consolidating, most people can’t verify the past firsthand. So the question becomes less “Is faith irrational?” and more “Which witnesses have earned our trust?”
The subtext is pastoral and political at once. Pastors ask congregations to accept apostolic testimony; citizens are also being asked to accept the testimony of historians, journalists, and officials. By pairing “the past” with the chaotic “present,” Simpson blurs sacred and secular epistemology: even the here-and-now arrives filtered through other mouths, other pens, other incentives. The phrasing “chiefly through faith” does subtle work, too. It admits partial verification without pretending it’s the norm.
Read this way, Simpson isn’t defending gullibility; he’s warning that every public reality is a chain of trust, and chains are only as honest as their links.
Quote Details
| Topic | Knowledge |
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