提出问题和做出判断之间的区别被普遍认可，因为怀疑和信念的感觉是不一样的。但这并不是怀疑和信念之间的唯一区别。有一个实际的区别，我们的信念指导着我们的欲望，规范着我们的行动。刺客（Hatchichins）或山中老人的追随者一听到命令就跑去送死，因为他们相信服从他们的领袖可以确保他们获得永恒的幸福。如果他们怀疑这一点，他们就不会有这样的行为，任何信念都是如此，与其强度成正比。信念的感觉或多或少地表明，一种思维习惯已经在我们心中扎根，这将决定我们的行动，而怀疑从来不会有这样的效果。

第三个不同点也不应该被忽视。怀疑是一种不舒服和不满的状态，人们努力摆脱这种状态，以达到信念的状态。后者是一种平静和满意的状态，人们不想为了采用另一种信念而放弃或改变。相反，人们不仅顽强地努力相信，而且确实地相信自己所相信的。

因此，怀疑和信念都会对我们产生积极的影响，尽管它们非常不同。信念并不使我们立即行动，而是使我们进入这样一种状态，即当机会来临时，我们将以某种方式行事。怀疑至少没有这样的积极作用，但会刺激我们去探究，直到它被摧毁。这让我们想起了神经的刺激和由此产生的反射作用；而对于信念的类似物，在神经系统中，我们必须寻找所谓的神经关联--例如，神经的习惯，由于桃子的气味会使人流口水。

一，英语原文

We generally know when we wish to ask a question and when we wish to pronounce a judgment, for there is a dissimilarity between the sensation of doubting and that of believing.

But this is not all which distinguishes doubt from belief. There is a practical difference. Our beliefs guide our desires and shape our actions. The Assassins, or followers of the Old Man of the Mountain, used to rush into death at his least command, because they believed that obedience to him would insure everlasting felicity. Had they doubted this, they would not have acted as they did. So it is with every belief, according to its degree. The feeling of believing is a more or less sure indication of there being established in our nature some habit which will determine our actions. Doubt never has such an effect.

Nor must we overlook a third point of difference. Doubt is an uneasy and dissatisfied state from which we struggle to free ourselves and pass into the state of belief; while the latter is a calm and satisfactory state which we do not wish to avoid, or to change to a belief in anything else. On the contrary, we cling tenaciously, not merely to believing, but to believing just what we do believe.

Thus, both doubt and belief have positive effects upon us, though very different ones. Belief does not make us act at once, but puts us into such a condition that we shall behave in some certain way, when the occasion arises. Doubt has not the least such active effect, but stimulates us to inquiry until it is destroyed. This reminds us of the irritation of a nerve and the reflex action produced thereby; while for the analogue of belief, in the nervous system, we must look to what are called nervous associations -- for example, to that habit of the nerves in consequence of which the smell of a peach will make the mouth water.