782 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to be the cause of his hostile attitude ; he believed it to be the 

 justification of even his bitter polemics. 



But while on the objective side his scientific mode of thought 

 thus made him a never-failing opponent of theologic thought of 

 every kind, a common tie on the subjective side bound him to the 

 heart of the Christian religion. Strong as was his conviction that 

 the moral no less than the material good of man was to be secured 

 by the scientific method alone, strong as was his confidence in the 

 ultimate victory of that method in the war against ignorance and 

 wrong, no less clear was his vision of the limits beyond which 

 science was unable to go. He brought into the current use of to- 

 day the term " agnostic," but the word had to him a deep and 

 solemn meaning. To him " I do not know " was not a mere phrase 

 to be thrown with a light heart at the face of an opponent who asks 

 a hard question ; it was reciprocally with the positive teachings 

 of science the guide of his life. Great as he felt science to be, he 

 was well aware that science could never lay its hand, could never 

 touch, even with the tip of its finger, that dream with which our 

 little life is rounded, and that unknown dream was a power as 

 dominant over him as was the might of known science ; he carried 

 about with him every day that which he did not know as his guide 

 of life no less to be minded than that which he did know. Future 

 visitors to the burial place on the northern heights of London, 

 seeing on his tombstone the lines 



"And if there be no meeting past the grave, 

 If all is darkness, silence, yet 'tis rest. 

 Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep, 

 For God ' still giveth his beloved sleep,' 

 And if an endless sleep he wills so best" 



will recognize that the agnostic man of science had much in com- 

 mon with the man of faith. 



There is still much more to say of him, but this is not the place 

 to say it. Let it be enough to add that those who had the happi- 

 ness to come near him knew that besides science and philosophy 

 there was room in him for yet many other things ; they forgot 

 the learned investigator, the wise man of action, and the fearless 

 combatant as they listened to him talking of letters, of pictures, 

 or of music, always wondering which delighted them most, the 

 sure thrust with which he hit the mark, whatever it might be, or 

 the brilliant wit which flashed around his stroke. And yet one 

 word more. As an object seen first at a distance changes in as- 

 pect to the looker-on who draws nearer and yet more near, features 

 unseen afar off filling up the vision close at hand, so he seemed to 

 change to those who, coming nearer and nearer to him, gained a 

 happy place within his innermost circle ; his incisive thought, his 



