224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In view of such utterances — and of many similar ones in other 

 writings of both Spencer and Huxley — it seems that a positive 

 and affirmative word, or set of words, capable of expressing the 

 agnostic idea, if to be found or framed, would not only be appli- 

 cable, but would be acceptable to them and fit for the system of 

 thought with which the essay of the evening is concerned. 



The words proposed come from the same root as the words 

 gnostic, agnostic, prognostic, and diagnostic. 



The root is verbal and affirmative. It means to know ; and 

 with the prefix meta, means to know beyond. The noun means 

 beyond-knowledge. Beyond-knowledge may be knowledge "be- 

 yond the sphere of sense," and correspond to Spencer's definition 

 of religion, or, as you will, it may refer to all knowledge beyond 

 mere sense-perception, and so include all human knowledge that 

 exceeds that of the brute animal and is derived from or limited 

 by the senses. As for myself, I prefer the total meaning : for 

 then, as the civil engineer uses his base-line and two known angles 

 to measure distances and relations of things beyond the river 

 where he can not go with his tape-line, and the astronomer the 

 distances, actual and relative, of the heavenly bodies, so we may 

 use our actual hither-knowledge for the purpose of dealing with 

 the field of beyond-knowledge — or of the Unknowable — where the 

 senses can give us no direct aid. 



As to the appropriateness of the adoption of the proposed words 

 into the English nomenclature of religion, the evidence at hand is 

 still more authoritative and conclusive than in the case of science 

 and philosophy. 



In his preceding essay — Religion : A Retrospect and a Prospect 

 — Mr. Spencer begins with these words : 



"Unlike the ordinary consciousness, the religious conscious- 

 ness is concerned with that which lies beyond the sphere of sense. * 

 A brute thinks only of things which can be touched, seen, heard, 

 tasted, etc. ; and the like is true of the untaught child, the deaf- 

 mute, and the lowest savage. But the developing man has thoughts 

 about existences which he regards as usually intangible, inaudible, 

 invisible ; and yet which he regards as operative upon him." 



If you ask the source from which the proposed words are de- 

 rived, the reply is that, as to the second form, it is found in the 

 New Testament, and is the supreme word in the messages of John 

 the Baptist, of St. Paul, of Jesus Christ, and of the gospel gener- 

 ally, wherein it is believed truly to have the precise meaning — as 

 shown by the context — of the proposed English word or words 

 under discussion ; and that, as to the first form, it is constructed 

 by throwing out the prefix — a — from the word agnosticism, and 

 substituting the prefix — meta. 



Prof. Huxley, the inventor of the word agnostic, is said to 



