THE AFFIRMATIVE SIDE OF AGNOSTICISM. 225 



have derived it from St. Paul's mention of the Unknown or Ag- 

 nostic God. The word now suggested is derived from the substi- 

 tute proposed by St. Paul at the same time. While St. Paul did 

 not advise the Athenians to erect an altar to the metanostic God 

 in place of the altar they had erected to the Agnostic God, he 

 used the word metanoein, and he thereby clearly advocated the 

 practice of what we may properly call metanosticism as the alter- 

 native and substitute for agnosticism, in connection with religion 

 and its observances. This he did after expressly declaring the 

 absence of any divine condemnation of their agnosticism, which 

 God is said to have " winked at " or overlooked. The strong and 

 suggestive antithesis made use of by St. Paul has been lost in the 

 translations of the language employed by him on that occasion ; 

 but there is no time to enlarge, here and now, upon the fraudu- 

 lent travesty practiced upon mankind for ages by the Church in 

 translating the original word so used to mean " do penance " and 

 " repent." 



I content myself with asking, What would be the consequences 

 of the candid, common, and proper acceptance and use, through- 

 out the civilized world, of such a word to express the central 

 thought of the science, the philosophy, and the religion of our 

 age and of the ages to come, sanctioned by the high priests of 

 each of these departments of thought ? 



I have only a word to add : Without committing this Associa- 

 tion, as its corresponding secretary, or otherwise, or any other 

 person but myself, to the proposition, it is my purpose to submit 

 the question of the adoption of the words meta-gnostic and meta- 

 gnosticism, or metanostic and metanosticism, as affirmative sub- 

 stitutes for the words agnostic or agnosticism, to Mr. Spencer 

 and Mr. Huxley, in the hope that, as leaders in modern agnostic 

 thought, they will see their way clear to their adoption, and 

 thereby supply a link to unite science, philosophy, and a true 

 Christian religion in behalf of humanity and future ages. 



And when their replies are received — if so be — they will be 

 communicated to this Association for its further consideration, 

 and possibly for its co-operative action. 



LETTER OF HERBERT SPENCER. 

 64 Avenue Road, Regent's Park, London, N. W., December 22, 1889. 



My Dear Sir : I have to thank you for the volume of Evolu- 

 tion lectures, which I received recently. I presumed that they 

 would eventually be bound together, and that you would kindly 

 send me a copy. This, of course, I shall like to keep. 



Will you excuse me if I do not go into the matters raised by 

 your late letters ? I have been made so ill by over-excitement 

 that until Wednesday last I had not been out for more than a 



