LAST WORDS ABOUT AGNOSTICISM. 317 



"hope anything of the Unknowable or find consolation therein?" 

 (p. 503) ; and to a grieving mother he represents me as replying to 

 assuage her grief, " Think on the Unknowable " (p. 503). Similarly 

 in his second article he writes, " to tell them that they are to worship 

 this Unknowable is equivalent to telling them to worship nothing " 

 (p. 357) ; " the worship of the Unknowable is abhorrent to every in- 

 stinct of genuine religion" (p. 360) ; "praying to the Unknowable at 

 home " (p. 376) ; and having in these and kindred ways fashioned for 

 me the observances of a religion which he represents me as " propos- 

 ing," he calls it "one of the most gigantic paradoxes in the history of 

 thouo-ht " (p. 355). So effectually has Mr. Harrison impressed every- 

 body by these expressions and assertions, that I read in a newspaper 

 — " Mr. Spencer speaks of the ' absurdities of the Comtean religion,' 

 but what about his own peculiar cult ? " 



Now the whole of this is a fabric framed out of Mr. Harrison's 

 imaginations. I have nowhere "proposed" any "object of religion." 

 I have nowhere suggested that any one should " worship this Unknow- 

 able." No line of mine gives ground for inquiring how the Unknow- 

 able is to be sought " in a devout way," or for asking what are " the 

 religious exercises ; " nor have I suggested that any one may find 

 " consolation therein." Observe the facts. At the close of my article 

 " Religion ; a Retrospect and Prospect," I pointed out to " those who 

 think that science is dissipating religious beliefs and sentiments," 

 " that whatever of mystery is taken from the old interpretation is 

 added to the new ; " increase rather than diminution being the result. 

 I said that in perpetually extending our knowledge of the Universe, 

 concrete science "enlarges the sphere for religious sentiment;" and 

 that progressing knowledge is " accompanied by an increasing ca- 

 pacity for wonder." And in my second article, in further explanation, 

 I have represented my thesis to be " that whatever components of this 

 [the religious] sentiment disappear, there must ever survive those 

 which are appropriate to the consciousness of a Mystery that can not 

 be fathomed and a Power that is omnipresent." This is the sole thing 

 for which I am responsible. I have advocated nothing ; I have pro- 

 posed no worship ; I have said nothing about " devotion," or " prayer," 

 or "religious exercises," or "hope," or "consolation." I have simply 

 affirmed the permanence of certain components in the consciousness 

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

 If Mr. Harrison says that this surviving sentiment is inadequate for 

 what he thinks the purposes of religion, I simply reply — I have said 

 nothing about its adequacy or inadequacy. The assertion that the 

 emotions of awe and wonder form but a fragment of religion, leaves 

 me altogether unconcerned : I have said nothing to the contrary. If 

 Mr. Harrison sees well to describe the emotions of awe and wonder 

 as "some rags of religious sentiment surviving" (p. 358), it is not in- 

 cumbent on me to disprove the fitness of his expression. I am respon- 



