772 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the people, I have had my doubts of the fact ; and my love for 

 my fellow-countrymen has led me to reflect with dread on what 

 will happen to them, if any of the laws of nature ever become so 

 unpopular in their eyes as to be voted down by the transcendent 

 authority of universal suffrage. If the legion of demons, before 

 they set out on their journey in the swine, had had time to hold a 

 meeting and to resolve unanimously, " That the law of gravitation 

 is oppressive and ought to be repealed," I am afraid it would have 

 made no sort of difference to the result, when their two thousand 

 unwilling porters were once launched down the steep slopes of 

 the fatal shore of Gennesaret. 



The question of the place of religion as an element of human nature, as a force 

 of human society, its origin, analysis, and functions, has never been considered at 

 all from an agnostic point of view (p. 152). 



I doubt not that Mr. Harrison knows vastly more about his- 

 tory than I do; in fact, he tells the public that some of my 

 friends and I have had no opportunity of occupying ourselves 

 with that subject. I do not like to contradict any statement 

 which Mr. Harrison makes on his own authority ; only, if I may 

 be true to my agnostic principles, I humbly ask how he has ob- 

 tained assurance on this head. I do not profess to know any- 

 thing about the range of Mr. Harrison's studies ; but as he has 

 thought it fitting to start the subject, I may venture to point out 

 that, on the evidence adduced, it might be equally permissible to 

 draw the conclusion that Mr. Harrison's absorbing labors as the 

 pontifex maximus of the positivist religion have not allowed him 

 to acquire that acquaintance with the methods and results of 

 physical science, or with the history of philosophy, or of philo- 

 logical and historical criticism, which is essential to any one who 

 desires to obtain a right understanding of agnosticism. Incom- 

 petence in philosophy, and in all branches of science except 

 mathematics, is the well-known mental characteristic of the 

 founder of Positivism. Faithfulness in disciples is an admirable 

 quality in itself ; the pity is that it not unf requently leads to the 

 imitation of the weaknesses as well as of the strength of the 

 master. It is only such over-faithfulness which can account for 

 a " strong mind really saturated with the historical sense " (p. 153) 

 exhibiting the extraordinary forgetfulness of the historical fact 

 of the existence of David Hume implied by the assertion that 

 it would be difficult to name a single known agnostic who has given to history 

 anything like the amount of thought and study which he brings to a knowledge of 

 the physical world (p. 153). 



Whoso calls to mind, what I may venture to term, the bright 

 side of Christianity ; that ideal of manhood, with its strength and 

 its patience ; its justice and its pity for human frailty ; its help- 



