206 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



moreover, in my ponderings to realise not only the law- 

 ful, but the expedient ; and to permit no fear to act 

 upon my mind, save that of uttering a single word on 

 which I could not take my stand, either in this or in 

 any other world. 



Still my time was so brief, the difficulties arising 

 from my isolated position were so numerous, and my 

 thought and expression so slow, that, in a literary point 

 of view, I halted, not only behind the ideal, but behind 

 the possible. Hence, after the delivery of the Address, 

 I went over it with the desire, not to revoke its prin- 

 ciples, but to improve it verbally, and above all to 

 remove any word which might give colour to the notion 

 of ' crudeness, hurry, or haste.' 



In connection with the charge of Atheism my critic 

 refers to the Preface to the second issue of the Belfast 

 Address : ' Christian men,' I there say, ' are proved by 

 their writings to have their hours of weakness and of 

 doubt, as well as their hours of strength and of convic- 

 tion; and men like myself share, in their own way, 

 these variations of mood and tense. Were the religious 

 moods of many of my assailants the only alternative 

 ones, I do not know how strong the claims of the doc- 

 trine of " Material Atheism " upon my allegiance might 

 be. Probably they would be very strong. But, as it is, 

 I have noticed during years of self-observation that it 

 is not in hours of clearness and vigour that this doc- 

 trine commends itself to my mind ; that in the presence 

 of stronger and healthier thought it ever dissolves and 

 disappears, as offering no solution of the mystery in 

 which we dwell, and of which we form a part.' 



With reference to this honest and reasonable utter- 

 ance my censor exclaims, ' This is a most remarkable 

 passage. Much as we dislike seasoning polemics with 

 strong words, we assert that this Apology only tends to 



