254 ASSAYS SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL. 



hitherto He has taught the world. To be teach- 

 able it is not necessary to be uncritical, but if ever 

 we are to become true critics we must begin by 

 the readiness to learn. And the rationalism which 

 is rightly treated as the enemy of faith implies an 

 attitude of the will which makes the attainment of 

 truth impossible. Who are they who have proved 

 themselves sufficient for so great a work as the 

 interpreting of truth to man ? Those, surely, who 

 have most clearly recognized the greatness of the 

 truth they handle and the insufficiency of man to 

 do anything but to receive the truth which is given 

 and truly to reflect the truth he sees. 



II. But what is called " rationalism " is not the 

 only form in which man asserts his self-sufficiency 

 and independence of God, and so adopts a false 

 attitude of will towards truth. It is shown in 

 what it is the fashion to call the agnostic temper. 

 Here, so far from reason proclaiming its compe- 

 tence to judge of great matters, it declares itself 

 unable to deal with them at all. Can anything be 

 more modest, less self-assertive? And yet expe- 

 rience tells us that self-depreciation is not always 

 humility, and that the repudiation of any know- 

 ledge of some subjects is consistent with much 

 self-satisfaction and self-conceit elsewhere. 



But indeed this attempt to settle the boundaries 

 of knowledge off-hand is as impossible as to say 

 beforehand where we may and where we may not 



