118 SCIENCE AND MORALS 



III 



supporting the doctrines which he detests. To 

 reflect upon the confusion which the working of 

 such a power as this may introduce into one s 

 ideas of personality and responsibility is perilous 

 madness lies that way. But truth is truth, and 

 I am almost fain to believe in this magical visibi 

 lity of the non-existent when the only alternative 

 is the supposition that the writer of the article on 

 &quot; Materialism and Morality&quot; in vol. xl. (1886) of 

 the &quot; Fortnightly Review,&quot; in spite of his manifest 

 ability and honesty, has pledged himself, so far as 

 I am concerned, to what, if I may trust my own 

 knowledge of my own thoughts, must be called a 

 multitude of errors of the first magnitude. 



I so much admire Mr. Lilly s outspokenness, I 

 am so completely satisfied with the uprightness 

 of his intentions, that it is repugnant to me to 

 quarrel with anything he may say ; and I sympa 

 thise so warmly with his manly scorn of the 

 vileness of much that passes under the name of 

 literature in these times, that I would willingly be 

 silent under his by no means unkindly exposition 

 of his theory of my own tenets, if I thought that 

 such personal abnegation would serve the interest 

 of the cause we both have at heart. But I cannot 

 think so. My creed may be an ill-favoured thing, 

 but it is mine own, as Touchstone says of his lady 

 love ; and I have so high an opinion of the solid 

 virtues of the object of my affections that I cannot 

 calmly see her personated by a wench who is much 



