88 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



character and purpose. As the point is one which 

 goes as far as any other toward illustrating Mr. 

 Wright's philosophic position, and as it has an 

 immediate bearing on the vexed question of sci- 

 ence and religion, I will crave the reader's in- 

 dulgence while I illustrate it briefly here. 



Doctors are proverbially known to disagree, 

 whether they be doctors in philosophy or in med- 

 icine ; but I have often thought that an interest- 

 ing case might be made out by any one who 

 should endeavour to signalize the half-hidden as- 

 pects of agreement rather than the conspicuous 

 aspects of difference among philosophic schools. 

 Certainly, in the controversy which has been 

 waged of late years concerning the sources of 

 knowledge and the criterion of truth, one is in- 

 clined to suspect that a greater amount of antag- 

 onism has been brought to the surface than is 

 altogether required by the circumstances. In old 

 times, when you were asked why you believed 

 that things would happen in future after much 

 the same general fashion as in the past, there 

 were two replies which you could make. If you 

 were a believer in Locke, you would say that you 

 trusted in the testimony of experience ; but here 

 the follower of Leibnitz would declare that you 

 were very unwise, since experience can only tea- 



