496 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
crude production; its every sentence bore marks of thought 
and care." 
My critic intends to be severe: he is simply just. In 
the "solitudes" to which he refers I worked with deliber- 
ation, endeavoring even to purify my intellect by disciplines 
similar to those enjoined by his own church for the 
sauctification of the soul. I tried, moreover, in my pon- 
deriugs to realize not only tile lawful, 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 principles, but to improve 
it verbally, and above all to remove any word which might 
give color 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 convictionj_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 doctrine of " Material 
Atheism " upon my allegiance might be. Probably they 
would be very strong. But, as it is, I have noticed dur- 
ing_years of self-observation that it is not in hours of clear- 
ness and vigor that this doctrine 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 utterance 
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 affix with links 
of steel to the name of Professor Tyndall, the dread im- 
putation against which he struggles." 
L/Ti 
