VII 



AGNOSTICISM 211 



and if there be, I am not its acknowledged 

 prophet or pope. I desire to leave to the Comtists 

 the entire monopoly of the manufacture of imi- 

 tation ecclesiasticism. 



Let us calmly and dispassionately consider Dr. 

 Wace's appreciation of agnosticism. The agnos- 

 tic, according to his view, is a person who says he 

 has no means of attaining a scientific knowledge 

 of the unseen world or of the future ; by which 

 somewhat loose phraseology Dr. Wace presumably 

 means the theological unseen world and future. 

 I cannot think this description happy, either in 

 form or substance, but for the present it may 

 pass. Dr. Wace continues, that is not "his 

 difference from Christians." Are there then any 

 Christians who say that they know nothing about 

 the unseen world and the future ? I was ignorant 

 of the fact, but I am ready to accept it on the 

 authority of a professional theologian, and I 

 proceed to Dr. Wace's next proposition. 



The real state of the case, then, is that the 

 agnostic "does not believe the authority" on) 

 which "these things" are stated, which authority 

 is Jesus Christ. He is simply an old-fashioned 

 " infidel " who is afraid to own to his right name. 

 As "Presbyter is priest writ large," so is "ag- 

 nostic " the mere Greek equivalent for the Latin 

 " infidel." There is an attractive simplicity about 

 this solution of the problem; and it has that 

 advantage of being somewhat offensive to the 



