VII AGNOSTICISM 217 



fair-minded, as well as orthodox, Dr. Alexander 

 remarks, in an editorial note to the article 

 " Demoniacs," in the " Biblical Cyclopaedia " (vol. 

 i. p. 664, note) : 



... On the lowest grounds on which our Lord and His 

 Apostles can be placed they must, at least, be regarded as honest 

 men. Now, though honest speech does not require that words 

 should be used always and only in their etymological sense, it 

 does require that they should not be used so as to affirm what 

 the speaker knows to be false. Whilst, therefore, our Lord and 

 His Apostles might use the word 5a/;uoi>te<r0at, or the phrase, 

 tiaifj.dvioi' %x* l v> as a popular description of certain diseases, 

 without giving in to the belief which lay at the source of such a 

 mode of expression, they could not speak of demons entering 

 into a man, or being cast out of him, without pledging them- 

 selves to the belief of an actual possession of the man by the 

 demons. (Campbell, Prel. Diss. vi. 1, 10.) If, consequently, 

 they did not hold this belief, they spoke not as honest men. 



The story which we are considering does not 

 rest on the authority of the second Gospel alone. 

 The third confirms the second, especially in the 

 matter of commanding the unclean spirit to come 

 out of the man (Luke viii. 29) ; and, although 

 the first Gospel either gives a different version of 

 the same story, or tells another of like kind, the 

 essential point remains : " If thou cast us out, 

 send us away into the herd of swine. And He 

 said unto them : Go ! " (Matt. viii. 31, 32). 



If the concurrent testimony of the three 

 synoptics, then, is really sufficient to do away 

 with all rational doubt as to a matter of fact of 

 the utmost practical and speculative importance 



