VII AGNOSTICISM 229 



of the unpleasantness of being called an "infidel" 

 which, we are told, is so right and proper. Near 

 my journey's end, I find myself in a condition of 

 something more than mere doubt about these 

 matters. 



In the course of other inquiries, I have had to 

 do with fossil remains which looked quite plain at 

 a distance, and became more and more indistinct 

 as I tried to define their outline by close inspec- 

 tion. There was something there something 

 which, if I could win assurance about it, might 

 mark a new epoch in the history of the earth ; 

 but, study as long as I might, certainty eluded my 

 grasp. So has it been with me in my efforts to 

 define the grand figure of Jesus as it lies in the 

 primary strata of Christian literature. Is he the 

 kindly, peaceful Christ depicted in the Catacombs ? v 

 Or is he the stern Judge who frowns above the 

 altar of SS. Cos mas and Damianus ? Or can he 

 be rightly represented by the bleeding ascetic, 

 broken down by physical pain, of too many 

 mediaeval pictures? Are we to accept the Jesus 

 of the second, or the Jesus of the fourth Gospel, 

 as the true Jesus ? What did he really say and 

 do ; and how much that is attributed to him, in 

 speech and action, is the embroidery of the various 

 parties into which his followers tended to split 

 themselves within twenty years of his death, 

 when even the threefold tradition was only 

 nascent ? 



