234 AGNOSTICISM VII 



it is applied. But why should a man be expected 

 to call himself a " miscreant " or an " infidel " ? 

 That St. Patrick "had two birthdays because he 

 was a twin " is a reasonable and intelligible utter- 

 ance beside that of the man who should declare 

 himself to be an infidel, on the ground of denying 

 his own belief. It may be logically, if not ethi- 

 cally, defensible that a Christian should call a 

 Mahommedan an infidel and vice versd ; but, on 

 Dr. Wace's principles, both ought to call them- 

 selves infidels, because each applies the term to 

 the other. 



Now I am afraid that all the Mahommedan world 

 would agree in reciprocating that appellation to 

 Dr. Wace himself. I once visited the Hazar 

 Mosque, the great University of Mahommedanism, 

 in Cairo, in ignorance of the fact that I was un- 

 provided with proper authority. A swarm of 

 angry undergraduates, as I suppose I ought to 

 call them, came buzzing about me and my guide ; 

 and if I had known Arabic, I suspect that " dog 

 of an infidel " would have been by no means the 

 most " unpleasant " of the epithets showered upon 

 me, before I could explain and apologise for the 

 mistake. If I had had the pleasure of Dr. Wace's 

 company on that occasion, the undiscriminative 

 followers of the Prophet would, I am afraid, have 

 made no difference between us ; not even if they 

 had known that he was the head of an orthodox 

 Christian seminary. And I have not the smallest 



