248 AGNOSTICISM 



VII 



weakly frame of Positivism until it looks, more 

 than ever, like John Banyan's Pope and Pagan 

 rolled into one. There is a story often repeated, 

 and I am afraid none the less mythical on that 

 account, of a valiant and loud-voiced corporal in 

 command of two full privates who, falling in with 

 a regiment of the enemy in the dark, orders it to 

 surrender under pain of instant annihilation by 

 his force; and the enemy - surrenders accordingly. 

 I am always reminded of this tale when I read 

 the positivist commands to the forces of Chris- 

 tianity and of Science ; only the enemy show no 

 more signs of intending to obey now than they 

 have done any time these forty years. 



The allocution under consideration has a 

 certain papal flavour. Mr. Harrison speaks 

 with authority and not as one of the com- 

 mon scribes of the period. He knows not only 

 what agnosticism is and how it has come about, 

 but what will become of it. The agnostic is 

 to content himself with being the precursor of 

 the positivist. In his place, as a sort of navvy 

 levelling the ground and cleansing it of such 

 poor stuff as Christianity, he is a useful creat- 

 ure who deserves patting on the back, on con- 

 dition that he does not venture beyond his 

 last. But let not these scientific Sanballats 

 presume that they are good enough to take part 

 in the building of the Temple they are mere 

 Samaritans, doomed to die out in proportion as 



