VII 



AGNOSTICISM 249 



the Religion of Humanity is accepted by man- 

 kind. Well, if that is their fate, they have time 

 to be cheerful. But let us hear Mr. Harrison's 

 pronouncement of their doom. 



"Agnosticism is a stage in the evolution of 

 religion, an entirely negative stage, the point 

 reached by physicists, a purely mental conclusion, 

 with no relation to things social at all" (p. 154). 

 I am quite dazed by this declaration. Are there, 

 then, any " conclusions " that are not " purely 

 mental " ? Is there " no relation to things social " 

 in " mental conclusions " which affect men's 

 whole conception of life ? Was that prince of 

 agnostics, David Hume, particularly imbued with 

 physical science ? Supposing physical science 

 to be non-existent, would not the agnostic 

 principle, applied by the philologist and the 

 historian, lead to exactly the same results ? Is 

 the modern more or less complete suspension of 

 judgment as to the facts of the history of regal 

 Rome, or the real origin of the Homeric poems, 

 anything but agnosticism in history and in 

 literature ? And if so, how can agnosticism be 

 the " mere negation of the physicist " ? 



" Agnosticism is a stage in the evolution of 

 religion." No two people agree as to what is 

 meant by the term " religion " ; but if it means, 

 as I think it ought to mean, simply the reverence 

 and love for the ethical ideal, and the desire to 

 realise that ideal in life, which every man ought 



