VIII 



AGNOSTICISM: A REJOINDER 

 [1889.] 



THOSE who passed from Dr. Wace's article in the 

 last number of the " Nineteenth Century " to the 

 anticipatory confutation of it which followed in 

 "The New Reformation," must have enjoyed the 

 pleasure of a dramatic surprise just as when the 

 fifth act of a new play proves unexpectedly bright 

 and interesting. Mrs. Ward will, I hope, pardon 

 the comparison, if I say that her effective clearing 

 away of antiquated incumbrances from the lists of 

 the controversy, reminds me of nothing so much 

 as of the action of some neat-handed, but strong- 

 wristed, Phyllis, who, gracefully wielding her 

 long-handled " Turk's head," sweeps away the 

 accumulated results of the toil of generations of 

 spiders. I am the more indebted to this luminous 

 sketch of the results of critical investigation, as it 

 is carried out among those theologians who are 

 men of science and not mere counsel for creeds, 



