266 AGNOSTICISM: A EEJOINDER vill 



important events which had taken place at the 

 Church Congress ; and I think I can venture to 

 affirm that there was not a single copy of Dr. 

 Wace's pamphlet in any of the hotel libraries 

 which I rummaged, in search of something more 

 edifying than dull English or questionable French 

 novels. 



And now, having, as I hope, set myself right 

 with the public as regards the sins of commission 

 and omission with which I have been charged, I 

 feel free to deal with matters to which time and 

 type may be more profitably devoted. 



I believe that there is not a solitary argument 

 I have used, or that I am about to use, which is 

 original, or has anything to do with the fact that 

 I have been chiefly occupied with natural science. 

 They are all, facts and reasoning alike, either 

 identical with, or consequential upon, propositions 

 which are to be found in the works of scholars 

 and theologians of the highest repute in the only 

 two countries, Holland and Germany, 1 in which, 

 at the present time, professors of theology are to 

 be found, whose tenure of their posts does not 

 depend upon the results to which their inquiries 

 lead them. 2 It is true that, to the best of my 



1 The United States ought, perhaps, to be added, but I am 

 not sure. 



2 Imagine that all our chairs of Astronomy had been founded 

 in the fourteenth century, and that their incumbents were bound 

 to sign Ptolemaic articles. In that case, with every respect for 

 the efforts of persons thus hampered to attain and expound the 



