VIII AGNOSTICISM : A REJOINDER 307 



compare them carefully. It will then be seen that 

 the coincidences between them, not merely in 

 substance, but in arrangement, and in the use of 

 identical words in the same order, are such, that 

 only two alternatives are conceivable : either one 

 evangelist freely copied from the other, or both 

 based themselves upon a common source, which 

 may either have been a written document, or a 

 definite oral tradition learned by heart. Assuredly, 

 these two testimonies are not those of independent 

 witnesses. Further, when the narrative in the 

 first gospel is compared with that in the other two, 

 the same fact comes out. 



Supposing, then, that Dr. Wace is right in his 

 assumption that Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote 

 the works which we find attributed to them by 

 tradition, what is the value of their agreement, 

 even that something more or less like this par- 

 ticular miracle occurred, since it is demonstrable, 

 either that all depend on some antecedent state- 

 ment, of the authorship of which nothing is known, 

 or that two are dependent upon the third ? 



Dr. Wace says he believes the Gadarene story ; 

 whichever version of it he accepts, therefore, he 

 believes that Jesus said what he is stated in all the 

 versions to have said, and thereby virtually 

 declared that the theory of the nature of the 

 spiritual world involved in the story is true. 

 Now I hold that this theory is false, that it is a 

 monstrous and mischievous fiction ; and I unhesi- 



