310 AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY ix 



speaking for myself, and without impugning the 

 right of any other person to use the term in 

 another sense, I farther say that Agnosticism is 

 not properly described as a " negative " creed, nor 

 indeed as a creed of any kind, except in so far as 

 it expresses absolute faith in the validity of a 

 principle, which is as much ethical as intellectual. 

 This principle may be stated in various ways, but 

 they all amount to this : that it is wrong for a 

 man to say that he is certain of the objective 

 truth of any proposition unless he can produce 

 evidence which logically justifies that certainty. 

 This is what Agnosticism asserts; and, in my 

 opinion, it is all that is essential to Agnosticism. 

 (That which Agnostics deny and repudiate, as 

 immoral, is the contrary doctrine, that there are 

 propositions which men ought to believe, without 

 logically satisfactory evidence; and that repro- 

 bation ought to attach to the profession of 

 disbelief in such inadequately supported pro- 

 positions. The justification of the Agnostic 

 principle lies in the success which follows upon 

 its application, whether in the field of natural, or 

 in that of civil, history ; and in the fact that, so 

 far as these topics are concerned, no sane man 

 thinks of denying its validity. J 

 C Still speaking for myself, I add, that though 

 Agnosticism is not, and cannot be, a creed, except 

 in so far as its general principle is concerned ; yefc 

 that the application of that principle results in 



