384 ANYTHING BELIE VED NO W. 



that the affirmation would be fully accepted by many people 

 of a sceptical turn of mind as literally true. Sceptics 

 sometimes seem to work one another into a frenzy of 

 indignation at the intolerance of religion, and the oppres- 

 sion exercised by her wealthy bigoted supporters over the 

 humble and unfortunate prosecutors of science. But in 

 these days it really appears impossible to concoct state- 

 ments too absurd for sceptics to accept as inexorable fact 

 and law. Anything seems to be believed now-a-days, even 

 by the sternest critics, if only it is affirmed to be scientific 

 and can be shown to tell more or less against some long 

 accepted religious belief, and in favour of some materialistic 

 doctrine of life. 



Some assertions recently made, and very many of those 

 advanced by Strauss, ought to have been received with in- 

 dignation on the part of scientific men. That they have not 

 been so received is a disgrace, and it is quite time that some 

 of those who feel justly offended at the monstrous assertions 

 that have been put forward in the name of science should 

 express themselves in a manner that is not likely to be misun- 

 derstood. Be the consequences what they may, I for one 

 decline to accept many of the dicta of the so called evolu- 

 tionists as accurate statements of the facts of nature, while I 

 hold that some do not contain the faintest shadow of truth. 

 I cannot submit to be guided by what has been called the 

 tendency of thought of these days, for it seems to me 

 almost ridiculous on the part of teachers considering them- 

 selves scientific or philosophical, or both, to suppose that 

 they can persuade people of sense that facts about to be 

 discovered by scientific men about to live, will certainly 

 prove at some distant time, when we are all dead, to be in 



