204 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



own Churck for the sanctification of the soul. I tried, 

 moreover, in my ponderings to realise not only the law- 

 ful, but the expedient; and to permit no fear to act 

 upon my mind, save that of uttering a single word on 

 which I could not take my stand, either in this or in 

 any other world. 



Still my time was so brief, the difficulties arising 

 from my isolated position were so numerous, and my 

 thought and expression so slow, that, in a literary 

 point of view, I halted, not only behind the ideal, but 

 behind the possible. Hence, after the delivery of the 

 Address, I went over it with the desire, not to revoke 

 its principles, but to improve it verbally, and above 

 all to remove any word which might give colour to the 

 notion of ' crudeness, hurry, or haste.' 



In connection with the charge of Atheism my 

 critic refers to the Preface to the second issue of the 

 Belfast Address: ( Christian men,' I there say, ' are 

 proved by their writings to have their hours of weak- 

 ness and of doubt, as well as their hours of strength 

 and of conviction; and men like myself share, in their 

 own way, these variations of mood and tense. Were 

 the religious moods of many of my assailants the only 

 alternative ones, I do not know how strong the claims 

 of the doctrine of " Material Atheism " upon my alle- 

 giance might be. Probably they would be very strong. 

 But, as it is, I have noticed during years of self-obser- 

 vation that it is not in hours of clearness and vigour 

 that this doctrine commends itself to my mind; that in 

 the presence of stronger and healthier thought it ever 

 dissolves and disappears, as offering no solution of the 

 mystery in which we dwell, and of which we form a 

 part.' 



With reference to this honest and reasonable utter- 

 ance my censor exclaims, ' This is a most remarkable 



