264 GEOKGE JOHN ROMANES 1889- 



into as small a number of words as it well can be put. 

 And whether God is everywhere or nowhere depends 

 on what is the nature of natural causation. Is this 

 intelligent or unintelligent ? Is it the mode in which 

 a Divine Being is everywhere simultaneously and 

 eternally operating; or is it but the practical expres- 

 sion of what we understand by a mechanical necessity ? 

 In short, is it original or derived final, and therefore 

 inexplicable, because self-existing ; or is it the effect 

 of a higher cause in the existence of a disposing 

 Mind? 



Although I cannot wait to argue this, the ulti- 

 mate question which we have met to consider, I may 

 briefly state my own view with regard to it. This is 

 the same view that the originator of the doctrine of 

 natural selection himself used habitually to express 

 to me in conversation viz., to use his own words, i I 

 have long ago come to the conclusion that it is a 

 question far beyond the reach of the human mind.' 

 Such, of course, is the position of pure agnosticism. 



At the end of this paper, Mr. Aubrey Moore re- 

 marked that he agreed with all Mr. Alexander's argu- 

 ments, but disagreed with all his conclusions, and 

 that he disagreed with all Mr. Gildea's arguments, 

 but agreed with his conclusions ; and as for Mr. 

 Romanes, he could only leave him out, after the kind 

 and flattering terms in which he had spoken of the 

 essay in * Lux Mundi.' At the end of his little 

 speech he said aside to a friend, ' What a fellow 

 Romanes is ! " Lux Mundi " has been out about three 

 weeks, and he knows all about it.' 



The friends are lying almost side by side in Holy- 



