1893 THE ROMANES LECTURE 291 



To my mind Agnosticism is simply the critical atti- 

 tude of the thinking faculty, and the definition of it 

 should contain no dogmatic implications of any kind. 

 I, for my part, do not know whether the problem of 

 existence is insoluble or not ; or whether the ultimate 

 cause (if there be such a thing) is unknown or not. That 

 of which I am certain is, that no satisfactory solution of 

 this problem has been offered, and that, from the nature 

 of the intellectual faculty, I am unable to conceive that 

 such a solution will ever be found. But on that, as on 

 all other questions, my mind is open to consider any new 

 evidence that may be offered. 



And later : — 



I have long been aware of the manner in which my 

 views have been confounded -w ith those of Mr. Spencer, 

 though no one was more fully aware of our divergence 

 than the latter. Perhaps I have done wrongly in letting 

 the thing slide so long, but I was anxious to avoid a 

 breach with an old friend. . . . 



Whether the Unknowable or any other Noumenon 

 exists or does not exist, I am quite clear I have no 

 knowledge either way. So with respect to whether there 

 is anything behind Force or not, I am ignorant ; I neither 

 affirm nor deny. The tendency to idolatry in the human 

 mind is so strong that faute de mieux it falls down and 

 worships negative abstractions, as much the creation of 

 the mind as the stone idol of the hands. The one object 

 of the Agnostic (in the true sense) is to knock this tendency 

 on the head whenever or wherever it shows itself. Our 

 physical science is full of it. 



Nevertheless, the doctrine seemed to take almost 

 everybody by surprise. The drift of the lecture was 

 equally misunderstood by critics of opposite camps. 

 Huxley was popularly supposed to hold the same 



