The Right of Search. 29 



But "methinks the lady doth protest too 

 much." Were these denunciations more dis- 

 passionate they might seem more disinterested. 

 As it is, they are too strenuous to" be forcible ; 

 too loud to be effective. Nor is this the worst 

 They have another fault more fatal still. They 

 are altogether irrelevant. They do not hit, 

 they merely miss, the mark. They are beside 

 the question* For the question is as to the 

 nature and character of the new doctrine. And 

 with that question the merits or demerits of 

 advocates and assailants are not concerned. 

 * Materialistic Atheism," we are told, " is in the 

 air." So be it : but then this same materialistic 

 atheism is either true or it is not. If it is not 

 true, let that be shown, and it will fall without 

 assailants. If it is true, let that be shown, and 

 it will then have no need of advocates. No one 

 thinks it necessary to take the field in defence of 

 the properties of conic sections ; and the foun- 

 dations of the venerable pons asinorum remain 

 unmoved and unimpaired from age to age. 

 Why then, in propounding that very open 

 secret, their latest discovery, should the demi- 

 gods of the scientific Olympus forsake their 

 philosophic calm for the irritating gusts of 

 irascible acerbity ? 



Tantsene animis ccelestibus iras ? 



