496 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



crude production; its every sentence bore marks of thought 

 and care." 



My critic intends to be severe: he is simply jnst. In 

 the "solitudes" to which he refers I worked with deliber- 

 ation, endeavoring even to purify my intellect by disciplines 

 similar to those enjoined by his own church for the 

 sanctification of the soul. I tried, moreover, in my pon- 

 derings to ivalize not only the lawful, 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 color 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 weakness 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 allegiance might be. Probably they 

 would be very strong. But, as it is, I have noticed dur- 

 ing years of self -observation that it is not in hours of clear- 

 ness and vigor 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 utterance 

 my censor exclaims, " This is a most remarkable passage. 

 Much as we dislike seasoning polemics with strong words, 

 we assert that this Apology only tends to affix with links 

 of steel to the name of Professor Tyndall, the dread im- 

 putation against which he struggles." 



