1874 A DIFFICULT SPEECH 133 



Not among fatalists, for I take the conception of 

 necessity to have a logical, and not a physical foundation. ; 

 not among materialists, for I am utterly incapable of 

 conceiving the existence of matter if there is no mind in 

 which to picture that existence ; not among atheists, for 

 the problem of the ultimate cause of existence is one 

 which seems to me to be hopelessly out of reach of my 

 poor powers. Of all the senseless babble I have ever had 

 occasion to read, the demonstrations of these philosophers 

 who undertake to tell us all about the nature of God 

 would be the worst, if they were not surpassed by the 

 still greater absurdities of the philosophers who try to 

 prove that there is no God. 



This essay was delivered as an evening address on 

 August 24, the Monday of the Association week. A 

 vast stir had been created by the treatment of deep 

 reaching problems in Professor Tyndall's presidential 

 address; interest was still further excited by this 

 unexpected excursion into metaphysics. "I re- 

 member," writes Sir M. Foster, " having a talk with 

 him about the lecture before he gave it. I think I 

 went to his lodgings and he sketched out what he 

 was going to say. The question was whether, in 

 view of the Tyndall row, it was wise in him to take 

 the lino he had marked out. In the end I remember 

 his saying, 'Grasp your nettle, that is what I have 

 got to do.' " But apart from the subject, the manner 

 of the address struck the audience as a wonderful 

 tour de force. The man who at first disliked public 

 speaking, and always expected to break down on the 

 platform, now, without note or reference of any kind, 

 discoursed for an hour and a half upon a complex 



