THE ORIiGIK OF AGNOSTICISM;. 53;^, 



content co-extensive with the whole world. For' 

 every thought that was ever thought, every feeling 

 that was- ever felt, every act that was ever willed,, 

 was^ contained in the consciousness of some self, was- 

 thought, felt, or willed within the: soul of somebody.- 

 The proper inference then surely was,, that the 

 emptiness of our conception^ of our thought-symbol 

 of the Self, proved; nothing against its- reality,, but 

 much against thought, the abstractions of which 

 here prove utterly inadequate to grasp the reality. 



Thus the breakdown of Kant's argument leads 

 us ore to the important distinction of Thought and 

 Reality, which in the next chapter will be emphas- 

 ized by scepticism to the utmost; it illustrates 

 unexpectedly our contention that Agnosticism paves 

 the way for Scepticism.. 



§ 2 2. Our elaborate examination of Agnosticism 

 has been rendered necessary, not only by the repute 

 of the authors criticized, but still more by the fact 

 that the agnostic attitude towards ultimate philo- 

 sophic problems is the most prevalent one among 

 philosophers and cultivated men generally. But 

 the length of the argument will have been more 

 than justified,, if it can induce us to realize the 

 arrogance of the pretensions to omniscience lurking 

 beneath the mock modesty of the agnostic's assert- 

 ion of the unknowable, and if it enables us to see 

 how inconclusive are the attacks on metaphysics by 

 which he seeks to veil the weakness of his own 

 position. 



And yet the doubt may recur — How can we 

 know things as they really are ? and will not be set 

 at rest until we have exposed its origin as well as 

 its futility. We might indeed answer it by shifting 

 the onus probandi, and asking, Why should not 



