TRANSITION TO SCEPTICISM. 55 



it impossible to admit that agnosticism could be 

 true, explains also how it comes to seem true. 



§ 23. The course of the argument has so far 

 been directed to establish that Agnosticism is an 

 illusion and cannot be true. It must now establish 

 that if it is true, it must cease to be itself, and pass 

 into something profounder and more consistent 

 Its only hope lies in its turning into Scepticism, and 

 internal and external necessities combine to turn it 

 into this. 



Scepticism is the only refuge for Agnosticism 

 from the external pressure of reason : it alone can 

 suspend and reverse the condemnation pronounced 

 on its absurdities. The sceptic may admit that 

 Agnosticism has failed, that its arguments are fall- 

 acious and absurd. But, he asks, what does this 

 prove } What but the absurdity of all arguments } 

 Arguments may be made to prove anything, but 

 in the end they prove nothing. Not only is there 

 an Unknowable beyond knowledge, but all around 

 it and before its eyes. The mistake of Agnosticism 

 was not in thinking that some things were unknow- 

 able, but in implying that there is anything not 

 unknowable, not in clinging to demonstrable ab- 

 surdities, bat in supposing that anything but 

 absurdities were demonstrable. Agnosticism erred 

 in attempting to draw a distinction between meta- 

 physics and the rest of knowledge, and so was sur- 

 prised by their solidarity and overwhelmed by their 

 union. This was a mistake in principle ; for meta- 

 physic is not only every whit as good as any other 

 knowledge, but indeed superior. For metaphysic 

 is the science of the ultimate chaos in which all 

 knowledge ends ; so far from being false, it is pre- 

 eminently true, for it alone of all the sciences is 



