228 MY LIFE [Chap. XV] 



some of his friends with whom he discussed it, and, of course, 

 in my then frame of mind it seemed equally conclusive to 

 me, and helped to complete the destruction of whatever 

 religious beliefs still lingered in my mind. It was not till 

 many years afterwards that I saw reason to doubt this whole 

 argument, and to perceive that it was based upon pure 

 assumptions which were not in accordance with admitted 

 historical facts. 



My brother never went to church himself, but for the first 

 few years I was with him he sent me once every Sunday ; but, 

 of course, the only effect of this was to deepen my spirit of 

 scepticism, as I found no attempt in any of the clergymen to 

 reason on any of the fundamental questions at the root of the 

 Christian and every other religion. Many of our acquaintances 

 were either church- or chapel-goers, but usually as a matter of 

 form and convention, and, on the whole, religion seemed to 

 have no influence whatever on their conduct or conversation. 

 The majority, especially of the younger men, were either 

 professors of religion who thought or cared nothing about it, 

 or were open sceptics and scorners. 



In addition to these influences my growing taste for various 

 branches of physical science and my increasing love of 

 nature disinclined me more and more for either the observances 

 or the doctrines of orthodox religion, so that by the time I 

 came of age I was absolutely non-religious, I cared and 

 thought nothing about it, and could be best described by 

 the modern term " agnostic." 



The next four years of my life were also of great import- 

 ance both in determining the direction of my activity, and in 

 laying the foundation for my study of the special subjects 

 through which I have obtained most admiration or notoriety. 

 This period will be dealt with in another chapter, as it proved 

 to be that which, through a series of what may be termed 

 happy accidents, laid the foundation for everything of import- 

 ance that succeeded them. 



