NOTE ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE 

 UNKNOWABLE. 



Since the passing of the foregoing pages through 

 the press, the following extracts from letters from 

 Huxley to Mr. F. C. Gould, written in 1889, nave 

 appeared in the Literary Guide of January, 1902. 

 They are an interesting addition to the remarks quoted 

 on page 141 : 



As between Mr. Spencer and myself, the question 

 is not one of " a dividing line," but of an entire and 

 complete divergence as soon as we leave the founda- 

 tions laid by Hume, Kant, and Hamilton, who are 

 my philosophical forefathers. To my mind, the 

 " Absolute " philosophies were finally knocked on the 

 head by Hamilton ; and the " Unknowable," in Mr. 

 Spencer's sense, is merely the Absolute redivivus, a 

 sort of ghost of an extinct philosophy, the name of a 

 negation hocus-pocussed into a sham thing. If I am 

 to talk about that of which I have no knowledge at 

 all, I prefer the good old word God, about which there 

 is no scientific pretence. 



• ••••• 



I have long been aware of the manner in which my 

 views have been confounded with those of Mr. 

 Spencer, though no one was more fully aware of our 

 divergence than the latter. Perhaps I have done 

 wrongly in letting the thing slide so long, but I was 

 anxious to avoid a breach with an old friend. 



246 



