1869 THE METAPHYSICAL SOCIETY 453 



represented by Dean Stanley, F. D. Maurice, and 

 Mark Pattison. Three distinguished converts from 

 the English Church championed Roman Catholic 

 doctrine Cardinal Manning, Father Dalgairns, and 

 W. G. Ward, while Unitarianism claimed Dr. James 

 Martineau. At the opposite pole, in antagonism to 

 Christian theology and theism generally, stood Pro- 

 tessor W. K. Clifford, whose youthful brilliancy was 

 destined to be cut short by an untimely death. 

 Positivism was represented by Mr. Frederic Harrison ; 

 and Agnosticism by such men of science or letters as 

 Huxley and Tyndall, Mr. John Morley, and Mr. Leslie 

 Stephen. 



Something was gained, too, by the variety of 

 callings followed by the different members. While 

 there were professional students of philosophy, like 

 Prof. Henry Sidgwick or Sir Alexander Grant, the 

 Principal of Edinburgh University, in some the 

 technical knowledge of philosophy was overlaid by 

 studies in history or letters; in others, by the 

 practical experience of the law or politics ; in others, 

 again, medicine or biology supplied a powerful 

 psychological instrument. This fact tended to keep 

 the discussions in touch with reality on many sides. 



There was Tennyson, for instance, the only poet 

 who thoroughly understood the movement of modern 

 science, a stately but silent member ; Mr. Ruskin, J. 

 A. Froude, Shadworth Hodgson, K. H. Button of the 

 Spectator, James Hinton, and the well-known essayist, 

 W. R. Greg; Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, Sir F. 



