1869 THE METAPHYSICAL SOCIETY 459 



The professed metaphysician might perhaps tend 

 to regard such considerations as irrelevant; but if 

 the starting-point of metaphysics is to be found in 

 psychology, psychology itself depends to no small 

 extent upon physiology. This question, however, 

 Huxley did not pretend to solve. In the existing 

 state of knowledge he believed it to be insoluble. 

 But he thought it was not without its bearing upon 

 the supposed relations of soul and body in the human 

 subject, and should serve to give pause .to current 

 theories on the matter. 



His third paper, read January 11, 1876, was on 

 the "Evidence of the Miracle of the Resurrection," 1 

 in which he argued that there was no valid evidence 

 of actual death having taken place. His rejection of 

 the miraculous had led to an invitation from some of 

 his opponents in the Society to write a paper on a 

 definite miracle, and explain his reasons for not 

 accepting it. His choice of subject was due to two 

 reasons : firstly, it was a cardinal instance ; secondly, 

 it was a miracle not worked by Christ himself, and 

 therefore a discussion of its genuineness could offer 

 no suggestion of personal fraud, and hence would 

 avoid inflicting gratuitous pain upon believers in it. 



This certainty that there exist many questions at 

 present insoluble, upon which it is intellectually, and 

 indeed morally wrong to assert that we have real 

 knowledge, had long been with him, but, although 

 he had earned abundant odium by openly resisting 

 1 See ii. 196. 



