118 SCIENCE AND MORALS. m 



such a power as this may introduce into one's 

 ideas of personahty and responsibihty is perilous 

 — madness hes that way. But truth is truth, and 

 I am almost fain to believe in this magical visibil- 

 ity of the non-existent when the only alternative 

 is the supposition that the writer of the article on 

 " Materialism and Morality " in vol. xl. (1886) of 

 the " Fortnightly Eeview/' in spite of his manifest 

 ability and honesty, has pledged himself, so far as 

 I am concerned, to w^hat, if I may trust my own 

 knowledge of my own thoughts, must be called a 

 multitude of errors of the first magnitude. 



I so much admire Mr. Lilly's outspokenness, I 

 am so completely satisfied with the uprightness 

 of his intentions, that it is repugnant to me to 

 quarrel with anything he may say; and I sym- 

 pathise so warmly with his manly scorn of the 

 vileness of much that passes under the name of 

 literature in these times, that I would willingly be 

 silent under his by no means unkindly exposition 

 of his theory of my own tenets, if I thought that 

 such personal abnegation would serve the interest 

 of the cause we both have at heart. But I cannot 

 think so. My creed piay be an ill-favoured thing, 

 but it is mine own, as Touchstone says of his lady- 

 love; and I have so high an opinion of the solid 

 virtues of the object of my affections that I cannot 

 calmly see her personated by a wench who is much 

 uglier and has no virtue worth speaking of. I 

 hope I should be ready to stand by a falling cause 



