m MODERN SCIENCE. 



19 



and which has the mDst specious air cf de- 

 pendence on science. This is the system of 

 Agnosticism combined with evolution of which 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer is the nost conspicuous 

 advocate in the English-speaking world. This 

 philosophy deals with two subjects — tiie cause 

 or origin of the universe and of things therein, 

 and the method of the progress of all from the 

 beginning until now. Spencer sees nothing in 

 the first of these but mere force or energy, 

 nothing in the second but a spontaneous evo- 

 lution. All beyond these is not only unknown, 

 but unknowable. The theological and philo- 

 sophical shortcomings of this doctrine have been 

 laid bare by a multitude of critics, and I do not 

 propose to consider it in these relations so much 

 as in relation to science, which has much to say 

 with respect to both force and evolution. 



An agnostic is literally one who does not 

 know; and, were the word used in its true 

 and litisral sense, Agnosticism would of neces- 

 sity be opposed to science, since science is 

 knowledge and quite incompatible with the 

 want of it. But the modern agnostic does 

 not pretend to be ignorant of the facts and 

 principles of science. What he professes not 

 to know is the existence of any power above 



