190 REV. H. J. CLARKE. 



themselves accept as sure and certain. Let tHem go on 

 teaching what they beheve to be the truth. Nevertheless, 

 they have incurred no light responsibility in substituting the 

 term '^ Unknowable " for " God/' and in constructing and 

 propounding a system of doctrine in accordance with the sort 

 of gospel they conceive it their duty to proclaim. They have 

 erected an intellectual temple of imposing aspect, they have 

 consecrated it to Nature, they have invited their fellow-men 

 to stand with them beneath its dome, to do homage to their 

 deity, to obey her laws, and to give ear to her priests. But 

 what if, as many suspect, they went to work with precipitate 

 zeal, with a blinding enthusiasm kindled by the belief that 

 they had made a grand and fruitful discovery, to the benefit 

 of mankind for all ages to come ? Then let them speedily bid 

 the worshippers depart, until they have satisfied themselves 

 by fresh examination that their structure nowhere rests on 

 fundamentally incoherent notions, a bed of loose and shifting 

 sand, but is founded upon a rock. 



The Hon. Secretary. — The following letter, from the Kev. W. Arthur, 

 has been received in regard to this paper : — 



" I have carefully read Mr. Clarke's paper on Agnosticism, and think it 

 valuable. The point as to a first link (p. 180) is put in a striking form, and 

 so are other good points. Perhaps its usefulness would be increased if the 

 writer made it clearer what he understands the fundamental assumptions 

 of Agnosticism to be. I do not accept his definition of knowledge, nor his 

 terminology in several particulars ; but that is nothing. The paper is very 

 thoughtful, the drift right, and some admirable points are made." 



The Chairman (the Eight Honourable A. S. Ayrton). — I am sure all 

 present will desire me to express their thanks for the able paper just read. 

 It is now open for the members present to offer remarks thereon. I may 

 say that there is one circumstance I have been greatly struck with on 

 hearing this paper, and that is that the agnostics have not been brought, if 

 I may use the expression, face to face with that other woi'ld in which they 

 decline to live : I mean the world of spirit — that spiritual condition which 

 we attribute to God, the Creator of the world and of all things. Whatever 

 difficulties are found in the subjects mentioned in the paper, they never- 

 theless appear to me to be created by the course of treatment the agnostics 

 have pursued in dealing with the material condition of things throughout 

 the universe. I have always thought that the great principle arrived 

 at by the process of material research is that by which we are enabled 

 to make a very clear line of demarcation between what may be called 

 the material existence of things, and the spirit under which that existence 

 is maintained : that is to say, the power of God in relation to matter, 

 which we assume as a matter of course, although we may understand it 



