THE METAPHYSICAL SOCIETY 93 



Hodgson, R. H. Hutton of the Spectator, James Hinton, and 

 the well-known essayist, W. R. Greg ; Sir James Fitzjames 

 Stephen, Sir F. Pollock, Robert Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke), 

 Sir M. E. Grant Duff, and Lord Arthur Russell ; Sir John 

 Lubbock, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, Sir William Gull, and Sir 

 Andrew Clark." 



It would seem that the debates of the Society were 

 singularly free from remarks of a personal character, and 

 indeed it was expressly understood that this should be 

 so. The only passage-at-arms of the kind appears to 

 have been between W. G. Ward and Huxley, at a meet- 

 ing where someone had suggested that such methods 

 of expression ought to be sedulously avoided. Upon 

 which Ward remarked : — 



"While acquiescing in this condition as a general rule, I 

 think it cannot be expected that Christian thinkers shall give no 

 sign of the horror with which they would view the spread of 

 such extreme opinions as those advocated by Mr. Huxley." 



Which immediately elicited the retort : — 



" As Dr. Ward has spoken, I must in fairness say, that it will 

 be very difficult for me to conceal my feeling as to the intel- 

 lectual degradation which would come of the general acceptance 

 of such views as Dr. Ward holds " ( Life of Dr. W. G. Ward, 

 p. 309). 



This practical illustration of what might be expected 

 if personalities were not to be avoided, settled once for 

 all the way in which discussions would have to be con- 

 ducted if the object of the Society was not to be frus- 

 trated. 



The word " agnostic " was coined by Huxley after he 

 entered the Metaphysical Society, in order to express the 

 non-committal attitude he felt bound to adopt towards 

 religious problems. As an unusually keen debater, with 



