64 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



before lie has begun to use his own eyes ! Use your own eyes 

 first, then get a little extra help in the shape of a shilling pocket- 

 lens, and by and by you will be able to use a real microscope, and 

 enjoy using it too." 



This was rather a long lecture for Willie to give, or for Jack 



to listen to. He wouldn't 

 have listened if it had 

 not been for what he 

 had just seen. He said 

 nothing, but he made up 

 his mind he would get 

 one of these useful shill- 

 ing magnifiers. Willie 

 usually had a country 

 walk during the school 

 half -holiday, and Jack 

 had often been invited 

 to accompany him ; but 

 he didn't care to go 

 " humbugging after 



Fig. 13.— Scale op Grayling. t_ j j ,, -i 



grubs and weeds, he 

 said. Now, however, he invited himself, and somewhat surprised 

 his friend by stating he wanted to go with him. 



AGNOSTICISM. 

 A REPLY TO PROFESSOR HUXLEY. 



By Eev. Dr. HENRY WACE, Principal of King's College. 



IT would hardly be reasonable to complain of Prof. Huxley's 

 delay in replying to the paper on " Agnosticism " which I read 

 five months ago, when, at the urgent request of an old friend, I 

 reluctantly consented to address the Church Congress at Manches- 

 ter. I am obliged to him for doing it the honor to bring it to 

 the notice of a wider circle than that to which it was directly ad- 

 dressed ; and I fear that, for reasons which have been the occasion 

 of universal regret, he may not have been equal to literary effort. 

 But, at the same time, it is impossible not to notice that a writer 

 is at a great advantage in attacking a fugitive essay a quarter of a 

 year after it was made public. Such a lapse of time ought, indeed, 

 to enable him to apprehend distinctly the argument with which 

 he is dealing ; and it might, at least, secure him from any such 

 inaccuracy in quotation as greater haste might excuse. But if 

 either his idiosyncrasy, or his sense of assured superiority, should 



