76 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



At this point a very obvious objection arises and deserves full and candid con- 

 sideration. It may be said tbat critical skepticism carried to the length suggested 

 is historical pyrrhonism ; that if we are to altogether discredit an ancient or a 

 modern historian because he has assumed fabulous matter to be true, it will be as 

 well to give up paying any attention to history. ... Of course (he acknowledges) 

 this is perfectly true. I am afraid there is no man alive whose witness could be 

 accepted, if the condition precedent were proof that he had never invented and 

 promulgated a myth. 



The question, then, which Prof. Huxley himself raises, and 

 which he had to answer, was this : Why is the general evidence of 

 the Gospels, on the main facts of our Lord's life and teaching, to 

 be discredited, even if it be true that they have invented or pro- 

 mulgated a myth about the Gadarene swine ? What is his answer 

 to that simple and broad question ? Strange to say, absolutely 

 none at all ! He leaves this vital question without any answer, 

 and goes back to the Gadarene swine. The question he raises is 

 whether the supposed incredibility of the story of the Gadarene 

 swine involves the general untrustworthiness of the story of the 

 Gospels ; and his conclusion is that it involves the incredibility of 

 the story of the Gadarene swine. A more complete evasion of his 

 own question it would be difficult to imagine. As Prof. Huxley al- 

 most challenges me to state what I think of that story, I have only 

 to say that I fully believe it, and moreover that Prof. Huxley, in 

 this very article, has removed the only consideration which would 

 have been a serious obstacle to my belief. If he were prepared to 

 say, on his high scientific authority, that the narrative involves a 

 contradiction of established scientific truth, I could not but defer 

 to such a decision, and I might be driven to consider those possi- 

 bilities of interpolation in the narrative, which Prof. Huxley is 

 good enough to suggest to all who feel the improbability of the 

 story too much for them. But Prof. Huxley expressly says : 



I admit I have no a priori objection to offer. . . . For anything I can abso- 

 lutely prove to the contrary, there may be spiritual things capable of the same 

 transmigration, with like effects. ... So I declare, as plainly as I can, that I am 

 unable to show cause why these transferable devils should not exist. 



Very well, then, as the highest science of the day is unable to 

 show cause against the possibility of the narrative, and as I regard 

 the Gospels as containing the evidence of trustworthy persons who 

 were contemporary with the events narrated, and as their general 

 veracity carries to my mind the greatest possible weight, I accept 

 their statement in this, as in other instances. Prof. Huxley vent- 

 ures " to doubt whether at this present moment any Protestant 

 theologian, who has a reputation to lose, will say that he believes 

 the Gadarene story." He will judge whether I fall under his de- 

 scription ; but I repeat that I believe it, and that he has removed 

 the only objection to my believing it. 



