AGNOSTICISM : A REJOINDER. 185 



He will judge whether I fall under his description ; but I repeat that I believe 

 it, and that he has removed the only objection to my believing it.* 



Far be it from me to set myself up as a judge of any such deli- 

 cate question as that put before me ; but I think I may venture 

 to express the conviction that, in the matter of courage, Dr. Wace 

 has raised for himself a monument cere perennius. For, really, in 

 my poor judgment, a certain splendid intrepidity, such as one ad- 

 mires in the leader of a forlorn hope, is manifested by Dr. Wace 

 when he solemnly affirms that he believes the Gadarene story on 

 the evidence offered. I feel less complimented perhaps than I 

 ought to do, when I am told that I have been an accomplice in 

 extinguishing in Dr. Wace's mind the last glimmer of doubt which 

 common sense may have suggested. In fact, I must disclaim all 

 responsibility for the use to which the information I supplied has 

 been put. I formally decline to admit that the expression of my 

 ignorance whether devils, in the existence of which I do not be- 

 lieve, if they did exist, might or might not be made to go out of 

 men into pigs, can, as a matter of logic, have been of any use what- 

 ever to a person who already believed in devils and in the histori- 

 cal accuracy of the Gospels. 



Of the Gadarene story, Dr. Wace, with all solemnity and twice 

 over, affirms that he " believes it." I am sorry to trouble him fur- 

 ther, but what does he mean by " it " ? Because there are two sto- 

 ries, one in " Mark " and " Luke," and the other in " Matthew." 

 In the former, which I quoted in my previous paper, there is one 

 possessed man; in the latter there are two. The story is told 

 fully, with the vigorous, homely diction and the picturesque details 

 of a piece of folk-lore, in the second Gospel. The immediately ante- 

 cedent event is the storm on the Lake of Gennesareth. The imme-, 

 diately consequent events are the message from the ruler of the 

 synagogue and the healing of the woman with an issue of blood. 

 In the third Gospel, the order of events is exactly the same, and 

 there is an extremely close general and verbal correspondence 

 between the narratives of the miracle. Both agree in stating that 

 there was only one possessed man, and that he was the residence 

 of many devils, whose name was " Legion." 



In the first Gospel, the event which immediately precedes the 

 Gadarene affair is, as before, the storm ; the message from the 

 ruler and the healing of the issue are separated from it by the 

 accounts of the healing of a paralytic, of the calling of Matthew, 

 and of a discussion with some Pharisees. Again, while the sec- 

 ond Gospel speaks of the country of the " Gerasenes " as the local- 

 ity of the event, the third Gospel has " Gerasenes," " Gergesenes," 

 and " Gadarenes " in different ancient MSS. ; while the first has 

 " Gadarenes." 



* "Popular Science Monthly" for May, 1889, p. 76. 

 vol. xxxv. — 12* 



