« COWARDLY AGNOSTICISM." 243 



ment means, if it means anything, that the Unknowable has im- 

 planted in us one set of sympathies in a sense in which it has not 

 implanted others : else the impulse to deny one's belief, and not to 

 act on it, which many people experience, would be authorized by 

 the Unknowable as much as the impulse to profess it, and to act 

 on it. And according to Mr. Spencer's entire theory, according to 

 Prof. Huxley's entire theory, according to the entire theory of 

 modern science, it is precisely this that is the case. If it is the 

 fact that the Unknowable works through any of our actions, it 

 works through all alike, bad, good, and indifferent, through our 

 lies as well as through our truth-telling, through our injuries to 

 our race as well as through our benefits to it. The attempt to con- 

 nect the well-being of humanity with any general tendency ob- 

 servable in the universe, is in fact, on agnostic principles, as 

 hopeless as an attempt to get, in a balloon, to Jupiter. It is utterly 

 unfit for serious men to talk about ; and its proper place, if any- 

 where, would be in one of Jules Verne's story-books. The desti- 

 nies of mankind, so far as we have any means of knowing, have as 

 little to do with the course of the Unknowable as a whole, as the 

 destinies of an ant-hill in South Australia have to do with the 

 question of home rule for Ireland. 



Or even supposing the Unknowable to have any feeling in the 

 matter, how do we know that its feeling would be in our favor, 

 and that it would not be gratified by the calamities of humanity, 

 rather than by its improvement ? Or here is a question which is 

 more important still. Supposing the Unknowable did desire our 

 improvement, but we, as Prof. Huxley says of us, were obstinately 

 bent against being improved, what could the Unknowable do to 

 us for thus thwarting its wishes ? 



And this leads us to another aspect of the matter. If conscious- 

 ness of the Unknowable does not directly influence action, it may 

 yet be said that the contemplation of the universe as the wonder- 

 ful garment of this unspeakable mystery, is calculated to put the 

 mind into a serious and devout condition, which would make it 

 susceptible to the solemn voice of duty. How any devotion so 

 produced could have any connection with duty I confess I am at a 

 loss to see. But I need not dwell on that point, for what I wish 

 to show is this, that contemplation of the Unknowable, from the 

 agnostic's point of view, is not calculated to produce any sense of 

 devoutness at all. Devoutness is made up of three things, fear, 

 love, and wonder ; but were the agnostic's thoughts really con- 

 trolled by his own principles (which they are not) not one of these 

 emotions could the Unknowable possibly excite in him. It need 

 hardly be said that he has no excuse for loving it, for his own first 

 principles forbid him to say that it is lovable, or that it possesses 

 any character, least of all any anthropomorphic character. But 



