228 MY LIFE 



mind. It was not till many years afterwards that I saw 

 reason to doubt this whole argument, and to perceive that it 

 was based upon pure assumptions which were not in accord- 

 ance with admitted historical facts. 



My brother never went to church himself, but for the first 

 few years I was with him he sent me once every Sunday ; but, 

 of course, the only effect of this was to deepen my spirit of 

 scepticism, as I found no attempt in any of the clergymen to 

 reason on any of the fundamental questions at the root of the 

 Christian and every other religion. Many of our acquaint- 

 ances were either church or chapel-goers, but usually as a 

 matter of form and convention, and, on the whole, religion 

 seemed to have no influence whatever on their conduct or 

 conversation. The majority, especially of the younger men, 

 were either professors of religion who thought or cared noth- 

 ing about it, or were open sceptics and scorners. 



In addition to these influences my growing taste for various 

 branches of physical science and my increasing love of 

 nature disinclined me more and more for either the observ- 

 ances or the doctrines of orthodox religion, so that by the 

 time I came of age I was absolutely non-religious, I cared and 

 thought nothing about it, and could be best described by the 

 modern term " agnostic." 



The next four years of my life were also of great import- 

 ance both in determining the direction of my activity, and in 

 laying the foundation for my study of the special subjects 

 through which I have obtained most admiration or notoriety. 

 This period will be dealt with in another chapter, as it proved 

 to be that which, through a series of what may be termed 

 happy accidents, laid the foundation for everything of import- 

 ance that succeeded them. 



