i88 3 J 
Analyses of Books. 
611 
tells us that it does not mean one who knows nothing, or who 
professes to know nothing. He refers, in a note, to Mr. Tenny- 
son’s poem “ Despair,” in which occurs the popular phrase 
“ their know-all and know-nothing creeds,” and remarks “ It is 
scarcely possible that Mr. Tennyson can have been so imperfectly 
acquainted with the views of Agnostics as to suppose that they 
professed to know nothing .” He tells the reader that “ Agnosti- 
cism is a theological term, and is applied in a strictly limited and 
conventional sense to a class of thinkers and writers who believe 
that there are certain things connected with Religion and Philo- 
sophy which we not only do not know, but which we have no 
means of knowing, simply because we have no faculties by 
which we may get such knowledge.” He draws a clear, and, 
we admit, a tenable, distinction between the Agnostic and the 
Atheist. He rejects the common insinuation that Agnosticism 
is “a refuge for the thoughtless and the mentally ignorant.” 
He considers that the publication of the work before us has 
become a “ pressing necessity.” He claims no right to speak on 
behalf of others, and admits that Agnosticism has not been 
formulated as a definite creed. But he insists that in the sermons 
and theological works of the last forty years there “ appears a 
reticence of speech, a modesty of assertion, and an absence of 
false assurance, which are eminently characteristic of the 
Agnostic spirit.” 
After these introductory explanations Dr. Bithell lays down a 
series of six propositions, which we quote, though we cannot 
enter into their formal discussion : — “ Of transcendental truth, 
absolute truth, of pure being, of things in themselves, man 
knows nothing ; nor does it appear that in the present stage of 
human development he has the mental faculties for acquiring 
such knowledge.” “ There is a large body of practical truth 
accessible to the human mind which we are capable of knowing 
as positively as we can know anything, not absolutely, but with a 
certainty beyond which we have no interest in knowing any- 
thing.” “ Between the domains covered by the known and the 
unknowable there is a vast unexplored region of unknown but 
knowable truth, which constitutes the proper and legitimate field 
of speculation and research.” “ There are many things which 
we believe , but which we do not know ; and we believe those 
things either on account of the evidence by which they are sup- 
ported, or because we have to some extent the means of verifying 
them.” “ The proper objects of human knowledge and belief 
are phenomena, — that is, the forms and modes in which the 
Unknowable manifests itself. These manifestations, as they 
affeCt the intellect, furnish the groundwork of Science ; as they 
affeCt the emotions, the rudiments of Religion.” Lastly, “ Mo- 
rality has its origin in human needs arising from the instinctive 
desire of individuals to form themselves into social groups ; it is 
often enforced by sanctions embodied in religious creeds, but 
