90 
„ assigned, will be little flattered by such adherents ; 
in'mM^quar- any more than by others who have tenderly we - 
ters " corned them as hopeful converts to the true faith. 
Not a few readers have, further, discovered with some naivete, 
that the whole scientific statement takes them by surprise, and, 
with a mingled ingenuousness and knowingness scarcely com- 
patible, advise religious people at once “to look into the 
subject,” as it is really “ worth attention.” Perhaps, however, 
the most offensive coterie of “ critics ” is that which would 
jocoselv treat the book as a kind of enigma, and smile at its 
“subtilties,” and pretend they “cannot understand, while, 
taking it as half-religious and half-sceptical, they distantly 
applaud. . . , . , 
3. But, notwithstanding the various ways in which it has 
been received, it is no fault of the writers. It 
plainness! mfd ever book were plainly written, this is the hook. 
beXptedre 0 - If the unworthy religious reception of it in some 
spectingit. quarters wrung from the authors at last, in the 
“Third Preface,”' the bitter and scarcely consistent words 
(p. vii . ) , that they “ do not covet the title of theologians of 
any kind,” the so-called “ theologians ” have chiefly them- 
selves to blame ; though, on the other hand, the authors, 
(p. xv.) in their first Preface, and elsewhere (p. 61, &c.) 
complained beforehand of “ the orthodox,” in the too usual 
fashion. Or again, if Professor Clifford’s attack, from a 
scientific point of view, has subjected him to some deserved 
rebuke, he might have prevented it by dealing logically, instead 
of jauntily, with the subject, and remembering, as our authors 
sav (p- 42), “ that men of science must be perfectly recipient, 
though guarded, in the interests of truth.” A book like this 
eminently demands fair treatment. The upright course to adopt 
in reference to any competent work submitted to analysis is (at 
least for the sake of those who read rapidly and loosely), to give 
such a description of its contents as the authors themselves 
would allow to be just; and then apply our best attention and 
method in testing the religious or scientific conclusions, so fai 
as we question them. Such, at least, is the twofold course 
which (without assuming deep scientific or religious knowledge 
in all our readers), we are about to adopt in this address. 
4. The book is in seven chapters, and the attempt 
fomdivisionof to condense it into an hour’s reading, and at all 
the volume. comme nt on it, will perhaps need forbearance on the 
part of some whose attention we yet would claim. 
