70 
never have gained such a hold on the English mind as they 
have gained. Already it is evident that their day is past. It 
was a subtle inoculation by which Mill infused his principles 
into the English mind. But now the retribution has come. 
The fallacies of Mill’s Logic, the false assumptions which 
underlie its skilful exposition, had been more or less exposed 
by various writers, including Whewell and M'Cosh. But now 
the University of London, his own University, holds them up 
to view. Professor Jevons, long himself a disciple of Mill, 
has come to see how the nihilistic assumptions of which I have 
spoken, how the ignoring, or how the explaining away of all 
except phenomena, of all realities, of all intuitions, mental or 
moral, have vitiated the entire fabric of his speculations, and 
made large sections of his work a congeries of inconsistencies 
and incoherences.* 
And as to Herbert Spencer, his teaching is being sifted by 
various writers and after a decisive manner. Professor Green, 
of Oxford, examines him in the Contemporary Review. Mr. 
Conder and Mr. Brownlow Maitland, to whom I have already 
referred, have admirably refuted his Agnosticism as related to 
our Christian Theism. 
In short, on all sides round, the forces of Christian ortho- 
doxy appear to be rallying and turning the enemy to the 
gate. As a hundred years ago, so now, unbelief will be, is 
being, defeated in argument. The victories of Butler and 
Paley and Berkeley are being repeated. There is a tone of 
confidence in the Christian camp such as there was not ten 
years ago. Our champions have gone out — our unknown 
Davids — and have met, and, meeting, have overthrown the 
giants of the Philistines. Ten years ago we hardly knew the 
intellectual strength of the orthodox side. We are beginning 
to understand it now, and yet only beginning ; in ten years 
more I doubt not our ranks of defence and, let me add, of 
aggression will be better filled, better disciplined, and more 
full of confidence than now. 
Nor can I doubt, as I intimated at the opening of this 
address, that the Victoria Institute has done something 
towards bringing about this result. It has presented a rally - 
ing-point, a centre of union, not only for Christian thinkers in 
these kingdoms, but also from America, on which continent 
* I am not sure that I always agree with Professor Jevons’ own positions ; 
at all events the last paragraph in his last paper on Mill, contained in the 
Contemporcmj for April, seems to me to be an inadequate statement; but 
his exposure of the inconsistencies and contradictions of Mill would seem 
to be complete and crushing. 
