NOTES AND SCRAPS.

DESPISE not a strict-even a reputedly strait-laced-upbringing in matters pertaining to religion. Our own Puritan faith, now far behind, has been, upon occasion, much to us every way, and is unforgettable. To quit it cost us much; and, though we believe ourselves to have attained a larger hope, we doubt if from a school of thought less noble than that of Calvinism we should have so patiently endeavoured to find our better choice. A gentler faith might have begot in us an ignoble contentment and a careless sloth, which years would have increased.

If any man have not, at least, respect for "that country from whence he came out "—namely, the faith of his childhood—his return to it may, on that account, be less probable; but he is as likely to revile Agnosticism when he leaves it, in turn, on the spur of the moment and on slight occasion. No man worthily leaves his early faith without pain; and the pain he has endured, if it be real, should seal his lips against anger or scorn. Of a lost faith every one should speak and think as tenderly as of a lost friend.

If a man tells us he is an Agnostic, we are glad if, together, we can find points of sympathy and agreement. But we do not dispute his title to call himself an Agnostic because we may chance to differ. We may be wrong-he right; and we search and look into our own heart accordingly. But one thing we wish to know, and have a right to demand, of any such new-found friend-his antecedents. Whence comes he-from what household of faith or of unfaith? What has he surrendered in order to become an Agnostic?

Secularism calls to present insistent duties only; but its philosophy, joined with Agnosticism, is deeper than this. The plainest of creeds, belief in "the now," is the profoundest of all. Yet, as in craft mysteries, the novice scarcely knows more than the names of the symbols -symbols open and eloquent to those who have passed the sublime degrees so there is a sense in which the Secularism of the educated and that of the uneducated greatly differ. The former is largely tinged with diffident reserve; the latter inclines to the effrontery of Materialism-after all, the 'prentice theory of Nature. A spade is a spade only in the estimate of the vulgar.

It is a singular fact that pure Atheism, of all thought systems, should have progressed the least. Other opinions have made advance, found new ground, improved themselves by struggle, and shaped themselves anew. Only the Atheist stands still, as if to move were to court

destruction. Nothing issues from his lips but the dull No, as if an ill-mannered rustic's answer. Yet this very Atheist is fain to borrow an assertion from you, by way of loan, in order that his denial may take effect upon it. His negation can only strike fire on the prepared surface of Theism.

The ordinary reader has, as a rule, more patience with one whom he calls a plain thinker, like Comte, than with a magnificently-dowered mystic such as Swedenborg. The former, the vulgar think and say, is more natural. Is Nature-material nature-then, so plain? Is it all surface work, even in the visible universe? By analogy, a "natural" thinker should, of all men, be the most profoundly and grandly mysterious, speaking a language known only to the few, and those the initiated.

Blind prejudice, popularly fostered, and, as it were, nourished by itself, is often harder to bear than wilful, intentional misrepresentation. There is a dull, purblind force in simple misapprehension, which tells more gallingly than any criticism, however acute. As Agnostics we have much to suffer in this respect: much which should, however, nerve us to more unsparing effort. To style Agnosticism the religion of indifference-the school of thought affected by the cultivated idler-is the pet reproach against us of the unthinking. To urge the unthinking to think is always a worthy task: may we do so by recommending such persons to consider, if only for a moment, that, now-a-days, it takes more of intellectual effort to decline identification with popular religionism than to echo its creed, and that the declinature is not yet accompanied with much eclát?

Mr. J. Ick Evans writes from Toronto that Agnosticism is making remarkable progress throughout Canada. "Toronto and Montreal already possess two powerful Organisations, and these," adds Mr. Evans, "together with other Societies about to be started, will produce a wave of propagandism of the Gospel of Scientific Freethought in Canada. that will awaken the thoughtful men and women of the Dominion to high and noble resolves." Mr. Charles Watts has accepted an invitation to deliver addresses in the United States and Canada expository of Agnosticism, and thus far his tour has been a brilliant and uninterrupted series of successes.

The proposal to establish an Agnostic Temple in the South-Western district of London is being favourably received, and a meeting in furtherance of the movement will be held at Loughborough Hall early in January. Those who are willing to assist, pecuniarily or otherwise, are invited to communicate with Mr. Charles A. Watts, 17, Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London, E.C.

Communications for the Editor and Books for Review should be addressed to care of the Publishers, 34, Bouverie Street, London

The Agnostic:

A MONTHLY JOURNAL OF LIBERAL THOUGHT.

"The power which the universe manifests to us is utterly inscrutable."-HERBERT

SPENCER.

66

Agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that which he has no scientific grounds for professing to know or believe....... Agnosticism says that we know nothing of what may be beyond phenomena."-PROF. HUXLEY. "I think that generally (and more and more as I grow older), but not always, an Agnostic would be the more correct description of my state of mind."--CHARLES DARWIN.

VOL. I.]

FEBRUARY, 1885.

CONT
CONTENTS.

******************************************************************************************************************

[No. 2.

H. CATTELL & Co., 34, BOUVERIE STREET, E.C.

SIXPENCE.

Copies may still be obtained of THE AGNOSTIC ANNUAL FOR 1884, containing expositions of Agnosticism from the pens of Professor Huxley, Professor F. W. Newman, P. A. Taylor, M.P., Professor Ernst Haeckel, W. B. McTaggart, Saladin, Ignotus, W. Sadler, and others. Post free for seven stamps from the Publishers, 34, Bouverie Street, London, E. C.

Twenty-second Year of Publication.

THE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ANNALS OF ASTRONOMY, BIOLOGY, GEOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY, AND INDUSTRIAL ARTS.

(Formerly "Quarterly Journal of Science.") 1s. 6d. monthly, or 18s. per annum post free.

Being independent of party, sectarian, and official control, this Journal judges all theories on their own merits. It discusses the highest development of modern research, records the progress of discovery, and upholds the interests of Free Science against Cram, Bureaucracy, and Fanaticism. Its reviews of books are well known for their thoroughness and impartiality.

London: 3, Horse Shoe Court, Ludgate Hill, E.C.

The Old-Established and Leading Organ of Physical and Spiritual Science and Religion.

THE MEDIUM AND DAYBREAK.

A Weekly Journal devoted to the History, Phenomena, Philosophy, and Teachings of SPIRITUALISM.

PRICE THREE-HALFPENCE. 8s. 8d. per annum, post free. Published by J. BURNS, Progressive Library, 15, Southampton Row, London.

WORKS BY THE LATE JAMES THOMSON.

With a Memoir of the Author

Lately issued, pp. 320, price 6s. ; large paper 12S., A VOICE FROM THE NILE, and other Poems. by Bertram Dobell, and an Etched Portrait by Arthur Evershed.

Price 5s.,

THE CITY OF DREADFUL NIGHT, and other Poems.

50 pp. and neat wrapper, price Fourpence,

ORTHODOXY: AN IMPEACHMENT. "A masterly indictment."

WOMEN OF THE BIBLE.

16 pp., price One Penny,

London: Watts & Co., 34, Bouverie Street, E.C.

THE AGNOSTIC.

FEBRUARY, 1885.

THE CONFESSION OF AGNOSTICISM.

SOME MISCONCEPTIONS.

WILL no one, in a happy moment of inspiration, bestow upon us some new and better name? At present we are called Agnostics, and our teaching is called Agnosticism: the latter a word hopelessly unfamiliar in the people's ears, and difficult of pronunciation post-prandially; one, moreover, of which the distinguished inventor probably repents. Some title more fitting might surely be found.

It is in connection with a passing query such as the above that the utter emptiness of our present labelling system suggests itself. The question of the modern Athenian is not, What is the new thing of the day? but, What is it called? And the verdict he delivers depends upon the name—that is, the stamp or label affixed to the novelty-and not upon the reality itself, the inward part or thing signified. How foolish, for example, the attempt to class men mentally, as if in herds or flocks, with a set of distinctive brands and ear-marks! "Why not simply be a man?" as William Maccall suggests, and neither Positivist, "Pantheist, nor Pot-theist," in the words of Carlyle's oft-repeated witticism. Agnosticism might well exist without a label. We think that ours is the intellectual position least in agreement with parochial distinctions. Call it, if you will have something of this kind, by some lordly name which recalls not the sect, the split, or the schism. Call Agnosticism the life of the living, the faith of the faithful, the hope of those not hopeless, the Creed of Existence.

Our Agnosticism (thus named in default of a better title) suits common life and common thinking best, for this reason—that, less than any other thought system, does it lead us away from the actual. It is Materialism etherealised. Were it not that the phrase, "Religion in