[61] Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Edit. Hartenstein, p. 256.
[62] Report of the Church Congress, Manchester, 1888, p. 252.
[63] Fortnightly Review, Jan. 1889.
VIII
AGNOSTICISM: A REJOINDER
[1889]
Those who passed from Dr. Wace's article in the last number of the "Nineteenth Century" to the anticipatory confutation of it which followed in "The New Reformation," must have enjoyed the pleasure of a dramatic surprise—just as when the fifth act of a new play proves unexpectedly bright and interesting. Mrs. Ward will, I hope, pardon the comparison, if I say that her effective clearing away of antiquated incumbrances from the lists of the controversy, reminds me of nothing so much as of the action of some neat-handed, but strong-wristed, Phyllis, who, gracefully wielding her long-handled "Turk's head," sweeps away the accumulated results of the toil of generations of spiders. I am the more indebted to this luminous sketch of the results of critical investigation, as it is carried out among these theologians who are men of science and not mere counsel for creeds, since it has relieved me from the necessity of
dealing with the greater part of Dr. Wace's polemic, and enables me to devote more space to the really important issues which have been raised.[64]