FullReads

The history of these sects in the closing years of the century is highly instructive. Mormonism …

But I find I have suddenly slipped off Mr. Harrison’s tripod, which I had borrowed for the occasion. The fact is, I am not equal to the prophetical business, and ought not to have undertaken it.

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FOOTNOTES:

[51] See the Official Report of the Church Congress held at Manchester, October 1888, pp. 253, 254.

[52] In this place and in the eleventh essay, there are references to the late Archbishop of York which are of no importance to my main argument, and which I have expunged because I desire to obliterate the traces of a temporary misunderstanding with a man of rare ability, candour, and wit, for whom I entertained a great liking and no less respect. I rejoice to think now of the (then) Bishop’s cordial hail the first time we met after our little skirmish, “Well, is it to be peace or war?” I replied, “A little of both.” But there was only peace when we parted, and ever after.

[53] Dr. Wace tells us, “It may be asked how far we can rely on the accounts we possess of our Lord’s teaching on these subjects.” And he seems to think the question appropriately answered by the assertion that it “ought to be regarded as settled by M. Renan’s practical surrender of the adverse case.” I thought I knew M. Renan’s works pretty well, but I have contrived to miss this “practical” (I wish Dr. Wace had defined the scope of that useful adjective) surrender. However, as Dr. Wace can find no difficulty in pointing out the passage of M. Renan’s writings, by which he feels justified in making his statement, I shall wait for further enlightenment, contenting myself, for the present, with remarking that if M. Renan were to retract and do penance in Notre-Dame to-morrow for any contributions to Biblical criticism that may be specially his property, the main results of that criticism, as they are set forth in the works of Strauss, Baur, Reuss, and Volkmar, for example, would not be sensibly affected.

[54] See De Gobineau, Les Religions et les Philosophies dans l’Asie Centrale; and the recently published work of Mr. E.G. Browne, The Episode of the Bab.

[55] Here, as always, the revised version is cited.

[56] Does any one really mean to say that there is any internal or external criterion by which the reader of a biblical statement, in which scientific matter is contained, is enabled to judge whether it is to betaken au serieux or not? Is the account of the Deluge, accepted as true in the New Testament, less precise and specific than that of the call of Abraham, also accepted as true therein? By what mark does the story of the feeding with manna in the wilderness, which involves some very curious scientific problems, show that it is meant merely for edification, while the story of the inscription of the Law on stone by the hand of Jahveh is literally true? If the story of the Fall is not the true record of an historical occurrence, what becomes of Pauline theology? Yet the story of the Fall as directly conflicts with probability, and is as devoid of trustworthy evidence, as that of the creation or that of the Deluge, with which it forms an harmoniously legendary series.

[57] See, for an admirable discussion of the whole subject, Dr. Abbott’s article on the Gospels in the Encyclopaedia Britannica; and the remarkable monograph by Professor Volkmar, Jesus Nazarenus und die erste christliche Zeit (1882). Whether we agree with the conclusions of these writers or not, the method of critical investigation which, they adopt is unimpeachable.

[58] Notwithstanding the hard words shot at me from behind the hedge of anonymity by a writer in a recent number of the Quarterly Review, I repeat, without the slightest fear of refutation, that the four Gospels, as they have come to us, are the work of unknown writers.

[59] Their arguments, in the long run, are always reducible to one form. Otherwise trustworthy witnesses affirm that such and such events took place. These events are inexplicable, except the agency of “spirits” is admitted. Therefore “spirits” were the cause of the phenomena.

And the heads of the reply are always the same. Remember Goethe’s aphorism: “Alles factische ist schon Theorie.” Trustworthy witnesses are constantly deceived, or deceive themselves, in their interpretation of sensible phenomena. No one can prove that the sensible phenomena, in these cases, could be caused only by the agency of spirits: and there is abundant ground for believing that they may be produced in other ways. Therefore, the utmost that can be reasonably asked for, on the evidence as it stands, is suspension of judgment. And, on the necessity for even that suspension, reasonable men may differ, according to their views of probability.

[60] Yet I must somehow have laid hold of the pith of the matter, for, many years afterwards, when Dean Mansel’s Bampton Lectures were published, it seemed to me I already knew all that this eminently agnostic thinker had to tell me.

[61] Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Edit. Hartenstein, p. 256.

[62] Report of the Church Congress, Manchester, 1888, p. 252.

[63] Fortnightly Review, Jan. 1889.