this theory of
mistaken identity which I here put forward, the work reviewed by the
critics came to be displaced by the work before me, so that no traces of
the original remain. But this I altogether decline to do, and I plead
authority for refusing. 'The merely negative evidence that our actual
[_Supernatural Religion_] is not the work described by [the Reviewers]
is sufficient for our purpose.' [20:1]

3. But the argument is strengthened when we come to consider a third
point. 'The author's discussions,' writes our first reviewer, 'are
conducted in a judicial method.' 'He has the critical faculty in union
with a calm spirit.' 'Calm and judicial in tone,' is the verdict of our
second reviewer. The opinion of our third and fourth reviewers on this
part may be gathered not so much from what they say as from what they
leave unsaid. A fifth reviewer however, who seems certainly to have had
our _Supernatural Religion_ before him, holds different language. He
rebukes the author--with wonderful gentleness, considering the gravity
of the offence--for 'now and then losing patience.'

Now whether calmness of tone can be said to distinguish a work which
bristles with such epithets as 'monstrous,' 'impossible,' 'audacious,'
'preposterous,' 'absurd;' whether the habit of reiterating as axiomatic
truths what at the very best are highly precarious hypotheses--as, for
instance, that Papias did not refer to our St Mark's Gospel--does not
savour more of the vehemence of the advocate than of the impartiality of
the judge, I must ask the reader to decide for himself. But of the
highly discreditable practice of imputing corrupt motives to those who
differ from us there cannot be two opinions. We have already seen how a
righteous nemesis has overtaken our author, and he has covered himself
with confusion, while recklessly flinging a charge of 'falsification' at
another. Unfortunately however that passage does not stand alone. I will
not take up the reader's time with illustrations of a practice, of which
we have seen more than enough already. But there is one example which is
sufficiently instructive to deserve quoting. Dr Westcott writes of
Basilides as follows:--

'At the same time, he appealed to the authority of Glaucias, who,
as well as St Mark, was "an interpreter of St. Peter."' [21:1]

The inverted commas are given here as they appear in Dr Westcott's book.
It need hardly be said that Dr Westcott is simply illustrating