the other
[24:4]; lastly, Hitzig lamenting that interpreters of the New Testament
are not more thoroughly imbued with the language and spirit of the Old,
and maintaining that these two names are reproductions of the patriarchs
Asher and Gad--their sex having been changed in the transition from one
language to another--and represent the Greek and Roman elements in the
Church, while the Epistle to the Philippians itself is a plagiarism from
the Agricola of Tacitus [25:1]. When therefore I find our author
supporting some of his more important judgments by the authority of
'Hitzig, Volkmar and others,' or of 'Volkmar and others,' [25:2] I have
my own opinion of the weight which such names should carry with them
[25:3].

It is not however against the eccentricities of individuals except so
far as these can be charged to a vicious atmosphere and training, that I
would rest the chief stress of my complaint. The whole tone and spirit
of the school in its excess of scepticism must, I venture to think, be
fatal to the ends of true criticism. A reviewer of _Supernatural
Religion_ compares the author's handling of the reconstructive efforts
of certain conservative critics regarding the Fourth Gospel to Sir G.C.
Lewis's objections to Niebuhr's 'equally arbitrary reconstruction of
early Roman history.' From one point of view this comparison is
instructive. We have no means of testing the value of that eminent
writer's negative criticisms of early Roman history. But where
additional knowledge has enabled us to apply a test to his opinions, as,
for instance, respecting the interpretation of the Egyptian hieroglyphic
language, we find that his scepticism led him signally astray. It seems
to be assumed that, because the sceptical spirit has its proper function
in scientific inquiry (though even here its excesses will often impede
progress), therefore its exercise is equally useful and equally free
from danger in the domain of criticism. A moment's reflection however
will show that the cases are wholly different. In whatever relates to
morals and history--in short, to human life in all its developments--
where mathematical or scientific demonstration is impossible, and where
consequently everything depends on the even balance of the judicial
faculties, scepticism must be at least as fatal to the truth as
credulity.

The author of _Supernatural Religion_ proposes to himself the task of
demonstrating that the miraculous element in Christ