faculty into account in the development of the
Gospel narratives, and though he may have exaggerated the influence of
that faculty, obliged scientific theology, hereafter, to take that
element into serious consideration; so Baur, in giving prominence to the
cardinal fact of the divergence of the Nazarene and Pauline tendencies
in the primitive Church; so Reuss, in setting a marvellous example of
the cool and dispassionate application of the principles of scientific
criticism over the whole field of Scripture; so Volkmar, in his clear
and forcible statement of the Nazarene limitations of Jesus, contributed
results of permanent value in scientific theology. I took these names as
they occurred to me. Undoubtedly, I might have advantageously added to
them; perhaps, I might have made a better selection. But it really is
absurd to try to make out that I did not know that these writers widely
disagree; and I believe that no scientific theologian will deny that, in
principle, what I have said is perfectly correct. Ecclesiastical
advocates, of course, cannot be expected to take this view of the
matter. To them, these mere seekers after truth, in so far as their
results are unfavourable to the creed the clerics have to support, are
more or less "infidels," or favourers of "infidelity"; and the only
thing they care to see, or probably can see, is the fact that, in a
great many matters, the truth-seekers differ from one another, and
therefore can easily be exhibited to the public, as if they did nothing
else; as if any one who referred to their having, each and all,
contributed his share to the results of theological science, was merely
showing his ignorance; and as if a charge of inconsistency could be
based on the fact that he himself often disagrees with what they say. I
have never lent a shadow of foundation to the assumption that I am a
follower of either Strauss, or Baur, or Reuss, or Volkmar, or Renan; my
debt to these eminent men--so far my superiors in theological
knowledge--is, indeed, great; yet it is not for their opinions, but for
those I have been able to form for myself, by their help.

In _Agnosticism: a Rejoinder_, I have referred to the difficulties under
which those professors of the science of theology, whose tenure of their
posts depends on the results of their investigations, must labour; and,
in a note, I add--

Imagine that all our chairs of Astronomy had been founded in the
fourteenth century, an