men to be
found in England, would have independently testified
that the sun moves, from east to west, across the
heavens every day.

[5] Nowhere more concisely and clearly than in Dr.
Sutherland Black's article "Gospels" in Chambers's
_Encyclopaedia_. References are given to the more
elaborate discussions of the problem.

[6] Those who regard the Apocalyptic discourse as a
"vaticination after the event" may draw conclusions
therefrom as to the date of the Gospels in which its
several forms occur. But the assumption is surely
dangerous, from an apologetic point of view, since it
begs the question as to the unhistorical character of
this solemn prophecy.

[7] See p. 287 of this volume.

CONTENTS

PAGE
I. PROLOGUE 1
(_Controverted Questions_, 1892).

II. SCIENTIFIC AND PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC REALISM [1887] 59

III. SCIENCE AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE [1887] 90

IV. AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY [1887] 126

V. THE VALUE OF WITNESS TO THE MIRACULOUS [1889] 160

VI. POSSIBILITIES AND IMPOSSIBILITIES [1891] 192

VII. AGNOSTICISM [1889] 209

VIII. AGNOSTICISM: A REJOINDER [1889] 263

IX. AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY [1889] 309

X. THE KEEPERS OF THE HERD OF SWINE [1890] 366

XI. ILLUSTRATIONS OF MR. GLADSTONE'S CONTROVERSIAL
METHODS [1891] 393

I: PROLOGUE

[_Controverted Questions_, 1892]

Le plus grand service qu'on puisse rendre a la science est d'y faire
place nette avant d'y rien construire.--CUVIER.

Most of the Essays comprised in the present volume have been written
during the last six or seven years, without premeditated purpose or
intentional connection, in reply to attacks upon doctrines which I
hold to be well founded; or in refutation of allegations respecting
matters lying within the province of natural knowledge, which I
believe to be erroneous; and they bear the mark of their origin in the
controversial tone which pervades them.

Of polemical writing, as of other kinds of warfare, I think it may be
said, that it is often useful, sometimes necessary, and always more or
less of an evi