the tone
adopted by Newman to his disciples. Mark Pattison relates how on one
occasion he advanced, in Newman's presence, some liberal opinion, in
the days when he was himself numbered among the Tractarians; and that
Newman deposited, as was his wont, an icy "Very likely!" upon the
statement; after which, Pattison says, you were expected to go into a
corner and think over your sins. Not so does thought make progress!

But the larger question is this. What right have philosophers or
theologians to arrogate to themselves the sole right of speculation in
these matters? If religion is a vital matter, and if all of us who have
any thoughts at all about life and its issues are by necessity to a
certain extent practical philosophers, why should we meekly surrender
the stuff of speculation to technical disputants? Of course, there are
certain regions of experiment that must be left to specialists, and a
scientist who devoted himself to embryology might justly complain of a
man who aired views on the subject without adequate study. But as far
as life goes, any thoughtful and intelligent man who has lived and
reflected is in a sense a specialist. In life and conduct, in morality
and religion, we are all of us making experiments all day long, whether
we will or no; and it may be fairly said that a middle-aged man who has
lived thoughtfully has given up far more time to his subject than the
greatest scientist has devoted to his particular branch. A church-goer,
like myself, has been lectured once or twice a week on theology for as
long as he can remember. For years I have speculated, with deep
curiosity, on problems of religion, on the object and ultimate issues
of life and death. Neither philosophers nor theologians have ever
discovered a final solution which satisfies all the data. The
theologian, indeed, is encumbered by a vast mass of human tradition,
which he is compelled to treat more or less as divine revelation. The
whole religious position has been metamorphosed by scientific
discovery; and what theologian or philosopher has ever come near to
solving the incompatibility of the apparent inflexibility of natural
law with the no less apparent liberty of moral choice? Theologians and
philosophers may, if they choose, attempt to crush the speculations of
an experimentalist in life, though I think they would be better
employed in welcoming them as an instance of how theological and
metaphysical conceptions strike upon the ordina