ogical sequence,
so that, as a matter of mere ratiocination, I am not likely ever to
detect any serious flaws, especially as this has not been done by
anybody else during the many years of its existence. But I now clearly
perceive two wellnigh fatal oversights which I then committed. The first
was undue confidence in merely syllogistic conclusions, even when
derived from sound premises, in regions of such high abstraction. The
second was, in not being sufficiently careful in examining the
foundations of my criticism, i.e. the validity of its premises. I will
here briefly consider these two points separately.

As regards the first point, never was any one more arrogant in his
claims for pure reason than I was--more arrogant in spirit though not in
letter, this being due to contact with science; without ever considering
how opposed to reason itself is the unexpressed assumption of my earlier
argument as to God Himself, as if His existence were a merely physical
problem to be solved by man's reason alone, without reference to his
other and higher faculties[37].

The second point is of still more importance, because so seldom, if
ever, recognized.

At the time of writing the _Candid Examination_ I perceived clearly how
the whole question of Theism from the side of reason turned on the
question as to the nature of natural causation. My theory of natural
causation obeyed the Law of Parsimony, resolving all into Being as such;
but, on the other hand, it erred in not considering whether 'higher
causes' are not 'necessary' to account for spiritual facts--i.e. whether
the ultimate Being must not be at least as high as the intellectual and
spiritual nature of man, i.e. higher than anything merely physical or
mechanical. The supposition that it must does not violate the Law of
Parsimony.

Pure agnostics ought to investigate the religious consciousness of
Christians as a phenomenon which may possibly be what Christians
themselves believe it to be, i.e. of Divine origin. And this may be done
without entering into any question as to the objective validity of
Christian dogmas. The metaphysics of Christianity may be all false in
fact, and yet the spirit of Christianity may be true in substance--i.e.
it may be the highest 'good gift from above' as yet given to man.

My present object, then, like that of Socrates, is not to impart any
philosophical system, or even positive knowledge, but a frame of mind,
what I may term, pure agnost