hat Christ was not
God, and yet that He gave the highest revelation of God. If the 'first
Man' was allegorical, why not the 'second'? It is, indeed, an historical
fact that the 'second Man' existed, but so likewise may the 'first.'
And, as regards the 'personal claims' of Christ, all that He said is not
incompatible with His having been Gabriel, and His Holy Ghost,
Michael[38]. Or He may have been a man deceived as to His own
personality, and yet the vehicle of highest inspiration.

_Religion._

By the term 'religion,' I shall mean any theory of personal agency in
the universe, belief in which is strong enough in any degree to
influence conduct. No term has been used more loosely of late years, or
in a greater variety of meanings. Of course anybody may use it in any
sense he pleases, provided he defines exactly in what sense he does so.
The above seems to be most in accordance with traditional usage.

_Agnosticism 'pure' and 'impure'._

The modern and highly convenient term 'Agnosticism,' is used in two very
different senses. By its originator, Professor Huxley, it was coined to
signify an attitude of reasoned ignorance touching everything that lies
beyond the sphere of sense-perception--a professed inability to found
valid belief on any other basis. It is in this its original sense--and
also, in my opinion, its only philosophically justifiable sense--that I
shall understand the term. But the other, and perhaps more popular sense
in which the word is now employed, is as the correlative of Mr. H.
Spencer's doctrine of the Unknowable.

This latter term is philosophically erroneous, implying important
negative knowledge that if there be a God we know this much about
Him--that He _cannot_ reveal Himself to man[39]. _Pure_ agnosticism is
as defined by Huxley.

Of all the many scientific men whom I have known, the most pure in his
agnosticism--not only in profession but in spirit and conduct--was
Darwin. (What he says in his autobiography about Christianity[40] shows
no profundity of thought in the direction of philosophy or religion. His
mind was too purely inductive for this. But, on this very account, it is
the more remarkable that his rejection of Christianity was due, not to
any _a priori_ bias against the creed on grounds of reason as absurd,
but solely on the ground of an apparent moral objection _a
posteriori_[41].) Faraday and many other first-rate originators in
science were like Darwin.

As an illustra