applies not only to purity, but likewise to most of the other
psychological _differentiae_ between the sexes, such as ambition,
selfishness, pride of power, and so forth. In short, the whole ideal of
Christian ethics is of a feminine as distinguished from a masculine
type[71]. Now nothing is so inimical to Christian belief as un-Christian
conduct. This is especially the case as regards impurity; for whether
the fact be explained on religious or non-religious grounds, it has more
to do with unbelief than has the speculative reason. Consequently, woman
is, for all these reasons, the 'fitter' type for receiving and retaining
Christian belief.

Modern agnosticism is performing this great service to Christian faith;
it is silencing all rational scepticism of the _a priori_ kind. And this
it is bound to do more and more the purer it becomes. In every
generation it must henceforth become more and more recognized by
logical thinking, that all antecedent objections to Christianity founded
on reason alone are _ipso facto_ nugatory. Now, all the strongest
objections to Christianity have ever been those of the antecedent kind;
hence the effect of modern thinking is that of more and more diminishing
the purely speculative difficulties, such as that of the Incarnation,
&c. In other words the force of Butler's argument about our being
incompetent judges[72] is being more and more increased.

And the logical development of this lies in the view already stated
about natural causation. For, just as pure agnosticism must allow that
reason is incompetent to adjudicate _a priori_ for or against Christian
miracles, including the Incarnation, so it must further allow that, if
they ever took place, reason can have nothing to say against their being
all of one piece with causation in general. Hence, so far as reason is
concerned, pure agnosticism must allow that it is only the event which
can ultimately prove whether Christianity is true or false. 'If it be of
God we cannot overthrow it, lest haply we be found even to fight against
God.' But the individual cannot wait for this empirical determination.
What then is he to do? The unbiassed answer of pure agnosticism ought
reasonably to be, in the words of John Hunter, 'Do not think; try.' That
is, in this case, try the only experiment available--the experiment of
faith. Do the doctrine, and if Christianity be true, the verification
will come, not indeed mediately through any course of speculat