liberty and humanity. The Agnostic, however, usually adopts a more
pleasant attitude. He does not believe in attacking theology; and "after
all, you know," he sometimes says, "we can't tell what there may be
behind the veil."

With his master, Comte, Mr. Harrison "entirely accepts the Agnostic
position as a matter of logic," but it is only a stepping-stone, and he
objects to sitting down upon it. Every religion the world has ever seen
has been false, but religion itself is imperishable, and Positivism has
found the true solution of the eternal problem. Parsons and Agnostics
will eventually kiss each other, like righteousness and peace in
the text, and the then existing High Priest of Positivism will say,
"Humanity bless you, my children." But all this is for the sweet
by-and-bye. Meanwhile the Churches thrust out their tongues at
Positivism, the great Agnostic philosopher calls it the Ghost of
Religion, Sir James Stephen declares that nobody can worship Comte's
made-up Deity, and Mr. Mallock says that the love of Humanity, taking
it in the concrete, is as foolish as Titania's affection for Bottom the
Weaver.

Professed Atheists may watch this hubbub with serenity, if not with
enjoyment. When all is said and done, Atheism remains in possession of
the sceptical field. Mr. Harrison's flouts, at any rate, will do it no
damage. His hatred of Atheism is born of jealousy, and like all jealous
people he is somewhat inconsistent. Here he defines Atheism as a
"protest against the theological doctrine of a Creator and a moral
providence," there he defines it as "based on the denial of God," and
again he defines it as a belief that the universe is "self-existent and
purely material." Even these do not suffice, for he also adopts Comte's
"profound aphorism" that "Atheism is the most irrational form of
metaphysics," and proves this by a fresh definition involved in the
charge that "it propounds as the solution of an insoluble enigma the
hypothesis which of all others is the least capable of proof, the least
simple, the least plausible, and the least useful." _Of all others_ is
what Cobbett would have called a beastly phrase. It shows Mr. Harrison
was in a hurry or a fog. He does not specify this unprovable, complex,
unplausible, and useless hypothesis. We forbear to guess his meaning,
but we remind him that Atheism "propounds _no_ solution of an insoluble
enigma." The Atheist does not say "there is no God"; he simply says, "I
know