All this is written in innumerable books; and he who
will toil through them will discover that the stone is just where it
was when the work began. Hume saw this; Kant saw it; since their time,
more and more eyes have been cleansed of the films which prevented
them from seeing it; until now the weight and number of those who
refuse to be the prey of verbal mystifications has begun to tell in
practical life.
It was inevitable that a conflict should arise between Agnosticism and
Theology; or rather, I ought to say, between Agnosticism and
Ecclesiasticism. For Theology, the science, is one thing; and
Ecclesiasticism, the championship of a foregone conclusion[83] as to
the truth of a particular form of Theology, is another. With
scientific Theology, Agnosticism has no quarrel. On the contrary, the
Agnostic, knowing too well the influence of prejudice and
idiosyncrasy, even on those who desire most earnestly to be impartial,
can wish for nothing more urgently than that the scientific theologian
should not only be at perfect liberty to thresh out the matter in his
own fashion; but that he should, if he can, find flaws in the Agnostic
position; and, even if demonstration is not to be had, that he should
put, in their full force, the grounds of the conclusions he thinks
probable. The scientific theologian admits the Agnostic principle,
however widely his results may differ from those reached by the
majority of Agnostics.
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