Collected Essays, Volume V | Page 9

by one more or less.
For myself, I must confess that the problem of the origin of such very
remarkable historical phenomena as the doctrines, and the social
organization, which in their broad features certainly existed, and were
in a state of rapid development, within a hundred years of the
crucifixion of Jesus; and which have steadily prevailed against all rivals,
among the most intelligent and civilized nations in the world ever since,
is, and always has been, profoundly interesting; and, considering how
recent the really scientific study of that problem, and how great the
progress made during the last half century in supplying the conditions
for a positive solution of the problem, I cannot doubt that the
attainment of such a solution is a mere question of time.
I am well aware that it has lain far beyond my powers to take any share
in this great undertaking. All that I can hope is to have done somewhat
towards "the preparation of those who have ceased to be contented with
the old and find no satisfaction in half measures": perhaps, also,
something towards the lessening of that great proportion of my

countrymen, whose eminent characteristic it is that they find "full
satisfaction in half measures."
T.H.H. HODESLEA, EASTBOURNE, _December 4th, 1893_.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] D.F. Strauss, Der alte und der neue Glaube (1872), pp. 9, 10.
[2] Collected Essays, vol. ii., "On the Origin of Species" (1860).
[3] 1 John iii. 8.
[4] Not necessarily of more than this. A few centuries ago the twelve
most intelligent and impartial men to be found in England, would have
independently testified that the sun moves, from east to west, across the
heavens every day.
[5] Nowhere more concisely and clearly than in Dr. Sutherland Black's
article "Gospels" in Chambers's _Encyclopædia_. References are given
to the more elaborate discussions of the problem.
[6] Those who regard the Apocalyptic discourse as a "vaticination after
the event" may draw conclusions therefrom as to the date of the
Gospels in which its several forms occur. But the assumption is surely
dangerous, from an apologetic point of view, since it begs the question
as to the unhistorical character of this solemn prophecy.
[7] See p. 287 of this volume.

CONTENTS
PAGE I. PROLOGUE 1 (Controverted Questions, 1892).
II. SCIENTIFIC AND PSEUDO-SCIENTIFIC REALISM [1887] 59
III. SCIENCE AND PSEUDO-SCIENCE [1887] 90
IV. AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY [1887] 126
V. THE VALUE OF WITNESS TO THE MIRACULOUS [1889] 160
VI. POSSIBILITIES AND IMPOSSIBILITIES [1891] 192

VII. AGNOSTICISM [1889] 209
VIII. AGNOSTICISM: A REJOINDER [1889] 263
IX. AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY [1889] 309
X. THE KEEPERS OF THE HERD OF SWINE [1890] 366
XI. ILLUSTRATIONS OF MR. GLADSTONE'S CONTROVERSIAL
METHODS [1891] 393

I: PROLOGUE
[Controverted Questions, 1892]
Le plus grand service qu'on puisse rendre à la science est d'y faire place
nette avant d'y rien construire.--CUVIER.
Most of the Essays comprised in the present volume have been written
during the last six or seven years, without premeditated purpose or
intentional connection, in reply to attacks upon doctrines which I hold
to be well founded; or in refutation of allegations respecting matters
lying within the province of natural knowledge, which I believe to be
erroneous; and they bear the mark of their origin in the controversial
tone which pervades them.
Of polemical writing, as of other kinds of warfare, I think it may be
said, that it is often useful, sometimes necessary, and always more or
less of an evil. It is useful, when it attracts attention to topics which
might otherwise be neglected; and when, as does sometimes happen,
those who come to see a contest remain to think. It is necessary, when
the interests of truth and of justice are at stake. It is an evil, in so far as
controversy always tends to degenerate into quarrelling, to swerve from
the great issue of what is right and what is wrong to the very small
question of who is right and who is wrong. I venture to hope that the
useful and the necessary were more conspicuous than the evil attributes
of literary militancy, when these papers were first published; but I have
had some hesitation about reprinting them. If I may judge by my own
taste, few literary dishes are less appetising than cold controversy;
moreover, there is an air of unfairness about the presentation of only
one side of a discussion, and a flavour of unkindness in the
reproduction of "winged words," which, however appropriate at the
time of their utterance, would find a still more appropriate place in
oblivion. Yet, since I could hardly ask those who have honoured me by
their polemical attentions to confer lustre on this collection, by

permitting me to present their lucubrations along with my own; and
since it would be a manifest wrong