but, on the other hand, it erred in not considering whether 'higher
causes' are not 'necessary' to account for spiritual facts--i.e. whether
the ultimate Being must not be at least as high as the intellectual and
spiritual nature of man, i.e. higher than anything merely physical or
mechanical. The supposition that it must does not violate the Law of
Parsimony.

Pure agnostics ought to investigate the religious consciousness of
Christians as a phenomenon which may possibly be what Christians
themselves believe it to be, i.e. of Divine origin. And this may be done
without entering into any question as to the objective validity of
Christian dogmas. The metaphysics of Christianity may be all false in
fact, and yet the spirit of Christianity may be true in substance--i.e.
it may be the highest 'good gift from above' as yet given to man.

My present object, then, like that of Socrates, is not to impart any
philosophical system, or even positive knowledge, but a frame of mind,
what I may term, pure agnosticism, as distinguished from what is
commonly so called.

FOOTNOTES:

[34] The first edition, which was published in 1878, was rapidly
exhausted, but, as my object in publishing was solely that of soliciting
criticism for my own benefit, I arranged with the publishers not to
issue any further edition. The work has therefore been out of print for
many years.

[This 'arrangement' was however not actually made, or at least was
unknown to the present publishing firm of Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner &