New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1880-07-18
HP. U1LLOCK AGAIN..

Nothing can be more delightful to man
of acute intellect and disputatious temper than
controversy in which he is allowed to conduct
both sides. He ships into the arena of con-
tention with the blithe assurance of one who
has no misgivings about the result lie selects
an imaginary adversary OF properly formidable
aspect, and setting him in the focus OF public
observation, in various positions where defence
Is impossible, proceeds to belab0r him IN solid
comfort which, being done; the victor Ietres,
as proud as if he had really conquered some
body. The literature of discussion is full of
such exhibitions of illusOry prowess They are
generally worthless as exhibitions of dialectcal
skill and sometimes they are worse than use
less, because they deceive hasty readers upon
important subjects of current discussion.
Mr. w. II. Mallock who is one Of the most
prominent essayists of the present day, is fond
of throwing his philosophical doubts and specu-
lations into the form of one-sded debates, and
it must be confessed that he conducts them
with great force and brilliancy. Nobody can
demosh himself with more striking effect, or
make his own arguments more ludlcrOus. A
keen humOr plays about his paragraphs, ana
we find ourselves laughing at his wit even
when we are provoked at what seems to be his
unfairness The sense of the ridiculous is
weapon almost as dangerous to the one who
holds it as to the one against whom it is
pomted Mr.. Mallock cannot resist the temp
tatlon to be droll, even at the cost OF not being
quite frank An iTreverent wit cOuld make
even the Tables of Sinai absurd if he took the
liberty of stating the Divine commands in his
own way and many who cordially symDathlze
with Mr.. MallOck cannot help feeling that
the doctrines of the agnOstics sometimes un-
dcrgo a strange Transformation in his spark
ling argumentative dialogues. His reasonings
are quick aud forcible: his style has terSeness,
grace, and epigrammatic point; the evidences
of deep feeling and honorable purpose, ap
parent in his more serious writings. attract
all earnest inGuireIs after the truths into
which he is searching; and people who are
alarmed, as ne seems to have been, for the per-
manence of faith would have welcomed him
as powerful ally, but for the suspicion that
the philosophers and physicists, who are con-
futed in his sparkling pages are not the real
foes of revealed religion, but only distorted
images of them
Mr.. Malock's propensity for travcsty is still
evident in his latest contribution to the con-
troversy between atheism and faith; but
a change seems to have come over his own
attitude with respect to the question. He has
been exhibited to us heretofore as perpexed
and cropping unbeliever, who SCOTS at the new
school, and yet rejects the old. He saw in
the future nothing but chaos of despair.
Modern Christianity seemed to him utterly
unable to cope with the evils of modern scien-
tific scepticisn and yet life was not worth
living if the sceptics were in the right. Bu5
in his newest paper IN The Nineteenth Century
there are none of these prophecies of woe. The
truths which all Christian Churches hold
sacred, the supernatural virtues which Chris
tianily alone has ever nourshed, the duties
which Christianity alone has ever taught-these
arc after all the hope of the world. In his new
state of mind Mr. Mallock will be of even
greater interest than he was before.