St. Landry democrat., 1885-02-14
A SPIRITED CRITICISM.
True Versus False AgnOsti-
ciSme
TWENTY YEARS OF NEGATION.
Brooklyn Eagle.

Prof. Huxley, III a spirited letter
published not long ago, complained
of a prevailing misuse of the word
agnosticism. An agnostic is one
who does not know, and admits that
he does not know, anything about a
certain thing, or class of things-es-
pecially spiritual or religious things.
In common speech, however, agnos-
ticism is curiously accepted as de-
scriptive not of the absence Of knowl-
edge, but Of the possession or the
assumption of positive knowledge,
only the knowledge or the assump-
ton is not Of the ordinary Or ortho-
lox kind.
Prof. Huxley represents the grow
ing company of genuine ~agnostics.
He concerns himself only about
matters which are the subject of
scientific test and demonstration.
There may or may not be something
beyond this. II there is he knows
nothing of it. He can find no evil
dence affecting it, because the only
method Of investigation which his
philosophy recognizes can not be
applied to it. He therefore gives
himself no further anxiety about
what is called ''the unseen world
A mar as Numerically opposed
to Prof. Huxley in temper and in
tellectual habits as Col. Bob In
gersoll is, oddly enough, also class
ed by many people as an agnostic.
This fluent person, who goes about
the country glibly repeating stale
platitudes and feeble jokes with an
air Of originality, far from admitting
that he knows nothing about spirit
ual things, claims to be thoroughly
informed Of them. He is as des-
potic as a Princeton professor. 1t
is q contradiction in terms to de-
scribe by the word agnosticism the
intellectual processes and the ex-
travagant u~tterances of this combi-
nation Of a criminal lawyer, a camp
meeting exhorter and a free think
ing tinker Your real agnostic has
no more business with proving a
negative than an affirmative about
the unknowable.
It is, however, by no means only
the agnostic Technology that is
abused. The practice Of agnosti-
cism, if the phrase may be permit
ted, the conduct of life according to
agnosticism, is sometimes as incon-
sistent and illogical. I don't know
that our able and excellent fellow
citizen, the Rev. John w. Chad
wick, would call himself an agnostic,
but the recent celebration of his
twenty years pastorate-or lecture
ship, or whatever you choose to call
tat once brought to mind Prof.
Huxley's complaint. It seems to
me that If, instead of the rather
vague and ELUSIVE speeches and
letters produced at the festival,
somebody had given US in plain
English an account of just what
Mr.. Chadwick has been doing these
twenty years, he would have pre-
sented us an admirable example Of
q most absurd conclusion from the
premises of unbelief.
Perhaps some Of the Eagles
readers recall the apprehension with
which the organization Of the Clin-
ton street society was regarded by
the older Unitarian Church. The
latter's conservative members be-
lieved in free thought, but it was
free thought with a gown, the COM
munion, and other old fashioned
features. When Free Thought be-
gan to spell itself with capital let
bsrs, to wear lay clothing and to
dispense with sacramenfs, some .oi
them were alarmed. What would
they have thought if they could
have looked nearly a generation
ahead?
7 had an opportunity some time
ago to ascertain to some extent
what Mi. Chadwick's pastoral la
bors have accomplished. I took up
a volume Of his sermons,a The first
thing my eye fell upon was a denial
of the supernatural origin and di-
vine authority of the Bible. I was
quite prepared for this. N1Remayen