God.'
So that I think that even if the creeds, from the so-called 'Apostles' ' to the so-called 'Athanasian,'2 were swept into oblivion; and even if the human race
9. Latin author and Church father (ca. 155?ca. 2. Two important summaries of Christian doc222). Tertullian wrote of Christ's resurrection, 'It trine. The Athanasian creed dates back to ca. 361; is certain because it is impossible' (De Carne the Apostles' baptismal creed developed between Christi 5). the 2nd and 9th centuries. 1. See Deuteronomy 6.4?5; 1 Samuel 15.22.
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AGNOSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY / 143 9
should arrive at the conclusion that, whether a bishop washes a cup or leaves it unwashed, is not a matter of the least consequence, it will get on very well. The causes which have led to the development of morality in mankind, which have guided or impelled us all the way from the savage to the civilized state, will not cease to operate because a number of ecclesiastical hypotheses turn out to be baseless. And, even if the absurd notion that morality is more the child of speculation than of practical necessity and inherited instinct, had any foundation; if all the world is going to thieve, murder, and otherwise misconduct itself as soon as it discovers that certain portions of ancient history are mythical; what is the relevance of such arguments to any one who holds by the Agnostic principle?
Surely, the attempt to cast out Beelzebub by the aid of Beelzebub3 is a hopeful procedure as compared to that of preserving morality by the aid of immorality. For I suppose it is admitted that an Agnostic may be perfectly sincere, may be competent, and may have studied the question at issue with as much care as his clerical opponents. But, if the Agnostic really believes what he says, the 'dreadful consequence' argufier (consistently, I admit, with his own principles) virtually asks him to abstain from telling the truth, or to say what he believes to be untrue, because of the supposed injurious consequences to morality. 'Beloved brethren, that we may be spotlessly moral, before all things let us lie,' is the sum total of many an exhortation addressed to the 'Infidel.' Now, as I have already pointed out, we cannot oblige our exhorters. We leave the practical application of the convenient doctrines of 'Reserve' and 'Non-natural interpretation' to those who invented them.4
I trust that I have now made amends for any ambiguity, or want of fullness, in my previous exposition of that which I hold to be the essence of the Agnostic doctrine. Henceforward, I might hope to hear no more of the assertion that we are necessarily Materialists, Idealists, Atheists, Theists, or any other ists, if experience had led me to think that the proved falsity of a statement was any guarantee against its repetition. And those who appreciate the nature of our position will see, at once, that when Ecclesiasticism declares that we ought to believe this, that, and the other, and are very wicked if we don't, it is impossible for us to give any answer but this: We have not the slightest objection to believe anything you like, if you will give us good grounds for belief; but, if you cannot, we must respectfully refuse, even if that refusal should wreck morality and insure our own damnation several times over. We are quite content to leave that to the decision of the future. The course of the past has impressed us with the firm conviction that no good ever comes of falsehood, and we feel warranted in refusing even to experiment in that direction.
=* $ ?
1889,1892
3. Mark 3.22-27. est. 'Reserve': 'an intentional suppression of truth 4. A way of maintaining assent to a Scriptural pas-in cases where it might lead to inconvenience' sage without accepting its literal or obvious sense; (<OED). a device here stigmatized as intellectually dishon
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1440
GEORGE MEREDITH
1828-1909
Like Thomas Hardy, George Meredith preferred writing poetry to writing novels, but it was as the author of The Ordeal of Richard Feverel (1859), The Egoist (1879), and other novels that he made his mark. His poems nevertheless deserve more attention than they have yet received, especially Modem Love (1862), a fascinating narrative poem that was greeted by the Saturday Review as 'a grave moral mistake.' This sequence of fifty sixteen- line sonnets is a kind of novel in verse that analyzes the sufferings of a husband and wife whose marriage is breaking up. The story is told, for the most part, by the husband speaking in the first person, but the opening and closing sections are narrated in the third person. Modern Love was probably derived, in part, from Meredith's experiences. At twenty-one, at the outset of his career as a writer in London, he married a daughter of the satirist Thomas Love Peacock (1785-1866). Nine years later, after a series of quarrels, his wife eloped to Europe with another artist. The Merediths were never reconciled, and in 1861 she died.
From Modern Love
1
By this he knew she wept with waking eyes: That, at his hand's light quiver by her head, The strange low sobs that shook their common bed Were called into her with a sharp surprise,
5 And strangled mute, like little gaping snakes, Dreadfully venomous to him. She lay Stone-still, and the long darkness flowed away With muffled pulses. Then, as midnight makes Her giant heart of Memory and Tears
to Drink the pale drug of silence, and so beat Sleep's heavy measure, they from head to feet Were moveless, looking through their dead black years By vain regret scrawled over the blank wall. Like sculptured effigies they might be seen
15 Upon their marriage tomb, the sword between;1 Each wishing for the sword that severs all.
2
It ended, and the morrow brought the task. Her eyes were guilty gates, that let him in By shutting all too zealous for their sin: Each sucked a secret, and each wore a mask.
5 But, oh, the bitter taste her beauty had! He sickened as at breath of poison-flowers: A languid humor stole among the hours, And if their smiles encountered, he went mad, And raged deep inward, till the light was brown
io Before his vision, and the world, forgot,
