AGNOSTICISM AND BELIEF.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—There is surely one oversight in Mr. McCann's letter, to which you make no reference in your article. He says that "every Christian confesses himself an agnostic when he says I believe,' for the man who believes does not know." Now,
I submit that there are two senses in which the Christian (and, indeed, every man) uses the word "believe,"—the belief of the truth or falsehood of a proposition, and the belief in a person. In the former sense, belief, no doubt, does not imply know- ledge; but I certainly do not see why it should be held to exclude it. In the latter sense, it surely implies knowledge of the highest kind, knowledge of the character and spirit of the person believed in. Surely no one ever said that they believed in any one whom they did not claim to know well.—I am,
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