Leporem venator ut alta

In nive sectetur, positum sic tangere nolit.

I have never been much of a sportsman myself, but I should suppose, in harmony with the opinion I have frequently heard from enthusiasts in field-sports, that its greatest charm consists in the healthy exercise, the free-play of the limbs, the exhilaration of mind, the variety of scenery and the general excitement of the sport, rather than in the bag, as it is called. I, at all events, am quite content to pursue my intellectual researches to join in the pursuit of truth-without any selfish regard to the contents of my possible bag of results. Thereby I enjoy my day's exercise, the free-play of my reasoning faculties, the picturesque diversity of views and arguments (spiritual scenery, so to speak) of the greatest thinkers of all time, without a greedy calculation of what I am likely to gain by my efforts; indeed, without the faintest wish to incommode myself with a burden which I might perchance lack strength to carry home. Besides,' added he, somewhat mournfully, is it not the usual fate of philosophers in search of positive truth to return empty-handed-" to go out for wool and come back shorn," as the old proverb has it. You, for instance, with all your eagerness to make a bag, must have often wended your way homewards after a long and hard day's work with nothing at all to show for it, and a similar fate must have often befallen you in your intellectual researches: so far as positive truth is concerned, you have returned bag-less. Sometimes, too, you must have fired at what appeared in the fog to be a desirable quarry, but which a nearer approach discovers to be perhaps some useless inanimate object. What have you then for your bag?'

'The result, to be sure,' replied Arundel; 'I include negative as well as positive results in my definition of intellectual game-the detection of error as well as the discovery of truth. Perhaps the false appearance by which I was misled may have deceived hundreds of brother sportsmen before me. By discovering and exposing such a falsehood, I shall have effected a positive service to the cause of truth:

I shall have hunted down an idôlum, as your friend Bacon would term it.'

'For that matter,' rejoined Dr. Trevor, 'I can match your hunting there: I can make a bag of idola-detected errors, or negative truths. Why, here (putting his hand on the folio lying open on the table) you have the largest bag of that sort of game that was ever put together, but, like Sextos, I am unable to bag anything better.'

'Well, take my advice, Doctor,' answered his friend, ‘don't be too scrupulous in your hunting and in your estimate of game. If you can't find a blackcock or a pheasant, be content with a rabbit. Truthseekers, like some sportsmen I have known, lose a great number of useful ordinary certainties from excessive fastidiousness. Some years ago I had a day's deer-stalking in Scotland, and returned with a single moor-hen; but even so I had something for my labour, whereas, had I disdained moor-fowl until I had bagged the nobler quarry of which I was in search, I should have come home quite emptyhanded. But I must stay no longer at present, discussing a subject so alien to my profession as Skepticism. I am on my way to the top of West-hill down to see that poor fellow Thompson, who broke his leg the other day. I called with Fanny's compliments to ask yourself and Miss Trevor to dinner the day after to-morrow. We expect the Harringtons of whom you have so often heard us speak. By the way, if you want a hearer for your Skeptical opinions you cannot have a better man than Harrington, who unites with a lawyer's acumen, and the deliberative qualities of a judge, a genuine love of culture and philosophy, especially if the latter is tinged with Skepticism after the manner of Mill, of whom he is an enthusiastic admirer.'

Thanks; I shall be delighted to come, and so I am sure will Louisa,' answered Dr. Trevor. I have, as you know, long been wanting to make the acquaintance of your friend Harrington as a kindred sportsman in the broad plains of philosophy. We may compare bags, you know,' added the doctor with a smile.

'Very true,' replied Mr. Arundel, as he turned and stepped out of the open window on to the gravel walk outside; but I

don't think that with all his taste for Skepticism you will find Harrington glorying in the emptiness of his bag, or thinking that the sole purpose of the chase is the healthy exercise thereby acquired.'

'Well, we shall see,' rejoined the doctor, as he resumed his seat, and once more bent his head over his folio, while his friend proceeded on his way.

On the day and time appointed, Dr. Trevor and his sister took their way to the rectory, and found on their arrival that the Harringtons had preceded them. Mr. Arundel facetiously introduced his friend Harrington to Dr. Trevor as 'a modern to an ancient Skeptic.' As in duty bound, we must perform the same office of presenting the learned lawyer to our readers.

Charles Harrington Esquire Q.C. was a well-known member of the English bar, and a leader of the. . . . Circuit. For the greater part of his life he had resided in London, but latterly had been compelled, owing to his wife's delicate health, to take up his abode on the breezy Wiltshire downs, not far from Salisbury. He had known Arundel since university days, the two men having cemented a mutual friendship of the most intimate kind while students and subsequently fellows of Balliol College, Oxford. Though continually immersed in legal business, Harrington's pronounced literary tastes could not forego the relaxation of what he used to call ironically light literature;' the aforesaid light literature consisting generally of philosophical and scientific works, foreign as well as English, which most people would have pronounced exceedingly heavy. He had only recently planted himself within four or five miles of Hilderton, and though he had always maintained a friendly correspondence with Arundel, this happened to be the first occasion on which the Rector of Hilderton was able to introduce him to his still older friend, Trevor. Of the personal appearance of these three men, it is needless to say anything. It will suffice to remark that so far as intellect, manliness, and refinement could be expressed by physiognomy, they were as striking examples of thoughtfulness and culture as could easily be found in the

ranks of the learned professions to which they severally belonged.

When dinner was over, and the ladies had retired (Mrs. Arundel being engaged in taking her new friend Mrs. Harrington over the rectory grounds), the gentlemen drew their chairs round to the open window, and the claret-jug being placed at a convenient distance, Mr. Arundel opened the conversation as follows:

:

'Trevor and I were talking the other day, Harrington, of a subject in which you have always been much interestedPhilosophical Skepticism. He claims to be, as I have told you, a Skeptic of the first water; or, taking the element in a more appropriate form, I should rather say-the first degree of cloudiness and mist. Sextos Empeirikos is his master. His works are his Philosophical Bible: of which I may say, in words now nearly forgotten, that he

Devoutly reads therein by day,
And meditates by night.

As a result of these eccentric studies, he is an extreme philosophical Nonconformist. His intellectual and religious creed is Dissidence. A dogma, especially if long established and surrounded by some amount of prestige and authority, immediately excites his ire and distrust. Indeed, dissent has become to him so much easier than assent, that if caught off his guard without time for mature consideration, I think he would very likely dispute the fact of his own existence. His Science is Nescience, and his most absolute certainty is that all things are uncertain. His unbelief even exceeds that of the man who woke every morning with the conviction that everything was an open question; for what may have been in his case a temporary aberration of a half-wakened consciousness, is Trevor's normal condition. Only, with the happy inconsistency of most Skeptics, he confines his unbelief to speculation, for in action and the practical concerns of life, he is as prompt and decisive as any man I know.'

.

TREVOR (smiling). Thanks, Arundel, for my portrait, which I hope, however, Harrington will consider is rather a carica

ture than a true likeness. Leaving out your antithetical rhetoric, and using simple terms, I plead guilty to the accusation of Skepticism. I am, I suppose, a Skeptic-i.e. in philosophy and speculation; or, if the paradox were allowable, I should rather say, I believe in Skepticism. For that unfortunate instinct (it is really nothing else, as I have proved by numerous comparisons between the spontaneous action of my mind in the presence of any authoritative dictum or dogma, and the reflex action which we term instinct in certain animals), I hold Nature to be primarily responsible. Descended, as Arundel knows, from an extremely heterodox father of my own profession, whose belief was almost bounded by the scalpel and microscope, Skepticism is in my case an hereditary complaint. Perhaps in some future, near or remote, the advance of physiology may reveal the abnormal constitution of grey matter, which manifests itself as the psychical phenomenon we call Skepticism. Anyhow, I was evidently born with a restless, inquiring, dissatisfied, mystery-hating kind of disposition; for my nurse used to say that if any toys were given me having hidden springs, or happened to be representations of moving or sound-uttering animals, or anything I suppose that commended itself to my young senses as a contradiction of the great order of Nature, I invariably used to smash the article before it had been an hour in my possession, in order to get at the source of the wonder. Thus early did I indicate a tendency to destructive analysis' which has been my characteristic, or, as Arundel would say, my foible, through life.

HARRINGTON. Well, if the irresistible impulse to break toys forebodes a future of disbelief, I have a young urchin now in my nursery who is clearly destined to achieve great eminence as a Skeptic, at some future day.

TREVOR. You had better have an eye to him and his training, if you intend him to remain through life within the bounds of orthodox and conventional beliefs: of course such infantile tendencies must not be pushed too far. In my own case, I can still recall the suspicion with which I received any communication of a portentous or extraordinary kind, and the grave rumination over pros and cons by which I tried