Matthew Arnold
so justly admires. I shall not emulate the spirit of that article, and
I trust that I shall not scant the courtesy with which I desire to treat
Dr. Lightfoot, whose ability I admire and whose position I understand.
I should not, indeed, consider it necessary at present to notice his
attack at all, but that I perceive the attempt to prejudice an audience
and divert attention from the issues of a serious argument by general
detraction. The device is far from new, and the tactics cannot be
pronounced original. In religious as well as legal controversy, the
threadbare maxim: "A bad case--abuse the plaintiff's attorney," remains
in force; and it is surprising how effectual the simple practice still
is. If it were granted, for the sake of argument, that each slip in
translation, each error in detail and each oversight in statement, with
which Canon Lightfoot reproaches _Supernatural Religion_ were well
founded, it must be evident to any intelligent mind that the mass of
such a work would not really be affected; such flaws--and what book of
the kind escapes them--which can most easily be removed, would not
weaken the central argument, and after the Apologist's ingenuity has
been exerted to the utmost to blacken every blot, the basis of
Supernatural Religion would not be made one whit more secure.
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