Abstract
No one who studies with any diligence the history of the Theistic controversy, since the last century, can fail to be struck with the marked change of tone that has come over the literature on the side of the defenders of religion, as well as on the side of its opponents. The flippancy of Tom Paine and writers of his class has been replaced by a sad and sober criticism; while on the other hand the confident and dogmatic statements of Paley are exchanged for a cautious and apologetic presentation of the philosophical basis of religion, which shrinks from no charge with such dread as the charge of special pleading. and there is no question but that this change is, on the whole, for the better. No one can doubt that the object of the philosophical writers of our own time who deal with religion is rather to find out the truth than to score a point in controversy with an opponent; and I am not sure that that could always have been said of religious literature in England.