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Printed by Request. PUBLISHED BY J. DURIE & SON, Ottawa. t ■"»';.if¥^%,ii.jjM. AGNOSTICISM LECTURE II. 4-., LECTURE of mine on Agnosticism has been criticised in a pamphlet styled A Defence of Modern Thought. On perus- ing it I was unable to find out what the modern thought is which the writer is de- fending. He agrees with me that "Ag- nostic" is an unfortunate name for those like himself who believe that the existence of God is a problem that does not admit of* solution. Agnosticism, in that sense, is not modern. It has existed in all ages* Neither is the hypothesis of Evolution, to which I attributed the recent popularity of Agnosticism, modern. It is as old as Democritus and Lucretius. I accounted for the rather sudden outburst of all that is implied by Agnosticism by saying that Evo- lution led to Materialism, and Materialism to Agnosticism, some men believing Darwinism a de- liverance from the necessity of a Creator, though Darwin himself postulated a Creator to begin his hypothesis. I am glad to find that my critic agrees with me in my suspicion that Agnostic ethics are not of a kind to inspire some men with the '* courage neces- sary to take up a decided position." We can scarcely bring ourselves to admire the principles of men who, while holding to Agnostic belief, act as though expediency justified hypocrisy, and there- fore advise conformity to the usages ofreligion. God and Immortality, say they, are rationally un- tenable, but we cannot do without them. They are necessary for the present till the world is better educated. Religious beliefs are useful ; Mr. Herbert Spencer says, " We cannot avoid the inference that they are needful accompaniments of human life." They should have the "widest possible toleration " ; and again, " As certainly as a barbarous race needs a harsh terrestrial rule, and habiwually shows attach- ment to a despotism capable of the necessary rigour, so certainly does such a race need a belief that is similarly harsh, and habitually shows attachment to such a belief." * That is to say, the false is necessary for the elucidation of the true. You cannot get men to act as they should, without deceiving them. We have heard a good deal about the unworthy tricks of Divines in dressing up phan- toms in order to frighten mankind and keep them under priestly influence, but now we have one of the most eminent Philosophers of the day, himself no friend to Revelation, informing us that it is the only way to deal with men whose mental development is * First Principlea, pp. 119- 122. '^m^^^'^ imperfect, t My critic seems to agree with Mr. Spencer's ethical teaching ; for he says, "There are many lines of argument which can be used to prove how natural and how serviceable in many w&ys is, or has been, the thought of God as the Universal Father, the source of all good and of all law" ; and again, " Let the mind therefore, we say, weave freely for itself such conceptions as for the moment are serviceable, and let it be free to modify them with the growth of knowledge, and the increasing defini- tiveness of thought." Truly a melancholy basis of ethics in the nineteenth century ! But my critic is so dissatisfied with the name of Agnostic that he advises all earnest men who think more of their beliefs than their unbeliefs to disown it. He seems to forget that the name is not a nick- name given by opponents, but by a sincere friend and champion of Agnosticism, Professor Huxley, who borrowed it from a heathen altar at Athens, the inscription on which was, "To the Unknown God" — ^AfV(but like their iimpler e, the development is not from the simple to the complex, but the reverse, — from a five-toed to a one-toed animal. The evolution must have followed the law of natural selection, and the five-toed animal must have found it beneficial in the struggle for existence to get rid of one toe, and the four-toed to divest itself of another, and so on till we come to the present horse. "It is," says Mr. Wallace, "a funda- mental doctrine of Evolution that all changes of form and structure can only be brought about in as much as it is for the good of the being so modified." We cannot, however, see how this evolution of the horse's legs and feet, or rather this degradation and shrivelling up brought about by the struggle for existence, could have been profitable to the preserved nimal. He lost the power of seizing hold of any thing, — a serious loss in a struggle ! — but however this may be, this accumulation of profitable modifi- cations did not prevent the horse from becoming extinct in America. The extinction may, it is true, have been caused by the glacial period having de- stroyed all horses ; and if not from that cause, we must admit that Nature failed to adapt the horse to its environments. On the whole, it would have seemed much more like what we mean by Evolution, had the horse of the present day been found in the Eocene formation and developed upwards through the Miocene and Pliocene into a horse with five toes. That would have looked more like development from the simple to the complex. But I am concerned with the doctrine of Evo- ; t II: I ! 90 lution only so far as it is used as a device to elimi- nate God from the Universe. My critic says, "The scientific world is not aware that Nature has any ends in view, or is capable of having any ends in view which she needs the help of man to enable her to realize. Science does not attribute purpose to Nature." This is a very dictatorial utterance. Let us consider it awhile. Mankind will not, because thev cannot, give up their belief in purpose, design and foresi ght in Nature. Why ? Because the al- ternative belief is that "the earth and the million spheres in space came from mechanical necessity and for no end, and that life and consciousness came from the same mechanical necessity, supplemented by chance as the acting, shaping agency and real divinity."* For this reason, the mass of mankind guided by common sense, as well as the masters of thought who have meditated most deeply on the subject, continue to believe in purpose and final cause. Aristotle, with the other great thinkers of his day, came to the conclusion that the intelligence which existed in connection with matter involved a higher Intelligence independent of matter. Cicero held that the man who believes that the world, with all its beauty, and fittedness for man as well as for animal and vegetable life, was made by the chance meeting of atoms, would believe that if a countless number of the letters of the alphabet were * Creed of Science, p. 51. az thrown in a mass in some place, from these letters shaken out on the ground there can be formed the annals of Ennius arranged in such order as to read continuously, t Lord Bacon declared : "I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend and the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a Mind." Sir Isaac Newton affirmed : "The world is not God. It did not arise from a fortuitous concourse of atoms, nor by the spontaneous energy and evolu- tion of self-developing powers, as some have affirm- ed, but it was created by one, almighty, eternal, wise, and good being, — God." The great Kepler, as he watched the skies, was compelled to exclaim : *'0 God, I think Thy thoughts after Thee." Whatever, then, may be the causes which render some men unable to see purpose or design, and consequently God, in the Universe, of one thing we may be absolutely sure, that superiority of intellect is not one of them. But it would be tedious to dwell longer on the philosophical authority for purpose in Nature* Apart altogether from that, can any rational or candid man doubt that there was a purpose in the course of the evolution of the Universe ? Can any one really doubt that the ej'e and the ear, which open out the world to all the animals and man, were not somewhere in Nature's aims ; or can they f De Natura Deoruiu. ! ! 22 believe the other alternative, that the first rudi- mentary eye came one day as the result of a lucky chance, — a fortunate meeting of the atoms, — that it only appeared after infinite combinations had in vain been tried, at one happy moment vvrhen the right number and due arrangement of particles were hit upon ? Is this credible ? And then the same origin must be assigned for all the oth er organs of sense, — the origin of chance, — a perpetual shifting and re-arrangement of the atoms by chance and mechanical necessity, till the new and startling phenomena appeared. And granting that the right arrangement made the physical organ, there is still a great gulf between the organ and the seeing power. What is this new phenomenon, — the fact oivision, — which one moment came, having been non-existent just before ? Is not this new thing somethinr like creation ? It is, says the materialist, the product of the atoms, the effect of molecular changes. Then the atoms are literally creative. They have produced from nothing a most wonderful thing. For the fact of vision is wholly different from the material particles v/hich compose the organ. It is a thing not made up of them, nor of anything but itself, which one moment was not, and the next moment was ; and this is creation, — call it evoltUion if you please. It is creation, and moreover it is very like creation ex nihilo pronounced so absurd, — only that the blind atoms, according to the materialist, have accomplished the miracle. * Now all this weight of philosophical authority,. • Creed of Science, p. 48. iiil 23 and this reasoning from common sense, cannot be set aside by the flippant dictum, "Science does not attribute purpose to Nature." This means, if it has any meaning, that scientific men do not attribute purpose to nature ; but the assertion is untrue. Or it may mean that no science, such as Botany.Geology, or Astronomy, attributes purpose to Nature. True, these sciences have neither speech nor language, yet their voices must be heard. Let us select from a multitude of instances, which in their number and their richness are embarrassing, one from Botany, and see whether we can detect purpose in the adap- tatioii of structure to function. A more wonderful, complicated, and effective insect-trap could hardly be imagined than the pitcher-plant. In the first place, it attracts its victims from afar by its conspicuous color, — red, or blue, or purple, — which makes it stand out boldly from the inconspicuous shrub which produces it. In the next place, its jug-like shape is as good a device as can be employed for a trap in which the captured flies are to be drowned. It has a close- fitting lid which is not opened till the arrangements are complete, and when once opened never shuts again. When all is ready within, the lids opens ; and we see a bait, a danger, and a destiny. The bait is a honey secretion produced by glands situ- ated just in the neck cf the pitcher. Below this zone are glaucous walls of glassy smoothness, and below these again is the water poured forth by thousands of glands. The insects eat their fill of the honey, then slip hopelessly down the precipitous i Hill ilJ 24 sides, and are drowned at the bottom. In addition to these striking features, some of the pitchers have external fringes calculated to lead insects the right way to destruction.* Now can any reasonable man deny that the pur- pose, the design of the pitcher-plant is to kill flies ? Or can any rational being imagine that it was evolv- ed by the blind chance of the concurrence of atoms, or that the plant made itself? And if the mind designing this adaptation of structure to function does not exist inside the plant, surely it must be somewhere outside. Such illustrations are omnipresent in nature ; but let us select another striking one. In South Ameri- ca there is a strange plant, a species of club-moss, endowed with very remarkable properties. In the dry season, when every particle of moisture is extracted from the soil, it is detached from its grow- ing place, rolled up into a ball and carried away by the equinoctial gales, often to a very great distance. It remains rolled up in this form for a considerable time ; but if carried to a marsh or any other moist place, it begins slowly to unfold and spread itself out flatly on the soil, assumes its former vigour, takes root, develops its fructification, and casts abroad its seed npon the air. When this new situa- tion is dried up, it resumes its old unsettled habits, and like an adventurous pilgrim takes advantage of the wind to emigrate to a more favourable locality, t Here we see plainly purpose and design. Did the plant design itself, or was chance its architect ? * Vide Transactions Vic. Inst., Vol. 17, p. 89. f Bible Teachings in Nature, p. 215. i ' 1 i [ 11. m:, 25 In addition ditchers have cts the right hat the pur- to kill flies ? it was evolv- ice of atoms, if the mind to function it must be nature ; but 3uth Ameri- club-moss^ ies. In the moisture is ni its grow- ed away by It distance, onsiderable ther moist •read itself ler vigour, and casts new situa- led habits, vantage of ; locality, t Did the itect ? The wealth of illustration of purpose in the Ani- mal Kingdom is so great that it is hard to select one from it. One of the most striking, however, is the marsupial modification by means of which the mother is enabled to feed and carry her offspring with her in the long migrations necessitated by the scarcity of water. The greatest living authority on Comparative Anatomy, Professor Owen, says, t "The correlated modifications of maternal and foetal structures, designed with special reference to the peculiar conditions of both mother and off- spring, afford, as it seems to me, irrefragable evi- dence of creative foresight." I must now speak of some strange perversions of my argument when I spoke of the necessity of obey- ing laws of nature, and as a consequence abolishing all hospitals for the idiot and the insane, the blind and the dumb. What I meant and said was that if "survival of the fittest" be a law of nature, we should imitate and help nature, as we do in sickness by nurse-tending, and in gardening by pruning and weeding. On evolutionary principles, I hold that it is plainly intimated to us that if we desire the per- fection of our race, we ought to do artificially what Evolution does naturally, and let the unfit perish, — that is, allow all deformed and imperfect specimens of our race, and all tainted with the germs of heredi- + "When the helpless progeny is first presented to the nipple, it is utterly incapable of the muscular effort of sucking ; the mother is therefore fur- nished with a muscle which presses the nipple and causes the milk to flow. The act of swallowing, however, might not always take place at the same instant as the injection, and the throwing of the fluid into the wind-pipe might be fatal. This danger is provided for and obviated by an express contrivance : the air-passage is completely separated from the throat, and the milk passes down in a double straam on each side of the larynx into the stomach."— Gos-se's Zoology, Vol. I, p. 125. -i' 26 tary disease, to die ; because "the law of heredity is such that a microscopic portion of seemingly structureless matter contains such an influence, that the resulting being shall fifty years after become gouty or insane." Evolutionists do not like this logical deduction from their principles ; and so they justify the exist- ence of hospitals and asylums for those "smitten with cruel and hopeless maladies," — how think you ? Because, forsooth, if we let those so smitten perish, the world might lose a genius or two in a century ! Or, because it is well for us to have occasional examples of "fortitude and resignation" before our eyes, — as if "resignation" were not an utterly un- meaning word in the mouth of an Agnostic ! If we wait till such motives as these influence men to build and endow hospitals, we shall wait till dooms- day. Herbert Spencer says, "The uniform principle has been that better adaptation shall bring greater benefit ; which greater benefit, while increasing the prosperity of the betteradapted, shall increase also its ability to leave offspring inheriting more or less the the better adaptation." * I repeat therefore that on Evolution principles, if we could so manage it that those best fitted for their surroundings should survive, and that the members of our race should become more and more adapted to the conditions of life, we should be conferriiig the greatest boon on mankind ; and as the ancients tried to bring about this result by destroying all puny and superfluous * Data of Ethics, aec. 60. 27 infants, so all Positivists and worshippers of Humanity should do the same, so that eternal pro- gress should be the law. For in spite of all that has been said about Evolution not requiring this constant progress and improvement of our race, its funda- mental principles are, — that there has been pro- gression from the primitive protoplasm through type after type to the highest of all — man ; that no variation caused by nature ever became permanent unless for the good of the animal or plant ; that the same forces that were at work in ages past are now working in the same way as ever ; and that Man is destined to reach a higher type than his present one, unless we adopt the theory that Evolution, having reached Man and the Elephant, then stopped short, and quitted the stage of the Universe. To my contention that laws of Nature, if they be really such, should be listened to and obeyed, the following pleasantries are no answer. It is asked, "When a conflagration rages, do we obey and co-operate with Nature by adding fuel to the flames ? When pestilence is abroad, do we try to increase its deadly activity ? When we stumble, do we make a point of yielding to the law of gravitation and throwing ourselves headlong ?" These foolish ques- tions are based on the supposition t hat all laws of nature are positive, whereas some are negative. Some say, "Thou shalt" ; others, "Thou shalt not." Some command, others forbid. When our property is on fire, we do see a law of nature at work, — the law by which carbon and oxygen combine to form fire ; and the knowledge of this \^w forbids our call- 28 I ; ?i Mm I i ■• ing it into operation so as to burn our houses, and commands us to use it in cooking our food. Pestilence is not a law of nature, but the result of disobedience to laws of nature, especially sanitary laws, which we do well to obey. To throw ourselves headlong when we stumble is not to obey, but to disobey, the law of gravitation, which warns us against stumbling. Indeed it seems to me that Agnosticism itself is a resultant of disobedience to the laws of Nature. Thus when my mind meditates on itself, and on minds superior to itself, I am led on till I reach what seems to me the highest of human minds ; and then I find that highest describing itself as only a child gathering pebbles on the shore of the Ocear; of Truth ; and so I cannot help soaring to a recog- nition of mind above mind, till necessity compels me to take refuge in Infinite Mind. And this is not the playfulness of fancy or imagination. It is as much a part of my nature as my consciousness, my appetites, or my memory. Were I to resist the process by means of which I am drawn to re- cognize an Infinite Mind, I should be disobeying a law of my nature as much as if I resisted memory, or struggled against a belief in my own identity. I should ue brought to the awful standstill of intellec- tual confusion ; for I can no more help coming to recognize Infinity in connection with mind, than Infinity in connection with space or time. I cannot conceive a point beyond which there is no space or no time ; and yet we are gravely told that this law of Nature is as absurd as "one horse exceeding 29 another in size or strength leading to a behef in an infinite or supreme horse." Who but an Agnostic would think of reasoning from mind in the abstract to Si horse in the concrete ? Just as if intelligence and a horse were synonymous terms, and material size and strength constituted intelligence ! As- suredly, if the horse's mind were constituted as man's is, and he could see one equine intelligence exceeding another as man sees human intelligence, the horse would come to the same conclusion as man ; and all this means, if a horse were a man — not a very solid foundation on which to build an argument ! To sum up : Since we cannot imagine a mind arriving at that point beyond which there is none higher, we must come to the conception of Infinite Mind — God. And Agnostics partly admit this; for it is said, "If we see signs of an intelligence higher than the human, we have simply to acknowledge the fact." The great difference between us is that they do not see this Higher Intelligence in the Uni- verse, — we do. All my reviewer's dissertation on Intelligence is irrelevant, as he treats of it as a condition of mind, whereas I spoke of it as mind itself. If in each of the questions he asks concerning intelligence and its creator, the world, we substitute Mind and Matter respectively, the questions will show their own ab- surdity : — It is asked, "Does it follow, because the world by the variety of its appeals to consciousness creates intelligence, that intelligence must have created the world ? " which being interpreted ft . -f< ! I 1 1 11 i i 1 ! i ! I ( i 30 means, Does it follow that, because matter makes mind, mind makes matter? The question is there- fore a reductio ad absurdum. Again, we are asked, " Because the grindstone gives sharpness to the axe, does it follow that the sharpness of some greater axe made the grindstone ?" In this question, the presence of intelligence, or mind, is conveniently left out, and therefore is absurd, as not bearing on the subject under discussion. Suffice it to say, that if we could see an intelligent grindstone going about sharpening axes, we should argue that reason points to a higher mind to account for the existence and adaptation of both the grindstone and the axe. But we are told that ** we can recognize works of human intelligence because they stand out distinct from unorganized nature." We have something wherewith to contrast them, viz., "the raw ma- terials furnished by nature." In the case of the works of Infinite Intelligence, or Mind, we have nothing wherewith to contrast them ; they don't stand out distinct from unorganized nature. Now it is quite true that the works of Infinite Mind do not stand out distinct from unorganized nature, because there is no such thing in existence as un- organized nature. The very atoms are complex and manufactured. It is very true that we cannot con- trast the works of Infinite Mind with the raw ma- terial of which they are mide, because human science has not yet discovered the ultimate structure of atoms and molecules. But for all that, the works of Infinite Mind stand out in bold relief as contrasted one with another, whether they be revealed to us in 3X the telescopic or the microscopic universe. ** The sea is His, and He made it" ; and it stands out in as well defined contrast to the oxygen and hydrogen of which it is composed, as does a cathedral to the quarry. In neither case was raw material used, because both the gases and the stones were manu- factured articles. The great difference between the works of an In- finite and a finite mind is this (and it is urged as an objection), — that the works of the Infinite are uni- versal and unlimited ; those of the finite, partial and limited. That is to say, because the evidence of Infinite Mind is omnipresent, it is not present ; because it is everywhere, it is nowhere ; because we cannot point it out in particular, we cannot point it out at all ; and therefore its very universality com- pels us to deny its existence. The. Universe is so crowded with proofs of intelligence, like a multitude of rays bent to one focus, that therefore^ it is said, there is no proof of an universal Intelligence. We have but to state such reasoning in order to refute it. We are informed by Agnostics what are the terms or conditions on which they will admit the evidence of Infinite Mind. It is said, ''Give us the same means of affirming intelligence in the case of the eye, the ear, or the hand, that we have in the case of the watch ; show us first where a Power not elsewhere exemplified in the Universe steps in, and it sufficeth us." This is equivalent to saying, Show us a miracle, and it sufficeth us. This, it seems to me, can be shown. The bringing in or creating of new things, J 32 or a break in the continuity of nature, is our general notion of a miracle. Now it is a determinate fact of exact science, proved by the law of the dissipation of energy "as certainly as a mathematical demonstra- tion, that the present order and laws of nature,if left to themselves, must end in the entire Universe arriv- ing sooner or later in a state of death, — of absence of all motion, physical and vital." Professor Thompson has well pointed out that a process of degradation cannot be eternal. If we could view the Universe as a candle no' lit, then it is perhaps conceivable to regard it as being always in existence. But if we regard it, as we must, rather as a candle that has been lit, we become absolutely certain that it cannot have been burning from eternity, and that a time will come when it will cease to burn. * If it be thus certain that the Universe, if left to itself, must have an end, it is equally certain that it must have had a beginning. In other words, some- thing outside Nature and her laws has interfered in times past, and will again interfere in time to come, t Here, then, was a miracle, — "an instance of a Power not elsewhere exemplified in the Universe stepping in." There was a break in the continuity of nature when the visible Universe was produced from the invisible ; though, on Agnostic principles, it seems incongruous to use the words visible or invisible in relation to the Universe at its original production, because no earthly eye had as yet been evolved, and the Eye of GOD did not exist. ♦ Conservation of Energy.— Stewart, in MontreaL f Professor Haughtou's Sermon Haughton's Sermon 33 Again, there was a break in the continuity of nature when a power stepped in at the original pro- duction of life. That dead matter cannot produce a living organism is the universal experience of the most eminent physiologists. The law of Biogenesis, — that a living thing can only be produced from a living thing, — is regarded by Huxley and others * as the great principle underlying all the phenomena of organized existence. The introduction of original life on this planet is therefore another instance of "a Power not elsewhere exemplified in the Universe stepping in." Another illustration of the interference of this Power is found in the creation of vision ; for be it remembered that the fact of vision is quite a distinct thing from the mechanism of the eye, or the undula- tion of light. That man of common sense and real science too, the great John Hunter, saw that the eye did not make itself,nor man make it, nor his parents, nor any other man. Yet it was made by One Who understood the transmission, reflection, and refrac- tion of light ; how to make lenses of different powers, adjust them for clear perception of near or distant objects ; how to make and use most ingenious mechanical contrivances in order to turn the eye in every direction, and increase or diminish light ; how to place the eye so as to be of most service, protected from injury, moistened from time to time, and able to open and shut. Common sense is sure that Intelligence made the eye, t and Darwin con- fesses that to suppose the eye could have been formed * Unseen Universe, p. 229. t Supernatural in Natxire, p. 13. ii'i'i 34 by natural selection is absurd in the highest degree. X But whether the eye was created or evolved, the moment vision resulted from the joint action of the . mechanism of that organ and of the brain, under the influence of the undulation of light, a Power had stepped in as a Creator ; and again, according to Wallace and his school of Evolutionists, this Power stepped in once more at the original production of man. To draw to a conclusion, — I hope my hearers will not think that the topics I have brought before them are unsuited to this place or to this day. The Christian's Book is full of texts which my words are intended to enforce. " He that made the eye, shall He not see ?" "It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves." "Consider the lilies and the ravens." "The heavens declare the glory of God." " I will consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers ; the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained." These passages need enforcement from the pulpit. We should sing the Benedicite, not only with the spirit, but with the understanding also. I do not therefore apologize for calling attention to "the works of the Lord, praising and magnifying Him for ever." And let me add, before I conclude, that in a con- troversy with those that say, "There is no God,"— or, which comes to the same thing, that they do not ktiow whether there is a God or not, and that it does not matter, — Ihave nothing but the kindest I Originof Species, p. 156. 35 feelings towards involuntary Agnostics ; but it is hard to bear with blatant and aggressive ones. The issue is too serious in a moral, social, and political point of view ; for I agree with that robust intellect, Thomas Carlyle, who says, "The Agnostic doctrines are to all appearance like the finest flour from which you might expect the most excellent bread ; but when you come to feed upon it, you find it is powdered glass, and you have been eating the deadliest poison." But we have grounds for believing that the poison is finding its antidote. There are indi- cations that materialistic Evolutionists are about to modify, or reconstruct, their scientific guesses. The last utterance of the High Piiest of Agnosti- cism, Herbert Spencer, is a step in the right direc- tion. He says, "Amid the mysteries, which become the more mysterious the more they are thought about, there will remain the one absolute certain- ty, — that he is ever in the presence of One absolute and eternal Energy from which all things proceed." But surely Mr. Spencer cannot rest here. He can- not be satisfied, now that he has arrived at the conclusion that there is an Infinite, Absolute, and Eternal Energy, from which all things proceed, let loose in the Universe. He must go on to ask. Is this Energy without aim or direction ? Is it under control ? Is it beneficent, or maleficent ? Is it governed by wisdom, or by chance ? We know sortjething of the awfulness of the effects of finite energy, or force, in the volcano, the hurricane, and the lightning. But who can gauge the results of Infinite Energy without aim or control ? 36 The result of such questioning^s must be the answer, — that Infinite Energy is guided by Infinite Wisdom, and Infinite Goodness ; and so we reach the First Article of the Christian Creed by means purely scientific, and we "believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth." [■•V- ."i'"/ British Whig Steam Presses, Kiiigstou. ^