Many of his readers interpret Tyndall to be a confirmed agnostic, though he never explicitly declared himself to be so. The following statement from Tyndall is an example of Tyndall's agnostic mindset, made in 1867, and reiterated in 1878: "The phenomena of matter and force come within our intellectual range... but behind, and above, and around us the real mystery of the universe lies unsolved, and, as far as we are concerned, is incapable of solution... Let us lower our heads, and acknowledge our ignorance, priest and philosopher, one and all."