Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
i%M
THE
FOUNDATIONS OF BELIEF
BEING
STUDY OF THEOLOGY
THE
FOUNDATIONS OF
BEING
BELIEF
STUDY OF THEOLOGY
BY THE
ETC.
SIXTH EDITION
CO.
NEW
\l
//-2 11
CONTENTS
PAGE
PRELIMINARY
PART
CHAPTER
I
II.
III.
IV.
PART
II
The Philosophic
Basis of Naturalism
...
89
137
II.
III.
156
175
IV.
CONTENTS
PART
:hapter
I.
III
Causes of Experience
185
II.
194
PART IV
suggestions towards a provisional philosophy
I.
The Groundwork
Beliefs and Formulas
Beliefs, Formulas,
233
251
. . .
.
II.
III.
and Realities
263
IV.
280
V.
VI.
290
321
NOTE
Part
Part
II.,
Chapter
II.,
peared in 1893
I.,
in the
I.,
Chapter
Cambridge
in the
spring of
the
an d
subsequently
appeared
in
July
number
Though
volume.
'
The
references
to
'
Philosophic
are to the
now
;
but
new
edition,
num-
who have read through the proof-sheets of these Notes and made suggestions upon them. This
somewhat ungrateful labour was undertaken by my
friends, the
viii
NOTE
James Robertson, and
brother, Mr. G.
last,
but very
from
least,
my
W.
Balfour, M.P.,
and
my
brother-in-law, Professor
are, of course, in
herein
am
the
more beholden
to
them
A.
Whittingehame, September
1894.
J.
B.
PRELIMINARY
As
its title
is
intended
to serve as
an Introduction
'
to the
Study of Theology.
is
The word
and
in
Introduction,' however,
ambiguous
little
may be
it
as
disap-
in
which
here use
must be
first
Sometimes, by an Introduction
to
meant a
brief survey of
its
leading prinits
first initiation,
as
it
were, into
methods
and
of
results.
For such a
I
task,
however,
in the case
Theology
have no
qualifications.
With the
its
To
the Patristic,
add knowledge
at first
his-
torical, antiquarian,
and
problems presented
New
He
must have a
acquaintance with
B
PRELIMINARY
;
and
in addi-
the
results
of
critical
and
Whether any
single individual
is
fully
compedo not
know.
But
in
any case
am
very
far
indeed from
being even
among
number
who
way
of
profitably cultivating
some portion of
of research.
this vast
and
always increasing
field
The
following
stance of Theology at
all.
'
They are in
introduction
'
the narrowest
to
;
it.
They
it
and
is
which
it is
way
fitly
of
de-
Theology,'
beyond
won.
frontiers.
It is
lost or
PRELIMINARY
The judgments we
mode
shall
form upon
for us
;
its
special
by our general
this again, in
all,
and
so far as
is
determined by arguments at
is
My
way
I
object, then,
is
to
recommend a
particular
of
looking
like
it
at
the
World-problems which,
whether we
wish,
if
I
or not,
we
up
to a point of
Infinite
to obtain a glimpse,
may
their
true
relative
'
proportions.
'
This
is,
therefore,
no work of
Apologetics
in the
Theological doctrines
up
in turn
nor
is
made
'
doubts
as
in
'
or allay the
diffi-
which
in
this,
every
other,
age
number of
religious
Yet, as
in that character
manner
belief,
I
of
considering
the
wider
problems of
here said
the
work of the
may
indirectly
be furthered.
'
4
It
is
PRELIMINARY
a natural,
if
consequence of
in the
more
secular
at first
than the
suggest,
of the
meagreness.
If the
tempted
some
hope he
to
If
will
'
particular
this
way
of looking
at the
World-problems
is
'
which
book
is
intended
to
recommend
tion of
shall
be open to his
I
criticism
What
fco
have
tried to
do
is
of
if
recommend, a
in
and
hope that
I
ambitious
scheme
fluous
If
I
have put
left
and
it
be asked,
For whom
is
this
book intended
answer, that
it is
do
not, of course,
mean
that
to avoid
PRELIMINARY
Philosophy
is is
assumed
any
in the reader,
nor
do
train of
it
thought here
suggested which,
will
he thinks
have the
He
may,
and very
stance of
shall
my
arguments and
if,
their
But
be disappointed
in addition to their
other
deficiencies,
he
finds
them
unintelligible
or
even
obscure.
There
is
to
be explained before
may be
seen
the highest
relief, it is
system of thought.
What system
shall
that be
philosophies of
Kant and
his suc-
matters of such
(I know not whether they are) common knowledge that they fit-
by the aid of
systems
to
may be
mined.
As
whether
is
this state
if
it
anywhere exists,
But
in
I
desirable or not,
it
offer
no opinion.
am
never
are
1
throughout
rethought
by
Englishmen,
and
II.,
Chapter
These observations must not be taken as applying to Part II., which the general reaaer is recommended to omit.
PRELIMINARY
in a
reproduced
will
consent to assimilate.
is
now
the
of philosophical specialists.
There
is
in matters speculative, as in
which commentators
altogether to over-
Though,
the
therefore,
consideration
of Transcendental
as
is
am
in
much
less
and
is
in
profits
by
sustain, or
which
may be counted on
the
tide
from which
of Religion
has
receded.
all
Agnosticism,
scheme of thought
though
which
in
the
following
it is
term which
shall
commonly employ
For
its
is
Naturalism.
is
leading doctrines
'
PRELIMINARY
are that
7
1
More there may or may not be but if it exists we can never apprehend it and whatever the World may be in its reality (supposing such an
'
'
'
'
World
for us,
the
concerned,
cognisance,
or
is
of which
that
World with which alone we are alone we can have any World which is revealed to us
is
the subject-matter
we on
firm ground.
of the
word
'
Roughly speaking, things and events, the general is what I endeavour to indicate by a term for which, as thus used, there is, unfortunately, no substitute, however little the meaning which I give to it can be etymologically
it
could appear.
justified.
While
physics.
am
on the subject of
I
definitions,
it
may be
as well to say
and MetaI
To
Philosophy
regard
it
Thus, the philosophy of Religion or the philosophy of Science would mean the theoretic justification of our theological or scientific beliefs. By Metaphysics, on the other hand, I usually mean the knowledge that we have, or suppose ourselves to have, respecting realities which are not phenomenal, e.g. God, and the Soul.
PRELIMINARY
Here, and here only,
Knowledge.
may we
profit-
or gather
the fruits of
Wisdom.
Such,
in
rough
outline,
is
Naturalism.
My
first
consequences
in various
;
departments of human
this in the
and to
next four
PART
CHAPTER
The two
creed, theological
and
anti-theological,
seem
least
anxious to
differ,
which
it
should be
reverence
;
;
regarded.
that
it
worthy of
merely
all
ungrudging submission
obedience,
not
but love
these
all
are
common-
each other
right.
in proclaiming.
is
And
Morality
undone.
Were
it
we must change
old
ideals
The
of the
the very
sterilised,
and the
phrases in which
12
as
best
and noblest
in
'
human
best
'
life
'
and
them-
would become as
foolish
and unmeaning as
it
be,
is
surely
And
it
is
the
more remarkable
only as to
con-
the unanimity
prevails
and
is
to
to the strangeness
man who
man who
mystic,
well
at
believes
to
the
transcendentalist,
the
and
the
evolutionist,
to
should
be
pretty
one both as
to
teaching should be
regarded.
It
is
not
my
harmony
of opinion
among
various
schools
of
moralists
appears to
and not
their con-
clusions
to
their proofs.
desire
to
now
rather to
direct the
reader's
attention
certain
questions
13
philosophy
to the place
its
obedience of mankind.
am
many
but
that
the
validity
of
command
it
springs
and
and
am
not concerned
as
here to controvert
stated,
if
I
I
this
theory,
it.
though,
thus
It will
be
sufficient
lay
down two
propositions
(1)
of a
dubious character:
That,
practically,
inspire, in those
who
are
asked to obey
(2) that,
any code
to excite this or
any other elevated emotion cannot be wholly independent of the origin from which those
that code suppose
it
who
accept
to
emanate. 1
is
Now
indeed, of any
it
What
position does
occupy
1
in
the great
web
of interdependent pheno-
These are statements, it will be noted, not relating to ethics They have nothing to do either with the contents of the moral law or with its validity and if we are to class them as belonging to any special department of knowledge at all, it is to psyproper.
;
in strictness
be assigned.
mena by which
life
is
hypothesis constituted
'
is
on
this
plain.
As
frac-
universe
as feeling
is
an attribute of only a
and the
but an
are
;
in
They
among
no
accommodation
were they to vanish to-morrow, the great machine would move on with no noticeable variation the
;
sum
change.
chiefest
beliefs
among
between
tribes
and
But put
it
at
the highest,
we can
would be a great diminution of human happiness, that civilisation would become difficult or impossible,
and that the
disappear.
'
higher
'
succumb and
higher
'
These
ever
'
races themselves
trifling to
may seem
But
let
it
be
the
many
On
15
are maintained
and perpetuated
;
in the race
never consulted
for the
we we
is
are
are
in
most part
and no one
to consider
But
in
required,
it
is
and morality
and
it is
hard to
see,
on the
naturalistic hypothesis,
is
the others,
why
above pleasure.
It
with which
we choose
to regard
any
set of actions or
;
that
no disputing about
this
the persons
who
of
man and
to
no doubt,
diffi-
but
it
am
kind referred to
may
entertained by persons of
or theological opinion.
shades of philosophical
point
is,
My
TJNI'V
16
the intellect
the
is
saturated with
more
to languish or to die. to
be no ground,
logical or psychological,
the race
is
benefited
we bound
to
all
evolved for
but
we can
and
sacrifice are
Nature
actions.
ing,
performance of
altruistic
The working
ant expends
its life in
labour-
not
own, and, so
doubtless
it
cerned,
does
well.
Instinct,
the_jn-
developed consciousness of
its final
goal,
is
here the
But
in
more
methods have
in
be employed.
Does
conscience,
an
It is
set
by Darwin
is
teleological.
17
Does
deed?
Do
however
which
is
vainly,
Does
noble,
?
that
noble
is
even the
least
noble
'
and
'
base
'
a meaning for us at
If so,
in the
it is
deeds themselves.
It is
it
is
because
man
comes
into
the
world
richly
inheritance of self-regarding
any inbred
it is
because in no other
way can
the original
utility,
commends
it
disinterested
all
by decking
out in
the
Could we imagine
reversed
if
and thereorganism
c
;
fore
in the ancestral
18
while selfishness,
and
lust
we should
crystallise
find the
'
elevated
first
'
emotions which
now
the
round the
without alteration or
amendment
second
excessive
indulgence
in
'
deeds
of
'
self-
worker
ant,
we
should be driven by inherited instinct, and in exhorting us to the performance of actions and the
cultivation of habits
nately, find
it
only too
all
Kant, as
to
It
we
Law
the starry heavens, and found them both sublime. would, on the naturalistic hypothesis, be more
it
appropriate to compare
on the
beetle's back,
and
to find
But how on
retain
its
'beauty of holiness
to
lustre in the
its
much
kind
of
pedigree
even
in
instructed
mankind
preserve uninjured
learned
their
sentiments
have
but
if,
and
beliefs are
merely samples of
of
many
them mean
19
by the shaping
and
elimination, assuredly
much
ethical senti-
ment and
theory
will
remain intrusive
to those
who endeavour
of Ethics. 1
to
combine
in
Unfortunately for
my
reader,
it
is
not possible
Free Will
but
my
be.
remarks
I
will
be
brief,
and as
little
tedious as
may
It
may perhaps be
assumed
fidently
thought that in this section I have too conmore strictly, the moral sentiments
(including
among
due to the working of natural selection. I have no desire to dogmatise on a subject on which it is the business of the biologist and anthropologist to pronounce. But it seems difficult to believe that natural selection should not have had the most important share in producing and making permanent things so obviously useful. If the reader prefers to take the opposite view, and to regard moral sentiments as accidental,' he may do so, without on that account being obliged to differ from my general argument. He will then, of
ethical imperatives), are
'
course, class moral sentiments with the aesthetic emotions dealt with
in the next chapter.
Of course I make no attempt to trace the causes of the variations on which selective action has worked, nor to distinguish between the moral sentiments, an inclination to or an aptitude for which has been bred into the physical organism of man or some races of men, and those which have been wrought only into the social organism of the
family, the tribe, or the State.
C2
20
sufficient to
naturalistic
those
who
was
implicitly
dis-
and energy
The
ineviteither,
individual, while
under the
pursue
at liberty to
and that
it
and
elect to
we must
with
regard as a singular
venture
some
that the
phenomenon
is
due
to the
same cause
as so
many
To
an animal with no
would evidently
unmeaning.
be unnecessary,
if
But as soon as self-consciousness is developed, as soon as man begins to reflect, however crudely and
imperfectly,
1
in
which he
At
least,
seems
to
me.
There
are,
however, eminent
psychologists
who
differ.
21
re-
sponsibility
become wheels
in the
ordinary machinery
;
by which species-preserving actions are produced and as these pyschological states would be weakened
or neutralised
if
were as
rigidly detereffects
mined by
their antecedents as
any other
by
any other causes, benevolent Nature steps in, and by a process of selective slaughter makes the consciousness
in
The
spectacle of
mankind
suffering
under the
free,
they are
when,
must
any
possible to conceive, on
that
hypothesis,
such
observers
should exist
and the comedy could not be otherwise than greatly relieved and heightened by the performances of the small sect of philosophers who,
knowing
is
an absurdity, yet
fall
moments
of balance
if
and
deliberation
they were
savages or
idealists.
The
lie
must
deep
and must,
beginning
to
of self-consciousness,
have been
essential
it.
the
it
Yet
dawn
22
notoriously of late
primitive
invariable sequences'
he and
his proceedings
mined by
is,
and
stones.
It
But
it
some shape or
must be
implicitly present
and
it
will
would
to
his
more
cultivated
descendant, and
would be not
less
productive
I
of that
moral im-
poverishment which, as
out,
1
Determinism
It
is
calculated to produce. 1
seems
to
attribution of
first
human
be regarded as quite simple and natural that this spontaneity to inanimate objects should be the
stage in the interpretation of the external world, and that it should be only after the uniformity of material Nature had been conclusively established by long and laborious experience that the same But, principles were applied to the inner experience of man himself. in truth, unless man in the very earliest stages of his development had believed himself to be free, precisely the opposite order of discovery
of external of lan-
is
rather a stretch
theory of uniformity is in accordance with On the contrary, experience, much less that it is established by it. the more refined are our experiments, the more elaborate are our
guage
23
And
here
am
think, has
sometimes
I
upon
this subject.
admit
duty
prescribes,
is
or
the
'
Practical
recommends,
equally prescribed
and
recommended whether our actual decisions are or are not irrevocably bound by a causal chain which reaches
back
past.
in
limitless
It
may
also
No
do otherwise
but
more
difficult
it is
each other, qualitatively as well as quantitatively. So far, mere observation goes, Nature seems to be always aiming at a uniformity which she never quite succeeds in attaining and though it is no doubt true that the differences are due to errors in the observations and not to errors in Nature, this manifestly cannot be proved by the observations themselves, but only by a theory established independently of the observations, and by which these may be corrected and interpreted. But a man's own motives for acting in a particular way at a particular time are simple compared
therefore, as
;
with the complexities of the material world, and to himself at least might be known (one would suppose) with reasonable certainty.
Here, then (were it not for the inveterate illusion, old as selfconsciousness itself, that at the moment of choice no uniformity of
antecedents need insure a uniformity of consequences) would have been the natural starting-point and suggestion of a theory of causation
which,
as
have
gradually extended
would, in fact, have had nothing more to do than to apply to the chaotic complex of the macrocosm the principles of rigid and unchanging law by
Man
to
be governed.
24
none the
may
these
among
may,
I
ultimately produced.
think,
An
in
be properly made.
There
is
fatalistic
some
is
of the greatest
in
men
and
irreligious,
which the
only adds
sense that
that happens
fore-ordained does in
volition, but
It
courage.
nevertheless
pletely determined
by external and
(if
you go
far
responsibility
is
will.
Nor
feel
this
all.
It
may be
it
misconduct of other
should render
Self-condemnatrain
for
of
cognate
emotions,
are
really
it is
so
useful
the
promotion of
virtue, that
all
and reduced,
position
It is clear,
if
to the
of amiable
they are
to
fall,
will
alone.
What
is
to
become of
25
will,
indeed,
kind
the
admiration,
namely,
;
which
we
is
machine
but this
saintly
and
it
is,
therefore,
much
by the
to
be feared
that, at least in
sound
naturalistic doctrine.
No
their
doubt
this conflict
and
justification
is
in
beliefs
deliberately rejected,
greatly
mitigated by the
race enjoys
its
human
of
own
in
If the abstract
reason by which
are
contrived
always
ended
those
who possessed
accord
reason.
complete
between
and
speculation
were
been eliminated.
flict
thought to be
true,
felt
to
it
impossible for us to
such results
as
is,
somehow, unsuited
for
'
such beings
we
26
There
is
ments subservient
account of
their
and the
remains
naturalistic
to
inquire
prevails
between the
demands
of
the
ethical
imagination
the
and
what
oi
Naturalism
all
tells
us concerning
final
goal
human endeavour.
This
is
sidiary importance,
though
it
is
one which
shall
make no attempt
pleteness.
Two
thai
to be
adequate.
is
and that which requires them to b( Can we say that either one or the othei
is
able
t(
satisfy
The
first
of these questions
will
that
;
relating
t(
consistency
Those who
has
do, that
'
reason
able
self-love'
legitimate
position
it
amom
a virtu
calle<
ethical
ends
is
commonly
and that society suffers not from havini too much of it, but from having too little, wi. probably take the view that, until the world undei
27
'altruism,'
between
deeds
life
done
flow
and
the
character
formed
can
and there
which are
To
those, again,
who
the the
think,
erroneously),
both that
number
'
is
right
end of
action,
and
and a
hell,
which should
interest
make
it
certain
in
that
principle
and
were always
agreement,
otherwise,
Not
by education, public
opinion,
nor positive
to
do according
the other
On
'
hand,
it
must be acknowledged
'
who
is
altruistic
self-
to
eke out
28
mitigation
of the
difficulty
is
has
yet
been
provided by a system
in
any uni-
With
with the
the
that
this
connection
pass on to
:
more
interesting
is
which
by
Naturalistic Ethics.
I
And
will
system
at their highest
full
which charges
that,
were, to the
with
all
on the
Taking, then, as
scheme,
I
my
text
no narrow or
that
in
egoistic
will
suppose
the
perfection
find
and
felicity
of the sentient
creation
we may
it
prescribed by
this, then,
is
morality for
not,
human
endeavour.
all
?
Does
that
or does
to
supply us with
needed
it,
satisfy our
it
ethical imagination
Does
or does
not, pro-
enough
to satisfy
our aspirations
At
first
sight the
is
question
may seem
;
absurd.
The
object
admittedly worthy
it
is
admittedly
beyond our
reach.
The unwearied
efforts of count-
29
who
How,
at
then,
can
we,
tribution to
insignificant,
the great
result
must be
the
the best
nothing,
object
is
presume
less
think
that
prescribed
requirements
The
reason
is
plain
formances,
measure of our
in
thoughts
which we
man be
indeed, as Naturalism
would have us
believe,
among phenomena, a
natural objects.
among
other
For what
view
?
at
from
this point of
its
tribe
and
fortunes
The
gods'
peculiar
care,
the
central
object of an attendant
to
which the
its
drew
1
The line of thought here is identical with that which I pursued I an already published essay on the Religion of Humanity. have not hesitated to borrow the phraseology of that essay wherever
in
it
seemed convenient.
3o
an
in-
and triumph
in the future.
These ideas
stage in the
far behind.
represent
no early or rudimentary
human thought, yet have we left them The family^ the tribe, the nation^are
inter ests. to
Man
our de-
present,
votion.
What,
we say
itself is
of
him ?
Man, so
is
by
no longer the
final
descended heir of
is
the ages.
story
an accident,
his
life
a brief and
episode in the
planets.
Of
science,
indeed,
that
as
yet
knows
nothing.
enough
lords
from
such
nurses
of
the
future
of creation,
have
conscience
intelligence,
enough enough
to
to
feel
that that
it
it
is
vile,
and
of
know
is
insignificant.
We
its
history
is
blood and
of helpless
blundering, of wild
empty
aspirations.
We sound
but short
indeed compared with the divisions of time open to our investigation, the energies of our system will
decay, the glory of the sun will be dimmed, and the
31
and
inert, will
moment
solitude.
Man
will
will
go down
and
all
his thoughts
perish.
The uneasy
consciousness, which in
this
be at
rest.
Matter
will
'
know
and
itself
'
no longer.
Imperishable
death
itself,
monuments
immortal deeds,'
death, will
be as though
is
Nor
will
anything that
be better or be worse
devotion,
and
suffering of
man have
striven through
countless generations
It
is
to effect.
no reply
Moral
Law need
This
modification
universe.
of our
the
may be
but
it
is
irrelevant.
We
are
desire,
that
which
is
Abiding.
Of what moment
when
any
it
it
has
away within periods trifling beside those with which the geologist and the astronomer lightly deal in
the
course
of
their
habitual
in
speculations
No
doubt to us ordinary
men
may seem
and of
meaning.
32
day
death
itself
the
seems
shadowy
and
unreal
less
real,
remoter but
Yet, after
all,
it
is
that the
is
tested
it
It
of small
material
clearly
his
moment
we
we may
transitory
general
human
Everlasting
33
CHAPTER
II
now proceed
I
to
same question
as aesthetic
in
;
sentiments
known
and as
assumed
that
utilities,
selection, so
least in
now assume
It will not,
hope, be
supposed that
propose to offer
this distinction as a
This
is
;
a question
which
am
in
no way interested
and
am
accidents
this
class
may,
34
many emotions which no one common usage would characterise as The fact remains, however, that the
and elimination
the
last
and whereas
chapter
taking
to
propose
some
by the
Beautiful.
Whatever value these Notes may have will not necessarily be affected by any error that I may
have made
divisions,
in the
bution he thinks
I do not, however, anticipate that there will be any serious objection raised from the scientific side to the description of developed aesthetic emotion as
'accidental,' in
the sense
in
is
here employed.
in
The
obstacle
have
to deal with
is
of
different kind.
My
object
is
Beautiful
and
I I
am am
at once
aware,
ever
been attempted on
35
the
part
of scientific
that
certain
themselves.
To
say
the
natural
selection,
in
is
evolved
existence,
the
race
the
may be a
true,
but
a purely negative
little
help in
especially required
namely,
What
historical,
psychological,
to
enable
us
derive
aesthetic
from
?
some
and,
objects,
Is there
and forbid us
to derive
from others
in
we
perceive
aesthetic feelings
Now,
till
it is
clear that
on the
naturalistic hypothesis
some
sort of
to the first
the
first
seem so un-
that
think,
by
it
far the
most conno
very
venient of the
because,
unlike
serves
we
may be
function of music
in speech.
permitted to ignore Mr. Spencer's suggestion that the is to promote sympathy by improving our modulation
D?
36
and
utility
it
partly
because, unlike
reference,
Painting and
Poetry,
has no external
and we are
truth.
Of
the inestimable
in the
so
Great indeed
dealing
will
he
feel
the advantages to be of
with
an Art
whose
most
characteristic
utterances have so
utility or truth.
little
directly to
do either with
What,
It is
then,
is
have originated
in
the ancestors of
selection.
man through
is
of course
Sexual
in
selection
existence.
selection,
it
can
for
improve, but
cannot create
for
making
it
one
gift
or the other.
do not
in
is
any case
supposed
If the
quite understand
how
sexual selection
for enjoyment.
the
it
means
required for
its
but
how can
improve
37
The
good dancing.
Sexual
selection, therefore,
no doubt may
gradually improve
the
The may
females of
many
of
animals are,
noise.
Sexual selection
the
therefore gradually
furnish
male
noises
with
the
apparatus by which
In
appropriate
cases,
may
be produced.
is
both
the cause of
;
nor,
arts,
which do
when
those
who
in
successfully
the matri-
artist.
Of
would tend
to
develop
without
that
musical
feeling
and
discrimination,
is
which good
violin-playing
impossible.
sensibility
But a
before
;
grasshopper requires no
it
artistic
its
wing-cases together
to
so
that
Nature
is
only
concerned
provide
the
may
sibilation
gratifying
to
the
existing
aesthetic
sensibilities of
in
developing the
artistic side
it
may
38
light on
animals or men.
And
to
me much
better.
Take,
theory.
According
among
other
muscular exertions,
'
and extensions of
and vocal
from
cords.'
The
resultant
gave them
and
are
we
asked to believe,
music.
'
do not desire to quarrel with the My point is, that even if primordial coincidence.' it ever took place, it affords no explanation of any
I
Now
modern
that the
emotion produced a
'
contraction of the
series of sounds,
abdomen
and
that,
'
produced a
through
this
sound or
ultimately
came
to
have independent
aesthetic value,
how
us,
are
explanation of
now
please
the
How
does the
And how
the Ninth
Symphony.
39
all
difficulties
of the
problem.
If
it
is
left
art,
Of
course,
the art
is
experiences,
stantly
if
fresh
to
it
added
an
aesthetic har-
in that case,
with each
qualities
it is
new
development
its
pleasure-giving
may be
But then,
to these
new
experi-
we
these
?
found
Indeed,
new elements and experiences to be None can tell us few theorists even try. the procedure of those who account for
;
which
first in
the history of
man
in
or of his ancestors
noise,
its
is
conferred
aesthetic value
upon
as
if
one
Amazon
its
flood
by pointas the
Andes which,
of being called
its
source.
is
very
4o
the
flow on,
its
Only
titular
if
we would know
the
Amazon
tions of
in its beginnings,
mode of procedure will we compare it with that adopted by the same school of theorists when they endeavour I do not mean to explain the beauty of landscape.
imperfection of this
clear
if
The
become
to express
any assent
accounts seem to
able,
me
untenable.
Natural objects
hills,
are
no ob-
vious absurdity
the
hereditary transmission of
But according to
is
is
all
association
theories of
we wish
to
have
explained, but
or at best the
41
ordinary
speech, and
no
solution whatever
analogous
his
accepting any theory which involves the transmission of acquired qualities, that
Weismann
is
gives an
account of
practically
we
is
possible at
all.
which enable us
for
to appreciate
entirely differ-
is
when
we
obtain
aesthetic
gratification.
inventing
new
tinually inventing
new
dishes.
human
palate,
the
former implies
musical
progress,
but
no
change
genera-
tions of listeners. 1
1
these deal chiefly with the physical character of the sounds, or combinations of sound, which give us pleasure, but do not pretend fully to
why
42
This
is,
to
show how
difficult
it is
to find in
common body
both
should imagine,
I
however,
from
have just
briefly adI
am
ac-
who
an
is
at all in
sympathy
essential
anywhere
exists
intrinsic
and
The very
nature, indeed,
For Naturalism
any external and permanent object of beauty. (as commonly held) is deeply comthe former (exten-
and so
forth)
upon the sentient organism, and apart from the senEvery tient organism have no independent being.
scene in Nature, therefore, and every work of
art,
whose beauty
in sound, has,
exist-
43
and
in the
If
we
are
not
metaphysically
speaking) in
guess, have
If
we can
no
aesthetic merit,
or even meaning.
we
could
it
perform the
would end
in
The
first
would be no
;
more than a
of the
special
agitation
of the ether
the
excite the
Beautiful,
although
permanent
for all
human
rela-
purposes, inasmuch as
tions
it
roundings.
this, let
Without
us consider whether
this
we have any
'
right to
'
degree of
objectivity
can
In order to
naturalistic
the
question
appeal,
we
it
can,
on the
seem,
to
hypothesis,
authority,
would
only one
namely,
the
experience
of
mankind.
Does
this, then,
44
beauty
flux
for a miscellaneous
of
varying causes,
possessing
no
some
time,
and
in
some
shown
we choose
to describe as aesthetic
Put thus there seems room for but one answer. The variations of opinion on the subject of beauty
are
notorious.
Discordant
races,
pronouncements
ages,
are
made by
different
different
different
individuals, the
same
Nor does
this
it
seem
scheme by
An
appeal, indeed,
is
sometimes made
trained sensibility
'
and
no doubt
that, as
a matter of
fact,
through
who
may seem we
are
some
faint
approximation to the
in
objective
'
standard of which
search.
Yet
it is
it
will
be
evident
'
on
consideration that
sensibility'
trained
their
that
experts
forming
opinion.
The
ordinary
critical
estimate of a
work
of art
is
antecedents, and by no
means
consists in a simple
'aesthetic thrill'
in the critic,
which
work produces
so, clearly it
now and
were
45
work of
the
art
was produced.
authorship
of
would be
left
historian,
beautiful would, as
but this
affected
How
by
my aesthetic
picture,
sensibilities
this statue,
poem,
as
it
is
in
itself? or (to
to metaphysical disputation),
What would my
its
feelings
its
towards
its
it
be
if
were
totally ignorant of
date,
?
author,
production
As we
in
practice
He
is
pre-
beyond the mere valuation of the outstanding amount of aesthetic enjoyment which, in
of questions the year 1892, any artistic or literary work, taken
simpliciter,
is,
ducing.
He
to
its
technical
its
peculiarities.
He
anxious to do justice to
his his
'
author,
assign
him
true
rank
among
country,
the
to
productive geniuses of
age and
for his
one
in another.
Never
for
one instant
perspective.
Never does
he omit,
in
46
may exist concerning them. He endeavours to make himself the exponent of the 'correct view.' His
judgment
I
is,
compromise between
his
that
own
him by the accumulated wisdom of his predeHe expounds case-made law. cessors on the bench. and partly the creator of a creature He is partly the
for
critical tradition
;
and we can
easily conjecture
how
by the
we watch
the
disastrous
which so often
overtakes him
no estimate
it
embodied
in
any
literary creed
which he thinks
necessary to respect.
speare does not
Voltaire's opinion of
Shakeit
make one
decisions
taste.
From
critical
if
be supplemented,
promise.
them, so far as
such a thing
fact that
to
be found,
is
with their
own
eyes they
see the
;
same
is
things,
it
not
47
it
common
experience
arises in
have seen,
to feel as others
have
felt,
judge as
is,
suppose
others have judged. This may be, and I the fairest way of comparing the merits
But, at the
of deceased artists.
it
same
time,
it
makes
to the
much weight
so
far
as
it
exists,
consensus
of
the
ages,
works of creative genius, is not only in part due to the process of critical manufacture indicated above,
but
its
whole scope
in the
and magnitude
not a question, be
is
absurdly
exaggerated
the subject.
This
observed,
good
taste or
bad
it is
a question of
statistics.
We are
not here
feel,
and
art
I
the past.
And
server
will
admit
of
the
aesthetic
emotion
actually experienced
fraction
is
due
to the
immortal
'
productions of the
it.
generations
Their
immortality
and museums
critics
and
48
and
were
to
most exquisite
decade,
refuted.
I
compositions
not
of
Palestrina
in
know
how
The
departed
ancient
Norsemen supposed
that besides
though
labours.
the
scenes of
his
earthly-
At
first
lifelike, it
it
slowly
waned and
faded,
it
at
length
vanished,
its
leaving behind
no trace or memory of
the immortality
artists.
life
spectral
So,
seems
but
to me,
is
we
glibly preall,
dicate of departed
it
If
they survive at
live,
is
shadowy
they
moving on
They
the pleasures,
become
first
He who
them must
in
would
still
hold
train himself to
ever-thickening folds,
;
he must
move
in a
he must think
49
Need
outfit
as
off
much
intellectual as emotional,
or that
from
'
we
is
due to
graphy, with
modicum
as a rule,
in
I
the vulgar
'
learned.
taste
'
'
public
and
revolutions
may
suffice to convince
And,
'
why every
?
'
public
has a taste
And
is
why,
at least in
Western communities,
that taste
so apt
to alter
Why,
in other
words, do communities or
so
sections
of communities
often
feel
the
same
thing at the
same
time,
and so often
?
feel
different
Why
is
there so
?
much
and why
is
there so
much change
These questions are of great interest, although they have not, perhaps, met with all the attention In these Notes it would not be they deserve.
fitting
to
length,
and
points
'
50
The
question of Uniformity
is
best approached at
its
narrower and
is
loftier sense,
but
with dress.
observation
Everybody
or
acquainted,
either
by
is
menon
it
presents.
persons belonging, or
'
same
public,' if
they wear
bonnets at
type.
all,
Why
do they do
If
we were asking a
People tend
for
same date
to use the
the
same kind
invented.
best
'
of purpose
is
the best
better
available.
They change
their practice
when a
'
one
is
'
better
dress.
and
have no application
modern
will at
once be
or
of choice
the
again,
great phase of
we were asking the question about some art, we should probably be told that
was due
to
on
artist
and on
public.
;
Such
51
not produced
by them
there
is
alone, since
it
will
the social
of
environment,
fashion
itself,
operation
Again,
tial
we might be
principles of self-development,
shall be.
true.
This also
may
be,
and
is,
in
a certain sense,
But
it
we can
explain
were foredoomed
that,
in the
Such a doctrine
if all
would be equivalent
of each
other's
to saying that
the bonnet-
other things
re-
towards much
the
same modification
of the
be
confess, to
somewhat improbable.
It
may perhaps be
indeed a
fact,
52
and
really
which we denominate
but
that
it
is
and has no
whatever.
real
relation to
is
I
any
aesthetic
problem
This
can be supplied,
me
quite unambiguous.
If,
as
is
possible,
in
my
readers
such
matters themselves,
experiif
I
They
will find,
about,
who conform
coercion
They do
for a
'
willing obedience.
On
at
least as
genuine an
aesthetic
are in the
;
aesthetic
dislike.
They
reader of discrimination
false pathos.
11
repelled
by
turgidity or
by personal or
critics
society
'
considera-
were
tion of
some pretender
in the region of
Great Art.
is
only
53
in other
activity.
Its operation,
bene-
on the whole,
life.
may be
traced through
to
it
social
and
political
We
owe
in part
and
in
units
of a
community would be
and
we
It is
no contemp-
tible factor
among
life
its
to sects
results
and
coteries.
Sometimes,
no
doubt,
are
ludicrous.
Under which
of these heads
we
should
I
class
will
me
to determine.
It is sufficient for
my
likings
trivial,
are
in
perfectly genuine
kind,
and that
to
an origin similar
however
different in dignity
and permanence,
should be traced
much
which gives
its
IV
It
is,
1
ment,'
1
cannot
'
itself
determine
Of course
tendency to agreement
is
54
to
take place.
It
'
can do
public
'
much
to
of a particular
like the
;
or the
same
epic, at the
same time
cannot deteris
'
to be.
set,'
r
and the
persons
then,
who
set
it
it.
What,
do they follow
We
move
the flock. What moves the bell-wether ? Here again much might conveniently be learnt
its
changes, for
we
we may
dissect our
befits
with
the
cold
impartiality
which
scientific investigation.
The
reader, however,
may
method
the
and
shall
analysis
of the
is,
attempted, or
it
my
purpose.
will
be convenient,
and the
promote
aesthetic change.
reader as a simple, undecomposable social force. It is, doubtless, highly complex, one of its most important elements being, I suppose,
the instinct of uncritical imitation, which is the very basis of all effecThe line of thought hinted at in this paragraph is tive education.
pursued
much
Essay
NATURALISM AND ESTHETIC
weary and expectant
55
weary of what
Yet
I
is
provided for
hardly be denied.
demand
for a
often
thing, they
;
new kind
though
of thing
and accordingly
commonly,
not
invariably,
it
happens
that,
when
the
new thing
few,
appears,
is
welcomed
at first
by the
and otherwise
the many.
conquers
by a
The
his
artist,
is
moved
in
no
small measure
work should be
own
language.
He
for
will
if
he can,
will
yet, rather
than
;
be conscious of repetition, he
in form,
unless he
to
be
in his
own
an imitator
It
not an
artist,
but a copyist. 1
I
will
be observed that
dividing-line
;
am
not obliged to
originality
draw
the
between
and
is
plagiarism
to distinguish
between the
of a
man who
It
master.
is
artist
No
doubt
it
is
an echo of
makes purchasers
commonly
justify.
prefer a
bad
in
a preference which
argument
it
56
and
the
We
These
relation
believe to be
determined
artists
in
part
by the
for
between the
in
whom
part
change occurs.
As
regards the
commonly
to
is
sometimes thought
be a
the
momentous
ever,
is
contribution
made by
science
to
age
is,
would be more
as destructive
accurate,
imagine, to describe
;
than as creative
select.
'
it
does not so
much produce
developing,
its
as
It
is
true,
'
the environment
moulding,
and
original
may
seem, especially in
all-
is
not the
incalculable product of
two
dencies
accidents
to crush out
and
Its
action
is
57
it.
upon
Some
some
is
languish,
some
die
vegetation
kinds
of seed
parallel
too
far,
it
may
from
yet
window
the
character
of a
to pass
and
significance
absorption
large portion
of the
rays which
is
endeavour
through
it,
so an age
fosters,
what
it is,
it
but as much,
it
destroys.
We may conunknown
from the
total
but wholly
number of men
generation, those
whose
gifts are in
those
whose
gifts are
or,
extinguished,
will
which
produce only
ceeding generations
termediate position
while those
will,
who occupy an
in-
powers
will,
short of what,
Here,
then,
we have
on
a tendency to change
on
originality,
and
limitation
change
imposed
by
the
The
kind
change
will
UNIVERSITY J
58
practising.
If
it
be
in
an early phase,
bilities,
as yet of
undeveloped possi-
then in
self
predecessors,
without
the lines
down.
here
is
For
this
is
no public
taste to
great experiments to
be
But
if
this particular
its
culminated, and be in
the artist feels
decline
if,
that
is
to say,
difficulty in express-
either
;
originality
is
perforce
style
is
sought
for
;
in
exaggeration
or
is
new
invented
field is
or artistic
creation
Which
I
of these
depends,
If,
think,
still
taste.
as has frequently
memory
the big
the
little
public
whom
are
inevitable.
But
if
circumstances
;
movement being
by the
artist
who
59
harmony with
his powers,
and partly
to the
artistic
talent
of the
community.
Even, however,
those
periods
it
when
the
movement
to
of art
is
most
striking,
is
dangerous
assume
this
than
in
any other
art
whatever.
In music,
the
artist's desire
has been
instruments.
From
musical
became musical commonplaces to the generations that followed after. Yet, what has been the net
gain
?
Read through
the
long catena of
(if
critical
judgments, from
Plato,
Wagner back
you please)
its
to
own
per-
is
to us.
It
60
moved them
differently
lost their
;
move them
us have
as at best
for
we regard
which music
shows
to her worshippers.
is
Surely there
tolerably well
The known
that
many hundreds
of years.
During
period
Poetry and
Sculpture and
Painting have
;
been subject
there
;
new
nations and
But
of of the
it
is
not
are
commonly supposed that at the end much better off than the Greeks
artist,
it all
we
age of
mand.
period,
not,
aggerate
position
it.
Yet, through
all this
art as
compared with
is
at the present
moment.
teenth, teenth.
It
was as great
then, can
in the nine-
How,
we
resist
the conclusion
61
to the felicity of
mankind
unless, indeed,
it
maintained by
not,
far
towards
theory
Yet, on
that of which
we
of aesthetics in
harmony with
some importIt
ance
is
will,
think,
long to dwell
else they
among permanent relations,' wherever may find them, will at least not find them in
Such permanent
unchang-
ing framework
the various
matter which
it
make up
stirs
but
is
Nature or
else
in
should
we
equivalents,
less
and
nothing would
seem
to
us of
aesthetic
significance
than a symphony or a
is
love-song.
object as
That which
beautiful
is
not
the
we know
it
to
be
62
but
the object as
we
last
it
know
it
not to be
or of sound.
Nor can
beauty be supposed to
senses,
we
live.
limits
narrow,
scientific
there seemed
is
to
that there
in
which
ful
all
human
any beauti-
objects which
are
moved
to admire,
any
aesthetic
judgments which
The
divergence between
is
As
our aesthetic
natural
due
to
natural
selection,
selection
will
have
no
tendency to
keep them
differ,
as
have
said,
beliefs.
community
those
who
But there
is,
fortunately,
no
punishment
annexed
to
bad
taste
and
63
times
or
different
conto
sideration
showed
that
this
causes which
The agreement,
far as
it
for
example, between
critics, in
so
exists, is to
in
ment
eat
relish.
in
themselves or in anybody
cedure, necessary though
tive estimate of the
it
may
worth of individual
1
unduly
changes by which
And when we
aesthetic
the
;
likes
and
dislikes
of
men and
we
find
women
in vast
when we
by any permanent
determining cause
aesthetic
is
bond
at
all.
Their true
to
be sought
in fashion, in that
'Arbitrary,'
i.e.
of objective beauty.
64
causes
which
all
produce the
and
of schools, and
we
perceive
is
more room
where
to
beautiful.
for
the
belief
that
there
somein
the
There
is
constitute stages in
On
movement
is,
quest after
in
its
course by incalculable
many
in a
times and in
many
places
it
mood
of barren acquiescence
the
repetition of
artistic
Nirvana of
imagi-
and without
theory
pain.
And
beautiful
yet
the
persistent
endeavours of
is
aesthetic
show
that
the
in
the general
else,
scheme of
things,
if
may
mankind
will not
65
to the
compel them
haps,
in
We
full
feel
no
difficulty, per-
admitting the
consequences of that
scale,
in
We
may
tolerate
it
even when
it
of technical excellence, or sympathy with the craftsskill. But when we look back on those too moments when feelings stirred in us by some beautiful object not only seem wholly to absorb us,
man's
rare
enumeration of psychological
effects.
and physiological
composer only
deals
in
causes and
We
cannot
willingly assent to a
differ
in that
he
a
more complicated
associations,
moves
in
wider
ings
circle of
feellittle,
However
to accept
therefore,
ticular
we may be prepared
any par-
scheme of metaphysical
aesthetics
and most
of these appear to
believe that
me
to
be very absurd
for
somewhere and
in
Nature and
Art we
see,
own
tions,
whose
different
aspects
we cannot now
F
66
ordinate,
fully
comprehend
No
and experiit
it
us
nor can
be forced
into
any
Naturalistic
67
CHAPTER
I
III
Among
cation
those
the
who
naturalistic
some who
find a
rationality of
Nature
reason,
human reason, is Nature's final product. is not made by Reason, Reason is at all
by the world
;
If the
world
events
made
causes and effects has at least resulted in a consciousness wherein that interaction
may be
reflected
and understood.
is
This
is
not Teleology.
Indeed,
it
in
Design.
But
in the
own
doctrines,
it
appears
fuller satisfaction,
inasmuch
scheme of
and
is
some
sort to ennoble
ignoble progenitors.
which
is
naturalistic
scheme,
great
F 2
68
interest, to
a later
In
other aspects
moment's consideration.
From
there
is
the
no
imagine,
to
be drawn
any-
moted.
bility at
From
irrita-
to
the reasoning
everything, without
desire, volition
directly,
exception
has
sensation,
for the
instinct,
in-
most part
on
Convenience, not
which
this
'
It
was not
for
in
universe that
we
are
endowed with
it
reason.
is
Under
these
circumstances
not surprising
are but
which
is
evolutionary
intellect,
The inadequacy
of
our
it is
capable of asking
1
acknowledged
iii.,
(at least in
ch.
xiii.
words)
69
and by students of
Yet,
the
with
we have no
we
all.
am
the limitations
possess,
number of senses which conceivably we might possess, There are sounds which the ear cannot but do not.
hear, there are sights
But
besides
all
we have no knowledge
of
Had
Voltaire
his
Micromegas so much
dis-
For
out,
not with the object of extending knowledge or satisfying curiosity, but solely with that of promoting
life,
earth,
between
limits
of
temperature and
pressure
so
approximately adequate
to
the
is
apprehension
of
Nature
in all
her complexities,
to believe in a co-
70
incidence
entangled
For
forces
it
which tend
which
interest
indif-
she quite
ferent to the
existence of faculties
perhaps, be attained.
as
mere
run
directly to create
any
purpose,
she
when
their practical
for
and the
instinct of the
Those, then,
who
environments there
is
must hold,
be
in the second
by
in
71
developed
and
in
the
it
seem
to
1
me
It is
improbable,
impossible,
the
first
two of them
incredible.
must be
It
may
specifically affected
perhaps be said that it is not necessary that we should be by each particular kind of energy in order either
its
character.
It is
enough
should be some which are cognisable by our actual senses, that it should modify in some way the world we know, that it should intervene perceptibly in that part of the general system This to which our organism happens to be immediately connected.
that
its effects
among
no doubt true, and our knowledge of electricity and magnetism (among other things) is there to prove it. But let it be noted how slender and how accidental was the clue which led us to the first beginnings, from which all our knowledge of these great phenomena is derived. Directly they can hardly be said to be in relation with
is
our organs of perception at all (notwithstanding the fact that light is as an electro-magnetic phenomenon) and their i?idirect relation with them is so slight that probably no amount of mere observation could, in the absence of experiment, have given us a notion of They were not sought for to fill a their magnitude or importance. gap whose existence had been demonstrated by calculation. Their
now regarded
discovery was no inevitable step in the onward march of scientific knowledge. They were stumbled upon by accident and few would
;
if,
human
race had
72
even
our dreams.
We
feeling our
way about
this
illimit-
compassed by we know not what a little better endowed with the machinery of sensation than the protozoon, yet poorly provided indeed as compared
;
with a being,
if
It is true,
hierarchy
of a great the con-
not the
final result
and crown of
said,
things.
On
as
have
among
these,
People sometimes
difficult
talk, indeed, as if
it
was the
But
tenance of
that
was performed by
intellect.
The management
it
possible for us to be
fact, it is
is
and as a matter of
only
per-
all
73
is
imagines that
it
The
best
way
is,
hypothesis
as an instrument
which
is
instinct
alone
is
Instinct
incompar-
less friction,
with far
But
it is
not adapt-
Many
generations and
it
required to breed
into a race.
may be
to note,
and though, as
permitted
it
are
exceedingly narrow,
those limits
is
mind
fully
is
to create habits
it is
formed,
itself
supplanted.
conscious
adaptation of
in
means
to
first
would be
frittered
away
in
frac-
of that which
at
all.
deliberation
without any
of habits
is,
out,
a necessary
74
for
it,
and
it
and
intelligence free to
do work
But while
habits
is
it
it
is
ment,
step in
would
also
seem
if
that
it
constitutes the
first
a process which,
end
self,
in the destruction,
not of consciousness
it-
All these,
as
in
we may
suppose, will
superseded
of
human
activity
by the growth of
instincts or
inherited habits,
between the organism and its surroundings as now seem most dependent on self-conscious mind may be
successfully effected.
my
if
to
regard their
It
is
fulfil-
ment
Mind,
as an inexorable necessity.
enough
scheme of
things, as this
presented to us by the
naturalistic hypothesis.
1 Empirical psychologists are not agreed as to whether the apparent unconsciousness which accompanies completed habits is real or not. It is unnecessary for the purpose of my argument that this point
should be determined.
75
when
be so
the relation of
man
conscience,
be dispensed
with
the
'
narrow way,'
will
'
lead to destruc-
tion.'
These
excellent
consequences seem to
me
his
to flow
combined with
I
But
confess that
is
my
own
some-
what dimmed by the reflection that the same kind of causes which make conscience superfluous will
relieve us
effort,
perfectly
good we
but
at
be
all
perfectly idiotic.
know
not
how it may
least
am
left
Reason from
all
Ground
life
of
among
other
;
an
moreover,
which
in
is
temporary
effects.
in its
its
An
ir-
as a rich
man
may experiment
and herds,
if is
at
a Universe which
we
its
But
76
Pascal
is
somewhere
not.
I
confess
that
see
no such
superiority.
of Nature, and
significant,
in
in-
we
we might
well
may be. But if we made us what we how then ? The are, and will again unmake us sense of humour, not the least precious among the
inhabit,
if it
;
gifts
endowed
airs
us,
should surely
prevent
us assuming any
of the
of
superiority over
members
same
family of
77
CHAPTER
have now completed
important
IV
I
my
which
naturalism seems
require
us
to
hold
respecting
matters
connected
with
The survey
though
it
but, concise
mankind, including
as
If
naturalism be true,
be the whole
truth,
then
is
precepts
ing pleasure
dignity to
life, all
a creed like
and even
curiosity,
the hardiest
among
the
any that
shall
come
after
it,
neither in this
life
nor
78
held in hereditary
bondage
I
am
anxious,
my
case.
It is
moment
concerning naturalism,
we
shall
like
good poetry
we sum up our
total satisfaction
that
draw no
man
and
if all
we
to find in literature
'
and
in art
life
something
to enjoy
or to endure
do not contend
that,
beautiful, of this
we
shall
is,
wholly be deprived.
Nevertheless there
to
even
so,
be underrated, a
on him that
artists
Poets and
to consider themselves,
and
to
be
the
All this
They
to
some phase,
;
but
79
tell
may be may
very agreeable,
is
seldom
true,
This
is
a conclusion which,
is
howsoever
it
nor
does
to
it
upon those
their feeling
whom
Even
if
immediate experience,
reflection.
its
it
must
memory and
it,
carries with
at
best,
less inevitable
is
because
is
eternal
and unchanging
suffering
the conviction
making such a
reference
we were merely
some
were, by
spiritual drug.
But
if
on the
naturalistic
a well-defined end.
The
sympathy with
of
beliefs
these
if
and
all
the train
and
not to individuals,
some competitive
advantage
They
are
8o
instincts,
many
of
have
said, cruel,
dis-
gusting, created
by
out through
all
ends
flecting
if we think them better, as in our unremoments we are apt to do, this, on the Naturalistic hypothesis, is only because some delusion
;
and
of the kind
is
The
sees,
inner discord
which
finds
expression
in
the range of our intellectual vision and the circumstances of our actual existence.
Our
capacity for
we occupy
We
We
it
are
educated above
which
We
without
insist
We
on
made
us what
we
are,
And
to this
81
We
ing
have learned
with
to
companions,
apparently at
stars.
random,
We
have learned
life
not
whole
race, is brief,
We
that
have learned
to unravel causes,
emotions and
to
aspirations
seems
naturalism
no account, are
their
To me
between
fatal
it
clashing
beliefs
to
one or the
Make what
allowance
you please
fullest
reciprocal
action will of
to
some kind
is
If,
then, naturalism
naturalism
;
must
be
foredoomed
to
shall
suffer
change
about,
come
it
nobility out
all
worth out of
to
our
conception
of
life,
am
wholly unable
understand.
82
am aware
by pointing
hold, in
that
many persons
to a great
less
many
purity,
excellent people
who
more or
who,
the
offer
naturalistic
creed,
but
nevertheless,
prominent
I
have
is
been endeavouring
essentially inconsistent.
Naturalism
so
runs
the
argument
co-exists
C,
exhibition of unselfish
be so
in the case of
a hundred indi?
viduals,
why
If
why
humanity
at large
Now,
I
to the facts
on which
I
this
reasoning proceeds
raise
no objection.
desire
ported by religion.
facts
be
true,
them
tell
will
examination.
live,
Biologists
live,
us of parasites which
For them
it,
their
and to
Their structure
sees for
is
he works
them and
But are we
83
from
animal kingdom
They
are
have
been necessities
parasite,
in their absence, is
So
their
it is
who
claim to
show by
practically consistent
affinity.
Their
spiritual
parasitic
it
is
sheltered
by convictions which
form a part
it
is
And when
those convictions
to
those processes
come
an end, the
am
that
deavoured
greatly to
be desired that
impartial spirit
;
this task
should be undertaken in an
to such
an object,
propositions, the
members
second representing
it if
A.
all
The
universe
is
84
So
far as
we can
tell,
reason
is
to
be found
;
is
predetermined, nothing
is
A. Creative
love.
reason
is
interfused
with
infinite
B.
As
reason
is
is
is
absent,
so also
is
love.
The
universal flux
A. There
in
its
a moral law,
all
immutable, eternal
governance
freedom
it
and
their
most perfect
infinite
realisation.
Though
be
adequate to
it
goodness and
infinite intelligence,
may be
B.
his guidance.
Among
the senti;
ment of what is noble and instrinsically worthy the sentiment of what is ignoble and intrinsically worthless.
all
From a
stand on an equality
all
are action-producing
in the enjoys
ment of beauty, we
in
Whom
we
live
Reason
is
of certain
physiological
the cerebral
85
it is
many
the
just as
Beauty
is
no more than
name
for
may happen
for
the
moment
A. Every
free
;
human
his
soul
is
no human being,
therefore,
in
so placed as not
to
have within
reach,
The
individual perishes
not endure.
Few
can
flatter
effect
upon
its
remoter
Even make
if
we were
free, therefore,
;
us helpless
and
it
may be
unthinking forces
consequences,
its
if we we were
causes.
The
at
doctrines
embodied
in the
second
member
may be
true, or
may
do not yet
inquire.
But
if
system
with
is
to
be supported
like
if it is
to
be
in
harmony
is
principles
to
be
86
taught at
build
man
I
is
to
up
then, unless
greatly
mistake,
will
which
exists,
between
those
the
shadow of
convictions, will at
no distant
PART
II
CHAPTER
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF NATURALISM
So
far
we have been
and
occupied
in
weighing certain
indirect
collateral
likely to flow
in
which we
live.
The
theory
itself
was taken
examine
for
its
granted.
No
its
attempt was
made
;
to
no comparison
for the
between
different parts
was
far
instituted
purpose of determining
stituted
how
it,
a coherent and
it
intelligible
We
accepted
as
we found
immediate investigation.
;
This course
appear
is
and
it
might
to
reserve our
at concerning
its
Such, however,
is
which questions
are
closely
theory and
;
daily practice
intertwined
THE PHILOSOPHIC
I
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
porary sentiment.
I I
dis-
cussion on which
am
as contributions to
to
whom
desire
particularly to appeal,
would have
I
abandoned
For
cannot
am
me
in
a search after
principles
is
or (which
is,
destined to be in-
He
will
moment
will
ments
be to
all
soundings
The full
futile
justification
can only
be
but in the
my
he
will
we have
arrived.
practical
tendencies of
to
to
show them
be wellfor all
nigh intolerable.
The
theory, no doubt,
may
THE PHILOSOPHIC
that
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
91
be
true, since
it
that
there
is
no
any
ex-
pre-established
harmony between
upon
to
and
pediency
at least
in the
But
we
are called
inquiry before
we admit
that
true.
We
are not
dialectics,
fruit for
human
to
use.
On
have
be decided are
anything
practical.
They touch
interests of
is
at
permanent
preferable to a complacent
all
This
the
is
defenders
the
creeds,
philosophical or
theological, with
are in conflict.
You
for
will
of apologetics,
instance, without
some endeavour
is
to
show
insufficient,
and that
requires
to
be supplein
mented
interests
whose
This,
work was
;
written.
this plan
no doubt,
as
it
should be
and on
a great
It
is
can
be here pursued,
because
; ;
92
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
;
it
easier to satisfy
my-
it.
shall follow
an easier
will
line of
readily understand
composing the
consisting,
naturalistic creed
beyond these
lie,
limits,
nothing
is,
known.
Now,
who
general view
is,
as
said, to
or negative, half of
for attack.
They
tell us,
for
by science
carries with
it
by necessary implication
is
above phenomena
man
points to the
reality of
Without the
investigation,
I
underrating
such
lines
of
shall leave
the
moment unchallenged
the
statement
that
;
THE PHILOSOPHIC
to the character of the
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
is
93
knowledge which
limits.
I
thought
to
it
goes,
is
yet
be supplemented
But
itself
on
it
as
shall
be able
to
work
to be
of
its
seem
preliminary,
the
succeeding chapters
profit of its
may show
to
be not without a
own.
the system
shot out of a
pistol,'
meaning thereby
without introtrue not only of
was presented
for acceptance
ductory proof.
The
criticism
is
was
first
among mankind.
doctrines,
some general harmony with existing sentiments and modes of thought, has not uncommonly been deemed sufficient to justify the most audacious
conjectures
;
is
littered
with theories
to
have
opinions
which
No
felt in
such
over-
been
the case of
knowledge,'
94
1HE PHILOSOPHIC
practically agreed
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
methods and
men
are
to accept
without demur
too,
has been
shot out of a
pistol,"
it
and
still
that,
like
some more
questionable beliefs,
justification.
1
is
in this state of
things
is
is itself
to blame.
It
no part of
business
;
first
principles.
Its
provide
us
with
a theory of
Nature
and
to provide us with
a theory of
itself.
This
is
a task
though
it
is
one which,
satisfactorily
accomplished.
sopher before Kant can be said to have made contributions to this subject
which
at the present
;
day
and, as
shall
even as modified by
his successors,
do
an
it
seems
to me, provide a
sound basis
for
epistemology of Nature.'
But
if
in this
connection
metaphysical philosophers,
in
little
to
the
less to those
whom we
namely the
empirical ones.
1 The remarks on the history of philosophy which occupy the remainder of this section are not essential to the argument, and may be omitted by readers uninterested in that subject. The strictly necessary discussion is resumed on p. ioo.
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
95
shown an
inclination
knowledge
itself to theories
as to the genesis or
growth of knowledge.
They
have contented themselves with investigating the primitive elements from which have been developed
in
the
race
and
in the
individual
the completed
we
live.
of what
They have, therefore, dealt with the origins we believe rather than with its justification.
substituted psychology for philosophy
us, in short,
They have
with studies
in
And when
some of
is
something half-pathetic
and half-humorous
in their
Can
anything,
end of
'
his
suspects
made
that
a science
natural
'
or,
as
is
it,
science
?
made a
rather
little
philosophy
than
the
characteristic
this
we
are so
we
96
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
for the
of
philosophic
differences,
tinguished successors.
naturally
Hume,
example, though
enough he declined
Locke's
to
draw
Locke's
else to
his
despairing premise
are
at
and
inferences
from
it
least
in
equally singular.
the
Having reduced
born of habit
to
our
belief
fundamental
is
sions
and ideas
having by
this
double process
science into
he quietly informs
us,
as
the issue of
knowledge
'
is
impossible,
and
'
that
'
all
except
mathematical
'
demonstration
'
and
'
experimental
reasoning
illusion
I
!
on
matters of fact
is
sophistry
and
Hume's
he
speculative genius
and too
in
making
statement
spoke,
not
as
philosopher,
but as a
man
of the world,
making
But what
he said half
an unshaken seriousness.
speculation
is
Nothing
more astonishing, nothing if I am to speak my whole mind is more absurd than the way
THE PHILOSOPHIC
in
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
97
a most
is
dis-
tinguished race
have,
essen-
as
Hume
described
it,
and
by momentary misgivings.
have occurred
to
It
if
seems occasionally
their theory of
to
them
was
that
knowand
reasoning,' as
;
Hume
that,
called
it,
in
on the
be held
wont
to describe as
'
positive
'
knowledge.
But
they
have
thoughts.
has resumed
its
sway.
They
and
their
true
practical
instincts
'
have reserved
obstinate questionings
posed to
differ.
Whether
I
not
venture to pronounce.
I
cannot doubt.
Admirable
scientific
'
methods of
InducH
98
THE PHILOSOPHIC
Logic,'
full
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
in
tive
abundance.
But a
to enumerate,
and then
on which
still
all
to
me,
to
be
yet to
perform.
To
if
it
may, indeed,
appear as
futility
;
seems better
to
to
demonstrate
the obvious.
is
And
science,
its
it
may
well be thought,
to
quite sure
enough of
ground
be justified
in
politely
it
officiously tender
This
will
is
it
critical
examination
the
presuppositions of
science
which
It
may
problems
devised
and
that,
so far from
its
being possible
no
criticism, not
THE PHILOSOPHIC
which seem which
to us to
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
99
we
hold
with
most
perfect
practical
assurance.
So much,
blish in
at least,
have endeavoured
to esta-
already made. 1
refer
And
to
this
must venture
to
to
this
those
readers
who
in
either wish
see
are
position
elaborately
that
I
developed,
the
or
who
of
opinion
have
preceding
remarks
The very
technical
I
which
it
intelligible,
the majority
whom
this
book
is
Notes.
not,
I
Yet,
think, to
though
this
is
impossible,
it
ought
to
be
and
this
of
any knowledge at all, except that some few very general scientific doctrines. If I could succeed, however imperfectly, in such a task, it might be of some slight service even to the reader
conversant with empirical theories in
forms.
all
their various
For though he
will,
of course, recognise in
Cf. Prefatory
Note.
?.
too
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
that
NATURALISM
may perhaps
give
them a freshness
In order to
fix
our ideas
let
us
recall, in
however
doctrine as
it
at
it
and so forth
possess.
degree or other
all
mankind
These
objects
all
in
absence of
any observer,
these
governed
in
their
These are
their
material
it
is
its
business to describe.
constitution,
Their
appearance,
their
inner
modes
and
in
such
the
such-like
of
inquiry
constitute
itself to investigate.
is
The
now embodied
in a general,
provisional,
is
universe which
tion
by
all
instructed persons.
According
to
this
THE PHILOSOPHIC
small particles
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
iot
of definite
endowed with a
tion
see,
other qualities, and forming by their mutual associathe various bodies which
nor see.
These ponderable
have
their
of which
we know
if
little,
it
except that
it
possesses, or
behaves as
possessed,
certain
while
the
whole of
this
material
alike, is
system,
(if
animated
may be
varies in the
manner and
its
manifestation,
It
amount.
fact of
considerable
little
importance
ourselves,
though
of
among
phenomena
of various kinds
some
of which
are
1 This ambiguity in the use of the word 'matter' is apt to be a nuisance in these discussions. The term is sometimes, and quite properly, used only of ponderable matter, and in opposition to ether. But when we talk of the material universe,' it is absurd to exclude from our meaning the ether, which is the most important part of that universe, or to deny materiality to a substance which behaves as if it were an elastic solid. The context will, I hope, always show in which
'
is
used.
102
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
and
in
owe
their being.
Secure
in this general
co-operative
swiftly on.
work of
scientific
moves
if
The
experimental psychologist,
scale,
we
are
to
measures
the
relations of
the
ment of the
species
;
individual
the move-
not
unprepared
to
discover
unsophisticated perceptions
man-
The philosophic reader is of course aware that many of the terms which I have used, and been
obliged to use, in this outline of the scientific view
of the universe
may
be,
to philosophic analysis,
results.
idea, perception
all
these, to
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
io 3
of which
no account
;
though
succeeded
in
giving us the
for the
and decisive
however,
find
solution.
I
These problems,
one
side.
I
is,
most
part,
I
put on
in the
them
to
sense, that
them until
he begins
No
such embarrassing
investigations do
reader.
my
It shall for
that the as
it
so far
and
all I
shall
now
require of
him
is
to look at
it,
it
view, to approach
to
as
it
study
it
with a
new
we
hold them to be
p*
how a thing happens, or what it is,(fet us inquire how we know that it does thus happen, and|SWhy we believe that so in truth it
trueT\ Instead of inquiring
isTT/Jnstead of enumerating causes, let us set ourselves to investigate reasons.
in
Now
general
it
is
at
body of
the
'
propositions
about the
natural
arranged
ro 4
THE PHILOSOPHIC
would
fall
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
tions,
that
its
distribution
exposition.
Indeed,
though usually
which
scientific truth
may
but
indi-
be expounded.
is
There
is, first,
governed by no rational
historic causes,
depends on
on the accidents of
vidual genius and the romantic chances of experiment and observation. There is, secondly, the
rhetorical order, useful
enough
in its
proper place,
in
we proceed from
the simple to
There
is,
could
we
only
bring
it
to perfection,
we
phenomena was gradually presented to our gaze as a closely woven tissue of causes and effects, infinite
in
its
complexity,
incessant in
to
its
changes, yet at
each
moment proclaiming
those
who
can hear
and understand the certain prophecy of its future and the authentic record of its past. Lastly, there
is
what,
ployed,
must be
which
are, or
dogmas
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
105
for
whole of know-
ledge
is
in the
meshes of
this
In
its
perfected shape
it
it is
each
man
trace
There
is
no theoretical
'
I.'
/What
by some
'
process which
'
which
'
'
am
sufficient,
need
for proof.
The
order of
statement,
cannot
fail
to
be
wholly
different.
While the
scientific
order
may
unmeasured
its
point of departure in
His grounds
if
matter of investigation.
to
in
His
reason, or,
you
like
have
it
so, his
must
sit in
judg-
The
rights of this
authority incapable of
xo6
THE PHILOSOPHIC
;
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
by which
sort
delegation
nor
it
is
the verdict
If
now
'On what
of premises
of the world
ultimately
the
scientific
theory
science
would
agree
in
'
On
premises
supplied by experience.'
given us our
laws.
It
is
first real
tion
slowly
that
richer
conception
of
the
modern mind.
What,
then,
is
this experience
us
These
alike
the
experiences on
which are
man
and of
their be-
haviour
other.
in the
from which
all
our
wider knowledge
ultimately
draws
to
its
;
sanction.
Behind these
it
is
impossible
go
'
For
as
its
the
THE PHILOSOPHIC
to dispute its full
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
it
107
is
useless
and indefeasible
to
this
title
to
command
which
is
our assent.
thoroughly
According
in
view,
accordance
with
common-sense,
somewhat narrow, platform which provides us with a foothold whence we may reach upward into regions where the senses convey to us no
'
'
direct knowledge,
where we have
to
do with laws
remote
IV
sentiments and
it
mankind,
with
least
it
we had
at
subject.
What,
'
then,
is
gives of these
Has it anything to tell us about their nature, or the mode of their operation ? Without doubt it has
;
and
its
first
sense version
of
that
experience
been indicated
ioS
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
tells
NATURALISM
us that our ex-
goes,
is
immediate
and
direct, science
is itself
experience
but the
final link in
a long chain
is
of causes and
effects,
whose beginning
lost
amid
whose
'
ending
is
in the
'
mind of
the percipient.
informs
among
one
it
immediately
experienced
'
is
but one
'
and
is,
moreover,
'
immediate experience
which
modestly
assists in
vision.
What
in the
next
field
There are,
first
Then
lations
reflection of the
green'
residue
their
hemispheres by which,
in
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
in part
109
acquired by
mental
fact
we
fifty
Now
of which
all
is
typical of
is
of
the
material
universe.
Some of these experiences, no doubt, are incorrect. The 'evidence of the senses,' as the phrase goes, proves now and then to be fallacious. But it is
proved
the
to
if
we
back
tific
any
scien'
end
in
some im-
mediate experience
scribed above.
ultimate basis of
all scientific
belief,
and immediate
some
do not allude
to the
difficulty
how
I
how matter
is
can act on
is
The problem
It is
wish to dwell on
of quite
a different kind.
of the laws
governed, but
diffi-
way
mental conse-
movement with the opposite one, whereby we jump by some instantaneous effort of inferential activity
from these mental consequents to an immediate
conviction as to the reality and character of
their
some
'
of
am
I
expe-
the
next
field.
While looking
I
at
it
begin to
reflect
I
remember
long-drawn
of
causes,
physical and
tion
by which
my
I
perceprealise
of the object
that
each
replaced by
altering the
;
and that
if
my judgment
about the
object,
as
immediate as
for
Anything,
instance,
would
distribute
on the retina of
my
eyes in the
or any-
same pattern
as that produced
by the
tree,
of the cerebral
in itself quite
tree,
would give
me
an experience
indistinguishable
from
my
experience of the
although
it
wholly incorrect.
THE PHILOSOPHIC
delivered, in the
thority,
BASIS OF
NATURALISM in
au-
but
it
would be
And
though we are
will
occur
in
we can
criterion,
them-
The
veracity
culties
however, by
movement from
tive leap
For a very
merely
first is sufficient
to prove, not
In other words,
we need only
to consider carefully
results, in
We
which the
thrown wholly
objects.
But
and
all
UNIVER:-
ii2
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
As
every-
tion, are,
it is
The
thing
become
visible solely in
The
which alone
any visual perception of the thing is possible, are, therefore, according to optics, no part of its reality,
but are mere feelings produced in the mind of the
percipient by the complex
movements of
material
to
molecules, possessing mass and extension, but which it is not only incorrect but unmeaning
attribute either brightness or colour.
to
the
side
of science
these
are
truisms.
was
sufficiently
embarrassing to discover that the message conveyed to us by sensible experiences which the observer
treats as
so direct and so
in
transit,
certain are,
when
at
con-
sidered
at
but
vibrations
of
imperceptible
another
an unimaginable
unknown, and perhaps unknowable, modifications of nervous tissue and that none of these various messengers carry with them any warrant that the judgment in which they
;
prove to be
true.
when we
dis-
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
wholly
false,
113
may be
?
but
What
to
sort of a
its
system
is
that which
makes haste
discredit
own premises? In what entanglements of contradiction do we not find ourselves involved by the
attempt to rest science upon observations which
science itself asserts to
possible
title
be erroneous
By what
the inde-
experience to be right
when
it
testifies to
pendent
to
reality of
something
it
solid
be wrong when
testifies
to the
reality of
There
enough
be
said,
if
is,
of course, an answer to
it
all this,
simple
it
only
be
true.
The whole
theory,
may
un-
is
commonis
sense.
frightens us
of our
own
rience
We
have
no
immediate
as
tells
expe-
of
has been
us of the
gratuitously supposed.
What
science
colour element
that
it
in
is
true of
every element
every perception.
We
:
are directly
all
else
is
hypothetical
machinery
we have
1
ii 4
THE PHILOSOPHIC
knowledge
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
mental states
first-hand
namely,
first
the
themselves.
Now
this
theory does at
sight undoubtedly
of
This
The
In
some
cases
it
may be
I
copy or partial
In no case
is it
When,
is
therefore,
field,
am
in
what on
theory
am
really
doing
fact of
my
is
habitual that
It
is
we
quite differently
in his natural
moments
and the
scientific
man
in his scientific
moments.
man
all
respects resembles
well that
it
the scientific
in
extension,
is
and so
forth
no resemblance
at
all.
Never-
between them or
from the mental
a conclusion^
we cany
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
in
NATURALISM
115
As
this
in
with the
it
It
he
change
and thereby
ordinary
moments seem
moving
in
ideas,
they
this
correction
of
first
has
its
difficulties.
In the
theory.
It is all
very well
and of sense-perception
to hold
in
particular,
requires us
that
facts,
what
is
immediately ex-
Such
its
a conclusion
harmony with
own
not
propositions
things.
material
The
observations
on which are
who
originally
made them
own
feelings, but
observations
mistaken.
Such
But, possible or
to
have occurred,
and on
that
evidence of science as
selves conceive
it.
discoverers them-
The
reader
will, I
am
now own
is,
which conto
immediate experience
our
states of mind,
is
that
it
supplies
science.
On
is
these points
to
is,
say presently.
that
it
My
has supplied
men
sus-
pected that,
while
they
supposed themselves to
be perceiving
were
things,
in
reality
another set of
ticular kind,
grouped
in
in particular
a particular order.
to them,
Nor,
if
THE PHILOSOPHIC
So
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
117
this particular
experience be accurate, the system of thought represented by science presents the singular spectacle of a
creed which
is
another
though
its
origin
and each
subsequent stage
in its
illusion.
Yet an even stronger We must not experiences on which science is that the only say founded have been invariably misinterpreted by those who underwent them, but that, if they had not been
This
is
perplexing enough.
to
be
justified.
so
misinterpreted,
science
as
we know
and
illusion,
it
would
We have
on the truth
odder.
realised
in spite of error
which
is
is
even
For
if
own
feelings
and
ideas, as empirical
Nature
an independently existing
for
feelings
for.
To go
to
wheel-work,
to pile world on
and
all
for
no
to find
an explanation
resist-
seemed
is it
to
them a most
superfluous labour.
this task
Nor
most part
it
still
is,
is
a universe immediately,
if
imperfectly,
VI
We
be hard of digestion,
the theory
its
historically speaking,
if
we
owes
information
to us.
convey
whether, from the kind of information which our experiences do thus directly convey to us, anything at
all
resembling the
scientific
reasonably extracted.
Can our
of
conception
?
the
import
and
limits
of
experience
Can we by any
possible treatment of
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
119
and evanescent
I
effects
result
may be
it
been
satisfactorily
theory of knowledge.
that sensations
We
and
feelings, like
must
have a cause
agreeable
and that
it is
a hypothesis
it
we
when we
find that
enables
of perceptions which
plain.
will
it is
But
this is
propositions of which
consists
if
we
are to
go
The
implied by the
is
first.
The world
described by
beliefs, as
science
is
Nor can we
to
legitimately
A
to
will,
think, be sufficient
it
make
and
proceed to offer
on each of
i2o
THE PHILOSOPHIC
This
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
the third.
existed,
produce sensations
and
manner
exists.
in
actually occur,
But may we
which
was
and
this
fact,
a logical leap
making so bold
the
unknown
doubt
strictly
it.
Recollect
by hypothesis we are
of sensations or im-
concerned, within
pressions.
It is in this self-centred
universe alone,
therefore, that
we can
collect the
it
premises of further
knowledge.
How
can
by which
to
decide
for
we know
?
to the contrary,
production
None
open
to observation.
Because, therefore,
we happen
little
to
of the
Real World
'
If
we do
so,
it is
not, as the
candid
THE PHILOSOPHIC
conclusion
is
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
121
justified
we
are predisposed
instinctive
by those
In such
beliefs
moments
all
men
When,
there-
illegitimate
By
procedures which
have found
it
Immediate
intuitions
mediate inferences
find
constructed
we
to
clusions
reasoning,
I
partial though, as
shall
now proceed
illusory
cised experience.
This,
in the
it
will
be observed,
is
am engaged
natural beliefs
commenting.
is
It
which
only dwell on
now because
it
affords a
convenient text
i22
THE PHILOSOPHIC
evidently in
BASIS OF
in
NATURALISM
live.
which we
This
or
its
origin an
amendment
are
modification of the
things,
a compromise to which
we
no doubt
force,
but
we
did not
it
know
it
to
be
true,
we
difficult
in
which
far as
all
we
world which, so
concerned,
can only be at
and
it
colour.
world
which
is
that
is
and
solidity,
it
warmth and
hybrid world,
A
the
may commend
itself to
philosopher,
itself to
A
it
rejected
by the
because
selects
sensation,
realities
;
permanent
to
is
scarcely
intelligible
the
THE PHILOSOPHIC
second, because
it
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
123
manent
realities,
modes of
seems
to
critical
sensation.
short,
which
unmistakable evidence of
in direct contradiction
with the
So
deal
far as
concerned and
is
we need
to
ordinary.
it
impossible
of
macrocosm
qualities
furnished
with
objects
whose
exactly resemble
that
They
or another to
name
of
experience
itself
And we
whose claim to our consideration largely consists in their uncompromising empiricism playingunconscious havoc with the most solid results which empirical
methods have hitherto
I
attained.
say
'
unconscious
'
i2 4
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
whom
it
is
directed.
its
;
Yet there
truth.
can,
think,
be no
real question as to
In the case of
deny
it.
But
in the case of
Mr.
an
it is
which would
for
it
certainly
repudiated,
seems- to
observed,
is
this
in
relation to the
ever-moving stream of
them has
which
is
a private
for
of
his
own.
Where
but
the
physicist,
Mill
saw
nothing
permanent
Spencer
pos-
of
'
sensation,
and Mr.
knows
nothing but
the unknowable.'
Without discussing
may
I
properly occupy
content myself
scheme of
I
things,
1 It is probably accurate to describe Mr. Spencer as an empiricist though he has added to the accustomed first principles of empiricism certain doctrines of his own which, while they do not strengthen his
system,
in
make
it
somewhat
difficult to classify.
The
reader interested
such matters will find most of the relevant points discussed in Philosophic Doubt, chaps, viii., ix., x.
THE PHILOSOPHIC
to
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
125
demonstrate
at length,
the place
now
filled
by material Nature
is
by science.
but
is
That which
is
a 'permanent
nothing more,
permanent only
in
name.
It
'possibility,'
it
Before sen-
it
was
not.
If
When
they cease to
will
vanish away.
it
will
nature.
How
unfit
is
this unsubstantial
shadow
material universe, of
dents,
independent of
whose duration
Mr.
incalculable
conclusive
criticism
may be
passed on
I
Spencer's 'unknowable.'
For anything
contrary, this
nately,
it
am may
be
real
enough
but,
unfortu-
required
in time.
by
It
science.
It
is
not in space.
It is
not
;
nor
that
is it
it
capable of motion.
Whatever purpose,
subserve
'
there-
such an
it is
'
object
'
may
in
the universe
possibility
'
of things,
itself to
as useless as a
permanent
scientific treat-
ment.
be
all
26
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
is all
circle
science
mere figment of the imagination. Man, or 'I,' become not merely the centre of the Beyond me and my ideas world, but am the world.
as a
rather
there
is
known.
of their
its
The problems
about which
we
disquiet ourselves in
modes
The
baseless
itself,
Nor does
there
seem
to
be
were such
patience
if
may
lie
beyond. /
VII
further
with
It
this chapter.
that raised
deal.
This
asserts,
it
may be
may by
some
THE PHILOSOPHIC
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
1
127
in general,
But who,
to
it
may be
it
asked,
is
unreasonable enough
demand
that
What
is
there in
ledge
Have we
?
of the race
Is
of Nature,
and storing up
of
to
for
our
guidance
innumerable
?
observations
I
the laws
Yes,
reply,
it is
count
for
and
for
In making
to the world in
which they
live,
we
that there
is
experiences of
and
that, so far as is
necessary for
our purpose,
been.
for
granted
;
truths
that
and
in
the last
experience, and
?
experience alone.
it
Plainly
cannot be general
whose
reality
is
whose character
in
each individual
1
man be
his
own
personal experience.
ch.
i,
i28
THE PHILOSOPHIC
this,
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
fundamental
law of causation
am
con-
it.
we endeavour
number
by which
we
or any
own immediate
per-
we
Nature
is
uniform
x
;
or, if
least sufficiently
need
from causes to
effects,
and space.
evidence
is,
The whole
in its
called historical
most
more
their
or,
The
to
fact
that
anything
else,
be established by
itself,
and by
it
alone
so
will find, some observations on the meaning of the Uniformity of Nature,' in the last chapter of this Essay. In this chapter I have assumed (following empirical usage) that the Uniformity of Nature and the Law of Causation are different expres-
The reader
'
phrase,
same
thing.
THE PHILOSOPHIC
that
if
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
129
we abandon
of
it,
we
are in a
moment deprived
usufruct
of
all
sance
other
minds,
of
all all
of
their
in-
accumulated
knowledge, of
share in
the
race.
While
if
we
like
cling
it
to
it
(as, to
be sure,
we
must, whether
we
or
not),
we can do
we
forego
by the
aid of general
for such a
clusion of our
argument
its
to
among
this
the
most important of
premises.
is
The
we
problem, therefore,
reduced to
Can
by the
very terms
in
which
it
is
stated,
claim universal
And
surely, to enunciate
The
re-
sequences familiar to us
life,
round
of daily
the
require-
us.
1
But
to
throw upon
such as these
of
the whole
burden of
At
them.
3o
THE PHILOSOPHIC
quite
It
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
of the
fixing our
universe
in
is
would be
absurd
the
any
case.
if all
phenomena
of which
between
this
is
rob
the
argument of
plausibility.
But
it
is
we
reflect
on what
So
far are
they from
when taken
strictly
all
by themselves, the
regularity
and the
In
certain
regions
of experience,
no doubt,
:
orderly
day alternates
;
the
and unsupported
usually, though, to
the ground.
Even
facts,
and physical
tained
that
however,
on the
But when we come to the more complex phenomena with which we have to deal, the plain lesson taught by personal
is
observation
of
Nature.
kind
of
ineffectual
attempt
at
THE PHILOSOPHIC
uniformity, no doubt,
BASIS OF
is
NATURALISM
3T
commonly
will
apparent, as of
run smoothly
to
and then
;
for
or of a drunken
he succeeds
along
of
it
in
that
all-penetrating
we
In
many
:
no observed
nor
is
it
order of
any
appear
of the
other in
the
consciousness
reversed,
uniformity
is
never
observed.
The most
and as
for
mankind, so
personal
far are
experiences
for
any
sufficient
reason
accepting
perfected
form the
of
fact, this
them up
to
it,
escapes
we
invariably
to
the
the
32
THE PHILOSOPHIC
But what does
the
principle
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
we do
And
this
without doubt
?
imply
It
implies that
we
tion
ready made.
It
implies that
we do
;
we
rule because
we
law.
is
much
light
understood
the
of the
principle.
in
Here,
As
so also
we
find
any endeavour
for
to
formulate a rational
justification
appearance, breaks
down
VIII
But even
harvest are
if
this
reasoning be sound,
is it
reader exclaim,
What
that
we
gain by
it
we
likely to reap
this
?
sowing of scepticism as
us to
What
truths
does
profit
show
that a great
many
still
which every-
body
will
believes,
THE PHILOSOPHIC
sophic proof
?
BASIS OF
it
NATURALISM
133
Fair questions,
must be admitted
I
must reserve
my
Yet
answer
until
by way of con-
consequences
we
part
of these Notes.
I
They
contain
outline of an
argument which
is itself
but a portion
space, or to
For want of
avoid
unsuitable
technicalities,
and have
still
position
Yet, though
said
is,
my
opinion, sufficient
and
shall, therefore,
not
scruple henceforth to
premises in the
last
resort
upon the
particulars
is
one
be accepted.
adverse to Naturalism
?
And,
if so,
must
it
not
it
tell
is
it
I
appears to be directed
Of
answer the
first in
the affirm-
134
THE PHILOSOPHIC
the second
in
BASIS OF
negative.
NATURALISM
Doubtless,
if
ative,
the
it
empiricism be shattered,
natural-
ism
in its fall
for,
after
naturalism
is
nothing
methods are
naturalism,
also
?
is it
Surely not.
be an empiricist,
is
The adherent of naturalism is an the man of science, if he so only from choice. The latter
;
may,
if
at
all,
or he
may have
appeal to
take his
He
still
is
by an
principles
less is
he obliged to
principles
independent of
will
Science
survive
it.
Though
theoretic
all
doubts, though
we
habitually
our
upon
assumptions which
we never attempt to justify, and which we could not justify if we would, yet is our scientific certitude unshaken and if we still strive
;
after
some
it
is
because this
because
it is
required to fortify
their
utmost
scientific
expansion.
against
And
hence arises
my
principal complaint
THE PHILOSOPHIC
naturalism.
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
135
have
no desire
fail
is
pick
a quarrel.
That
it
should
failed.
nothing.
is,
Such
after
all,
common
all
lot.
That
doubt
it
a fault at
which
That
which
it
countersigns,
interests
may be borne
of speculative
with,
though
think, a misfortune.
But
which
it
and of
scientific
triumphs in which
has no
belief, is
slightest
some
sort to represent
her voice
Of
nothing.
It
And
is
in
spite
of
this,
its
increasing,
if
and as yet shows no signs of diminution more and more the educated and the half-educated
136
THE PHILOSOPHIC
acquiescing in
its
BASIS OF
NATURALISM
however
is,
are
pretensions and,
its
reluctantly, submitting to
least
in part,
domination, this
at
distinguish
between the
and
inevitable
by which the
to
school
have
endeavoured
associate
137
CHAPTER
IDEALISM
;
II
THE
the way of an empirical philosophy of which we dealt in the last chapter, largely arise from the conflict which exists between two parts of a system, the scientific half of which requires us to
difficulties in
science, with
1 The reader who has no familiarity with philosophic literature is advised to omit this chapter. The philosophic reader will, I hope, Transcendental Idealism is, if I mistake regard it as provisional.
not, at this
moment
its
In
the land of
In informed) it is but little considered. English-speaking countries it is, within the narrow circle of professed philosophers, perhaps the dominant mood of thought ; while without This that circle it is not so much objected to as totally ignored.
birth (as
am
anomalous
state of things
;
is
no doubt due
I
energy of English Idealists has been consumed rather in the production of commentaries on other people's systems than in expositions of
their own.
are, that
result of this is that we do not quite know where we more or less in a condition of expectancy, and that both learners and critics are placed at a disadvantage. Pending the appearance of some original work which shall represent the con-
The
are
we
younger school of thinkers, I have written the following chapter, with reference chiefly to the writings of the late Mr. T. H. Green, which at present contain the most important exMr. I know, of this phase of English thought. noteworthy work, Appearance and Reality, published some time after this chapter was finished, is written with characteristic independence but I know not whether it has yet commanded any large measure of assent from the few who are competent to pronounce
Bradley's
;
position, so far as
a verdict upon
its
merits.
133
IDEALISM
regard experience as an effect of an external and independent world, while the philosophic or epistemological half offers this same experience to us as the sole groundwork and logical foundation on which any knowledge whatever of an external and independent world may be rationally based. These difficulties and the arguments founded on them require to be urged, in the first
explicitly hold what I and then to that general body of educated opinion which, though reluctant to contract its beliefs within the narrow circuit of naturalism,' yet habitually assumes that there is presented to us in science a body of opinion, certified by reason, solid, certain, and impregnable, to which theology adds, as an edifying supplement, a certain number of dogmas, of which the well-disposed assimilate as many, but only as many, as their superior allegiance to positive knowledge will permit them to digest. These two classes, however, by no means exhaust the kinds of opinion with which it is necessary to deal. And
who
;
'naturalistic' creed
'
'
'
in particular there is a
in
important
is
in
matters specula-
dent
who would,
from the negative conclusions already reached, but who have their own positive solution of the problem of the universe. In their opinion, all the embarrassments which
may be shown to attend on the empirical philosophy are due to the fact that empirical philosophers wholly misunderstand the essential nature of that experience on which they profess to found their beliefs. The theory of perception evolved out of Locke, by Berkeley and Hume, which may be traced without radical modification through
their
modern
I
successors,
is,
which
the mischief.
Of
this
theory they
make
short work.
They
inevitably leads.
IDEALISM
They show,
scientific
139
sible
or profess to show, that it renders not only knowledge, but any knowledge whatever, imposand they offer as a substitute a theory of experience,
very remote indeed from ordinary modes of expression, by which these consequences may, in their judgment, be entirely
avoided.
it
TRANSCENmeta-
DENTAL IDEALISM,
physical
aspect.
either in
its
historical or in its
modes of thought, which, in some recent English works, it supplies us concerning Nature and God is, however, absolutely necessary
and
I
Remote though it be from ordinary some brief discussion of the theory with
From what
it
is
may
be,
from
our point of view, considered as a reply, is not the theory of experience which is taken for granted in ordinary
scientific statement,
'
psychological
theory of perception
men
of science.
The
differ-
ence
not wholly immaterial, as will appear in the sequel. What, then, is this psychological theory of perception ?
is
' '
is
the
weak point
in
it
at
which
it is
open
the
by the transcendental
'
idealists ?
real.
It lies in
According to
account the
it is
real
'
not due to any mental manipulation by the percipient, such as abstraction or comparison, may be considered as the experienced fact, is, in ultimate analysis,
because
either a sensation or a
sations
group of sensations. These senand groups of sensations are subjected in the mind to a process of analysis and comparison. Discrimination is made between those which arc unlike. Those which have
4o
IDEALISM
by a common name. The among them are noted the laws by which they are bound together are discovered and the order in which they may be expected to recur is foreseen and understood. Now, say the idealists, if everything of which external
points of resemblance are called
reality can be predicated is thus either a sensation or a group of sensations, if these and these only are given in
' '
else,
including relations,
to the absurd
is
we are reduced
is
For a brief examination of the nature of experience is sufficient to prove that an unrelated thing (be that thing a sensation or a group of sensations), which is not qualified by its resemblance to other things, its difference from other things, and its connection with other things, It is at all. is really, so far as we are concerned, no thing not an object of possible experience its true character must
unknowable.
'
'
'
'
'
'
be for ever hid from us or, rather, as character consists simply in relations, it has no character, nor can it form part of that intelligible world with which alone we have to
;
deal.
supposed
'
'
'
'
down, and
experience
it
real in external
is
only
in virtue
of an intellectual element,
it
namely, ideas
was apprehended, so
conscious unity, which
internal
experience
of an
'
ideas
I,'
and
self-
existence
or
IDEALISM
141
sidered as having
ought not, therefore, on the psychological theory to be conany claim to reality at all, but which, nevertheless, is presupposed in the very possibility of
phenomena appearing
to face with a
by the idealist theory face mind (thinking subject) which is the source of relations (categories), and a world which is constituted by relations with a mind which is conscious of itself, and a world of which that mind may without metaphor be described
are thus apparently left
:
We
as the creator.
tion
We
we
of transcendental idealism.
to subject the
system to any
ask what
of view. In the
it
it is
by endeavouring
first
place, then,
it is
frees us
matters scientific
upon
:
room
'
for
God and
'
external
world,
'
by destroy'
external
or
permanent relations shall exist. In the second place, it makes Reason no mere accidental
;
an element
'
be added
to,
sum of things
decide.
all
as
may
Rather
is
does
it
make Reason
goal.
that
;
or can
origin
be
its
and
it
moral freedom of self-conscious agents. That 'Self which is the prior condition of there being a
foundation the
natural world cannot be the creature of that world.
It
;
M2
laws.
IDEALISM
On
the contrary,
it is
free,
autonomous
Spirit,
not
fulfil
the moral
commands which
its
own most
essential being.
am
all
reluctant to
which promises
that
results so admirable.
it
Yet
is
cannot think
surrounded have
been
any
rate, fully
explained,
by those
all
who
accept
its
main
principles.
in
more
the
We may
grant without
difficulty
that
quite
untenable.
in
all
exit
perience there
cannot be
presented
its
isolation,
in
nevertheless
refuses
wholly to merge
necessary as these
as thinking beings
being
If so,
network of
it
'
relations,
may
'
be to give
significance for us
this irreducible
is
whence does
are told,
element arise
relation.
'
The mind, we
is
the source of
is
What
related
thing-in-itself which,
'
form,'
is
way
there be)
which
raises
solves.
The
followers of
given
'
in
experience cannot,
beyond experience, be known as a cause, or even as existing. Nay, it is not so much unknown and unknowable as indescribable and unintelligible not so much a riddle whose meaning is obscure as mere absence and vacuity of any meaning whatever. Accordingly, from the speculations with which we are
since ex hypothesi
it
;
IDEALISM
here concerned
it
143
it has been dismissed with ignominy, and need not, therefore, detain us further. But we do not get rid of the difficulty by getting rid His dictum still seems to me to of Kant's solution of it.
remain
true, that
it is
'
And, indeed,
hard to see
how
it is
possible to conceive
a universe in which relations shall be all in all, but in which nothing is to be permitted for the relations to
subsist
between.
is
Relations
surely
imply a something
is,
which
of
related,
'
and
if
that something
in the
absence
so
relations,
in
nothing for
us
as
thinking
beings,'
something are mere symbols emptied of their signification they are, in short, an illegitimate abstraction.' Those, moreover, who hold that these all-constituting relations are the work of the mind would seem bound also to hold that this concrete world of ours, down to its
relations
the
absence of
that
'
'
'
minutest
the
detail,
'
must
there
evolve
itself
movement of pure
'
thought.'
is
There
no room
it
in
'
it
for
'
contingent
'
experience
itself
for the
given
superfluity.
And
that
so
we
are
at
loss,
to
understand
I
why
say
dialectical
process
which
at
least
'
moves,
so
will
not
convincingly,
abstract
but
smoothly,
'
through
'
the
categories
forth,
of
being,'
not-being,'
becoming,'
it comes Nature which is, after all, one of the principal subjects about which we desire information. No explanation which I remember to have seen
and so
makes
it
we
should, as the
idealists claim,
God which
but
should
creation,
understand
we should out
resources
be competent
should yet
its
lose
ourselves
so
ante-rooms.
'
144
IDEALISM
This difficulty at once requires us to ask on what ground it is alleged that these constitutive relations are the work of the mind.' It is true, no doubt, that ordinary usage would describe as mental products the more abstract thoughts (categories), such, for example, as being,' notbeing,' causation,' reciprocity,' &c. But it must be
'
'
'
'
'
recollected, in the
first
does not, as a
from ordinary
usage
alters
and
its
in the
procedure when
of
relation
comes
for
to
crete
'
cases
as,
instance,
shape
'
and
as belonging to
the
'
external
by
idealists, then,
bound by
to
their
own most
arguments
against
the
It
me
Starting,
it
will
be recollected, from the analysis (criticism) of experience, they arrived at the conclusion that the world of objects
exists
(subject),
in
is
and has a meaning only for the self-conscious I and that the self-conscious I only knows itself Each contrast and in opposition to the world of objects.
'
'
'
in
neither has
any significance.
is its
How,
we venture
to
both
ciple
may
cannot
be considered as the creator of that universe or if it be, then must we acknowledge that precisely in the same way
and precisely
to the
same extent
is
argument requires
IDEALISM
or even allows us to accept,
is
'45
'
manifold
'
of relations
on the one
connected
side,
on the other,
and a bare self-conscious principle of unity by which that manifold becomes inter'
in the
field
of a single experience.'
We
'
are
not permitted, except by a process of abstraction which is purely temporary and provisional, to consider the manifold
'
'
'
unity,'
nor the
'
unity
'
manifold.'
the
that
Whole
or Absolute
whose elements,
mere
result.
Now
upon
1.
let
(i)
As
Theology, (2) Ethics, and (3) Science. regards Theology, it might be supposed that
provided us with a universe which,
if
at
least idealism
not
created or controlled
by Reason
(creation
may
harmony with
But on a closer examination difficulties arise which somewhat mar this satisfactory conclusion. In the first place, if theology is to provide us with a groundwork for religion, the God of whom it speaks must be somethingmore than the bare principle of unity required to give coherence to the multiplicity of Nature. Apart from Nature He is, on the theory we are considering, a mere meta' '
pass
all
make up
the
web
of possible
experience
no
ence, or devotion.
'
He
is
is
no
and
all
He
thus
Whole
com-
He
were
it
otherwise,
we cannot
146
IDEALISM
pacted, as they are, of good and bad, of noble and base, the
Perfect
religious
feelings
can
Not the
first,
because
it is
Of these
none, whatever be
its
nature,
good or bad, base or noble, can be considered as alien to the Absolute all are necessary, and all are characteristic. Of these two alternatives, I understand that it is the first which is usually adopted by the school of thought with which we are at present concerned. It may therefore be
be
it
:
'
unifying principle
'
can, as such,
have no
for
qualities,
moral or otherwise.
Lovingkindness,
all attri-
of objects which
it
on to the
essential
its
But
if this
is
I
'
be
so,
freedom which
self-conscious
'
attributed
?
It
all
what is the ethical value of that by the idealistic theory to the is true that this I as conceived by
'
'
idealism
is
above
The
stress of
not,
nor
is it in
any servitude
it
to
But
of
all
its
possesses
but a thinking
subject,' for
Its
whom alone, as
it is
alleged,
freedom is metaphysical, not moral moral freedom can only have a meaning at all in refer-
IDEALISM
ence to a being
147
wills,
who
acts
and who
and
is
only of real
importance
but
is
for us in relation to a
being
acted on,
who
not only
wills,
but
plain,
be predicated of a mere
'
the
as
freedom proper to a
'
subject
'
of any worth to
man
object,' to
man
as
known
in experience, to
man
fighting
his
circumstances, in a world
made up
1 This proposition would, probably, not be widely dissented from by some of the ethical writers of the idealist school. The freedom which they postulate is not the freedom merely of the pure self-con-
scious subject.
qualities,
On
the contrary,
it
is
all his
passions, and emotions, who in their view possesses free But the ethical value of the freedom thus attributed to selfwill. conscious agents seems on further examination to disappear. Mankind, it seems, are on this theory free, but their freedom does not
exclude determinism, but only that form of determi7iismivhich consists in external constraint. Their actions are upon this view strictly prescribed by their antecedents, but these antecedents are nothing other
than the characters of the agents themselves.
Now
free
himself alone. But without quarrelling over words, it is, I think, plain that, whether it be proper to call him free or not, he at least lacks freedom in the sense in which freeis
man
as
due
to
'
dom
to
is
It is
impossible
he can.' For at any life his next action is by hypothesis strictly determined. This is also true of every previous moment, until we get back to that point in his life's history at which he cannot, in any inAntetelligible sense of the term, be said to have a character at all. cedently to this, the causes which have produced him are in no special sense connected with his individuality, but form part of the general complex of phenomena which make up the world. It is evident, therefore, that every act which he performs may be traced to pre-natal, and possibly to purely material, antecedents, and that, even if it be true that what he does is the outcome of his character, his character itself is the outcome of causes over which he has not, and cannot by any Such a theory destroys repossibility have, the smallest control. sponsibility, and leaves our actions the inevitable outcome of external U conditions not less completely than any doctrine of controlling fate, /
ought,'
and
therefore
'
L 2
'
48
IDEALISM
which
exists,
difficulty
on the
idealistic theory, in
bringing
'
'
as
supreme principle of unity, and the I of empirical psychology, which has desires and fears, pleasures and pains, faculwhich was not a little time since, and ties and sensibilities which a little time hence will be no more. The I as prinit can have, therefore, no ciple of unity is outside time of experience, which learns and forgets, history. The I which suffers and which enjoys, unquestionably has a history. What is the relation between the two ? We seem equally precluded from saying that they are the same, and from
;
'
'
'
'
We
all,
'subject'
from
'object.'
We
ourselves than a
after
all,
seem a not less interesting and important part of mere unifying principle whose functions,
are of a purely metaphysical character.
'
We
can-
two aspects of the same thing,' because there is no virtue in this useful phrase which shall empower it on the one hand to ear-mark a fragment of the world of objects, and say of it, this is I,' or, on the other, to take the pure subject by which the world of objects is constituted, and say of it that it shall be itself an object in that world from which its essential nature requires it to be self-disnot say they are
'
' '
tinguished.
But as
it
pure
'
and the
'
empirical
between the pure, though limited, self-consciousness which is 1 and the universal and eternal Self-consciousness which is God. The first has been described as a mode or 'mani1 ' '
'
But are we
we not importing
its
'
IDEALISM
where
it
49
at all
Grant,
;
has a meaning
'
we may legitimately describe one pure subject mode or manifestation of another how is this as a partial identity to be established ? How can we, who start from the basis of our own limited self-consciousness, rise to
'
'
'
of which,
?
according to
the theory,
we
share the
essential nature
evaded but not solved in those statetheory which always speak of Thought without specifying whose Thought. It seems to be thus assumed that the thought is God's, and that in rethinking it we share His being. But no such assumption would seem to be justifiable. For the basis, we know, of the whole theory is a criticism or analysis of the essential elements of experience. But the criticism must, for each of us, be necessarily of his ozun experience, for of no other experience can he know anything, except indirectly and by way of inference from his own. What, then, is this criticism
difficulty is
The
ments
of
the
idealist
'
'
supposed to establish (say) for me ? Is it that experience depends upon the unification by a self-conscious I of a world constituted by relations ? In strictness, No. It can only establish that my experience depends upon a unification by my self-conscious I of a world of relations present To this I,' to this particular to me, and to me alone. including God, self-conscious subject,' all other I's,' must be objects, constituted like all objects by relations, rendered possible or significant only by their unification
' ' '
'
'
'
'
in
the
'
content
of a single experience
(if it
'
namely,
my
is
own.
exists at all)
of,
essentially
subject
'
'
or
spoken about, as
clusion.
It
object'
may
of particular
I's'
150
IDEALISM
'
self
'
which
I
is
not the
will
not dispute
about terms
'
pure ego
said,
and the relations which exist between the and the empirical ego are, as I have alreadyso obscure that it is not always easy to employ a
'
'
'
perfectly
deal
If
all,
with them.
the words
'
Yet
self,'
'
this
ego,'
to be certain.
I,'
'somewhat' which is self-distinguished, not only from every other knowable object, but also from every other possible
'
self.'
What we
are
'
in ourselves,' apart
move
in
never-ending pageant
hard to say.
Some
of
them have
I
we
are nothing.
But
if this
conclusion be, as
beliefs
think
it
nor to a
sound psychology if we are, as I believe, more than a mere series of occurrences, yet it seems equally certain
that the very notion of Personality excludes the idea of
'
mode
'
be
But the
more than
sciousness
idealistic
its
furthest conclu-
We
by
it
from
we
For, as
if it is
to be
must be constituted by
'
relations
'
content of experience
'
part of the
multiplicity
'
reduced to
it it
'
unity
'
by
his self-
consciousness.
these terms,
is
cannot be known as
exists
'
IDEALISM
for if
it
151
exists at
all,
it
exists
by hypothesis as Eternal
is
it
'
clearly
nor
is
it
either a
No
consciousness, then,
is
a statement which, on
is
equivalent to saying
any one consciousness all other consciousnesses are less than non-existent. For as that which is critically shown to be an inevitable element in experience has thereby conferred on it the highest possible degree of reality, so that which cannot on any terms become an
'
element
in
experience
is
falls in
reduced, as
we have
'
seen, to
mere
meaningless no-sense.
By
this
to be necessary
Not
less,
by
this
is is
'
room
for but
l
one knowing
and that
this subject
himself
most
interesting
and suggestive
lecture
on
In his view, a multiplicity from the one I have just been of objects apprehended by a single self-conscious subject does not The world of objects and suffice to constitute an intelligible universe. the perceiving mind are themselves opposites which require a higher
dealing with.
unity to hold them together. This higher unity is God ; so that by the simplest of metaphysical demonstrations Prof. Caird lays deep
and proves not only that God exists, but that His Being is philosophically involved in the very simplest of our experiences. I confess, with regret, that this reasoning appears to me inconclusive. Surely we must think of God as, on the transcendental theory, we think of ourselves that is, as a Subject distinguishing itself from, but giving unity to, a world of phenomena. But if such a Subject
the foundations of his theology,
;
and such a world cannot be conceived without also postulating some higher unity in which their differences shall vanish and be dissolved, then God Himself would require some yet higher deity to explain His existence. If, in short, a multiplicity of phenomena presented to
IDEALISM
That the transcendental solipsism which is the natuoutcome of such speculations is not less inconsistent with science, morality, and common-sense than the psychological, or Berkeleian form of the same creed, is obvious. But without attempting further to press idealism to results which, whether legitimate or not, all idealists would agree
3.
'
'
ral
in repudiating, let
how
little
The psychology
upon the very
of
Hume,
as
we have
seen, threw
doubt
The
observation
is
in
his process
of analysis,
may
The law
of universal causa-
tion,
example, can never be proved by a mere repetihowever prolonged, of similar sequences, though the
may, through the association of ideas, gradually compel us to expect the second term of the sequence whenever the first term comes within the field of our obserrepetition
vation.
idealists.
So
far
Hume
as interpreted
by the transcendental
I form together an intelligible and hard to see by what logic we are to get beyond the solipsism which, as I have urged in the text, seems to be the necessary outcome of one form, at least, of the transcendental argument. If, on the other hand, subject and object cannot form such an intelligible and self-sufficient whole, then it seems impossible to imagine what is the nature of that Infinite One in which the multiplicity of things and persons find their ultimate unity. Of such a God we can have no knowledge, nor can we say that we are formed in His image, or share His essence. Of course I do not mean to suggest that Berkeley was a
' '
whole, then
it is
'
solipsist.'
On
IDEALISM
Now, how Somewhat in
(so to speak)
is
153
this difficulty
this
way.
ciples of relation
have not, say the idealists, to be collected from individual and separate experiences (as the empirical philosophers believe, but as Hume, the chief among empiricists, showed to be impossible) neither are
;
by Provi-
dence to be applied as occasion arises to the world of experience with which by a beneficent, if unexplained, adaptation they find themselves in a pre-established har-
mony.
On
'
antecedent condition, of there being any experience at all so that the difficulty of subsequently extracting them from
experience does not
truth their creation
arise.
;
The world
surprise.
of
phenomena
is
in
will really
Assuming
constituted
for
by
we ask on what
versal
case to be applied,
application
;
any given For they are admittedly not of unithe idealists themselves are
and, as
careful to
remind
us, there is
no more
fertile
source of error
than the importation of them into a sphere wherein they have no legitimate business. Take, for example, the cate-
scientific point of
all.
By what
'
principle of relation
the whole world every event must have a cause, and every
cause must be invariably succeeded by the same event? Because we can apply the category, are we, therefore, bound
to apply
it ?
or contradiction ensue
is
arbitrary
154
IDEALISM
casual,
and
and
that,
no security that the accustomed must confess that I can perceive none. Of course, we should thus be deprived of one of our most useful principles of unification but this would by no means result in the universe resolving itself into that unthinkable chaos of unrelated atoms which is the idealist bugbear. There are plenty of categories left and if the final aim of philosophy be, indeed, to find the Many in One and the One in Many, this end would be as completely, if not as satisfactorily, accomplished by conceiving the world to be presented to the thinking subject in the haphazard multiplicity of unordered succession, as by any more elaborate method. Its various elements lying side by side in one Space and one Time would still be related together in the content of a single experience they would still form an intelligible whole their unification would thus be effectually accomplished without the aid of the higher categories. But it is evident that a universe so constituted, though it might
accuracy
there
?
we may,
consequent
will follow
'
'
'
'
As we saw
tuted
the
it is
by relations, and relations are the work of the mind, mind should be dependent on experience for finding out anything about the universe. But granting the necessity of experience,
it seems as hard to make that experience answer our questions on the idealist as on the empirical
hypothesis. Neither on the one theory nor on the other does any method exist for extracting general truths out of particular observations, unless some general truths are
first
assumed.
On
claim to be a philosophy.
the whole intelligible world
On
the
idealist
hypothesis
world which, be
it
recol-
which language
IDEALISM
can
155
therefore,
be
significantly
used
a world which,
This single allas well as the possible. embracing truth is that the multiplicity of phenomena, whatever be its nature, must always be united, and only
impossible
exists in virtue of being united, in the experience of a
But
I
whatever be
its
value, cannot,
field
of experience.
It
cannot give us
field,
if
any,
is
us which of our
any,
may be
implied
the
old
scientific
doctrine.
Though,
therefore,
come upon us in a new form, clothed, I will not say shrouded, in a new terminology, they come upon us with all the old insistence. They are restated, but they
questions
are not solved
;
and
am
unable, therefore, to
difficulties
find
in
from the
which, in the
have made in this chapter no reference to the idealistic theory Holding the views I have indicated upon the general import of idealism, such a course seemed unnecessary. But I cannot help thinking that even those who find in that theory a more satisfactory basis for their convictions than I am able to do, must feel that there is something rather forced and arbitrary in the attempts that have been made to exhibit the artistic fancies of an insignificant fraction of the human race during a very brief period of its history as essential and important elements in the development and manifestation
I
of aesthetics.
of the
'
Idea.'
i 56
CHAPTER
III
Briefly,
if
not adequately,
to indicate the
me
to
be
inseparable from
verse,
beset the
its
idealistic
by
most systematic
exponents
feel
in this country.
propose, in what
in
the
of
or have
affected
the
general
course
speculative opinion.
He
is
no alarm.
My
object
and
theories,
however admirable,
to
which
by
actually
grounds
for
the
conviction
of
some
PHILOSOPHY AND RATIONALISM
fraction, at least, of those
157
by
whom
these pages
may
conceivably be read.
In saying that this condition
the great historic
is
not satisfied by
their
systems
say
is,
is
brings
them properly within the scope of these Notes. Whatever be the nature or amount of our debt to
now we go
on
to
for stray
arguments
a reasoned scheme
own
Now,
of
how many
?
even
plausi-
Run
over
memory some
of the
most important.
tion, for
Men
the exquisite
beauty of his
style.
But even
he
left
if it
could be said
it
which
it
cannot
as
that
It
a system, could
as
be
described
effectual
a system which,
such,
difficult,
has
any
But
touch
vitality?
would be
perhaps
impossible, to
sum up our
Stoic
debts to Aristotle.
The
scheme of
life
may
still
i53
our imagination
but
who
metaphysics
mundane events?
;
Neo-Platonists
I
were
mystics
and mysticism
in
as
suppose, an undying
is
element
human
thought.
But who
concerned
scale with
Matter
at the other
it
These, however,
may be
;
said,
were systems
thousand
advance.
years
I
agree
us with a philosophy
knowledge
has
with
a reasoned system of
?
this
do we, indeed,
fare
much
better
more
Do
his
two
substances or kinds of substance, or the single substance of Spinoza, or the innumerable substances of
Leibnitz, satisfy the searcher after truth
?
From the
modern English form of the empiricism which dominated the eighteenth century, and the idealism which
disputes
its
supremacy
in
the
nineteenth,
have
Are
philosophy of Will, and Hartmann's philosophy of the Unconscious, to supply us with the philosophical
metaphysics of which
we
are in need
They have
159
Of
those
their pessimism,
who are quite prepared to accept how many are there who take seri?
ously
its
metaphysical foundation
which
it
seems
have
The first
is
purely historical.
Thus
regarded,
mena
his
spiritual
condition,
aids,
it
.spiritual
growth.
The
historian of philosophy, as
such,
is
whose evolution he
is
expounding.
their
His business
to
is
existence,
exhibit
them
their
proper
historical setting,
and
and
it
their consequences.
difficult
But, so considered,
that these opinions
find
to believe
have been
vigour have
cultivated
;
one or
more
but rarely, as
seems
to
turn
which they
flourished.
;
They
have been
the
effects rather
in
than causes
indications of
mood
160
proofs
mankind
always
to bring their
harmony with
have
;
speculative reason.
But
the
;
the
beliefs
almost
preceded
speculations
and
among
the just
titles to
behalf of metaphysic
claim to
No
doubt
and
it
here
to the second
merely because
solution.
truth
many
directions,
field
of speculation
seems cumbered with the dross and lumber of their But though they have not abandoned workings.
found the ore they sought
follow that their labours
is
for,
it
something
to
to do.
failure,
even
or
conditions
of success.
It
is
an even more
substantial gain to
and
towards
and
perfecting
the
much
yet
less satisfactorily
answered.
And
there
is
161
may be
called (not,
violence to
Because reasonin
so
large
place
metaphysical
we
works of imagination
much
as of reason.
who
To
Their
and
characteristic
is
given in experience
as
it
create for us no
definite
emotion
they
;
nor can
labours
it
is
Their
style,
it
must
it
is
otherwise,
Yet, in spite of
all
this,
estimated by those
to
who
prepared
;
to
apply
some other standard, at all events, than that supplied by purely It may perhaps be shown argumentative comment.
them a
quasi-aesthetic
standard
that
their
most permanent
them
and negation.
Yet
162
word
will
For claims
occasional
be found
in
their brilliant
arguments,
their
passion
for
the
and move
far
in realms
speculation
too
removed
from
sympathy
If,
in the breasts
therefore,
we
are for a
moment tempted,
as surely
re-
may sometimes
spectful astonishment
have thought good enough to support their case, let it be remembered that for minds in which the critical
intellect
system whatever
ledge
is,
our knowin
perhaps, impossible.
Only those
whom
powers of philosophical criticism are balanced, or more than balanced, by powers of metaphysical
imagination can be
fitted to
Though even
least for
to
permitted
in
and but
away
hopeless dis-
couragement from
To
would
some, indeed,
not, after
all,
as
use,
if
the loss
they
may
163
examination
What
How
can
we know
we
upon them
To
such
questionings
satisfactory answer.
feel in-
art,
give
us something
we
could
ill
afford to spare.
Art may
beauty
munion with
historic
value.
In speculation, as in
we
find
is
at its highest
when they most clearly reflect the spirit of the age which gave them birth, when they are most racy of
the soil from which they sprung.
To
this point
may have
to return.
But
my
home to the more immediate business is reader's mind the consequences which may be drawn from the admission supposing him disposed to make it that we have at the present time neither a
to bring
satisfactory
theory of science.
Many
persons
perhaps
it
would
64
not be too
of these propositions
I
but
it is
desire to
The
is
first
thinks
it
does
the
not
testify is
untrue, or,
true,
falls
within
faith.
Yet the
knowledge indicated
in the
is
two preced-
how
one-sided
such a view.
from or
the
it is
upon
faith that
maxims
constant
habit and
inherited
enable
us
to
seen on
examination to be not
than the dim
less
and
unfamiliar
is
;
which
lie
beyond.
Certitude
found to be the
child,
not of
and
not because
we
are
much
ask them.
Now,
if
this
It
be
true,
it is
importance.
'
165
tests
and theology. It must destroy the ordinary and standards whereby we measure essential truth. In particular, it requires us to see what is commonly,
if
rather absurdly,
called
in
the conflict
between
aspect.
religion
and
science
wholly
new
We
tween the two, science must be rejected as heretical nor with the equally simple view, to which the
former has long given place, that every theological
statement,
if
unsupported by science,
is
is
doubtful
if
false.
Opinions like
these are
thesis
evidently tolerable
that
we
are
is
in
possession
body of
doctrine
which
not
only
itself
philosophically
established, but to
doctrines are
bound
Are we
ar-
erect
all
one department of
the others
?
belief into a
to say that
law-giver for
Are we
principles,
and coherent
that
clusions,
yet
from
among
the
provisional
to accept
limits,
one
is
whose
in con-
Such a position
speculatively untenable.
It
66
involves
justified
in
by any philosophy
so
it
and as
it is
indefensible
theory,
is
injurious in practice.
For, in
in-
truth,
though
is
the contented
acquiescence in
consistency
costs has
lectual
been the
prolific
parent of
many
has
intelIt
narrownesses and
itself in
many
frigid bigotries.
;
has shown
various shapes
it
stifled
and stunted
different ages
its
the
free
movement
traced in
in
of
thought in
;
unhappy
effects
may be
which delights
to
be heterodox.
It
moreover,
who
conceive themselves
to
be
reasonable
employed
in reasoning,
find
no better
extreme
be said
is
as
it
were
in
solution,
some
command
in
That
will,
I
am
think,
three centuries.
It
is,
167
so
vague
and
'
loosely
outlined
an
educated opinion
of
elaborate
are,
and
definitely
be,
systems.
Systems
and must
the
few.
The a mood or
reasoned
fully
assimilation of
others,
rejection of
Behind these
association
'
half-
motives,
and
in
closest
with
them,
may
'
theory
ex-
of things
pression.
which
is is
their
logical
and
explicit
But
it
certainly not
this
necessary,
and
who seem
is
obey
it.
Nor
for
dis-
there
any important
who
and
that of the
many who do
not.
Keeping
this caution in
mind,
we may
consider
to
that
tendency of
in
the
is is
commonly known
Rationalism
it
as Rationalism.
Now, what
Some may be
is
human
168
intelligence to the
the unprejudiced examination of every question in the dry light of emancipated reason.
This may be
a very
-
ideal
good account of a particular intellectual an ideal which has been sought after at many
it
'
has been
attained
in
none.
Usage,
however,
permits and even encourages us to employ the word as indicating a in a much more restricted sense
:
special
form of
that
reaction
against
dogmatic
theology which
to
may
its
rise in the
increased in
teenth
reached
most
complete
expression
in
the
reaction of
some
Men found themwas no doubt inevitable. selves in a world where Literature, Art, and Science
were enormously extending the range of human Religion seemed approachin which interests
;
able
only through
the
languishing
fierce
controversies
and
seventeenth
centuries
in
which
very different period of intellectual growth, and were ceasing to be appropriate to the new developments.
At such a time
of
The mind
in
man
cannot, any
one
169
suffers,
or
to
it
it
So
is
hopeless to expect
new
in
truths
be
some
respects
and
restated,
Much
had, therefore, to be
let
us admit
it
had to be
by the old
destroyed.
its
best
results
the
;
refuse
until the
waste products
a muscle too
in
like those of
The
rationalists
enlighten
it.
which made
if
it
comparatively humble,
without,
purification
at the
much that ought properly to have been preserved. They were not content with protesting against
practical
abuses, with
vindicating
the freedom of
iyo
and explaining the limitations of the somewhat cumbrous and antiquated apparatus of prevalent apparatus, no doubt, much theological controversy
defects
theologians
differ
than
for
defending
against
common enemy
for the to
These
things,
;
no doubt,
to the
the
and
The doing of them no objection need be raised. things the which objection is to the principle on
were done.
disguises,
That
principle appeared
under many
and was called by many names. Sometimes describing itself as Common-sense, sometimes
as Science, sometimes as Enlightenment, with infinite
varieties of application
method
to
Did a
view of
mode
might
of interpreting sense-perception
survive.
it ?
If so,
it
beyond
scientific
it
Did it was It
lie
it
was
un-
it
neither in
was
incredible.
Was
until
antagonistic to such
It
might
use,
live
on
a mere
sur-
vival of a
not, as a rule,
supported
Rationalists as
'
171
not
philosophers.
They
are
not pan-
theists nor
if
speculative materialists.
They
ignore
But they
so
men
too
in
closely
methods
affairs,
which succeed
admirably
everyday
men
of
Of
led
at
knowledge
Through the
'
ordinary
mode
of interpreting sense-perception
consistent
It
'
has been
perfectly
with
so-called
'
supernatural
phenomena.
the case,
may become
so
again.
And
if
is
more governed by
world to which
is
it
beliefs
The
general
body of
to
rationalisers
to see
and reluctant
accept the
full
The assumption
knowledge did not
it
kind of
'
experience
called
72
circle of
was
Deism, Design, Soul, Conscience, Morality, Immorthese and cognate words tality, Freedom, Beauty
memory
at
of great controversies
rationalists
mark the
points
which
have sought
spirit,
to to
or
It
onward movement.
at others
At some
doubtful.
the balance
the issues
make a
conscience
those
who have
console
abandoned moral
themselves with
responsibility
may
But, to
still
artistic
beauty.
my thinking,
Habit and education may delay the inevitable conFor these clusion they cannot in the end avert it.
;
ideas are
no native growth of a
rationalist epoch,
moods
They
survivals
from,
some
think,
a decaying
they
system.
And howsoever
stubbornly
may
resist the influences of an alien environment, if this undergoes no change, in the end they must
surely perish.
is
more
than
the
result
of
rationalising
to
pitiless
consistency
the
'
173
circuit of belief.
It is
rationalism,
the
final
outcome of using
as
instrument for
determining the
human knowledge.
this
What
What,
wealth
us
of
spiritual
I
possession
creed
requires
to give up
it
then, does
promise us
exchange?
It
promises us Consistency.
its
Religion
may
perish at
touch,
it
may
strip
most
precious
attributes
but
in
exchange
is
it
promises us Consistency.
in
This creed,
is
to
is
not, as
we have
seen,
The humblest
unquestioning
attempts to
proceeds
with
such
confidence
and contra-
whose
were
test
it
solution
whose very existence seems unsuspected, But even is not even attempted.
otherwise
we should
still
be bound to prois
a
if
to be purchased,
It
is
need
be,
at
famine
it
prices.
valuable
commodity, but
may
No
to
fit,
to
smooth
proper
away
contradictions, to
knock
off corners,
and
its
as far as
may
be,
place within
the
framework of one
harmonious
174
creed.
No
doubt, also,
it
is
impossible to regard
either
far
or
final.
But
principles
going
beyond admissions
us
to
compel
acquiesce
rationalising
methods
and
every form
at
that
its
authenticated
by Reason.
task
is
accomplished
(and
how
far at
present
in the case of
would be an act of
to set
up
as the universal
itself
make a
reckless
so manifestly defective.
75
CHAPTER
At
however,
IV
RATIONALIST ORTHODOXY
this point,
I
it
may perhaps
to
occur to the
reader that
lightly
assumed
that Rationalism
the high-road
is
Naturalism.
Why,
shall
it
may be
asked,
difficulty in
permanently
sistency,
in its
?
Why
this
we
to as-
mode
of thought
more
actually in existence
a scheme
of great
historic importance,
it
and some
modern Science and Theology together into a single coherent and self-sufficient system of thought, by the simple process of making Science supply all the
premises on which theological conclusions are
after-
wards based.
If this device
be really adequate, no
doubt much of what was said in the last chapter, will have to be said in future chapters,
becomes superfluous.
If
'
176
RATIONALIST ORTHODOXY
sense-perception,'
interpreting
which
gives
us
Science,
is
then at
not,
least,
whether
it
be philosophically valid or
may very
come
it
well rest
to
content with
until
philosophers
If
some
agreement about a
philosophic
else
;
better.
will
critic, it
with
practical outcome.
divides
Theology
into
Natural
and
Revealed.
at
by a consideration of the
is
explained to us
by Science.
less
It
examples of adaptation
and the
nicest
like
From
facts
is
From
number of
Creator
is
benevolent
is
then sup-
posed to be
prejudice the
special Revelation
RATIONALIST ORTHODOXY
been imparted, not otherwise accessible
assisted
to
177
our un-
powers of speculation.
evidences of Revealed Religion are not
The
but they
facts
none the
less to
have adhered
scientific
order.
According
burden
thrown upon
certain events
is
historical investigation,
unless,
indeed,
we
Natural
Theology.
It is true,
But
it is
thought to
be revealed because
who were
inspired
to
historical
which
to
it
is
sufficient
produce conviction
Now
it
this general
train of reasoning
ground of
'
78
RATIONALIST ORTHODOXY
it
be conclusive or inconclusive,
hand, Religion
other,
'
Natural
'
and
'
Revealed
'
on the
in
;
positions..
But
it
attains
it
by making Theology
a mere
same methods
We
real
It
are
whose
things.
tion,
premises
is
deep
in
the
nature of
moral
we
are concerned.
We
same
and
sort
of reason
that
we
believe
Canterbury
Gospels
for the
same
we
believe in the
Now
opinion
am
on the contrary,
my
personal
The
have
argument, or perhaps
from design,
value
;
in
some shape or
the
while
argument
from
history
must
histori-
The
first
will, in
my
opinion, survive
RATIONALIST ORTHODOXY
179
this is desirable
more
than this
indeed, necessary.
this sort are, or
arguments of
may be made,
They
ill
have
not,
as
it
effect so
great
a change.
momentum.
but
be technically defective,
practically inadequate.
this
will,
may appear
I
self-evident.
Those
its
think, be convinced of
truth
moment
in the
position
of
man
;
trained
on the
strictest
principles
of
Naturalism
and
results of Science
of secular
the
critic
human
history,
To
such a
man
by holy men
are
familiar
in
in different countries,
facts
to
be
fitted
be explained
instructive
at a particular stage of
human development
this
180
RATIONALIST ORTHODOXY
Now
Religion,
account of Natural
evidences
is
and then
for Revelation.
So
Natural Religion
con-
cerned he
that
will
to argue
the world
is
Author
is
a process
more doubtful
not
disturb
still
we need
so
little
if
ourselves
about matters
we
He
really
exists,
Him
to
have undertaken
undisturbed
operation,
and
about
which alone
sources of information.
Supposing,
Naturalistic
you
philosopher to accept,
what
tory
will
is
good
historic
and
in
this planet,
the con-
tinuous
of
universal
causation
has
been
broken
RATIONALIST ORTHODOXY
181
they really
whole
theory
in the light of
to interpret
human
us
knowledge which no
would
unnumbered prototypes
mere accumulation of
that
Granting
all
to
be conceded
wonders was
produced
in
granting even
sufficient to
seemed
far
more than
establish
any
incident,
however
what then
no doubt
We
full
were face
necessarily
Conflicts of testimony
conflicts
with
antecedent probability,
of different
In thousands of cases
among these.
nor
late invention,
182
RATIONALIST ORTHODOXY
devise,
But
at least
it
us,
of three
written
or
documents
little
at the best
by eye-witnesses of
education and no
scientific
no authority
principle
to
in
jurisdiction
large.
And
ing theologian,
is
The
and
all
He
he
same base
of
operations.
to
And though
professes
by these means
have nothing
Is
it
to do, can
it?
to the
main
system of which
will
it is
intended to be a dependency,
;
and that
the
weak and
it
artificial
strain
which
shall
criticism or sentiment
PART
III
CHAPTER
CAUSES OF EXPERIENCE
I
So
endeavoured
insufficient.
to
show
In the
of
Part
II.
indicated
the view
that
The
that
obvious con-
clusion
drawn,
under
these
circumstances
to
was
in the highest
degree absurd
consistency as
in
Naturalism,
which
is
Rationalism
developed, placed us in
which
all
our
brief criticism
it
by which
has been
procedure
is
86
CAUSES OF EXPERIENCE
ineffectual,
predestined to be
inferences
and
that
no mere
of
the
ordinary
pattern,
based
upon
But
if
Naturalism by
itself
be practically
its
in-
sufficient, if
no conclusion based on
affirmations
its
will
negations,
and
if,
as
system
the
of Idealism
difficulty,
got us out of
?
One
such remedy
consists
by side with
mentary set of
beliefs,
meet,
and
may speak amid silences which science is powerThe natural world and the spiritual less to break.
world, the world which
is
immediately subject to
causation
and the
world
which
is
immediately
this
view, each of
real
them
knoware
ledge.
revealed
by the
discoveries
of
science;
spiritual intuitions,
guided
lie
institutions.
And
side
by
side,
dif-
race and
language, which
own no common
other,
CAUSES OF EXPERIENCE
no superior power exists to
determine their respective
187
limits.
To
thousands of persons
it
this
patchwork scheme
less sharply
itself;
I
of belief, though
defined, has, in
and
if
and
in so far as
really
it,
have
It is
much more
;
is
;
not
much
it
less
philosophical as regards
method and
has the
rough-and-ready ex-
body of
system.
It has,
There
many persons, and they are increasing in number, who find it difficult or impossible to acquiesce
are
in
this
unconsidered division
into
of the
'Whole' of
knowledge
at
the
positive teaching
;
of
Naturalism has
and
it
number of hetero-
geneous propositions drawn from an entirely different source, and on behalf of which no such
common agreement can be claimed. What such persons ask for, and
rightly,
is
188
CAUSES OF EXPERIENCE
an adequate creed.
it
rational unity to
But, as the
it
reader knows,
have
not to give
nor does
even
seem
to
me
that
we have any
selves that
we
some
the
all-reconciling theory
supremacy of Reason.
attained at
all,
is
to be
must be sought
level.
so to speak, at
some lower
speculative
We
must
either
fit
given
others,
we
reject this
or at least
more manageable,
in
To
of
all
this
end
let
philosophic
proof,
and
let
and
birth.
are,
CAUSES OF EXPERIENCE
of
course,
189
we
may
rare,
How,
then,
would these
another
beliefs
appear to an
investigator
from
planet
who, applying
and
its
inhabitants
He
would
note,
suppose, to
'The sun
room,'
'
is
shining,'
'there
is
somebody
in
the
;
feel tired,'
would be examples of
this class
whose members, from the nature of the case, refer immediately only to the passing moment, and die as
soon as they are born. If
that,
when
more
particularly
;
percipient
and
due
to
a certain kind of
is
by
no means
true, since,
9o
it
CAUSES OF EXPERIENCE
was by
this
large,
no
that neural
changes of
issued in beliefs
any
itself to
He
would see a
series of
He
exterior world
varied, in like
of the
nerve-
to
the
multitudinous
correspondences
and
man
mammals.
And
he would con-
and
rightly, that
might be conceived as so
insensible gradations.
If,
in that
each type
it
by
of psychical effects
The
first is,
that
The second
physiological
is,
that even
on
the
contrary,
CAUSES OF EXPERIENCE
191
something
more
than
We
do
not, for
example, supfeel,
nor
beliefs
of perception.
One
suppose,
neural
draw from
like
these
is,
that while
is
sensibility to
external
influences
a widespread
and
still
more
the beliefs,
relatively
to which
in certain cases
it
insignificant
phenomena,
useful
ments
developments, but
in
still,
operative
at
all,
rather
improvements
tial
to the
to
its
working.
like result
would attend
might
fall
under
we
\
less
imme-
examples of
though
I
this
type
my
opinion,
{
certain instinctive and, so to speak, automatic expectations about the future or that part of the present
V.,
page 304.
92
CAUSES OF EXPERIENCE
Like the
beliefs of perception of
perience.
which
be the
we have been
seem
to
need be accompanied by no
Physiological co-ordinato
psychical
manifestation.
tion is sufficient
by
itself
supplemented by their
pectation.
beliefs of
memory and
of ex-
These two
to
the
absent, cover
the whole
ground of what
something more.
in
rudimentary form,
particulars which,
on any
;
for
scientific induction
its
and,
according to empiricism in
raw
material, without
reason
of additional beliefs
entertain.
is
Our Imaginary Observer, however, quite indifferent to mundane theories as to what ought to
produce conviction, and intent only on discovering
how
reasoning required to
memory,
CAUSES OF EXPERIENCE
and expectation.
193
These immediate
beliefs
belong to
They involve no commerce between mind and mind. They might equally exist, and would equally be necessary, if each man stood
man
as an individual.
Nature
in friendless isola-
logical extension
we
of
These
in
of antecedent causes
causes
most diverse
character.
many They
in
number and
to
presuppose,
memory, and
;
elementary shape
and they
clearly not
also to
enough
be provided.
And though
shall not
attempt
approach to completeness
environment
consists,
contains
and yet
in
popular dis-
seems
desirable.
194
CHAPTER
II
This group
Authority, a
is
than
we have been
though, as
that
my
readers
reason, perhaps,
to think, for
tract
more
may
be,
it is,
the fact
one problem,
am aware,
;
which can,
in
be treated
a man-
Nor
we have
to
contend with.
all
195
would
be, perhaps,
the main
battlefield
But
if so, is
is
least,
victory
have declared
itself
reason
seems
to
to a declaration
must be
in the right,
the
wrong
economy of Nature
that
is
all
most bigoted
and absurd.
The
Every-
one has a
It is his
'
'
right
'
right, 'critically
supported, and so to adjust the degree of his convictions that they shall accurately correspond with the
Authority, there-
has no place
If
is,
I
belief.
1
it
causes of
as an inthis
It
chapter
use Reason in
its
transcen-
dental, sense.
There
is
Reason.
96
truder, to
expelled.
By
boast
who
be controlled.
Sentiments
among
the
commonmerely
Yet, looked
seem
to
me
to be, not
Suppose
for a
moment a comset
consider
whereon
obey
rest
which make
and
it
all
;
which help
to
make
easy
and
to
might seem to
nity, if
it
To
commuat,
little.
begin to be
and
if
by a miracle
was
created,
it
itself into
constituent elements.
right
it
judgment be
universal,
197
maxims
;
and
be a
little
farce,
every
man
should bring to
it
a mind as
warped
as possible bias of
traditional
'
view.
What
qualifica-
such a task
we
are to
attribute to the
members
not.
munity
highest.
know
or
But
every
girl
man and
(for
woman,
ought
in
persons under
Arm them
and
set
of criticism,
them down
to
the task
of
theft
and adultery
What
would
from
be,
this
it
what wild chaos of opinions would result fiat of the Uncreating Word, I know not.
But
Ten Commandments,
i 98
tion
whether
'right'
and 'wrong'
which
likes
and
dislikes
happen
to
conceive
it
to
The
their very
as to their character
students explain,
is
a clear presumption to
be found
on the very
were
but in the
else explain
dogma.
is
How
the
fact,
no great difference of
is
why
wrong
to
commit murit
tells
us that
is
because
kind,
wrong manus
and that
happiness of mankind
that
it is
wrong.
Another
tells
that everything
which
is
conscience
against the
is
wrong.
it
is
thing which
against the
commandments
of
God
is
199
fourth
tells
me that
it
and
that,
sible
who,
sum sum
of their
of their
do
anything
which
may
bring
their
Now
whence,
it
would be asked,
this
?
curious
How
Why
the
itself
we undoubtedly
find in
all
methods employed
explorers
How
same
comes
goal,
it
that
these
reach the
when
?
their
Plainly
The conclusions were in every case determined before the argument began, the goal was in
out.
There
coerced
is
Rather
is
reason
operation
of
rougher machinery of
penalty.
ostracism
and
legal
The framers of ethical systems are either philosophers who are unable to free themselves from
2oo
body
cares, than
in
respect
conflict
to
conclusions which
So might we imagine
cipated
morality
task to
founded.
But, in truth,
detail
it
were a vain
results
work out
in further
the
of
an experiment which,
it is,
human
is
nature
being what
That
it
it
can
be
observed,
is
of
so
its
the community in
wisdom would
refuse to
em-
bark upon
indeed.
it.
This would be a
frail
protection
its
impossibility,
our security.
To
tions
investigation
fortunately,
an exercise of which
humanity
societies
is
Some
incli-
nation to indulge in
dition of society
than others.
in
But
in
no conincli-
and
no individual
will the
nation be
partially satisfied.
Always
course of
human
history,
in the
belief.
II
at first sight
we
the
'
commonplaces
as
that
every
lives,'
man
is
and that
it
is
much above
the level
of his age.'
ful
But aphorisms
like these,
however usedo
not,
as ordinarily employed,
show any
I
real
apprehension
insist.
desire
to
They
influ-
movements
truth
of those
happier
cir-
mankind
by reason.
a kind of
Ormuzd
and
authority.
Its
Everything which
triumph
is
shall
a gain
and
it
if
could extirpate, as
were
we
should,
it
have already
in-
to
202
ancestors,
we
palliate
on account of
their
environment
own
reasoned
little
nor should
we
it
necessarily
lation
if
it
for self-gratu-
may
fashioned.
reason with
belief,
that
is
that
is
bad,
is
a delusion
amination
into
which
lie at
first
the root of
may
The
of these confusions
It arises
may be
dismissed
almost in a sentence.
Such
an assumption,
point at issue.
sion,
it
need hardly be
said,
made to mean right reason than authority can be made to mean legitimate authority. True, we might accept the first of these
can no more be
definitions,
fruit
all
right belief
was the
of reason.
verse proposition,
belief.
Nor need we be
con-
203
presents points of
true, as
I
much
greater interest.
Though it
am
reason
among
and
ideals
groundwork of
life
has been
much
exaggerated, there
or appears to be,
is,
we have the most direct control, one which we most readily identify
free
with our
own
and personal
It
action.
We
are
acted on by authority.
thought
to
in spite of ourselves,
ourselves.
We
its
have ourselves
proper working
;
machine
in motion.
For
we
is
so that
it
desirable that
this
we
be
should concen-
on
led
unduly to
in
it
engine in
the
work
valve by which
It
cylinder.
was
by pulling a
far
string
little
doubt that
2o 4
youth
moving was
magni-
in office greatly
and
effects
by
in
the
furnace was
So do we stand
To
it
by
makes
bution
it is
may do
of
some
vance
in the
whole mechanism.
in
The manner
and
social,
interest are
control, rather
we
may be
illustrated
by countless examples.
physiology.
Of
all
the complex
less
wholesome
immediate
far
Yet,
as
it
within
205
we attend to it, moralise about it, and make much of it. But no man can by taking
they go
purpose.
So
it is
politic.
certain proportion
How
how a
decision shall
be arrived
at,
matters which
effort
and how it shall be carried out, are we seem able to regulate by conscious
to ends.
We
We
perceive that
more important
processes,
life
by whose undesigned
rendered possible.
in
There
who,
like
is,
illusion,
belief.
I
'
have already
spirit of
in this
'
chapter
made
reference to the
the age as
2o6
one form
itself
;
and undoubtedly
is so.
1
Dogmatic educa-
may do much.
The immediate
may
scientific, ecclesiastical
do even more.
is
never
more
subtle
and
'
when
'
it
'
produces a
favourable
psychological
atmosphere
or
climate
belief,
modes of
life
unfavourable,
'
to the
of others.
Such
climates
'
may be widely diffused, or the reverse. Their range may cover a generation, an epoch, a whole civilisation, or it may be narrowed down to a sect, a family, even an individual. And as they may vary infinitely
in respect to the
they
may
vary
and
quality.
But whatever be
their limits
and whatever
their
life,
and
be overstated.
only on acIf
is
credible propositions,
at
body
only to
impartially tested
investigation,
the
intellectual
its
and
1
by mere
may
in these
again remind the reader that the word dogmatic as used Notes has no special theological reference.
207
it
Even such
products as
could
conjecture (for
the experiment
collection,
tried),
What
is
actually happens
the
vast
majority of cases
something very
different.
To
number
known, and on
upon
to
pronounce a judgless
ment.
Few
for
indeed are
his
among
those which
come under
a
moment
The
residue he
summarily disposes
rather treats as
if
of,
seems
to imply.
Now, can this process be described as a rational one ? That it is not the immediate result of reasoning
for
is,
I
example, that
when
the
'
mind
closed against
bigotry
or
'
inveterate
not so
as something which,
all.
not reasoning at
But
2o8
there
as
'
really
no ground
for
drawing a distinction
regards their
mode
'
of operation
between the
like
psychological climates
which we happen to
happen to disapprove.
all,
How-
very much
in the
For good or
and
in
modern,
ever by
among savage
folk
and among
civilised,
it is
sifted
and selected
reason has
;
to pass
judgment
and
process
is
do not
in
they
To
the
first
As
'
'
are
produce
beliefs,
'
so are
beliefs
which produce
climates,'
which culminates
in belief
may
concerned
in the effects
belief develops.
results
rational
;
Do
they follow,
or
209
it
may be worth
while to consider
I
it
in the light of
in
an example which
a different aspect.
It will
I
be recollected that
in a
preceding chapter
mood
of
in
may
for
purposes of
Rationalism
argument
To
to Rationalism, in other
now
well
taking
it
meaning
is
development, and
we can
therefore
study
quite
'
its
origin
impossible
'
when we
are
dealing with
the
climates
which govern
These,
too,
suppose
ing.
are, to
some
'
as
climates
'
are
repugnant
and
we can
With Rationalism
coveries
of science,
it
is
different.
How
the dis-
and
210
rationalising
all,
because
to
in
Not everyone
a rationalist
prepared to
is
difficulty
by the
among mankind.
this
Now
in its qualified
is
or unqualified
naturalistic) form,
plainly
no
the
conditions,
its
as
is
and
historical criticism
up with-
purposes
this
is
reasoning, too.
work
of reason
;
The
jects miracles
and
to a discussion,
that his
belief
The odds
are
psychological climate.'
For observe
rejects
that precisely
also
in
the
way
in
which he
miracles he
rejects
witchcraft.
The
general belief
in
211
and
it
has not
But, whether
down
flourishing in a mental
and accordingly
no
logical
The
belief in
in
found
a hostile influence.
could
call in
this
was found
insuf-
rationalistic bias
proved
judgment
of
they would
have
called
the 'plain
So
that
we
mood
or temper,
whose
origin
to
it
making
ments.
This
is
conflict
between
2i2
we took
as our
example some worn-out vesture of thought, threadbare from use, and strange to eyes accustomed to
newer
while
fashions.
Rationalism, in
;
its
turn,
may be
forcibly
exemplifies
the
played by
If rationalism
be regarded as a non-rational
effect of
reason and a
will
;
same admission
made about
all
now,
trust, plain to
the reader.
The
are of
is
and rationalism
The
and rationalism
belief,
'
is
not an
or disbelief.
So
that,
though rationalism,
is
like other
psychological
climates,'
doubtless due,
among
other causes, to
reason,
it is
and though
produces
beliefs,
it is
not
IV
The most
and
it
arises
which
in matters of
we
213
No
one finds
(if
my
observations
in
this
he
That
cases
be produced
in countless
That but
fundamental
beliefs, are
held by persons
who
in
could
number
conse-
may
great difficulty.
this
But
it
is
law
is
that without
possibly be carried on
nor do
we
allow, without
Now
nor
of
any fancied
to the
rest
immunity
of the
from
It
weaknesses
is,
common
a direct
of mankind.
rather,
consequence
of
at
reason
and of
our relations
to
it.
Looked
complex
2i 4
conditions
relatively
reason
;
appears
not only
insignificant
and
ineffectual
if
appears
to
so,
but umst be
so,
human
society
inside,
is
it
be made possible.
Looked
title
at
from the
claims by an inalienable
to
be supreme.
;
Meaits
sured by
rights
its
results
it
may be
little
is
measured by
it
it is
everything.
There
not
no problem
it
may
may
It
not
assail,
no principle which
it
may
act,
test.
cannot, even
of universal
by
its
own
voluntary
deprive
itself
jurisdiction, as,
On
claims
may be
sin,
is
;
ignored, they
cannot be repudiated
to
obey
do
so,
that
is
to
nominally at
if
it
least,
any
moment,
reverse.
should think
reason
itself
may
Why, under
these circumstances,
we
are
moved
forming our
why we come
be
source of belief
which,
perhaps,
it
may
but the
is
which
It is
it
assuredly
must now,
more
instructive
moment
215
which
rise
changing conditions of
are
being
diverted
into
channels.
It
is
true,
extent and
difficulty of the
monly been
realised
by the advocates
either
of
had a
to induce
him
to
borrow from
it,
even
at the cost of
some
little
inconsistency.
The
supporter of autho-
rity, for
instance,
may
point out
usually accompanied
weakened powers
strife,
of
the increase of
I
the
waste of
power.
Yet, so far as
am
admitting that,
if its
man
to
man who
its
require
right
immediate payment
;
sovereigns.
The
may be undoubted
but
can only be
i6
safely enjoyed
do not take
it
together.
may be found
beliefs
alluded
to,
that
first,
which are
challenged,
when
invariably
claim
to
trace
their
pedigree
of a
may be
as imaginary as
if it
college of heralds.
its
To
be sure, when
it is
purpose
it
usually laid
to
the belief
was intended
until, in
the
less
some
other,
a new claimant.
If the
cedure, here
Among the results of the movement which culminated in the Great Rebellion was of necessity a marked diminution in the universality and efficacy of that mixture of feelings and beliefs
political history.
Now
loyalty, in
some shape
or other,
is
necessary
It is
any form of
polity.
one
of the most
valuable
whether
or
not,
in
is
any
essentially unreasoning.
little
theoretical
interest,
and
it
is
of
controls
217
men
But as
begin to
soon as
its
supremacy
challenged,
men
it
why
should con-
tinue to be obeyed.
who
Rebellion,
it
was
above
all
ments thus called into existence two, both of extraordinary absurdity, have
become
historically
that
much vigour by the Anglican name of Divine right. These in any case they theories may have done their work had their day. It was discovered that, as is the way
;
of abstract
difficulty,
arguments dragged
in to
meet a concrete
many
in
conclu-
sions
much
whose
invoked.
The
age
Leviathan
'
and
'
passive obedience
were handed
This
is
an example of
it
how an
ancient principle,
human
nature,
to
meet some
stress
218
is
all
to a
generation
the
They
time,
selves.
demolished,
to
make way
in
due
no doubt,
for others as
temporary as them-
be
criticism.
A
nition.
commonly goes on
in the case of
new
As
instincts
of self-preservation
reasoning to
same
and the
new
and the
official
reasons by
justified, is often
futility
rights of man,'
and so
forth
by
the
modern
its
democratic
movement
was
nursed
through
infant maladies.
Now
but in every
of
human
activity
where authority
And
thus
may we
fact that in
many
more
per-
manent than
premises,
and
that
the
successive
critical literature
do often
sue-
219
Here, perhaps,
of
might
fitly
my
task,
were
it
mode
in
reasoning to
assistance
is
so important in
to
so
much
confusion
both
of
thought
of
con-
may
is
results
But there
phrase,
a simple operation,
-a
mere turn
of
can, so to speak,
seeming
at first sight
as channels of Authority
and so convenient
is
this
minister
every challenged
that
it
is
constantly reits
both by those
as
upholders
and those
who who
regard themselves
regard
themselves
as opponents of Authority in
matters of opinion.
220
To
have
it
been taught
before
believes
it,
because
my
father believed
in
the village
is is
to
informs us
not,
it
is
however, per
to give
all.
once into
my
teachers,
my
family,
in the
or
my
happy
pro-
which
in
their
turn,
of
course,
require
argumentative support.
Such a procedure may, I need hardly say, be quite legitimate and reasons of this kind are probably the principal ground on which
;
in
mature
life
we
ordinate
scientific
and
historical
convictions.
falls in
moon
towards
the earth with the exact velocity required by the force of gravitation, for no other reason than that
I
believe
in
of the persons
lations.
In
case
the
reason for
it
my
its
belief
;
are identical
the
being
a reason.
But
former case
Mere
sons
or public
they continued to act as non-rational causes and it is not improbable after they became reasons
;
221
less to
the
Now
reasons
to
be
almost
even when
is
it
is
illegitimate.
\
Authority, as such,
dumb
be,
in the
presence of argument.
only by
It
can
that
silently aside
by
which we
it.
call
preit
it
judice
when we happen
to disagree with
its
But
so
belief
own
kind.
And
is
is
to select
one of the
the system
I
into a reason
why
should continue
to
be accepted.
is
Authority, as
ceases to be
It
of reason.
reason.
It
can
no
becomes a
it
must
be judged.
So judged,
In
it
appears to
me
that
two things
said of
it.
may be
the
first
place,
it
is
evidently an argument of
immense
utility
As
is
?22
body
it
seems not
'
'
authorities
'
is
The
alone
deserve this
name may
and frequently
to
are, the
product of authority.
ground
them
dialectically
Take
beliefs
as an
The
'
greater
number of these are, as we have seen, quite legitimately based upon the argument from authorities
'
lie
These
they
rities
'
also
are
largely
due
to
Authority.
But
authois
cannot be
;
rationally
derived
to
from
'
derive them
'universal
almost certain
be made.
The
ex-
science
and of
these, at least,
it
will
be
said, securus
ptdicat
is
orbis terrarum.
But a very
have pointed
little
consideration
is
illegitimate,
and
that,
as
out,
we can
neither
know that the verdict of mankind has been given, nor, if it has, that anything can properly be inferred
223
unless
we
first
assume the
truth
of the
The
state of things
is
and theology.
'
There
also the
'
argument from
legitimate
'
an authority
or
'
authorities
;
has a
also
there
there
is
this
in
endeavour,
when
a piece of circular
this
illustrate
;
statement
without mentioning
will
dogma
I
readily
to
understand,
slightest
to
desire
do anything so
relevant
the
purposes of this
either for
Introduction
it.
in
order to argue
or against
in
As
to the reality of an
this
infallible guide,
whatever shape
has been
I
have
quite
word
to say.
As
part of a creed
inquiry.
it
I
it
is
my
have
to
do with
only
if,
and
in so far as,
is
represented, not as
fundamental
position
I
reasons
it
for believing
it
and
in that
think
inadmissible.
Merely as an
a
us consider for
Infallibility,
moment
an example which
1
may be regarded
Cf. for
AUTHORITY AND REASON
I
; ;
224
impartiality as
am
I
not,
among
is
many by whom
it
accepted.
the
Roman
must be accepted
(i)
That
the words
and, again,
'
Thou
and upon
and
that,
and cannot
words
is
{b)
he was
to
have a perpetual
were
line of successors,
;
similarly
(c)
Rome
it
assistance
' ;
(e)
that though
assistance
'
whom
it
is
given,
it
ment can be regarded as 6x cathedra unless it relates to some matter already thoroughly sifted and considered by competent divines.
Now
six
it is
no part of
can
my
in
business to ask
the
how
the
sub-heads contained
second
of
these
of
in
propositions
by
any
legitimate
process
225
full,
nor how,
if
judgment required
to
determine
made under
to
it
Roman
point
Roman
have
first
My
is,
that the
of Christianity
(e.g.
the
of Christ
and
the
trustall
worthiness of the
it),
seems hard
stage
of
to
for that
any
fundamental
demonstration.
And
that
authority for
it
does
itself
believed.
This
is
not,
and
is
it is
not,
and
is
But
if
think, see
that whatever
226
like that
Infalli-
which
bility.
have supposed
Indeed,
in the case of
reflect
Papal
when we
of the religious books and of the religious organisations through which Christianity has
up
when we
development,
first
blems, linguistic,
which must be
settled, at least in
some preliminary
we can
hardly supthe
pose that
we were
intended to find
in these
system of religious
beliefs,
however important be the part (and can it be exaggerated ?) which they were destined to play in producing, fostering, and directing
it.
VI
To Reason
is
sifting of old
knowledge
the
227
body
a portion of
we
much much
to
as
of
have
already surrendered
the control
of habit.
By
Reason
also
is
tradition.
it
Of
its
immense
human
by the
life,
affairs
by the
alteration of
human
by the proas
I
duction of
new moods
of thought,
or,
have
in this
rational
reason
are
bound
to reason has
and
if
it
certainly does,
in
in
which
produced by the
of continent
When we
turn,
work of Reason
to that
which
is
unconsciously per-
228
formed
by Authority, a very
different specfirst,
tacle arrests
our attention.
The
effects of the
are
trifling
At
as
every
lives,
as
individuals,
a party, of a nation, of a
silent,
con-
moulds our
we
are
more imfrom
beliefs.
its
It is
Authority that
premises.
Reason
itself
draws
most important
It is in
its
Authority that
find
And even
in those cases
we
have, in
all
back the
beginnings in order to
itself in
finally loses
it
some general
is
as
we may,
in fact
due
Authority.
Nor
i
is
played by reasoning in
egret.
human
affairs
a matter for
problems
and
social
life,
are
we
called
on
229
we have no power to disturb nor yet because these we possess them, are too complex to be dealt with by any rational calculus we possess or
data, did
reasoning
;
may
of social development,
forces
stiffen,
would be no society
It is true,
to develop.
unluckily,
none of the
influences,
Reason
by which the history of the race has been moulded have been productive of unmixed good.
all,
The
springs
at
thirst
are
always turbid.
we
between these
that
it
rival claimants,
we must
not forget
to which, in
is
the
main,
we
;
owe,
that
it
and
politics
us with
science
;
essential
elements
the
premises
of
that
it
is
that
it
its
superstructure.
And
is
though
it
may seem
to savour
if
of paradox,
it
we would
230
not
so
much
convinced
by the
exercise
of
reasoning,
as
in
PART
IV
CHAPTER
THE GROUNDWORK
I
beliefs, or certain
important
con-
We have
;
sidered
their practical
necessity
and
Inquiries relating
distinct in their
the
character
would
be
difficult
to
it
conceive.
is
It
possible to
combined
results
which
may command
at least
a provisional assent.
if
It is evident,
we
are fortunate
enough
to
reach
it,
will
not be of
The
unification of
into
all
belief into
an ordered whole,
compacted
one coherent
is
is
stress of reason,
an ideal which
also
we can never
in
abandon
but
it
one which,
the present
we seem incapable of attaining. For the moment we must content ourselves with something
234
less
THE GROUNDWORK
than
this.
The
best system
we can hope
to
It
from
value
this that
;
it
will
may at
our reach.
best in relation
to submit, as
I
By
to
the best
I,
of course,
If
reflective
reason.
mean we have
think
belief,
we
this
in
fit
of
intellectual despair
we
an
illusion
we have
deliberately
itself
assures
us that such
a course
at
If
the lowest,
we have
to
way over
difficult
murky
skies without
random.
it
which
it
behoves us to
first
steer.
Now, the
scheme of
tinction
unification, is to decline to
draw any
dis-
between
where no
covered.
To
THE GROUNDWORK
gratuitously to
235
to destroy,
its
and
healthy
development.
And
there be
tained in the
any value in the criticisms conSecond Part of these Notes, this is which the advocates of
blundered.
invariably
naturalism
have
Without
any preliminary
any apparent
was necessary
assume that
a
different,
to
scientific beliefs
but upon
others
;
much more
The
to to
reader
is
already in possession of
it
some
of
seems
not
to me, fatal
such
repeat
claims,
and
it
is
is
necessary here
to
in
them.
to
What
more
our present
the absence
purpose
is
find
out whether,
of philosophic
proof,
phe-
us
to
place
them on a
imagine,
will
level
with
other
of
of belief.
differences
some
sort
no one,
attempt to deny.
236
THE GROUNDWORK
?
scheme
One
sight
beliefs
peculiarity there
to
is
which seems
certain
say,
at
first
effectually
distinguish
scientific
to ethics
or
theology
inevitableness.'
Every-
body
has,
and everybody
in their
is
obliged to have,
some
con-
which
I
what
have before
children,
and philosophers
alike,
;
in
the ordinary
which,
when gene-
No
convicI
answering to
in
think,
be found either
ethics,
is,
or theology.
for the
Some
kind of morality
no doubt, required
social
life.
is,
stability
Some
perhaps,
be discovered (though
this
is
disputed) in every
is
human community.
in
nothing
departments of
thought
judgments about
the things
we
judgments which,
practically
all
mankind are
compelled to entertain.
Compare,
THE GROUNDWORK
237
'There logy
'
is
a God'
presuppositions of science
a generalised state-
ment of what is given in ordinary judgments of perThere is an independent material world.' ception) disposed to doubt whether so good a myself am I
made out for accepting the second of these propositions as can be made out for accepting the
case can be
first.
But while
it
to the rarest
moments
like
summer
mists at the
call reality.
first
we
are
pleased to
opinion of
a
this fact?
In the
it
of most,
affords
to
conclusive
elevating
science
The
we
judgments of perception,
of
as
all
is
for
evidence
it is
inevitable, so
it,
true
seeing
is
indeed believing.
is
This
rational coercion.
;
Even while we submit to it we may judge it and in the very act of believing we may be conscious that the strength of our belief is
238
far in excess of
justify.
I
THE GROUNDWORK
anything which mere reasoning can
am making no
belief
between
and
its
On
the contrary,
my
dissent from
the popular
is
as possible, these
two
shall in
I
adjusted.
It
cannot,
that in the
name
of reason which,
were done,
be
in
rational life to
an immediate
it
And even
it
if
we
could suppose
to
our duty,
is
not one
which, as was
shown
we
are practically
in
competent
case
to
this
be true
the
of those
which owe
or the
less
is
non-rational
it
action of
true
in
the
arise
case
those elementary
sense-stimulation.
judgments which
out
Whether
or not
if
it
may be open
it
But
which
that,
exists,
is
in
it
should
all
be
accepted
credence
for
practical purposes
I
admits,
think, of
no doubt whatever.
we
could
in
'
action to wait
metaphysical
full
difficulties to
belief in
some such
members would
THE GROUNDWORK
complete than that which,
239
a preceding chapter,
was prophesied
the causes of
for
those
its
who
should succeed in
position
natural
among
But supposing
on
this
be
kind of
member
of
its
will
we consider what must have 2 happened at that critical moment in the history of organic development when first conscious judgments of sense-perception made themselves felt as important
inmost organisation.
links
in
nervous
not plain
irritability
with
muscular
that
any
individual in
qualified
whom
who
sumably transmit to
undermine
No
other
faiths,
however
true,
by which scientific conclusions would be made premises, would, no doubt, involve an argument
a circle.
Cf.
Note,
p.
304.
24o
THE GROUNDWORK
first place,
all,
For, in the
nor perhaps at
existence.
an advantage
an advantage,
is
rather to the
community
as a
whole
in its struggles
if
not paralysed,
by
it
civilisation itself.
still
And,
it
were
in full
operation,
mere absence of time and opportunity, have produced any sensible effect in moulding the organism for the reception of beliefs which, by hypothesis, are
the
recent
acquisition
of
minority.
We are
is
now
in
What,
then asked,
if
any,
universality
attach
to
certain
phenomena, and
answer must
import.
judgments alone
peculiarities
The
Faith
is
have no
They
or assurance, which,
least
at
independent of
it,
seems to be a necessity in
there
on action
is
THE GROUNDWORK
which does not
teaches us that
?
241
The
analysis of sense-experience
it
we
require
in
The most
religion
is
creed.
The comparative
faiths is not to
or
all
by the degree of
true that
and touch.
It is
few
men have an
of which
;
and
that
at
subjects no assurance
all.
is
precisely
what we should
need
for
expect
other
faiths
had
arisen
under
conditions
very
different
long-descended confidence
can
how
we
regard
it
latter?
We
that
same
moment
we
but
none the
for
sanction.
the
242
THE GROUNDWORK
we
get to Virtue and to
Truth.
We
cannot,
then, extract
of classification which
sional
shall help us to
the proviin
philosophy
of
which
we
are
search.
What
in
What
it
would require us
part with.
we may
with
not willingly
this
And
dissatisfied
double
deficiency, we examine more closely into its character and origin, we find, not only that it is without
rational justification
of which
right
it
inquiry
we have no
it
to
complain
but
that
gives of
itself
precludes
intel-
us from finding in
lectual repose.
I
do
not,
be
it
observed,
make
it
a matter of
who
for,
mere
must,
are to
somehow
or other, be
supplemented
we
My
complaint
down
the impulses
THE GROUNDWORK
which we
243
may
phenomena.
It is
surely better
less
repugnant,
to
be founded
in
shall
at least take
we
I
And
here,
if
not elsewhere,
may
claim the
not,
it
may
be,
succeeded
in
mere
collection of hypostatised
in space,
sense-perceptions,
have striven
accomwider
for ideas of
to
modify, or
welcome
to
some
of
its
most important
conceptions.
men
as
Leibnitz,
I
Kant,
think,
Hegel, this
is
obvious enough.
It is true,
even
in
Philosophers,
indeed,
may find
or conclusions.
They may
see but
little
to
admire
r
in
show of quasi-mathematical
2
244
THE GROUNDWORK
;
demonstration
in the
Nature which
feel
is
so unlike the
at
no surprise
God
in the
unlike the
prise at
God of the
theologian
His
Nature
in the
a priori
in the
;
freedom which
is
indistinguishable from
is
necessity
in the volition
;
which
indistinguishable
is
from
intellect
in the love
which
;
indistinguish-
acquiescence
in
the universe
more which
it
his system,
persons have
Yet he continues
?
world
and why
Not, surely, as a
Not
all
as a
higher
'
criticism.
Least of
because
The
me
to
be very
different.
It is partly,
of his
positive teaching
him
to find
in
notions
and
to convert
THE GROUNDWORK
and unmoral substance,
into
245
something not
Love
of God.
we have no
to
How,
it
may be
if
it
concern us
of his philosophy,
we do not
it
Or
of
that
Hegel found
Idea,'
It
possible
hitch
large
fragments of Christian
the
'
if
dialectic
concerns
reply,
inasmuch as
a truth
The
natural-
and expands
we found
by
We
now note
that
its
assumed by men whose speculative genius is admitted, who have seldom been content to allow
that the world of which they
had
to give
an account
in
to the point of
view
it
Is not,
Is
'
24b
THE GROUNDWORK
for the first time, to rest superstition
made now
scepticism,
upon
and
to
in accord-
begins (may
;
not be said
?)
by
disits
crediting reason
proceeds to
'
make
the needs of
man
the measure of
objective
Now, on
to
this criticism
it
have, in the
first
place,
observe that
to
been
its
effect.
On
at
least
been arrived
free,
by allowing the
If
play to
rational
investigation.
one consequence
portance
causes
the
commonly
by which
of
attributed to reason
belief
is
among
it
the
produced,
that
this
is
by
has
action
reason
itself
result
If another
consequence has
to
the
of
certain
universally accepted
beliefs, this
If,
in addition to all
we have been
THE GROUNDWORK
that as yet
247
we
Reason
is
undone
nor need
we be
short of specula-
But, further,
is it
of reason,
for
we have
?
our guide
No doubt
and
tion.
and
their satisfac-
But
this is
done
By
our being
we seem
in
practically driven to
assume a
real
world
A harmony of some kind between our inner selves and the universe
ordinary judgments of perception.
of which
we form
a part
is
at the root of
' ;
phe-
nomena and all that I now contend for is, that a like harmony should provisionally be assumed between that universe and other elements
which are of a
later,
in
our nature
ignobler, growth.
Whether
as that
this
correspondence
is
'
best described
need
'
and
its
24 8
THE GROUNDWORK
may be open
on the one
to question.
if
'satisfaction,'
But, at
all
events, let
it
is,
be understood that
side,
the relation so
described
something different
its
conclusion, so,
on the other,
that
it is
fulfilment.
I
That
it
has
have already
it
That
'
subjective
character
of the second
dence postulated
we
the highest
is
But because
this
theory
may seem
alike
remote
and because
am
in
my way
of
presenting
it,
let
me draw
out,
even
at the cost of
some
not,
repetition,
may
it.
We
may
it
say of
it,
then, that
it
furnishes us with
no adequate philosophy of
not say of
that
it
religion.
But we may
or,
indeed,
THE GROUNDWORK
249
We
the
'
may
say of
it
that
it
subjective
'
and
to
objective
'
believe and
what
We
may
indeed,
upon any
it,
different, foundation.
We
may
say of
if
we
please, that
it
practical,
with which
is
concerned.
But,
if so,
we must
describe in the
same
We
may
say of
it
that
it
theory, based
on
scientific
the origin of
all beliefs
most
of
drawn
sphere of ethics or
We We
to
may
say of
it
that
it
admits judgments of
sense-perception to
be
the
most
inevitable,
but
may
say of
it
generally, that as
it
assumes
we
human
consciousness as an element,
refuses to regard
like Naturalism,
250
THE GROUNDWORK
for
unaccounted
and
the
Knowable by
itself
whose
delimitation
Reason
25
CHAPTER
BELIEFS
II
AND FORMULAS
After
visional philosophy,
may perhaps be
it
convenient,
before proceeding to say what remains to be said on the character of the beliefs for which
may provide
which
hope, to
tical history.
Assuming, as we
sumption that
grow.
do, that
accomplished
What
must
its
?
successive stages,
the marks of
strike all
gradual evolution
One,
at least,
mean
explanations or explanatory
terms of
uni-
to
comprehend the
252
BELIEFS
AND FORMULAS
some
tier to
its
It is not,
as
we some-
foundation.
material, nor
by mere accumulation of
one
who
is
some ancient
The
ground-plan of
build here
in repair,
;
it is
We
kept
we
pull
down
is
there.
One
part
is
another part
suffered to decay.
And
in
new
to such different
their
original designer.
Yet even
this
metaphor
haps misleading.
We
shall
plastic
and
The
The
ex-
on whose importance
of these agencies
Each
by
may be supposed
is
to act both
way
By
their joint
operation
new
material
BELIEFS
old
AND FORMULAS
at
253
material
is
eroded
another
may
in
all
its
parts.
Certain
elements in
whole something
ture.
'generalisations,'
'explanatory
beliefs
formulas'
in
general.
They
represent
by which other
arranged.
which the
rest of
is
knowledge
the noblest
if it
Their
;
right construction
could be exercised at
would
itself
in helpless
bewilderment.
action
Now
some
the
and reaction
is
between
these
of thought.
justify,
without modify-
of their material.
and a
be
in
relative
to
a state of
Some
make them
254
fit
BELIEFS
into
their
AND FORMULAS
Others,
predestined niches.
more
in
refractory,
are
destroyed
beliefs
or
ignored.
Even
to
science,
where the
that
have
be
ac-
be seen.
While
where
belief
is
beauty,
is
so
common
that
it
has
But
this
reaction
of formulas
on the
is
beliefs
first
but the
we
are describing.
The
it
next
formula
has prebelief,
The
plastic
body of
some portion of
and
it,
external
it
internal
breaks through,
may be
it
which
was
new theory
has to be formed, a
new arrangement
unfruitful
of knowledge
same
cycle of not
changes begins
again.
I
illustration
of
this
familiar process
Knowledge.
BELIEFS
AND FORMULAS
255
As chalk consists of little else but the remains of dead animalcule, so the history of thought consists
of
little
else but
planations.
some bone
;
that once
formed part
of a living theory
account which
have given of
and decay.
II
Now we may
world as
it
circumstances death
is
in the organic.
may
not always
doubtless, progress
would be impossible
and
if,
and as
it
were
in silence,
without
need cause
in general neither
anxiety nor
way
things happen.
There,
and
fall
endanger other
To
begin with,
in
I
perception, which, as
256
perilled
decay.
They
through
all
We
to sustain
hear.
Speaking broadly,
that faith
is
Theology
which
ness.
There
it
often
beliefs to
The
mutually dependent.
with a
lest
They
it
were
common
life,
and there
always a danger
common
destruc-
tion.
Consider
this
difference
Theology
The whole
instructed
now hold
that
it is
revolutionary,
Yet no one's
some
quality in things
by which
his sensations of
;
thereby disturbed
theories, or both of
them
no theory
at
all,
Compare with
this
BELIEFS
If
AND FORMULAS
257
of religion
tion with
bears witness,
If there
is
it
is
that of Reconcilia-
God.
be an 'objective' cause to
it is
confidently referred,
to
be
Now, incommensurable
touched on in the
last
with that
that
theme of
much
speculation,
satisfied
an-
and empty.
But there
really con-
nected with
some
body from
it,
survive
its
operation.
In
the
by the Christian conscience with the life and death of Christ seems in many cases to be bound up with
the explanations of the mystery which from time to
And
doned
and
also.
is
This
I
my
But
this
much more
may perhaps be
allowed to say by
s
258
BELIEFS
of parenthesis.
is
AND FORMULAS
view which
this
way
If the point of
Essay
science
intended to
set, in
recommend be
accepted, the
precedent
is
the
first
by
theology.
as the
No
must stand or
is
fall.
If,
for in-
we
hydrogen
forced
in the sun,
is
upon us by
certain
dis-
credited,
necessary
consequence,
or
destroyed.
But
in cases
where the
belief
of an hypothesis
the
may be
in science
a reason for
devising a
new
one, but
belief.
is
certainly
no reason for
abandoning the
take
Nor
do we ever
example,
We
to
do
not,
for
we
are
dissatisfied
with
all
attempts
In theology,
lean
too
timidly
on
theory,
and when
it
in
the
How many
say,
ment propounded,
or
by Anselm, or by Grotius,
which
the
versions
in the
of
these
have
imbedded
up the doc-
themselves
Europe,
feel
bound
in
reason
'
to give
BELIEFS
trine itself
?
AND FORMULAS
259
some
which, unless
it
our
full
intellectual
to be rejected
Redemption as a leading
case,
Redemption
no longer to be counted
among
the consolations of
mankind
in
There
is,
judgments due
to sense-per-
make
than
it is
in
theology
and
this
reason
is
to
be found
its
produce
results,
its
believe,
is
be kept wholly
distinct.
all
For although
these
feeling
societies,
feelings themselves,
They
require
some
on which, so
to speak, they
may
be precipitated
may
crystallise
and coalesce.
reason
is
founded on identity of
2 6o
of country, or even of
mere material
on a
interest.
But
when
common
ground,
where, and, in
fact,
never
is
common
Whence
fulfil
it
comes about
have
to
distinct but
incomparable.
They
logical conclusions
unity.
They
to
two
identical,
The
distinction
it
a simple one
prolific in
to recognise
has been
embarrassments,
the duty of con-
triving symbols,
on
whom
The
during the
Reformation
to turn the
when made,
not,
tween
among
the
the
think,
among
most
modern
religious history.
To
the
definitions
1
taken
Note
at
simply as well-intentioned
end of next chapter.
Cf.
BELIEFS
efforts to
AND FORMULAS
raise
261
make
clear that
no objec-
Of
some formal
I
am, as
have
said,
furtherance of
support of
men for all time in common religious objects, or in common religious institutions and
;
the
the
the
by the divines
of
in
to discuss the
groundwork of
ecclesias-
co-operation
Christian unity,
is. I
am
same
shield,
in
to
be found.
The
they
the fortunes of no
202
BELIEFS
AND FORMULAS
;
nor
is
there
any danger
watchwords.
lest
Theology
differently
situated.
There the explanatory formula may be so historically intertwined with the sentiments and traditions of the ecclesiastical organisation
;
may have
them
even
Yet
such cases
it is
interesting to note
how unexstill
difficult
more
little
;
by a
may
well be
condoned
movement
might,
of belief are
made
with less
fric-
and
at a smaller cost
even
to the enlightened
than
perhaps,
antecedently
have
been
imagined.
263
CHAPTER
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
I
III
AND REALITIES
The
were
is
thus compelled
it is
same unchanging
it
formulas.
This
is
call
attention.
not,
I
and
to
identity of belief
assume that identity of statement involves that when persons make the same
;
assertions intelligently
and
this
in
good
faith
they
mean
is
the
same
thing.
But
on closer examination
all
In
branches of know-
fall
change
last section,
But
in
every case
it
will,
unmoved,
belief,
64
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
AND REALITIES
to generation.
I
Take an
an opinion at
instance at random.
it
suppose that
thinks
it
upon the
accept without
amendment
Rome
century
this
therefore,
to suppose that
in the
if
proposition must
mean
the
same thing
mouths
refuse
of
all
who
use
it ?
Surely not.
Even
we
which
same
intellectual
varying
positions
itself
may
manifestly
mode and
memoria
who
learns
it
as a line in a
(if
whom
it
the world.
Nor
is
it
possible to
the nature of
Man, must
man
be an unprofitable
subtlety
it
and
so, to
be sure,
is.
But a similar
reflection
of obvious im-
portance
when we come
'
such propositions as
there
a God,' or
'
there
is
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
a world of material things.'
AND REALITIES
265
might
may,
be,
and
are,
advanced philosopher.
tell,
They
the last
as
we can
continue to be actill
cepted by
men
consciousness.
Yet
plainly the
savage
in
and
the
philosopher
use
these
words
very
different
meanings.
From
you prefer
it,
the Hegelian
Absolute
man
to
Matter as
is
physicist,
how
The
formulas are
Nay,
hold
who
may
substance of the
fully
child.
earlier.
The
civilised
Now
this
is
suggested by
the wide
reflection.
Can we,
at
in the face of
same formula
endures
in
different
is
what
which
such cases
?
husk or
shell
Is
it
266
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
AND REALITIES
at will
?
Does
which
words
we must have
Language
Belief to Reality.
That the
relation
between the
first
I
of these pairs
is
And
the fact
is
so obvious
insist
to
on
it
were
and conventional
relation
;
They assume
a constant
between
the
and they
phrase
used
(as the
in the
same
sense,'
it
corresponds, or ought to
But
;
this
is
an
simplification
of the facts
a convention,
most convenient
about concrete
seldom or
If
in
brow we can secure that inevitable differences of meaning do not vitiate the particular argument in
hand,
we have done
all
and
all
Incessant
variation
the
is
uses
to
absolutely
is,
even
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
in the
AND REALITIES
267
to find a response in
thought.
its ally,
but
its
tyrant.
The
poverty of
flourish,
our
vocabulary.
exist.
Science
could
not
all
nor Literature
variety, all
and mankind
would spend
was
this
logical
The schoolmen
all,
for
was
a
no particular business of
excessive subtleties
theirs
for
indulging in
in
surely
for
no great crime
metaphysician
and
endeavouring to combine
a coherent whole
to
me
to
be entirely praiseworthy.
promise of their
lies at
genius
is
to
be found
in
to be,
and that
were so made,
it
fitted
on that account
deal
with
the
infinite
2 6S
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
AND REALITIES
III
If language,
case,
endeavours
fit
express,
how
which
to the
?
reality with
intended to correspond
really
To
those
suppose
i.e.
who happen
Universe.
They
embody
their beliefs,
whether
scientific or theological,
in a series
as they
express their
own
accurate
opinions,
differing state-
Now
would venture
to
meed
of reverence to the
axiom on which
axiom,
not
I
this
true.'
is,
of course, indisputable.
it is
But
it is
also
unimportant
that
if
and
unimportant for
this reason,
we
insist
on assigning every
not
belief to
one or
it
will
if
all,
reality
the very
in
'
man may be
expected
strictness
I
principally to interest
would
not
true.'
do not
'
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
say,
AND REALITIES
as
269
be
it
observed, that
all
for,
we
of
fitting
many
is,
different beliefs,
and
these
it
may be
that
full truth.
My
contention merely
is
any
finite
We
know
we
there-
fore
know
But
it
wrongly.
may perhaps be
incomplete.'
these involve
'
not true
and the
'
A
it
belief,
as the
phrase
it
is,
may be
'true so far as
It
goes,'
even though
does
may
Why
a condemnation
Why is
it
to
To
be,
this
reply
and
for
in
many
first
purposes
place
it
But
the
is
which
is
incomplete
falsity.
element of
not
And
second place
it
does
happen
to
be the division
on which we are
engaged.
dictories
'
We
'
True and
Not
True.'
270
it
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
AND REALITIES
is,
the
root
of
much
it
needless
theology
may
all
some
defect of charity.
not in
human
who
start
from
own
;
particular
opinions belong
all
to the
former category
inconsistent
Now
this, in
life,
and
in the
But
it is
foolish
when we
vouring
are
presence of the
Infinite.
the height
of arrogance
and that
to claim for
any
beliefs
which
true, is
Somewhat more, be
least
it
observed,
is
thus required
The
difficulty
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
that there are a great
AND REALITIES
271
many
not understand
may perhaps
which he does.
relations of abstract
be admitted.
Nowhere
else
neither
is
in
our know-
nor
in
which
which
error.
is
from
flaw,
any
the
result not
tainted with
The
simplest intuitions
fall
speculations
under
is
same
And though
the fact
by the unshrinking
attained results,
definitions with
it
which alike
in
is
would, as
we have
seen,
be a
by the
linguistic
precision
and the
logical
selves are
To some
despair.
misgiving
and
intellectual
us from both.
To me it What
be which we could understand ? If it were inIf our telligible (by us), would it be credible?
reason could comprehend
it,
would
believe
it
not be too
it
narrow
for
our needs
'
because
is
272
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
'
AND REALITIES
'
impossible
may be
is
a pious paradox.
disbelieve
because
it
simple'
commends
to
itself to
me
as
an axiom.
discretion
:
An
axiom doubtless
an axiom which
may
easily
and superstition
an
axiom, nevertheless, which contains a valuable truth not always remembered by those who make especial
profession of worldly wisdom.
IV
However
advocated
this
may
be,
the
opinions
here
may
occasionally suggested
reconcile
doctrines
logical
with
movement observed
them
can
in
theo-
ideas.
Neither of
readily
be
abandoned.
verities
The
human
race,
is
Yet
all
relative
its
inconsiderably as
the
substance
of those
elements themselves,
the
How
?
is
this
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
AND REALITIES
quite
273
Consider
different kind.
another
difficulty one
of
The common
been shocked
when
it
is
per-
many
no security
for
uni-
There
is
an unreality,
externality about
such professions
those
it is
who
think
(rightly
enough) that
to
the heart,
is
is
criticism
which
differences
we ought
if
of
it ?
Is
good or bad
serve
?
and,
good,
it
Now
on which
these questions
if
at least in part,
in this
have
ventured to
first place,
insist
the
distinctions,
mean, in the
and
the distinction,
in
the
second place,
between the
capable of expressing.
274
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
AND REALITIES
while there
only by those
who
no
which
truth
conduce to the
of these two
attainment of speculative
the
first
objects
may, under
certain circumstances, be
the second.
Church
body of more or
or less
less qualified
Sornething more
It is
is
asked of
it
an
this
work
unity, dis;
is
to
be
found
in the feelings
aroused by
common
;
memories,
common
in
hopes,
all
common
;
loyalties
by professions
all
which
agree
by a ceremonial which
all
share
obey.
He,
either from
State,
may
alter
members of the community, left to follow at will their own speculative devices, would otherwise form, may know
opinions which, in their absence, the
shows very
little
of
human
nature.
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
AND REALITIES
275
if it
But
is
it
will
Church
is
But as
it
national,
political,
military,
what you
will
by which the
work
of the
world
is
rendered possible.
which
may make
schism
mutiny
revolt,
who
may
who
leave.it,
it is,
in
my judgment,
is,
acceptance or rejection of
common
formulas
agreement
of
doctrinal statement.
This view
may
when
it is
realised that, as
is
of belief.
We
are no
more able
to believe
what
tion of a landscape.
stirs
same descripDoes anyone suppose that it within them precisely the same quality of sentifriends read together the
Two
276
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
AND REALITIES
surely
And yet,
if
this
be impossible, as
it
is,
even
be
in the
may
be, to the
it
same emotional
an
how
hopeless must
in the case of
artist
and a
rustic,
an Ancient
why
produce
not be.
It
may
have striven to
and
to
impose
upon
their fellows,
In this
in the
we
are
doomed
to differ
even
cases where
we most
agree.
There
true.
is,
where we most human race, from whatever stock its members may have sprung, in whatever age they may be born, whatever creed they may profess, together in the presence of the One Reality, engaged, not wholly in vain, in
surely also there are agreements
differ.
I
like
to think of
the
spelling out
share
its
being
if
its its
message.
All
oracles wholly
in the
dumb.
spiritual
And
both
in the natural
world and
the advancement
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
AND REALITIES
277
seems
removed from
man
be content,
it
may
be,
indeed
think
still
it
is,
the case
closer to his
common
we seem
to
have
travelled, yet,
measured on the
is
celestial scale,
scarcely to
be discerned, so minute
Truth.
These
observations,
however,
seem
only to
If
if
knowagree-
ment,
real
inner agreement,
and
if,
in
is,
trust,
from generation to
is, I
The answer
to this question
think,
ethics.
For
all
these things
may be
to
said of
them
as well as
state-
of theology,
unchanged
Of
a
are,
these statements
or a definition.
do not pretend
to give either
list
it is
278
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
AND REALITIES
Rare indeed
if
They
is
it
to
they ento
dure at
all,
keep
the
them
in repair.
Not among
these, but
among
must search
capable of ministering
unchanged
indefinite
Such propositions
is
'
fact,'
as that 'Csesar
dead.'
ethical
imperative, as that
Stealing
is
wrong.'
great
uniform, or
if
that
'
God
exists.'
I
accurate (as
they
are), will,
no doubt, as
have
said,
have a
dif-
and
for different
But
this is not
it is
essential
meaning could be exhausted by one generation, they would be false for the next. It is
If their
counted
among
possessions.
NOTE
The permanent
tical
controversies of the
had
for
Christ-
BELIEFS, FORMULAS,
endom,
as
AND REALITIES
by the more
279
compared with
that possessed
transitory
For whatever opinion the reader may enterwhich the Church arrived on the doctrine
were not
in the nature
of the Trinity,
it is
of explanations.
They
They
it
The
all
from
in short, to
do something towards
'
explain-
ing'
it.
The Church
held that
all
lation.
Godhead which was essentially involved in the Christian reveThey insisted on preserving that idea in all its inexplicable fulness and so it has come about that while such simplifications
the
;
and impossible to
that
if
Divinity
still
gives reality
and
life
pious souls,
who
preservation,
and of the
technicalities
which
28o
CHAPTER
4
IV
'
If,
as
is
not
there
are
readers
who
know-
ledge
who are
Land
of Goshen,
Egyptian plague
would suggest
drawn
in
like those
knowledge
an
earlier
may be
sively
ideas considered
For these
ideas
illustrates
we know
best,
our
blindness to what
indeed,
is
we
This
quality,
;
but perhaps
may be
provisionally indicated
by
saying
that,
281
we
yet,
when they
all
are
subjected to
critical
investigation,
;
they appear to
precision of
to lose
to vanish like
the magician
in
the story,
who would
involved
in
arrest them.
situ-
moment
in
of space, surrounded
things,
by a multitude of material
merely a
each other.
is
lives,
about whose
meaning we entertain no manner of doubt, which, indeed, provide us with our familiar examples of all
that
is
most
lucid
till it
examined,
is
certain only
in
it
till it is
questioned
while
suggests,
all
who
?
are prepared
What
be
are
'we'?
it
What
made
is
'
is
space
Can
is
'
we
'
in space, or is
What
'
a
'
'
thing
'
a material thing
What
'
meant by saying
?
that
one
is
material thing
acts
upon another
'material
What
act
meant by saying
'us'?
that
things'
upon
Here
are six
282
questions
directly
obvious as they
they involve
are,
it is
hardly too
much
to say that
all
modern
philosophy, and
the the
man who
fortunate
has found an
answer
to
them
possessor of a
six
questions enumerated above, namely, What is a Nothing could be plainer till material thing ?
'
'
you consider
it.
you
do.
'
thing
has qualities
Is
it
hardness, weight,
?
something more
is
merely
the
sum
of
?
its qualities,
existence
Nay,
is
even conceivable?
is
it
is
qualities
to the
'
something
regard a
self-
more
'
?
'
Again,
can
we on
'
reflection
thing
as an isolated
somewhat,' an entity
solitary
?
sufficient
and potentially
it
Or must we
not
rather regard
as being
'
what
it is
in virtue of its
relation to other
and
to each
And
if
we
take, as
think
we
by
must, the
it
alternative,
are
we
not driven
into a
profitless
telligible
Now,
283
ancient though unsolved controversies for no better purpose than to weary the reader who is familiar
with
metaphysical discussion,
and
to
puzzle
the
reader
who
is
not.
which many
to
acknowledge when
it
in
^Esthetics,
it
'
and
for the
when they
phenomena.'
Yet
much upon an
ture
equality.
In
all
of
them conclusions
In of
more
stable
all
among
In
all
and
and
dependent.
of
them these
ideas, so clear
intelligible
when examined
analysis.
We
it
need
not, therefore,
be surprised
if
we
find
in
Beauty,
;
seeing that
the ground
clear,
that
of
Moral
Law
Law
is
so
obscure
we do not adequately comprehend God, seeing that we can give no very satisfactory Yet I think account of what we mean by 'a thing.'
that
284
to be learnt
from admis-
existing metaphysic.
to consider carefully
And
it is
the
more necessary
is,
inasmuch as
us with
a general philosophy,
has
received
support.
insists,
that
what
it
calls
'
'
are inconsistent
own
phrase,
'
unthinkable.'
forth, are
Space,
and so
each in
it
turn
shown
to
is
it
to penetrate
famous
for the
invoked
regard to
Unconditioned,
So
at least,
far,
so
good.
Though
the
details
'
of the
I,
demonstration
may
general
that
tenor,
I
which
just
much
have
become
irreconcilable.
He
ultimate ideas
'
of
285
the
'ultimate
alike 'unthinkable.'
What
to
Why,
clearly,
that science
far
on an equality
are
we
bound
to
and
are infected
Spencer.
The
to
him
intolerable.
He
shrinks
from an
admission
And he
'
upon a device
for
'
reconciling
religion
be avoided.
a simple one.
He
Unknowable.
What
is
knowable he
What
both
reserve, to reli-
gion.
With
the
results
of
this
arbitration
in his opinion,
be
satisfied.
may complain
it
that
by
this
all
arrangement
that that
is
it
'
made
'
unthinkable
but then,
should remember
title
to
all
'
286
that
real.'
Science, again,
'
may complain
relative
'
that
'
its
and the
it
de-
pendent
' ;
but then,
'
it
has
a monopoly of the
all
intelligible.'
;
The one
all
possesses
the other,
that
seems
am
compelled to question
own
and contradictions
is
to
the
shoulders of
be possible by
'
word
the
'
ultimate.'
'
'
Ultimate
scientific
'
unthinkable
'
without
prejudice
to
thinkableness
of
'
proximate
scientific ideas.
penumbra of what he calls nascent consciousness,' in the dim twilight where religion and science are indistinguishable
;
and
experience and
verifi-
cation.
Such a view
is
not,
I
'
think, philosophically
tenable.
' '
As soon
as
the
is
unthinkableness
'
of
speculatively recognised,
the fact
towards
proximate
'
scientific ideas.
That which
that
in
is
on
depends.
If the
one
is
unintelligible, the
287
if
proof be required
limits
we
of Mr.
own
philosophy.
To be sure he obstinately
'
To
*
substantially true
is
[he observes]
light.'
It
much
is, I
like asking
admit, very
principles,
much we
like
it.
have
does not.
not only
asked
intelligently,
which
are,
all
system
is
to
be believed,
down to weight
and
resistance,
are
It
'
'unknown'
re-
and 'unknowable,'
specting
it
in
The
tions
truth
is
many
of his
pursued them.
first
1
Nobody
;
is
required to
investigate
principles
but those
p. 19.
2
who
voluntarily undertake
ii.
First Principles,
Principles of Psychology,
493.
288
And
if
among
these
we have
ism about
scientific
knowledge,
we make
matters,
it.
In
this
procedure has,
among
other
at
his hand.
He
has had
on which science
and
in
terms
of which
all
down
it,
under the
think
lies
stress of criticism
in
that
beyond what we
we know, and
infinite
field
an
meaningless.
He
if
the
depths of
unfathomable mystery,
these
it
may
the
of religion
'
and that
if
dependence of the
'
knowable
'
upon the
'
unknowable
embarrasses us
why
Mr. Spencer,
dividing
us,
all,
in short,
all
which concerns
if
it
exists
at
Agnosticism
so understood
289
by
his theory,
if
not by his
practice.
no conto a
:
is
precise opposite
its
it
shrinks on
critical
speculative
no severity of
analysis,
yet
on
energy
beyond our
290
CHAPTER V
SCIENCE
AND THEOLOGY
The
those
point of view
we have
thus reached
is
is
obviously
the precise
adopted by
who
the
naturalistic
view of
things in
its
who
ism
in
Of
There are
those
who
refuse to
add anything
to the teaching
And
tentatively
and provisionally,
much
of
must,
of these two
are
at
291
To
pounded by the
incoherent and
hid from
as
we have
But
its
seen, both
is
inadequate.
incoherence
its
positive
the,
teaching
while
its
inadequacy
is
covered by
of sentiments
and
inspired
by other
faiths.
as a
their
Far
different
who
To them
much
'
each
new
anxiety as
it
does
scientific
interest.
They
This
is
are
reconciling,' as
'
religion
and
science.'
to
overmastering necessity.
only on sufferance.
territories
It
For
rules
over
its
hereditary
as a tributary vassal
dependent on the
Province
its
sove-
grasp
and
it
depends
no longer upon
its
own
action, but
how long
292
it
remainder.
Now, my reasons
this
for
various
But
it
must not
it
be supposed that
our business to
sible, into
'
is
reconcile
all beliefs,
so far as pos-
in the
indifference
how many
we admit
dictions
Some
contra(
I
and obscurities there needs must be. That we should not be able completely to harmonise the detached hints and isolated fragments in which alone
Reality comes into relation with us
;
that
we
should
we
so imperfectly
for
to.
comprehend,
the present
jj
Yet
the
it
will,
think, be found
discrepancies
which
exist
departments
ance than those which exist within the various dethat the difficulties which partments themselves
;
have
to solve in
common
supposed
conflict
293
and seems
to so
many
is
worth resolving,
most part
trifling,
or
beyond the
limits of
pure
Of course,
it
am now
differ-
The
are,
no doubt,
by
definition the
negation of
all
theology.
shoulders.
is
no way concerned,
for instance, to
deny the
reality
imperfectly,
may
All
it
ought to
;
beyond
jurisdiction
to be
tried, therefore, in
other
But we may go
further.
The
being of
God may
be beyond the province of science, and yet it may be from a consideration of the general body of
scientific
Any
I
'
proofs of theism
'
would,
;
yet,
in
make
clear
where
both
may be
permitted to say
294
show where
does not
lie in
think the
does not
is
lie.
the doctrine
that there
a supernatural
or, let
us say, a meta-
physical
natural
to this
phenomena depend
may
all
be,
is,
This
belief,
with
its
inherent
obscurities,
it
no
doubt,
necessary
so
far,
to
theology, but
is
at the
same time
in
my
that,
would not be
than
it is
difficulties
at present.
fact
This
as the
to that
infelicities in
'
known
in-
Argument from
argument
it
In a famous answer
means
to ends,
which
us
in
are produced
by
An
induction which
the
circle
of
it is
phenomena,
valid
quite
meaningless when
circle
itself.
employed
You
cannot infer a
God from
the
existence of a watch.
295
length, so
it
Without discussing the merits of this answer at much may, I think, be conceded to it that
who God
somewhat
empirical philosophers
who
rely
upon an inductive
The
uniformity
Nature, as
proved by experience,
is
We
must bring
and we
But
it,
or
something
like
it,
Assume
it,
shall
no
doubt
speaking and
it.
in the rough,
what we
formity
this con-
not
proof,
confounded with
contend
that, if
In the
start
same way,
in
do not
we
we
shall
Him
by
It is
enough
when we bring this belief with us to the study of phenomena, we can say of it, what we have just said
of the principle of uniformity, namely, that,
'
broadly
speaking and
it,
harmonise with
and that
it
would not
it
but
not here used in the Kantian sense. The argument is touched on, as the reader may recollect, at the end of Chapter I., Part II. See, however, below a further discussion as to what the uniformity of
it
is
to
it.
296
in
whatever shape
us. Nor The argument
accepted,
is
to
my mind,
But
fact
something also
that
may be
mere
we know
I
be accounted
for
?
And how
is
it
to be accounted
I
have already
it is
and Reason
for
evident
among
the ultimate
at
all.
causes
it
no part
On
these
On
that hypothesis
reason than
we
possess
possess free
all
our
voli-
which are
quite alien to
morality, so
As
or a
in
'
good
will,'
which ends
virtuous action
ratiocina-
which ends
to describe as a
'
demonstrated
conclusion,'
297
in
harmony with
fact.
Morality
air of
ments
if
but
it is
they do
lies in
back
in
These conclusions
the
are,
no doubt, as we saw
at
beginning of
this
to Morality.
Knowledge.
system as
the system
For
they
require
us
to
accept
is
rational,
itself
that
which
have no tendency
or
to
to
falsehood
rather
than
is
Forget,
if
you
or
muscles,
of physical antecedents.
in
Assume
laws.
(a
tolerably
dealing with
own
Of
what value
is
this
autonomy
or
if
by purely
irrational forces,
which she
?
powerless to control,
even
to
comprehend
The
like
a voyager, pacing
own
pleasure up and
that
TJNTVF.Rcittv
ft
2 9S
illimitable ocean.
And
plete
if
we can
displays
this
meaningless
drifting
he
knows not whence nor whither, without pilot or captain, at the bidding of shifting winds and incalculable currents.
My beliefs,
all,
in so far as
reasoning at
by the
'
collision of atoms.'
in
favour of
as
is
truth, are as
wrong premises
right ones
nay,
more
inasmuch as truth
single
(iii.)
My
first
place,
and
my
is
Their
falsity,
;
more-
since
any
attempt to correct
suffering
must
start
under
exist.
the
same
again,
defect.
But no such
about the
it is
premises
(iv.)
Therefore,
my
opinion
original causes
which produced
my
premises, as
299
my own
is
certainties or
be certain about
my own
;
doubts.
This
forced
is
scepticism indeed
scepticism which
by
its
own
about
itself;
which neither
may perhaps be suggested in reply argument, that whatever force it may have
But
it
to this
against
the
old-fashioned
naturalism,
its
edge
is
blunted
in the
long run,
to
false.
That
machinery
other forces
the
'
(if
'
more and more perfect harmony Some harmony is necesits environment.' argument in order that any sary so runs the form of life may be possible and as life develops,
organism
'
with
the
harmony
in
necessarily
complete.
no more important
itself
form
which
than truth
for the
fact,
of belief, which
perfect
name
correspondence
belief
and
Sound
or destroyed
until at last,
S oo
Arguments
them.
In the
however, quite
is
insuffi-
drawn from
life
place,
operation before
tionary
processes
even
after that
date
it
was, from the nature of the case, only concerned to foster and perpetuate those chance-born beliefs which
minister to the continuance of the species.
But what
an utterly inadequate basis for speculation is here are to suppose that powers which were evolved
We
in
primitive
man and
his
kill
animal progenitors
in
on that account on
explore the
We are
which
fundamental
beliefs
these
powers
ol
remote aspects of
in
reality,
though they
pro-
were produced
cesses
stage
of development
when
To
say-
little.
to
301
satis-
to the satisfaction of
another.
On
back
this theory,
therefore,
sceptical
we
are again
in
driven
to
the
same
position
left
positive,'
or
naturalistic
On
this
merely
tive
is,
them no
effec-
powers
and
that,
for the
most
part, the
mere
editor
and interpreter
plexities
to the
possible, unless
we
and
at the
|This
all
difficulties
it
far
from
it.
But, at least,
it is
incoherent.
It
nor does
'
it
require us
1 According to a once prevalent theory, innate ideas were true because they were implanted in us by God. According to my way of putting it, there must be a God to justify our confidence in (what used I have given the argument in a form which to be called) innate ideas. avoids all discussion as to the nature of the relation between mind and body. Whatever be the mode of describing this which ultimately commends itself to naturalistic psychologists, the reasoning in the
'
text holds good. Cf. the purely sceptical presentation of the argument contained in Philosophic Doubt, chap. xiii.
302
to
among
scientific
conclusions
any which
effectually shatter
the
ni
it
can in the
strict
own
completion.
The
;
ordered
our know-
is
inexplicable unless
we assume
a rational Author.
Under
there
should be no
'
conflict
religion.'
It is true,
of course, that
if
some of the
difficulties
which atheism
difficulties
I
not
of
own.
We
which
will
mode
it,
in
God is
That
related
to,
and
it,
He
created
to believe.
is
among
in
its
theology teaches.
Naturalism
itself
Not
303
alone
intervenes
its
in the
world of things.
Each
same.
living soul, in
Each
living soul
surround-
more perplexing than, those suggested by the action of a God immanent in a universe of phenomena.
Of course
roundings,
I
thus speaking of
his material sur-
am assuming the
some men of science (in this, however, travelling a beyond their province) would most energetically But their denial really only serves to deny.
little
difficulty
of the problem
by the
phenomena.
So
to figure as
a
to
or complacently
in to
alto-
gether.
to permit
Enough has
me
to pass
by.
will, therefore,
only
who ask
by each one of
he does
actually and
effectually intervene
in
the material
to
world,
of objection
among
3o 4
contain ample
how
of
Neither can be
form elements
reality.
in
to arise
am
II.
Cf. ante,
Part
II.,
Chaps.
I.
and
It
may be worth
which
I
while re-
have made Every theory of the relation between Will, little reference in the text. or, more strictly, the Willing Self and Matter must come under one of (i) Either Will acts on Matter, or (2) it does not. If it two heads does act on Matter, it must be either as Free Will or as Determined Will. If it is as Free Will, it upsets the uniformity of Nature, and our most fundamental scientific conceptions must be recast. If it is as Determined Will, that is to say, if volition be interpolated as a necessary link between one set of material movements and another, then, indeed, it leaves the uniformity of Nature untouched but it violates mechanical principles. According to the mechanical view of the world, the condition of any material system at one moment is absolutely determined by its condition at the preceding moment. In a world so conceived there is no room for the interpolation even of Determined Will among
set of difficulties to
It is mere surplusage. Will does not act on Matter, then we must suppose either running in a parallel stream to the physiological changes of the brain, though neither influenced by it nor influencing it which is, of course, the ancient theory of pre-established harmony; or else we must suppose that it is a kind of superfluous consequence of certain physiological changes, produced presumably without the exhaustion of any form of energy, and having no effect whatever, either upon the material world or, I suppose, upon
If the
other psychic conditions. This reduces us to automata, and automata of a kind very difficult to find proper accommodation for in a world
scientifically conceived.
None
of these alternatives
to
seem very
attractive, but
one of them
would seem
be
inevitable.
305
subjective
'
to the 'objective,' or
by the 'objective'
will avail to
produce a harmonious
And
certainly
no discord could be so
harmony attained
it is
at
such a
cost.
We must acquiesce,
But
in-
us, in
an even more
tractable form,
when we
of our
own
relations to the
world
in
which we
like
problem
of
Divine
Spirit,
all
Who is the
change.
Ground
IV
conflict
either
as
to
the
existence of
God
or
as
it
the possibility of
His
com-
God which
is
suggested by science
God which
is
developed by
theology.
Identical, of course,
we
are capable
God
and
of Nature.
must
be, if science
be at one.
And
yet
know
who
are most
306
striking
produced
mean
triumphs of wrong.
Yet no one
is,
indeed, could
arises.
which thence
From we might
;
but
God of power and a God of reason we never could infer a God who was wholly
So
that
what
religion pro-
One
reason,
suppose,
why
this insistent
thought
does not, so
favourite
ethics
is
far as
my
weapon of
obviously as
controversial
that
much
attributes of
to
God
shall
which
presently return).
in
But another
reason,
difficulty is
religious
while,
it
by a
feather-
The
be one which
is
wholly, as
it
to deal with as
by
it
science.
is in
If this
be not
little
theory
strictly
practice but
307
raise the
problem
in its acutest
form
which
;
is
the
common
is
theology
but theology
con-
cerned
in
and has
these
it
all
not likely
it
now
it
to
is
crush
it
and, para-
doxical though
seems,
what
is
a theological stumbling-block
;
may
also be a
religious aid
'
and that
it
is
in part the
in
thought of
all
creation groaning
and travailing
pain together,
man
the
who
talk of the
'
con-
flict
religion'
do
not, as a rule,
by the existence
opinion,
is
?
of Evil.
Where,
then,
in
their
the
It
But
a measure of truth,
it is
confess this
seems
;
me
to
be
in fact
is
but seldom
accomplished
while
more sugFree
the language,
bog
3 o8
am afraid,
is
be undertaken
if
the
purpose of
In the
this
chapter
to
it
be accomplished.
first place,
then,
seems
to
me unfortunate
Nature should
its
connection
is
For what do
we mean by saying that Nature is uniform ? We may mean, perhaps we ought to mean, that (leaving
Free Will out of account) the condition of the world
at
one moment
next,
is
so
if
connected with
its
it
condition
at the
that
we
could imagine
position,
its
brought
twice into
history
subsequent
would
I
Now
this
no one,
with
miracles.
to
If
miracle
a wonder wrought by
God
meet the
the world
the
were twice
?niracle,
to
same phase,
we cannot
It is
Him
on
Whom
But
it
Who
is
immanent
in all its
changes.
will
Its
truth or untruth
309
philosopher.
man, the man of science, and the It asserts in reality (it may be said) no
that
if
more than
itself,
it
this,
history once
so,
began repeating
like
would go on doing
a recurring
decimal.
But as history
in fact
repeat
itself,
cisely in the
same
condition,
we
should no more be
the
operation
of particular laws
this
of Nature in a
we should under
There
is
Without doubt
this
conduct
general
certain
depends on supplementing
the uniformity of
Nature with
though
ought
it.
to
be,
most
carefully
is,
dis-
tinguished from
is
One
of these
that
Nature
of a
is
made up
or, in
other words,
the
which successive phases we commonly describe as Another of these working 'causes' and 'effects.'
hypotheses
is,
never repeats
it
3io
do.
And
posal
a third is, that we have means at our diswhereby these fragments can be accurately
recognised
when they
recur.
Now
doubt whether
which, be
it
maxims which we
logic
name
of inductive
can,
hard
Whole
of things can be
It
is is
still
thus cut
up
harder to
believe
that
ever
since
its
its
character
all
must surely
in part
depend upon
relation to
repeated with
it.
And
it
is
quite impossible to
by any
methods
in
mining,
apparently re-
peated, whether
all,
really constitute
If this
a case of cause
'
'
and
'
effect.'
seems paradoxical,
it is
chiefly because
we
is
'
law of Nature,' as
it
charge
some department
it
in the
world of
1 See some of these points more Doubt, Part I., Chap. II.
worked out
in Philosophic
SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY
311
Of
course this
is
not so.
mena, Reality
happens.
'
is
exhausted by what
this
and what
Beyond
there
is
nothing.
These
for
laws
'
by us
own guidance through the complexities of fact. They possess neither independent powers nor And if we would use language actual existence. with perfect accuracy, we ought, it would seem,
our
either to say that the
which
it
never does
or
in certain regions of
we can
de-
in-
theory
is
or even that
to,
to
be referred
miracles
it
to
be regarded as incredible.
judgment, that no
profit
But
does
my
Those engaged in these controversies have not uncommonly committed a double error. They have, in the first place, chosen to assume that we have a
perfectly clear
to
what
is
to
3 i2
what
meant by
particular
Laws
of Nature, as to
Laws stand
to
by which each
committed
is
to
be established.
And, having
they proceed to
add
to
it
the habit of
ordinary course,
if
set
going,
went on
;
for
themselves
and that
message
to
mankind
by means of a
No
;
their writings,
into
them
and
is
attribution
any ground
'
the
spiritual
'
and the
'
natural
'
'
count of the
preted
natural
itself is
one which,
if
inter-
strictly,
objection,
proof.
and
The
miracles
real difficulties
lie
elsewhere.
:
Two qualities
seem
to
be of
their essence
313
problem of
own.
the question of
if
evidence.
What amount
of evidence,
?
any,
is suffi-
And on
this,
which
I
is
my
is,
argument,
may perhaps
by evidence
if
meant, as
it
usually
historical
testimony, this
same
for
may be
his
psychological climate,'
It
is
which he brings to
to
its
consideration.
to agree
in
possible
men
on the evidence
a verdict of guilty or
common
stock
be interpreted.
But when, as
is
in the case of
no such
common
stock,
One
of the jury
may
of the world.
To
philosophy
interpret
in
terms of which he
is
accustomed to
custom,
pre-
the universe.
Argument,
judice, authority
rational
and
non-rational,
scheme of
belief has
been fashioned
conspire
to
make
this
And we need
3 i4
not be
even
quite insuffi-
to
effect his
conversion
to
sionally
shows a disposition
go very extraordinary
in
'
verbal inspiration.'
To
its
it
Every
miracle,
whatever
which
occurred, whatever
its relation,
whether essential or
religion, is to
it
scheme of
be
is
It
it is
therefore true.
And
third of our
He may appraise
Wonders due
to
'
altogether different
action therein.
He may
itself.
science
Every
event, therefore,
whether
rence
is
315
belongs.
external
It is not,
of
evidence,
any more
But
can be
may
an otherwise naturalistic
setting,
it
it
may assume
character of inevitableness,
may
almost proclaim
it
who
consider
in its relation,
not to the
needs of
man
as a citizen of both.
VI
Many
enough
other varieties of
;
'
psychological climate
I
'
might be described
to
but what
have said
it
is,
perhaps,
is
to expect
any
until
arrived at respecting
pass, therefore,
to
much more
miracles
to
fundamental,
attribute
of
theological
which
to
I
'
the
of God.'
But
this,
be
it
3 i6
observed,
no
peculiarity of miracles.
Few schemes
I
of thought
all
will
venture to
power,'
the
'
preferential
exercise of Divine
may
exist as to the
manner
in
which
it is
manifested.
who reject miracles but who, at least in those fateful moments when they imaginatively realise their own
helplessness, will admit
is
what
in
a certain literature
called a
'
special Providence.'
'
who reject the notion of special Providence,' but who admit a sort of Divine superintendence over the
general course of history.
There are
those, again,
who
superintendence,
but
who
thinner,
for
For
which
them.
my own
part,
these
various
And if we allow,
action
'
prefer-
of Divine
power
is
possible, nothing
all
those
dif-
fanciful
ferent
schools
it.
of thought
have seen
itself,
fit
to
is
en-
cumber
The admission
however,
one
317
How can
directs
all,
the
Divine Being
everything
and Source of
pro-
duces
all,
of that which
If
He
how can we
'
making
for righteous-
His
or
distinction
is
power?
and
Him
throughout and
in
we
attach
Him
as taking
?
or as hostile to another
Now
ethics
is
it
be observed that
in
almost as
much concerned
itself.
dealing with
if
For
believe
in
'
preferential
action,'
preferential
qualities of
is
the sign
God is bound up
to
be called morality at
am
not
now arguing
by theism.
On
shall
theme
My
present contention
is,
that
in
heathendom of
advance
to
is
yet impossible
3 i8
suppose
morality
God
Who
evil.
was
either indifferent to
good or
inclined to
For a universe
in
which
all
all
and
Even
dim
figure
of
in the
background.
But
is
not
materially
mended by
and we His
shall
be obliged, sooner or
introduce
harmony
duct.
into our
will coincident
mankind on
is
the
defy Omnipotence
the
of
beginning of wisdom.
adjustment
tenance of
is
But
if
this
process
to
be a
Him
to look with
favour upon
some
parts of this
and
evil,
on the
impossible
if
we cannot do
otherwise than
319
Him
same way
to
in-
looking with
eyes upon
truth
and
error, vice
and
empty
ethical significance,
and
to reduce virtue
speculative
think,
conclusions.
their
He who
sees in
of
more than the Infinite Substance of which the world phenomena constitutes the accidents, or who
requires Subject,
Him
for
Infinite
to supply the
unity
'
unmeaning flux of
unconnected
to
particulars,'
has been,
or can be.
is
man
of science
similarly situated
made
a change in his
it
closer to
ethics
'
by theology and
'
than
it
was
in the
days when
special creation
was
am
is,
not contending, be
it
My
point
rather
that
if
the existence of
God
be assumed,
3 2o
His 'preferential
action'
which religion
and morality
alike require us to
attribute to
Him.
For whereas the material and organic world was once supposed to have been created all of a piece,' and to show contrivance on the part of its Author
'
merely by the machine-like adjustment of its parts, so now science has adopted an idea which has always
been an essential part of the Christian view of the Divine economy, has given to that idea an undreamed-of extension, has applied
universe of
it
to the
whole
phenomena,
it
organic
and inorganic,
enriched,
again
to theology
Can
buting to
Author the notion of purpose slowly worked out; the striving towards something which is not, but which gradually becomes, and in the fulness
its
?
of time will be
Surely not.
But,
if
I
not,
can
it
be
the evolution,
mean, which
the dialectical
evolution
of
metaphysics
of that
'
does
preferential action
which
it
is
so difficult
?
321
CHAPTER
VI
But
in
if I
God who
is,
'
subject,'
but
in Biblical language,
'
much
understate
my
thought.
hold,
is
on the
contrary, that
tolerated, but
it
not only
;
actually required,
by science
it
that
if
be accepted
can hardly be
and that
if it
principle,
it
will
be
is
incompetent to deal.
difficulties
For what was it that lay at the bottom of those Speaking broadly, it may be described ?
perpetual
collision,
as
the
gruity,
these
beliefs themselves.
was
that, as
showed
Y
322
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
showed
Second
beauty.
Part, cut
all
This
it
was
that, as
in the
to the root.
I
And
have occupied
by refusing
to allow
Nature,
our beliefs
are
produced.
in turn, and,
its
it
which
Let the
first,
for
it is
a crucial one.
ourselves
Here,
if
anywhere,
we might suppose
Here,
if
independent of theology.
anywhere, we
But
an
irrational
is
one
that reason,
from a
;
scientific
point of view,
itself
a natural product
it
on which
logical,
works
is
due
and
social,
which
I
neither
just
creates
nor
controls,
in
we
shall (as
showed
now) be driven
mere
rational forces,
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
rational issue, stands that
323
in
Supreme Reason
whom
we must
thing.
thus believe,
if
we
at
The
'
belief in
Him
have called
world which
'
prefer-
ential action
in relation to the
He
has
created,
all
single
that,
it
not an
illusion,
and
teaching,
we must
accept what
itself as
a natural product.
At no
we
science with
we
are involved by a
theory of Nature.
if
admission,
we have
For the
already
conceded
to
scientific
is
beliefs.
complete.
Neither rank
among
their
And
easy to
scientific beliefs to
is
rational, so
easy to
which have
ethical.
Both require
therefore,
sources for
shall
seek behind
these
be congruous
to
postulate a rational
God
in the interests
of science,
Y 2
3 24
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
we can
scarcely decline to postulate a moral
so
God
thus far
If
we
and complex
which
have resulted
in the recognition of a
moral law,
we
senti-
to
ments, possessed,
obedience.
in the
if
dwelt at length
the
were
finally to lose
them-
selves
among
the
its
accidental
variations
on which
the creed
Selection does
work,
it
when once
mood
But
if,
deserting naturalism,
we
regard
the evolutionary
ment
seen under a
due, doubtless
wholly different
light.
They maybe
which produces the most cruel and the most disgusting of Nature's contrivances for protecting the species
of
some loathsome
parasite.
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
science cannot, and naturalism will not,
valid distinction.
325
draw any
in, and by the conception of design revolutionises our point of view. The most unlovely germ of instinct or of
appetite to which
is
we
all
that
no longer throws
Rather
is
discredit
it
upon
its
developed offshoots.
consecrated by them.
it is
For
if,
in
the region of
Causation,
is
But
if
what changes
destroys
the
will
the
conception of aesthetics
we
saw,
possibility
beauty
;
of
and
beauty as a
real,
moments of
in
favour,
some
period,
and
some persons,
conclusion
own
aesthetic enthusiasms.
And
will
may be
a naturalistic one,
326
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
may
And
that
fact,
'
yet
it
we cannot say
'
Beauty
in the
in
any
particular case an
objective
that 'mass,'
example, and
'configuration,' are
'objective'
we
are
not
precluded on that
it
to
God, nor
in
the
thrill
of
some deep
far-off
;
is,
indeed,
my faith
and
in
it
kind lose
their harshness.
For we may
liken
ourselves to the
sion winding
members
of
some
endless proces-
Towards each
surface a
while on
guished.
ness.
him lie dull and undistinSo may all possess a like enjoyment of loveliall
So do
if
owe
it
to
And
after
we severally
know
not,
And,
lastly,
we come
to theology,
denied by
all,
but
whose
truth
we have been
obliged to assume in
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
327
to
admit
that, in
dealing the
belief,
is
that
'
which
providentially
guided,
For
here, at least,
might we
Much
more, then,
of belief.
if it
be accepted as actual
this
is,
in other regions
And
in fact,
mankind.
They have
God
The
it,
in
some shape or
To
religion
no doubt,
is
to be found an
known
as natural
as
attain,
natural
to
religion
being
defined
the
in
religion
by the
object
But, for
my own
part,
do not believe
'
is
any
sure
'
such thing as
that
if
unassisted reason.'
'
And
am
natural religion
are not
among
its
products.
The
that,
attentive reader
according to the
in
such a
There
is
328
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
the
Ruler of
world'
(which
may
assume, for
purposes of
illustration, to constitute
is
the substance
of natural religion)
heard
of,
had
it
vainly supposes
be independent.
But
cepted
;
if this if
way
we
the case of
scientific,
ethical,
and
aesthetic beliefs,
and assume
cend the
'
for
their
essential nature,
supernatural.'
We cannot consent to
see the
'
pre-
ferential
in those
religious manifestations
may be)
nor can
natural
'
we deny
explain.
'
The
'
between
natural
and
supernatural
'
that
spiritual,
'
between
preferential action
'
and
'
non-preferential,'
'
'
sometimes supat
all
posed
and
is,
in
it
this particular
connection,
events,
as
seems
and
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
confusing
lation.
329
a burden, not an
may be between
and
instructive.
In both
we
note that
movement has
In both, that
it
In both, that
it
sometimes
in directions
from the
In both, that, from the point of view of our provisional philosophy, the lower
is
only to be explained
final
by the higher.
product counts
among
which
its
affiliation.
How,
facts into
we most
It
would, no
is
that,
seen from
its
Divine
side,
which we
side.
call
it
discovery
is
But
not,
knowto a
whether
community,
is
whether
scientific, ethical,
or theological,
due
human
Neither
33
acts,
or,
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
as
far
as
'unassisted reason'
is,
have already
is
said,
a fiction;
impossible to conceive.
Even
it
may be
filled.
inspiration
it
'
which, ignoring
all
minor
distinctions,
extends
belief
is
to every case in to
due
the
'
preferential action
of Divine
dis-
power,
it
tinctions
is,
do not
exist.
All
wish here to
insist
on
as a whole
and
that, not
as
its
more im-
So
this
studied,
it
becomes evident
is
that Inspiration,
is
if
to
be allowed,
limited to no
age, to
no country,
to
no people.
It is
required by
teach.
truth,
those
who
by those who
to
new
Its
one,
there
is its
co-operation to be discovered.
work-
ment of
beliefs,
among
their
unhonoured
beginnings.
Its aid
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
331
issue.
Are we,
in
example, to find a
measure of inspiration
and
tions
to
common
them no
'
Hardly,
if
we
Chosen
People
to purify, to elevate,
fitting
and
to
expand
became
elements in
Are we,
again, to
inspiration
was
pre-
merging
as a
?
whole
in the
main
are
Hardly, unless
we
men may
thistles.
God
which we
narrowed down
to the sources,
own
spiritual
If
nourishment.
is
a preference
shown by any
for
a more
in
limited conception
of the
it
Divine intervention
I
matters of
belief,
It
must,
in
suppose, be on one of
first
two grounds.
may,
the
33 2
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
transcendent intuitions of prophet or apostle
earlier
faiths,
the
clouded as these are by human ignorance and marred by human sin. Things spiritually so far asunder ought not, it may be thought, by any system of They belong classification, to be brought together. They differ not merely infinitely to separate worlds.
in
in
kind
and a
is
risk of
serious error
must
arise
if
the
same term
loosely
so far apart.
rather, plainly are,
Now, that there may be, or, many modes in which belief is
co-operation
I
assisted
by Divine
That the
to deny.
word
to
It is
I
'
inspiration
do not desire
and
am
if
have
argu-
seized
my
ment,
which ought to be preserved, but because there is no other term which so pointedly expresses that Divine
element
in the
it
was
my
my
theory be
it
true,
exist,
howsoever
I
may be
;
described, to the
full
extent which
have indicated
beliefs
which
it
assists in
producing
nearness
in their
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
in
333
in all
some marks
of Divine intervention.
it
may be
is
objected that
incapable of
Since
is
its
much
that
imperfect, the
mere
error.
If,
therefore,
we seek
in
it not merely a Divinely ordered cause of belief, but also a Divinely ordered ground for believing, there
must be some means of marking off those examples of its operation which rightfully command our full intellectual allegiance, from those which are no more
than evidences of an influence towards the truth
working out
This
is
its
beyond
Nothing that
have said
about inspiration
affects in
intended to do so
problems,
for the
problem, or group of
which would thus have been raised is altogether beside the main course of my argument. They belong, not to an Introduction to Theology,
but to Theology
in religious
itself.
Whether there
is
an authority
without
if it
matters of a kind
altogether
;
what,
its
claims
on which theologians
have
differed,
and
still
differ,
and which
it
is
quite
334
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
beyond
this
my
province to decide.
is
Essay
never
is
'
fundamental,' in
word
here used.
The
no record, can
lie at
always possible
what
titles
is
And
the
mere
fact that
such questions
may
be
put,
irrelevant nor be
and
historical discussion,
shows
clearly
enough
that
we have no
business with
them
here.
in
But although
this
it is
work
to enter
that
should endeavour, in
ment of
this chapter, to
jurisdicis
What
have so
this
body of our
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
theological,
335
whole
than
if
if
The
itself,
Whether we can
if
carry the
process a step
further,
satisfactory
in a
The answer
often given
is
in the negative.
It is
who do
it is
it
not
uncommonly
constitutes an
upon
faith,
new stumbling-block
modate
1
and
We
any worth, or
It
scientific cate-
may be a realm
it
of
But whether
it
be
this,
or whether
it
be the abiding:-
evidently must be
Even when we
relation of our
are endeavouring to
comprehend the
to the material
336
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
we
of
find, as
nected,
we have
seen, that
all
familiar
modes
explanation
break down
and
become
meaningless.
Yet we
If,
certainly exist,
and presumably
devise formulae
we have
which
bodies.
then,
we cannot
mystery of our
daily existence,
we need
lend
embarrassed
if
faith refuses to
inductive treatment.
scientific
criticism, the
same cannot be
rests.
Here,
will
perhaps be urged,
we
ground.
trary
We
distinction
'sacred'
and
'secular,'
historic
that
is
necessary to
our curiosity.
If they
cross-examination,
further
we need
trouble
no
they point.
No
for
in its
and as
in
human
testimony,
nothing
may any
results
not so simple as
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
those
337
who make
have us suppose.
tions.
is,
Historic
method has
'
its
limita-
It is self-sufficient
we may
judgment
as to the
truth or falsity of
any particular
historic statement
depends, partly on our estimate of the writer's trustworthiness, partly on our estimate of his
means of
But
'
independent variables,' to be
their results are balanced
it
up.
On
the contrary,
is
manifest
trustis
in
many
and
cases,
worthiness
likeli-
tell
what they
tell
us
may depend on
no
historical
method
clusive information.
questions of antecedent probability have to be themselves decided solely, or mainly, on historic grounds,
more
scientific,
by a kind of
are,
though
bring
we must
world
338
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
in speculative interest and in ethical
both
importance,
That
point
of
this
own
view,
done,
by
a
various
criticism,
destructive
schools
of
New
Testament
everyone
is
aware.
Starting from
to accept
philosophy
work
to devise a variety of
was
nevertheless
there.
Of
these
for all
But
it
is
documents.
they are
It
to
say
that
endeavours,
by the unstinted
apparatus,
into
employment of an elaborate
critical
to
con-
is
for
philosophy,
I
not
history,
to
pronounce.
What view
which these
critics
make appeal
knows
not again to
New
Testa-
ment
our own.
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
339
How,
Or,
'
if
such a phrase
as
'
antecedent
probability
at
all
possible in a case
what temper
of mind, in
what mood of
expectation,
The
in a
reply must,
think,
depend, as
shall
show
we
its
while
to
which
it
IV
Now
ethical
though they
are,
rule, in
the works of
I
I
do
not
say this by
way
of
criticism
for
into
these needs would have only an indirect bearing on the essential subject-matter of ethical
philosophy,
would
help
either
to
establish
the
fundamental
its details.
But, after
all,
as
of
'
categorical imperatives,'
however authoritative
of actual
z 2
stresses
34 o
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
If
experience.
we
which
to do,
shall
not merely
men what
it
;
they ought
if
still
more,
we
are
to
which
it
gives
rise,
much
more than
aspirations
for their
this will
be required.
It will
not only be
and
ideals
less effectual
them should
but
it
will also
be necessary,
if it
be possible, to meet those ethical needs which must work more harm than good unless we can sustain
the belief that there
is
somewhere
to
be found a
These are
facts of
may and do
number and
It
into existence
certain,
by
ethical
commands.
difficulty
further,
felt
though
it,
more
may be
in
admitting
many
without
sanctions.
for
the
aid
of theology
One commonly
is
example,
for
and those of the community. In a fashion, and for a very narrow circle limited rude and
the individual of ethical commands, this
is
deliberately provided
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
by the prison and the
of
the
criminal
law.
scaffold, the
It
is
341
whole machinery
with less
provided,
But
it
is
assumed
in
more than
belief.
is
Now
tions,
the question
at
under what
limita-
need to the
alone
under which
would be
Can
argue from the need for some complete correspondence between virtue and
another world than
will
this,
felicity,
to the reality of
be completely effected
sopher has,
we
can.
He
Law
the
implied the
sphere where
it
under
conditions
' ;
satisfactory
Practical
Reason
his
and
for
system
was thus that he found a place in Freedom, for Immortality, and for God.
it
The
of a kind which
we cannot employ.
somewhat
am endeavouring
to
recommend
342
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
in the
pursuing
If the reality
rational
come into existence, must we not suppose that the Power which has thus produced in man the knowledge of right and wrong, and has added to
faculty of creating ethical ideals,
it
the
some
satisfaction
for
historical
development of the
?
has
is
one
To
to
reason purely
the
reality
of
a revelation from
us.
Heaven could
suppose, communicate to
events,
is
My
contention, at
I
all
of a
much humbler
in
kind.
confine
universe which,
by
is
hypothesis,
is
under
moral
governance, there
facts or
true, to
our highest
if
moral demands
it
exists, is
sufficient,
to
neutralise
uncritically
governed
much
of
the
criticism
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
343
of Christianity
For
my own
part,
cannot doubt
in
the
variety of
in
fact,
I
find
it
will
arrive at
any
different conclusion.
v
I
this question is
Any
adequate
man would
unsuited
to
altogether
these
controversial
pages.
illustrate
Yet
it
my meaning
same
territories
while, at the
shall
examples of which
among
the
and that
this
therefore no
and
civilisation,
now
more necessary
I
am
'
344
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
in addition
any metaphysical
or
scientific
objections
to
a legitimate
due
The discovery
it
is
the death-blow to
in other
human
Incarnation, as
is
it
No
is
criticism of
'
natural
For
it
arises out of
what
may
almost
'
call
an
aesthetic
sense of
disproportion.
;
What is man,
that
Thou art mindful of him and the Thou visitest him ? is a question
'
far
beyond what
lips first
it
uttered
And
perpetually to their
this material world,
utterly imperceptible
life
in general,
who know how brief and how is the impress made by organic and by human life in particular, upon
it
hard to
and so stupendous.
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
345
God
to be controlled
to
relations
man and
Him
;
as
moved by
the
own
have
creation.
fallen
into
He
eyes of a
politician
that
He
by
importance
and that
He
sets store
the
the
inference
The
in
very sense
by
the
man
the
intelligent
animal,
creates
man
out
Metaphysically
speaking, our opinions on the magnitude and complexity of the natural world should, indeed, have no
Though we supposed
six
size
the sun to
be 'about the
fundamental
matter
the
problems
concerning
time
and
space,
and
spirit,
be formally
346
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
But then, we are not creatures of pure
restated.
reason
an intimate and
life,
Divine
and conso-
lation,
that
it
the progress
of scientific
difficult
knowtheism.
ledge makes
it
to obtain
by the
aid
The
feeling
of
tribes,
Him
is
in
some
among
their
them,
nor does
longer
it
tend to become
naive
easier.
We
can
no
share
anthropomorphism.
We
search out
God
with eyes
grown
with
It
is
in
vain
that
we
to
it
describe
reduce
pantheistic.
and regularity
the sharp
of
movements
dull
impression of an
concerned
in
He
is
hidden,
He
retreats
and yet
unknown.
from
the
Then
doctrine,
it
is
that,
we
are saved
fluences of our
own
discoveries.
The
Incarnation
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
throws the whole scheme of things, as
easily
347
we
It
are too
into
apt
to
represent
far
it
to
ourselves,
different
and
truer
proportion.
abruptly
changes the whole scale on which we might be disposed to measure the magnitudes of the
universe.
What we should otherwise think great, we now perceive to be relatively small. What we should otherwise think trifling, we now know to be immeasurably important. And the
change
is
is
philoso-
phically justified.
sufficient
Speculation by
that,
itself
should be
sight
to
convince us
in the
of a
are
incommensurable quantities
and that
an
infinite
Yet
know
could
by the
about us on every
side,
added
to
by
The
anxiously extracted,
through the
Mankind,
analysis
given to
speculative
and
if it
if
home
to
them
that, in the
is
of less
343
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
the moral
importance than
spirit,
I
growth of a human
know
not
how
this
somewhat
is
suggested
Mankind
can
never
have
been
The
and too
insistent ever to
We
now know
which
ties
that
it is
mind
to
but there
is
no consciousness, so
accepted
which
is
neural changes.
Looked
at,
necessarily
life
adopted by the
it
the psychic
seems, as
And
science, through
channels,
with
irresistible
force
drives
home
body
to each
severally
for
bound over
servitude
to a
qualities
we have no
responsibility whatever.
As
the reader
is
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
will
349
all
not stand
is
critical
examination.
Of
creeds,
materialism
inside
from
is
least capable of
being philo-
defended,
or
even
coherently stated.
is
Nevertheless, the
practice, to
not,
in of
critical analysis.
From
it
birth
to
death,
without
pause or
respite,
We
meshes,
may tell us that we But science, ought to control it, and that we can. hinting that, after all, we are but its product and
Conscience
its
plaything, receives
experiences of mankind.
may
assure
Yet
body remains the most fundamental and all-pervading fact with which mind has got to deal, the one
from which
it
the
to every
Now, what
lation
is
wanted here
is
or
negative dialectic.
These, indeed,
may
They
in this particular
species of warfare.
think)
place,
and cannot
35o
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
shall
cover
all
the facts.
which
baffled
flesh
and blood
of
heir
to
;
confused and
sure
that
by theories
not sure
heredity
the
the truth
soling
how any
larger
to
truth can
be welded on
yet swayed
less,
it
may
be,
by
own subjection to the body. What support does the belief in a Deity ineffably remote from all human conditions bring to men thus
hesitating whether
among
the Sons of
God
What
who seem
little
is
What
which
faith
will
Incarnation,
The
intel-
which haunt us
in that
dim region
allayed.
it
me
that,
though
are
is
we
made
in the
God,
it
is
full
satisfaction of this
ethical
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
need, are
351
among
One more
topic there
is,
we have
I
been dealing, to
briefly direct the
must
about what
is
known
evil,'
and
throws
in the
way
is
much
less op-
form of Theism
it
may
it
retain units
possesses,
moral grip
is
loosened, and
it
difficulty lie
It
chosen out of an
or at least an unknown,
number
pain
is
element.
gratuitous.
His action on
this
view
is,
so to speak,
;
He
He
He
He
to
has in
them
and circumstances
extreme
352
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
can
How
love
?
One
of
Whom
He
this
How
be a
?
can
How
can
He
fitting object
worship
So runs the
melancholy
as a cry of anguish
bitter experience.
This reasoning
is
essence an explication of
in the attribute of
what
is
supposed to be involved
;
Omnipotence
His
its
conclusion
lies in
God
to the sufferings of
There
are, therefore,
two points
at
which
first
may be
it is
assailed.
We
may
argue, in the
above
our reach,
drop
all
it
or
drive
the
arguments
it
suggests
to
their
it
extreme
logical
conclusions.
it is
And,
in particular,
may be urged
includes the
that
power
to
do that which
is
irrational
and
that,
we cannot say
rational or not.
These are metaphysical considerations which, so long as they are used critically, and not dogmatically,
to
negatively,
to
me
have
force.
it
But there
a second
line of attack,
I
on which
is
more
my
business to
insist.
have
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
flourish side
353
by
which represents
;
God
its
as indifferent to pain
is
and
sin
so that,
if
our
provisional philosophy
circuit
that
be which did
the
conclusions
which
Yet
after
all,
but a fair-weather
argument
large,
move mankind
at
too
even of a philo-
sopher, in
it
moments
of extremity.
Of what
use
is
to
permitting themselves
tend
to
will
it.
No
is
such conclusion
They have
fall
Of what
where
alike
the unjust
victims of a
them
to
them
blind
pain.
their
Tell
them,
with
theologians,
that
and
justified
by an hereditary
that,
tell
them, with
certain
philosophers,
its
could
they understand
the world in
show
of
itself
the
Whole,
and
they
will
think
you
A A
are
mocking them.
354
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
it
is
not in the
moments when
is
our rescue.
in
What
is
needed
to
such a living
shall
faith
God's relation
for that
Man
rise
as
leave
no place
within us at the
this
faith
is
of
undeserved
pain.
And
possessed by those
who
form of Theism.
Who
ills
is
no
is
He
did
He
not on
their
If
suffering
falls
not always
?
on the most
guilty,
was
He
not innocent
is
Shall
ill-designed for
when He
its
sub-
jected Himself to
beliefs like these
conditions?
in
true that
do not
our doubts nor provide us with explanations. they give us something better than
tions.
many
explana-
For they
to a
minister,
or
need which,
far
diminution, seems to
sation,
bring
my
felt
task to a conclusion.
feel,
on looking
the
during
its
progress,
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
task
I
355
far
beyond
my
a
powers
accomplish.
For
have
aimed
nothing
less
than to
show,
within
stood by
all,
how,
in face of the
complex tendencies
ours,
which sway
this strange
age of
we may
best
beliefs
into a
comprehensive
In so bold an attempt
may
well
have
failed.
mar
the
success of
my
which
I
find
it
It
may
be,
our existing
surfer
faculties,
we
from incoherences.
Narrow
it
down
and
further
2.
you
and
No
retical
basis
on
No
ticular experiences,
3.
whether
external
'
or
'
internal.'
room within
can
tell
it
356
A PROVISIONAL UNIFICATION
all its
ultimate causes,
No unification of beliefs
;
among
also
and which
satisfy
Any
system which,
legitimate
manent habitation
man.
principles
To
enforce, illustrate,
How
far
have succeeded
in
least
Theology,
leave
it
for
others to determine
re-
is
not
which
;
which
we
theorise
and
that, therefore,
no
failure
on
my
I
part r-m
ethical,
they
religious,
or
scientific,
whose interdepen-
dence
have endeavoured to
establish.
THE END
-.
;,.-,,':.".
'.',:; -.'
~-~M.
i\u
53
)
^^