The Arkansaw traveler., 1884-11-29

tanlt with it and says that t could not he because ik did nos have beginning, and l hads a good reason faf rejecting is both eecause it has beginning and because II did not have beginning. It either had beginning or 1t did not. u 1t did he rejects it because is did, and if t did not he rejects t because 1t did not. The moral of all this is Mir. lngersoll intends to reject a Creator anyway and al all haSards and 30 puts his case and drives along any cut to the desired climax.
 Afssr this efEort to put confusion over ali efthe questions of relation to God, he says, ~these questions oi origin and dessiny-cf ia6aite gods-Are beyond the po~ers of the human mind they cannot be solved, We might as yell try to travel fast enough to ge, beyond the Aorison. It is like a man trying to run away from Ais girdle.'
 In the course of the above passages, Mir ingersoli expresseda preference for the idea that the universe had existed from eternity, as an idea that vas a aeE- ative to the idea ef creation, which he had lAbored to fili with ahsurdi,ies. This assumption is not free from troubles. The eternal universe is no, free from one single difficulty that can ba alleged against an eternal God. If we assame anything as a 6rst cause, the question comes up, what Is the cause of the 6rs, caHsea No system of philosophy can escape that difficulty. ifyou show tha, the creator had creator, then the task comes back to you with all of its troubles of defining th:= cause, c( in origin, and all mates pertaining to !t The universe or 6 creator, one oE the other, must be assumed; sad the fact that there arc difficulties @ be grappled with in both cases, jus, alike, balance one against the other. The difficulties peculiar to each assumption must, there fore, only be discussed. Every difficulty which can be candidly alleged against an eternal God, as creator, can be alleged against an eternal universe. The assump- tion of an eternal universe gives not enc single relief from the complications that hang about definitions of a first cause, and t gives us additional difficult ties. The universe has all of the ele- ments Of being an effect. The analysis of the chemist upon primary substances joined in the universe finds them &iih groups of different properties, all related b each other in the possibilities of their com mbinations as if oneness of purpose predominated in the definition of their elements so as to make one whole out of them. This fellowship of properties in the'results achieved by them and de- pendent upon the separate peculiari,ies of different parts, indicates the predomi- nance Of convenience and purpose in all of them to one end or to a number of ends which ultimately tall into the one grand conception in the idea of the word Universe turned into one. Then these clements, when 50 looked at in detail of activities and impress of former operations, show us that the universe under analysis, appears not as one great, independent, self existent whole, bat as a great whole, dependent upon numberless interdependent relationships as a cause. The universe as it is, Is an effect. Can an effect be uncaused1 Mir. ingersoli assumes that 1t can, and takes to himself all of the difficulties that hang about any first cause and then in addition to all of that he asserts that a thing which he cannot name or talk in. teiligibiy about in any way without assuming ii as a thing made, was not made. Le. any man attempt to talk of the universe and the elements contained in it and omit all elements of expres sion that indicate that it is a result of some cause. and he Is overwhelmed with difi culties Of expression. To escape the ideas d effects of . cause hs must ah- soluseiy get out of the univsrss fos things ot which to talk. The thing h dstaii and as a whole cannot be named or discoursed Of with intelligence upon the assumptsoa that is is uncaused, seif-existens eternal On the other hand the eosesFsioa es God h such that we do violence to t h every 
 expsession that would define Him as an sdecs. He has, tn hls presentation h rs- agious teaching, ell Of the elements of power as . cause corresponding to al the elements of effect iDund In the anil verse. We have then to choose between the cause adequate for the universs as an effect, and an effect that has not one clement in 1t that can bs named krss cause. Mir. Ingersoli takes to himself sl A A. L