New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-08-09
PHILOSOPHIC THEISM.
DR. MARTINEAU'S DEFENCE OF IT.

vi-4iO Macmillan & Co.
Everything that Dr. Martneau writes is IN
.cresting and eminently readable whether con-
vjncng or otherwise. He has charming s'yie,
q brilliant Imagination, a racy humor, vein Oh
poetry which touches all his higher thoughts with
grace and an erudition which gives soldity 10 MS |
reflections and seriousness if not authority TO ms
spcculauons. On the descending slope OF long |
and active life devoted to the reinforcement oil
liberalism in religion which to many mihdS mas |
rroved Craver detection than Latltudnaranism
NJ the most pronounced kind, as 1t used TO DE
understood -he has undertaken the formal de-
fence of philosophical theism IN these handsome
and portly volumes For such work his former
concessions have to some extent impaired MS
capacity lie has ranged himself with the THINK
crs who occupy the frontier line so long that his
intellectual habits have become estranged from
the old lines of reasoning, and he clearly mas
the arguments which he is often Obliged to employ
unfamiliar and awkward
Having yielded so much to the zeitge1st IN the
mast. however it is difficult for him to establish
anywhere q solid foundation for his thesis. The
main evidences Of thcsm are rejected as peremp-
torily by him as by the Agnostics: yet he IS re-
solved upon demonstrating metaphysicaly tnat
which he has already gone far toward renounc-
ing He is however. assisted in this arduous en-
tcrprise by the optimism of his temperament anu
by the vigor of his ideality, which contlhuanS
bridges chasms in his logic with the moS'
picturesque and seductive assumptions ana COLI
lectures To say truth, Dr. Martneau Is hot
frst-rate reasoner. He is too emotional ana I'M
pulsve He is too intuitional Now INTUITION
may be really the safest guide, but no one can
demonstrate so much by the reason ana whoever
elects rational methods in dealing with question
must expect to be gagged by those methods III
pf
moreover. Dr. Martincau adduces personal eXpe-
rience of so singular a character as to interfere
with the effect of his deductions by suggesting the
bewildering doubt whether his mental processes
are the same as those of other human beings. III
Is curious too that while he ridicules those phi
Iosophers who have cndeavOred TO anayze the llfSt
stems of infant consciousness by observing the
movements Of very young children ne docs ho'
hesitate himself to dogmatize upon this ve1v polho'
laying it down rs matter of demonstration 1or en-
ample, that the perception of an external worlu
first arises IN association with the sense Of external
resistance to our will proposition which seems
10 involve a quite incredible psychologist appre-
hcnsion on the Part Of babies
The eloquent Doctor docs not altogether escape
thc fallacy which undercs all metaphysics namely
the cndcavors to explain the incXphcaple ny III
venting tcrminology which swarms with UNI
Supreme VIII operates by planting out force
for example, it is clear that no intcllisbe idea
corresponds to these words. When the human
mind begins to post, or to think it is posting
operations beyond the sphere Of its own capacl-
ties and experiences all it can do is TO darken
counsel by words without knowledge. With the
theological argument DR.. Martincau succeeds muc.
better AID for one reason, because the evolution
lists have laid themselves open to attack by strain
ing Darwin's evidences unduiy in some directions
In treating of the origin and meaning OF evil Ii
is not surprising that even so acute and intrepid
thinker becomes cntangcd in contradictions The
attempt TO reconcile the existence of evil with
the supremacy of power which docs not Will
evil has invariably failed and the latest essay
aas the usual outcome. The one way of meeting
this problem seems TO be through the hypothesis
that the ultimate purpose of the Supreme VIII
may vindcatc what appears to our finite intel
ligcnce incqutable, cruel. or wanton No other
consideration can meet the obvious fact that all
the agencies whereby suffering of every kind is
inflicted are in nature. and consequently must
have been put there dcSigncdly by the power Of
which nature is the manifestation.
In the chapter on Death in its Physiological
Aspect DR. Martincau appears to argue far too
loosely. Speaking Of the future of animals, he
really almost abandons the hope of another eX-
istcncc for man in his apparent haste to declare
his unbclicf in anything of the kind for those or
eanizcd beings which from the standing place OF
physiology, are practically level with man.
lie says here: L" This impression, that every
separate being is but a transient ripple on a uni
vcrs5 deep, gains strength from the wide sweep Of
the law Of mortality Were it a human fact only,
1t might perhaps admit Of more constructions
than one. and its darkness be made 10 ccco be-
fore the brilliant powers it threatened to cnguf
But it embraces no less all other races OF animals
and even all plants; and as no one in ou- time
Will claim an unseen survivorship fo- these, il
fellows THAT we must cithc- rclinQuish it for mar
also, or else afi-m that death, in spite of it.
similar aspect aud contents. is not one and The
same event to ALL but under apparent identity
conceas difference truly infinite The weak
ness OF this consists in the wholly unphlosophica
implication that because " no one in time
would think Of claiming future life for anime IS
therefore such claim can have no status. Bu
it is worse than unphilosoDhcal; it happens 10 b.
untrue As fact, more than half the present
population OF the earth hold that there is futur
life fo- animals less than for men. Beyond
question DR.. Martncau is right in saying that th
denial of n future TO animals adds enormously 4
the difficulty of claiming it for We nigh
go even further than this admission. But tn
truth is that human vanity has obscuIed human
reason on this point. TO say that we have am
real knowledge of animals which can justify us il
concluding the cphcmerality Of their existence, i
an abuse of language, for no such knowcdg
actually exists IT, again, attempt is mad
to determine the issue by reference to the psych.
cal evolution Of men and the apparent purely
physical life of animals, are at once confronted
with the absence Of the Dsychcal element in a larg
percentage of human savages, and the genera
synchronism Of their lives with those of th'
beasts DR.. Martineau would not admit tina
the future possibilities in the of man depended
upon the extent Of his psychical development
prol,ablv. but that soc,nS the only direction il