Birmingham age-herald., 1895-05-12
GOSSIP FROM BOOKLAND.

Specially interesting among new pub lications is the theological work by the Rt. Hon. Arthur James Balfour 'The Foundations of Belief" The distinct possibility that MT. Balfour will be the next prime minister of England lends additional interest to this expression of his religious convictions.
 MT Balfour calls his work merely notes introductory to the study of the ology" for he says: Tt is not over pure. ly religious controversies that the cause of religion is lost or won. The judgments we shall form upon it's spe- cial problems are commonly settled for us by our general mode of looking at the universe" And the work is intended to lead the reader up to a point of view whence he will be able to obtain a glimpse of the infinite whole revealed in true relative proportions.
 
 In the best line of poetry which Mir. Lewis Morris evef wrote he described Socrates as making it his great work in life to doubt our doubts away" This a terse description of Mir Balfour's method of procedure in his new work In a chapter on "Naturalism." which is but term for materialism and reason, he says MT Spencer who pierces the fu- ture with surer gaze than I can make the least pfetence to, looks confidently forward to a time when the relation of man to his surroundings will be so hap pily contrived that the reign of absolute righteousness will prevail; conscience grown unnecessary, will be dispensed with the path of least resistance will b5 the path of virtue; and not the broad but the narrow way will lead to de- struction. These excellent consequences seem to me to flow very smoothly and satisfactorily from his particular doc Urine of evolution, combined with his par ticular doctrine of morals. But I confess that my own personal qualification at the prospect is somewhat dimmed by the reflection that the same kind of causes which make conscience super fluous will relieve us from the necessity of intellectual effort, and that by the time we are all perfectly good we shall also be all perfectly idiotic."
 MT. Balfour has a peculiar gift of sec ing things clearly, and in expressing his ideas in words equally clear. In part 1 he surveys the opinions held by natu- raliSts in respect to matters connected with righteousness, beauty and reason, and says: All that gives dignity to life, all that gives value to effort, shrinks and fades under the pitiless glare of creed like this" Then he gives some worthy reflections upon transcendental idealism and surveys nationalist orthodoxy In part MT. Balfour discusses "authority and reason, beliefs and formulas," "science and theology" and in the. last chapter is found the following: "Even when we are endeavoring to comprehend the relation of our own finite personal ities to the material environment with which they are so intimately connected we find, as we have seen, that all famil- far modes of explanation break down and become meaningless. Yet we cer- tainly exist and presumably have bod ies. If, then, we cannot devise formu- lac which shall elucidate the familiar mystery of our daily existence we need neither be surprised nor embarrassed if the unique mystery of the Christian faith refuses to lend itself to inductive treatment n