Pawtucket tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 1890-189?, 1895-07-05

Msrbsst- Spsaess Hss Corssrsd the nsss'
tt lisat stst~smAn Dalf0ur.

Hsrbsst' Spsaess Les Corssrsd the ussS
es st lisat ststssnAn Balfoar.
Mr.. Herbert Spencer's health " unfor-
tunately preoarlous, but his answer 70 GER
tain oritioisms of him In Mr.. Arthur ).
Balfour's reoently published book shows
that his intellectual strength has suffered
NO decline. Indeed IL Is not too much To
say that he has driven the brilliant states
man into q corner whence he will ind 10
difficult to emerge with the honors OF
war. Ono of the striking assumptions In
Mr.. Balfour's book was That there. arc oer-
tain needs and aspirations In mans nature
which make the belief In ruling power
necessary. Mr.. Spencer shows that this
Is purely an anthropocentric argument,
which proves too much. II would force
US he says, to accept the Mohammedan's
belief In paradise Of houris and the Hin
doo's belief that he may ascend to heaven
by placing himself under the wheel OF
JugRernaGt's car. It rests on the ludi-
crous assumption that the universe exists
solely TO satisfy mans needs and aspira-
tions, whereas man Is IAN infinitesimal
bubble OH a globe that Is itself infinites-
imal compared with the totality OF things.
The surrounding world has not been ar
ranged to fit the physical nature OF man,
but conversely the physical nature or man
has been nodded to fit the surrounding
world.
But Mr.. Balfour falls into still great
er inconsistency. While assuming that
there must be God because the ordered
system of phenomena Is otherwise mex
plicable" he proceeds to make tho mega
tive assumption that man cannot under
stand how God createdSand sustains the
universe. Why should we assume an ex-
PLANTATION for the one mystery and not for
the other? asks Mr.. Spencer If Mr.. Bal
four Is content to let one ultimate difficult
ty remain without solution, why should he
feel impelled to tax our credulity by evolv-
ing out of his own inner consciousness
solution for another ultimate dihlcultyi
The question is . searching one and ex-
poses the pitfalls that arc always to DO
found In the path of those who reason from
assumptions TO facts.
One Of the strongest positions In Mr..
Balfour's book was his demonstration that
In many things our conduct Is decided by
authority rather than by reason. Mr..
Spencer admits this, but calls attention to
the fact that II Is only by the exercise OF
reason that the claims Of authority are ad-
mitted, 50 that In the last analysis reason
must always be the final authority. Moro.
over, waving for the time being the ques.
tion of reason, we are confronted today by
two conflicting sources Of authority-that
Of y>!.gion and that OF science. And tax.
ing Mr.. Balfour on his own ground II
will have to be admitted that the world
today Is coming to pay more regard to the
authority Of science than that OF religion.
Investigation Is constantly tending to con.
firm the postulates of science and just as
constantly tending to disprove or make
less certain many Of tho postulates Of the
olOgy.
Mr.. Spencer again agrees with his critic
In the postulate that out OF the depths OF
unfathomable mystery the certitudes OF 10.
ligion rs well as of science may emerge.
But he combats the further assertion OF
Mr.. Balfour that they actually do emerge,
or rather he maintains that so many con.
Trajectory conceptions of God have emerg.
ed out of the mystery that surrounds us
that they mutually destroy each other.
Besides this 1t Is to be remembered that
while time and investigation confirm the
dicta Of science they rob many OF the as
sumptions Of theology of their most robust
attributes. The world today has dropped
the old idea Of God as a magnified man;
the conception of a power which manifests
itself in 80, 900, 900 Of suns making bar
gain with Abraham and being swayed by
anger, jealousy and revenge is today un-
thinkable. Yet that was the primal con-
ception of God when 1t emerged out OF
the mystery of things.
Those who accept religion on the au.
thority Of divine revelation will not be
troubled by Mr.. Spencer's brilliant article,
but to those who try to prove religion as
they would problem in geometry it will
suggest many difficulties. New York
Tribune.