The herald., 1895-06-10

without us, with the phenomena of which
we. are all our lives coming in contact,
can never be known to us as it exists
effectively. but only as it makes itself
known to us by acting on our conscious
ness? 1t means, as Professor Flske has
said, that we cannot transcend the organ
ically imposed limits OF our own intelli-
gence. 1t has been charged against the
Spencerian philosophy that it is atheistic
i'll its nature, but this is certainly an
erroneous Judgment. In the first place it
must be remem bered that the doctrine
that knowledge is limited is not new
with Spencer, and nowhere does he as
sert it as such. In fact, this doctrine is
taught by nearly every philosopher OF
every school. including Aristotle, Gerson,
Melancthon, Bruno. Algazalli, Campanalli.
Bacon, Spinoza, and Kant. But Spencer
goes further towards the theistlc view
than any OF these. The essence of their
philosophy is that beyond the KIN movable
the human mind can find nothing. But
Spencer teaches that beyond the know
able there is something-an absolute
reality.
at is vigorously impossible for the
phenomenon to exist without proclaimlng
the neumenon behind it, 'Our
knowledge cannot be a knowledge of ap-
pearance alone without at the same time
teaching us of the reality behind the
Appearances Appearances without
reality is unthinkable.'
Spencer holds that the infinite power,
which he terms the unknowable can
never be known to finite man. But this
is taught by nearly all religious and isms.
"A God understood would be no God at
all. "To think that God is as we think
him to be is blasphemy.'' For My
thoughts are not your thoughts; neither
are your ways My ways saith the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the
oaTth Nv iob 10 bon
and My thoughts than your Thoughts
(1saiah.)
In the infancy OF mans intellection,
when he transfers to nature his concep-
tions of himself. the God he worships
is necessarily of an anthropomorphic ma
ture, Kind OF huge man and hero COM
bined. In the ratio that his intellect
becomes more advanced. he lays aside
his anthropomorphic god for one more
spirltualized and abstract. until in the
highest intellect of man, such as in
Spencer himself, it passes all under
standing.
d In the fact that the majority OF man.
kind have been unable to extricate them
selves from the antnropomorphic idea of
a deity, is to be found the excuse for
the charge of atheism against Spencer.
TO express what he means by the an
thropomorphc idea of God, Spencer
carries a step farther the old simile OF
has been wound UP by its maker.
He asks us to make the grotesque sup
position that the tickings and mechanical
perfection of lot Ct wheels and
levers constituted as a kind Of
consciousness, that is, to think
of the watch as thinking and reasoning
organisms. who were trying to solve the
mystery OF the matchmaker (their Gre
ator) who had made them. The result of
their reasoning would be that they
would conceive of that matchmaker as a
kind of a huge watch. with wheels and
levers, and escapements, etc. Nay,
further than this, the proba bilities are that
they would set up some theological sem
inaries who would brand as athestic III
tidel and hereto any watches who dared
to think of their maker in any but me-
chanical way. But for all this, is it not
true that there may be mode of having
as much transcendlng human intelligence
as human intelligence transcends the
mechanism of watch2