164 THE WHENCE AND THE WHITHER OF MAN 



demonstration. Natural science does not deal in 

 demonstrations, it rests upon the doctrine of probabil- 

 ities ; just as we have to order our whole lives accord- 

 ing to this doctrine. Its solution of a problem is 

 never the only conceivable answer, but the one which 

 best fits and explains all the facts and meets the few- 

 est objections. The arguments for the existence of a 

 personal God are far stronger than those in favor of 

 any theory of evolution. But we very rightly test the 

 former arguments, indefinitely more rigidly and severe- 

 ly, just because our very life hangs on them. On the 

 other hand, we should not reject them as useless, be- 

 cause they are not of an entirely different kind from 

 those on which all the actions and beliefs of our com- 

 mon daily life are based. There is a scepticism which 

 is merely a credulity of negations. This also we 

 should avoid. 



We have considered a few of the reasons for think- 

 ing that, with the material, there must be something 

 spiritual in environment, that if the woof is material 

 the warp is God. Here we need not delay long. 

 Blank atheism seems to be at present unpopular and 

 generally regarded as unscientific. The so - called 

 philosophic materialism of the present day seems to 

 be in general far nearer to pantheism than to the old 

 form of materialism which recognized only atoms and 

 mechanism. Atheism as a power to deform the lives 

 of men has, for the present, lost its hold, and even 

 agnosticism is respectful. The materialism against 

 which we have to struggle is not that of the school, 

 but of the shop, of society, of life. There are com- 

 paratively few now who avow a system of philosophy 

 making mindless atoms their first cause. 



