EDITOR'S TABLE. 



407 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



HARRISON' AND SPENCER ON RELIGION. 

 "TTTE print the concluding portion 

 V V of a controversy between Fred- 

 eric Harrison and Herbert Spencer on 

 the nature of religion. In an article 

 which appeared in the " Monthly " of 

 last January, Mr. Spencer took a retro- 

 spective view of the past tendencies of 

 religious ideas, and on the basis of this 

 pointed out the further changes that 

 may be expected in the future. His 

 conclusion was a reaffirmation of views 

 laid down many years ago, that there is 

 a verity at the foundation of all reli- 

 gious systems, which will permanent- 

 ly remain when the erroneous beliefs 

 accompanying this verity are utterly 

 swept away by the progress of science. 

 Mr. Spencer thus arrays himself, not 

 with those who deny but with those 

 who affirm the validity of religion, or 

 that there is a reality at the root of all 

 the diverse, discordant, and changing 

 faiths professed by mankind. Eeligion 

 is held to pertain to the sphere of the 

 emotions, and to consist essentially in 

 the feelings which arise in human na- 

 ture toward the unsolved and forever 

 insoluble mystery of the universe. Mr, 

 Spencer says that, " unlike the ordinary 

 consciousness, the religious conscious- 

 ness is concerned with that which lies 

 beyond the sphere of sense." It there- 

 fore relates to that which can not be 

 grasped by the intellect, but which lies 

 beyond the range of knowledge. That 

 which is the object of religious feeling 

 can not be known in any sense of our 

 usual knowledge. Mr, Spencer reasons 

 that it is not a negation, but a positive 

 reality ; and, preferring to use a term 

 connotive of true humility and the lim- 

 itations of the human mind, he calls 

 this mysterious object of religious feel- 

 ing " The Unknowable." 



Mr. Harrison attacked this view of 



Spencer in an article which appeared 

 in the August "Monthly" under the 

 title of " The Ghost of Eeligion." He 

 maintained that Mr. Spencer had per- 

 petrated an utterly destructive criti- 

 cism of everything hitherto known as 

 religion ; and argued that the attempt 

 to find anything like a common element 

 in religious systems is futile, while the 

 doctrine of the Unknowable is but a 

 vain attempt to deify an all-nothingness. 

 His position, therefore, was, that there 

 is no element of truth whatever in any 

 of the systems that have passed under 

 the name of rehgion. Yet Mr, Harri- 

 son will not give up the term religion. 

 He proposes to retain it, redefine it, and 

 make a new application of it. He says 

 it is duty, virtue, morality, and finds its 

 highest expression in a worship of hu- 

 manity. 



Mr. Spencer rejoined to this criti- 

 cism in an article printed in the same 

 number of the "Monthly," under the 

 title of " Retrogressive Eeligion." He 

 replied to Mr. Harrison's criticisms of 

 the doctrine of the Unknowable, and 

 then subjected to a close examination 

 Mr. Harrison's view of the Religion 

 of Humanity, Mr. Harrison replies in 

 an article entitled " Agnostic Metaphys- 

 ics." It is very long, and divided into 

 three parts. The first contains all that 

 is essential to the main controversy; 

 and, as we can not aflFord room for his 

 less important expansions of the dis- 

 cussion, we print herewith the first 

 portion, which is all that is properly 

 covered by his title, and the part to 

 which Mr, Spencer's answer is chiefly 

 confined — which answer also appears 

 in the present "Monthly." 



"We have felt bound to lay this dis- 

 cussion before our readers, because it is 

 undoubtedly of profound importance. 

 It goes to the root of the issue be- 



