4o8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tween science and religion, and is re- 

 ally a contest over tlie vital question 

 vrhether there is, or is to be in future, 

 any recognition of any such thing as 

 truth in the religious sphere of human 

 experience. In the issue as thus made 

 up, Herbert Spencer is on the religious 

 side. He afErms that man is a religious 

 being, that the religious sentiments have 

 their proper object, that science can 

 carry away only errors of theological 

 belief, and that the basis of religious 

 feeling must be as permanent in the 

 future as it has been in the past. This 

 Mr. Harrison denies, and maintains the 

 absolute groundlessness of all religious 

 conceptions or sentiments which have 

 been embodied, however obscurely, in 

 the past beliefs and aspirations of man- 

 kind. 



Mr. Harrison says that he warned 

 Mr. Spencer ten years ago that "his 

 religious doctrine of the Unknowable 

 was certain to lead him into strange 

 company." The apprehended danger 

 was, that the ground taken by Spencer 

 on religion might at length find accept- 

 ance with religious people, and now he 

 intimates that this disaster, against 

 which he raised his voice of warning, 

 has actually occurred; that is, religious 

 people are coming into agreement with 

 Mr. Spencer. We indulged in a similar 

 prophecy more than twenty years ago, 

 though in no spirit of dread or warning. 

 We said that as science went on with 

 its inexorable work ot criticism, under- 

 mining and overthrowing theological 

 errors, the stern question would cer- 

 tainly arise whether anything whatever 

 was to be left ; and that there would 

 then be a far higher appreciation of the 

 position taken by Spencer, that the es- 

 sentials of religion are indestructible in 

 human nature. For maintaining this 

 doctrine in the form which he gave it, 

 Mr. Spencer was denounced as a ma- 

 terialist, an atheist, and the destroyer 

 of religion. But, now that his views 

 are better understood, it begins to be 

 acknowledged on the one hand that he 



has rendered a great service to the re- 

 ligious side, while the undisguised ene- 

 mies of all religion are making war 

 upon him because there is a tendency 

 among the most enlightened religious 

 people to favor his ideas. Yet the 

 whole burden of Harrison's argument 

 is to show that the doctrine of the Un- 

 knowable is inadequate as a religious 

 basis, because the people will never be 

 able to appreciate it. But time may rap- 

 idly change the possibilities of apprecia- 

 tion as implied by his own warning of 

 ten years ago, which he now declares 

 is being fulfilled. It is to be remem- 

 bered that Mr. Harrison does not deny, 

 but virtually concedes, the validity of 

 the doctrine of the Unknowable as a 

 logical formula or philosophical propo- 

 sition, which, of course, is to admit 

 that there is truth in it. But he says 

 it belongs to philosophy, and denies 

 that it has or can have any religious 

 significance. Yet Mr. Spencer has 

 proved that it is the fundamental and 

 central truth of all the religions that 

 have existed and had power over man- 

 kind. Mr. Harrison can not deny the 

 essential religious character of this 

 view without vacating the fundament- 

 al conception of religion and uproot- 

 ing it from human nature. This he 

 aims to do in his discussion, and then 

 coolly proceeds to put something else in 

 its place. 



There therefore can be no hesita- 

 tion about classing Mr. Harrison as an 

 inveterate antagonist of religion. Tak- 

 ing the meaning that the world has hith- 

 erto given to the word, he scouts it as 

 pure illusion. Yet he will not admit 

 that he is the enemy of religion. As 

 we have said, lie believes in and is 

 laboring to found and extend a new 

 religion. We only complain that in 

 doing this he wrests the word from its 

 old and established meaning and gives 

 it a novel and perverted application. In 

 place of the religions which have made 

 the Divine Power an object of worship, 

 he would substitute the worship of 



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