THE GHOST OF RELIGION. 449 



place ? " And the philosopher replies (his full heart bleeding for them) 

 and he says, " Think on the Unknowable." 



And in the hour of pain, danger, or death, can any one think of the 

 Unknowable, hope anything of the Unknowable, or find any consola- 

 tion therein ? Altars might be built to some Unknown God, conceived 

 as a real being, knowing us, though not known by us yet. But altars 

 to the unknowable infinity, even metaphorical altars, are impossible, 

 for this unknown can never be known, and we have not the smallest 

 reason to imagine that it either knew us, or affects us, or anybody, or 

 anything. As the Unknowable can not bring men together in a com- 

 mon belief, or for common purposes, or kindred feeling, it can no more 

 unite men than the precession of the equinoxes can unite them. So 

 there can never be congregations of Unknowable worshipers, nor 

 churches dedicated to the Holy Unknowable, nor images nor symbols 

 of the Unknowable mystery. Yes ! there is one symbol of the Infinite 

 Unknowable, and it is perhaps the most definite and ultimate word 

 that can be said about it. The precise and yet inexhaustible language 

 of mathematics enables us to express, in a common algebraic formula, 

 the exact combination of the unknown raised to its highest power of 

 infinity. That formula is (a;"), and here we have the beginning and 

 perhaps the end of a symbolism for the religion of the Infinite Un- 

 knowable. Schools, academies, temi^les of the Unknowable, there can 

 not be. But where two or three are gathered together to woi'ship the 

 Unknowable, there the algebraic formula may sufiice to give form to 

 their emotions : they may be heard to profess their unwearying belief 

 in (cc"), even if no weak brother with ritualist tendencies be heard to 

 cry, " O cc", love us, help us, make us one with thee ! " 



These things have their serious side, and suggest the real difiicul- 

 ties in the way of the theory. The alternative is this : Is religion a 

 mode of answering a question in ontology, or is it an institution for 

 affecting human life by acting on the human spirit ? If it be the latter, 

 then there can be no religion of the Unknowable, and the sphere of 

 religion must be sought elsewhere in the Knowable. We may accept 

 with the utmost confidence all that the evolution philosophy asserts 

 and denies as to the perpetual indications of an ultimate energy, omni- 

 present and unlimited, and, so far as we can see, of inscrutable myste- 

 riousness. That remains an ultimate scientific idea, one no doubt of 

 profound importance. But why should this idea be dignified with the 

 name of religion, when it has not one of the elements of religion, ex- 

 cept infinity and mystery ? The hallowed name of religion has meant, 

 in a thousand languages, man's deepest convictions, his surest hopes, 

 the most sacred yearnings of his heart, that which can bind in brother- 

 hood generations of men, comfort the fatherless and the widow, uphold 

 the martyr at the stake, and the hero in his long battle. Why retain 

 this magnificent word, rich with the associations of all that is great, 

 pure, and lovely in human nature, if it is to be henceforth limited to 

 VOL. XXV. — 29 



