10 THE CONDUCT OF 



referring to the previous simple propositions, or going further than 

 to suggest the illogical condition of the mind that will remain 

 content to entertain the idea of dependence independent of inde- 

 pendence, let me bring before you the views of John Foster 

 (Essays, 15th Edition, p. 35) respecting it: — "The wonder then 

 turns," says the author of the Essays, " on the great process by 

 which a man could grow to the immense intelligence which can 

 know that there is no God. What ages and what lights are 

 requisite for this attainment ! This intelligence involves the very 

 attributes of Divinity, while a God is denied. For unless this 

 man is omnipresent, unless he is at this moment in every place in 

 the universe, he cannot know but that there may be in some place, 

 manifestations of a Deity, by which even he would be over- 

 powered. If he does not know absolutely every agent in the 

 universe, the one that he does not know may be God. If he is 

 not himself the chief agent in the universe, and does not know 

 what is so, that which is so may be God. If he is not in absolute 

 possession of all the propositions that constitute universal truth, 

 the one which he wants, may be, that there is a God. If he 

 cannot with certainty assign the cause of all that he perceives to 

 exist, that cause may be God. If he does not know everything 

 that has been done in the immeasurable ages that are past, some 

 things may have been done by a God. Thus, unless he knows all 

 things, — but that precludes all other Divine existence by being 

 Deity himself, — he cannot know that the Being whose existence he 

 rejects does not exist. But he must knoiv that He does not exist, 

 else he deserves equal contempt and compassion for the temerity 

 with which he firmly avows his rejection and acts accordingly." 



Thus does Foster use the negative method by which to beset 

 the position with very grave difficulties, and I trust the con- 

 sideration of the following quotation will be quite conclusive. 

 It is from the introductory address of that great explorer in 

 the paths of physical science, M. Pasteur, on his entrance last 

 April to the French Academy. He employs the positive method 

 of placing the case, and in his peroration says : — " The great, the 

 obvious deficiency of the Comtist system is, that in its positivist 

 conception of the world it discards the most important of all 

 positive notions— that of the Infinite. Beyond the starry vault 



