1903] iencer 67 



coming,' he said. ' a reign of force in the world, and there will be again 

 a general war for master}-, when every kind of brutality will be prac- 

 - - 



*" For the afternoon visit he turned to philosc tnd asked the 



Mufti whether it was true that thought in the East was developing 

 on the same line- - the thought of Europe. Mohammed Abdu 

 told him that what the East - learning from the West was the 

 evil rather than the good, but that still the best and most enlightened 

 thought of both was the same. ' To go to the bottom of thing -aid 

 Spencer. 'I suppose that the conception of the underlying force of 

 the world, what you call Allah and we call God, is not very different ? 

 In his reply the Mufti made a distinction which struck Spencer 

 new. ' We believe.' said Abdu. ' that God is a Being, not a Perse 

 Spencer was pleased at this, but said the distinction was rather difficult 

 to grasp. 'At any rate,' he said, 'it is clear that you are Agn - - 

 of the same kind as our agnosticism in Europe.' \\ e had not time 

 to develop this train of thought, 5] rncer is only allowed a few 



minutes' talk at a time, but later, on our way back to the station. I 

 questioned the Mufti more closely on the point. /. ' Do you believe 



it God has conscicv that he knows that you exist and that 



I exi^t. and is not such knowledge persona'::;.' - 1 "He 



knows.' /. ' If he knows, he knows that you are good and I am ba 

 He agreed. /. ' And he is pleased with you and displ :h me? ' 



The Mufti. ' He approves and disapproves.' /. ' And he appro 

 to-day because your actions are good, and he disapproves to-morrow 

 because your actions have become bad. Is not this change from 

 approval to disapproval characteristic of personality? How then has 

 God no person? ' The Mufti. ' God knows all things at all times: to 

 him there is no to-day and no to-morrow, and therefore in him is no 

 change: His is an eternal unchanging cor- 11s - of all things 

 This I call Being, not Personality.' /. 'And Matter? Is not Matter 

 eternal, too. or did God create it ? If he created it he made a change ? ' 

 The Mufti. ' Matter, too. is eternal as God is eternal.' Here evidently 

 is the foundation of Abdu's thought, and we agreed that our ideas are 

 the same. 



" With Spencer, however, we could not argue all this out. and 

 we took leave of him only half - -tied, but glad that we had had 

 the privilege of even this small glimpse of his mind. The young 

 ladies whose acquaintance I had made four years ago are still living 

 with him. and they gave us an interesting account of the old phil- 

 osopher's way of life. He takes a certain pleasure in their company, 

 having no relations of his own except one deaf old woman and hardly 

 any friends. He has seen only three or four people since his illness 

 in April. Last year, however, he was in comparatively good health, and 



