CHAP. XIII.] CONSEQUENCES. 385 



found in the demands of justice, in the power the soul pos 

 sesses of transcending even here and now the limits of time, 

 space, and physical causation, and in the perdurability of 

 mind. 



We may now pass to the second set of consequences which 

 it is proposed to consider here, namely, those which c^. 

 follow the rejection of the positive beliefs which $ e Tng 0f 

 nature, through reason, it is here maintained, Theism 

 assures us are true with respect to the first and final causes. 



If these beliefs be rejected, then either the mind must 

 endeavour to sustain itself in the unstable equilibrium of a 

 scepticism constantly tending to the stable conditions of 

 affirmation or negation, and which position is practically 

 already negative; or it must accept the negative position, 

 whether in its Atheistic or its Pantheistic forms. As Mr. 

 Spencer says ( Psychology, vol. i. p. 466) : &quot; The neutral state 

 of having no hypothesis, can be completely preserved only so 

 long as the conflicting evidences appear exactly balanced : 

 such a state is one of unstable equilibrium, which can hardly 

 be permanent.&quot; Accordingly, the creeds commonly propa 

 gated (rather through insinuations, implications, and sug 

 gestions, than through direct and unequivocal assertions) 

 by public opponents of the religious conceptions generally 

 received amongst us to-day are of a more or less distinctly 

 negative character. 



However much we may regret the necessity, it is never 

 theless simply impossible to note the existing phenomena of 

 public opinion with truth and justice without making refer 

 ences of the kind which follow. For it is a fact that the 

 Theistic conception (the belief in a personal God) is that 

 which is now (sometimes openly, but more generally by im 

 plication) the main object of attack by means of a Mate 

 rialistic or Pantheistic Propaganda, of which physical-science 

 teaching is made the vehicle. 



However dissonant in detail may be the opinions professed 

 or the amount of reticence practised by the several indi 

 vidual teachers, a concordant harmony results from the 



2 c 



