CHAP. XIII.] CONSEQUENCES. 409 



attribute (presiding over the universe as the sun presides 

 over the solar system), can have no moral influence on their 

 minds, and might as well be altogether omitted. 



It is impossible to avoid theology. A man must either 

 believe that God exists, or that He does not exist, or that 

 His existence is unknowable, or possibly knowable, but to 

 him unknown; and each one of these beliefs is in fact a 

 dogma, pregnant with the most momentous consequences. 

 Similarly, as regards a future life, a man must hold either 

 that he has, or that he has not, grounds sufficient for acting 

 in this life with a direct view to the next. One of these two 

 beliefs is just as dogmatic as the other, both will be fruitful 

 in effects ; while to bring up children in silence as regards a 

 future life is equivalent to teaching them that the second 

 belief is the true one. 



Then as to mere morals, what would Mr. Mackintosh have 

 the children taught as to their duties to this Unseen Power 

 itself? If they are taught nothing, no irreverence need 

 surprise us : why should they reverence anything indefinitely 

 beneath themselves ? 



Here, as in so many other lines of thought, Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer s declarations boldly oppose popular superstition. 

 Eidiculing the prevalent educational notions on this subject, 

 he exclaims : * &quot; See here the proposals and the implied 

 beliefs. Teaching by clergymen not having had the desired 

 effect, let us try teaching by schoolmasters. Bible-reading 

 from a pulpit, with the accompaniment of imposing archi 

 tecture, painted windows, tombs, and dim religious light/ 

 having proved inadequate, suppose we try Bible-reading in 

 rooms with bare walls, relieved only by maps, and drawings 



of animals Certainly, such influence as may be 



gained by addressing moral truths to the intellect is made 

 greater if the accompaniments arouse an appropriate emotional 

 excitement, as a religious service does ; while, conversely, 

 there can be no more effectual way of divesting such moral 



Contemporary Review for September 1873, p. 517. 



