286 THE GENESIS OF SPECIES. [CHAP. 



ness of God, His watchful care, His loving providence for 

 every man, at every moment and in every need ; for the 

 Christian knows that the falseness of his conceptions lies 

 only in their inadequacy; he may therefore strengthen and 

 refresh himself, may rejoice and revel in conceptions of the 

 goodness of God, drawn from the tenderest human images 

 of fatherly care and love, or he may chasten and abase 

 himself by consideration of the awful holiness and un- 

 approachable majesty of the Divinity derived from' ana- 

 logous sources, knowing that no thought of man can ever be 

 true enough, can ever attain the incomprehensible reality, 

 which nevertheless really is all that can be conceived, 

 plus an inconceivable infinity beyond. 



A good illustration of what is here meant, and of the 

 difference between the theistic position and Mr. Spencer's, 

 may be supplied by an example he has himself proposed. 

 Thus, 1 he imagines an intelligent watch speculating as to 

 its maker, and conceiving of him in terms of watch-being, 

 and figuring him as furnished with springs, escapements, 

 cogged wheels, &c., his motions facilitated by oil in a 

 word, like himself. It is assumed by Mr. Spencer that 

 this necessary watch conception would be completely false, 

 and the illustration is made use of to show "the presump- 

 tion of theologians " the absurdity and unreasonableness 

 of those men who figure the incomprehensible cause of all 

 phenomena as a Being in some way comparable with man. 

 Now, putting aside for the moment all other considerations, 

 and accepting the illustration, surely the example demon- 

 strates rather the unreasonableness of the objector himself! 

 It is true, indeed, that a man is an organism indefinitely 

 more complex and perfect than any watch ; but if the 

 1 Loc. cit. p. 111. 



