XII.] THEOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 265 



result of the mode inculcated by the Church is, that each 

 one may freely affirm and act upon the highest human con- 

 ceptions he can attain of the power, wisdom, and goodness 

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

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

 tian knows that the falseness of his conceptions lies only in 

 their inadequacy / he may therefore strengthen and re- 

 fresh 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 unap- 

 proachable majesty of the Divinity derived from analogous 

 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 in- 

 conceivable 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, 9 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, etc., 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 presumption of 

 theologians " the absurdity and unreasonableness of those 

 men who figure the incomprehensible cause of all phenom- 

 ena 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 demonstrates 

 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 watch 



9 Loc. cit, p. Ill 

 12 



