366 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



A much more emphatic statement of the problem with 

 a much more definite, though not less embarrassing con- 

 clusion, appeared in the middle of the century, and 



and other passages iu the last of 

 his writings is probably that of 

 Mr W. L. Courtney (' Life of John 

 Stuart Mill,' 1889), in which he 

 bids " us remind ourselves that 

 Mill had acknowledged as his chief 

 office in the realm of thought to 

 see the truth in the views of op- 

 ponents, and to put the adver- 

 sary's ease . . . better than the 

 adversary could have put it " (p. 

 172). This is in reference to Lord 

 Morley's essay, 'Mr Mill on Re- 

 ligion.' It is reprinted in the 1st 

 edition of 'Critical Miscellanies,' 

 2nd series, 1877, but has been 

 omitted in the later editions of 

 this collection. For the historian 

 of thought it forms one of the 

 most important documents, as it 

 touches with remarkable clearness 

 on the different aspects which the 

 religious problem presents for phil- 

 osophic enquiry. The following 

 quatrains from Fitzgerald's 'Omar 

 Khayyam ' express very strikingly 

 the sentiment of perplexity pro- 

 duced by such discussions, and have 

 been frequently quoted : — 



" Why, all the Saints and Sa^Rs who 



discuss'd 

 Of the Two Worlds so wisely — they 



were thrust 

 Like foolish Prophets forth ; their Words 



to Scorn 

 Are scatter'd, and their Mouths are Stopt 



with Dust. 



Myself when young did eagerly fre(]uent 

 Jtoctor and Saint, and heard great argu- 

 ment 

 About it and about : but evermore 

 Came out by the same door where in I 

 wont." 



They remind us of well - known 

 passages in the first part of 

 "Faust." As to the arguments 

 contained in Mill's E-ssays, they 



must even at that time have ap- 

 peared meagre and antiquated to 

 readers acquainted with Lotze's or 

 even Renouvier's fuller and pro- 

 founder expositions and criticisms ; 

 and it has been doubted whether 

 Mill had ever read Hume's ' Dia- 

 logues.' It is noteworthy evidence 

 of the insularity of British thought, 

 that even in the third quarter of the 

 nineteenth century so incomplete 

 an exposition could come from the 

 pen of one who was at the time a 

 foremost exponent of philosophical 

 thought. "The subject dealt with 

 is divided into three portions, of 

 which the first and last deal with 

 the respective moral and intellect- 

 ual arguments for or against the 

 existence of a Divine Being as 

 contained in Christian Doctrine. 

 The second deals with the neces- 

 sity or utility of religion, and sug- 

 gests that a " Religion of Human- 

 ity " would meet the desired end. 

 In the former or theoretical por- 

 tion the most pressing scientific 

 problem of the age, the conception 

 of vital force, is not touched upon, 

 and in cf>nsequence no clear defi- 

 nition of force and matter (to which 

 it led in Lotze's case) is given. 

 The use of these latter terms 

 is very much the same as in 

 the writings of the earlier Materi- 

 alists in Germany, a use which 

 was finally discarded through the 

 influence, inter alia, of Lotze's 

 writings both in philosophical and 

 scientific discussions ; also the no- 

 tion of substance is introduced as 

 if neither Kant nor Hume had 

 written ; a heedlessness repeated 

 not only in Herbert Spencer's 

 writings, but even in our days by 

 so famous a naturalist as Ernst 

 Haeckel. It is interesting to see 



