386 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



Balfour's argument is this, that the reasoning of science 

 as well as that of religion, the two comprehensive 

 systems of modern thought, which he terms respectively 

 the naturalistic and the theological, are based upon and 

 produced by non - rational agencies — i.e., assumptions 

 which cannot be logically proved but which are the 

 products of various influences, such as custom and 

 habit, the large body of existing beliefs, be they 

 scientific, ethical or religious (which he termed Authority), 

 or the satisfaction which they afford to some practical 

 want or spiritual need. This assertion leads, however, 

 to a further reflection, that if it is by some non-rational, 

 mechanical or unconscious process that valuable systems 

 of thought are evolved, this is intelligible only on 

 the further assumption that rationality or Eeason must 

 lie at the bottom, must form the ground-work of the 

 whole scheme, although, in the actual course of events, 

 it has only shown itself at a late stage of development.-^ 

 70. There are other statements of great interest and 



Points of ° 



contact importance brought out by Mr Balfour in language at 

 once original and convincing, which remind us of the 

 leading ideas of Lotze's philosophy : the two realities 

 with which the thinking mind finds itself confronted, 

 the world of Things or the contingent on the one side, 



^ " We may . . . say that, 

 unless we borrow something from 

 Theology, a philosophy of Science 

 is impossible. The perplexities in 

 which we become involved if we 

 accept the naturalistic dogma that 

 all beliefs ultimately trace their 

 descent to non - rational causes, 

 have emerged again and again in 

 the course of the preceding argu- 

 ment. Such a doctrine cuts down 



any theory of knowledge to the 

 root. It can end in nothing but 

 the most impotent scepticism. 

 Science, therefore, is, at least as 

 much as Theology, compelled to 

 postulate a Rational Ground or 

 Cause of the world who made it 

 intelligible, and us, in some faint 

 degree, able to understand " {loc. 

 cit., p. 393). 



