44 ULTIMATE RELIGIOUS IDEAS. 



ence. But to conceive an object as non-existent, is again a 

 self-contradiction; for that which is conceived exists, as an 

 object of thought, in and by that conception. We may ab- 

 stain from thinking of an object at all; but, if we think of 

 it, we cannot but think of it as existing. It is possible at one 

 time not to think of an object at all, and at another to think 

 of it as already in being; but to think of it in the act of be- 

 coming, in the progress from not being into being, is to 

 think that which, in the very thought, annihilates it- 

 self." * * * 



" To sum up briefly this portion of my argument. The 

 conception of the Absolute and Infinite, from whatever side 

 we view it, appears encompassed with contradictions. There 

 is a contradiction in supposing such an object to exist, 

 whether alone or in conjunction with others; and there is 

 a contradiction in supposing it not to exist. There is 

 a contradiction in conceiving it as one ; and there is a con- 

 tradiction in conceiving it as many. There is a contradic- 

 tion in conceiving it as personal; and there is a contradic- 

 tion in conceiving it as impersonal. It cannot, without 

 contradiction, be represented as active; nor, without equal 

 contradiction, be represented as inactive. It cannot be con- 

 ceived as the sum of all existence; nor yet can it be con- 

 ceived as a part only of that sum." 



§ 14. And now what is the bearing of these results on 

 the question before us? Our examination of Ultimate Ke- 

 ligious Ideas has been carried on with the view of making 

 manifest some fundamental verity contained in them. 

 Thus far however we have arrived at negative conclusions 

 only. Criticising the essential conceptions involved in the 

 different orders of beliefs, we find no one of them to be 

 logically defensible. Passing over the consideration of 

 credibility, and confining ourselves to that of conceivabil- 

 ity, we see that Atheism, Pantheism, and Theism, when rig- 

 orously analyzed, severally prove to be absolutely unthink- 



