440 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE GHOST OF EELIGION. 



Br FKEDEEIC IIAEEISON. 



IN the January number of this Review * is to be found an article on 

 Religion which has justly awakened a profound and sustained in- 

 terest. The creed of Agnosticism was there formulated anew by the 

 acknowledged head of the evolution philosophy, with a definiteness 

 such as perhaps it never wore before. To my mind there is nothing in 

 the whole range of modern religious discussion more cogent and more 

 suggestive than the array of conclusions the final outcome of which is 

 marshaled in those twelve pages. It is the last word of the Agnostic 

 philosophy in its long controversy with Theology. That word is deci- 

 sive, and it is hard to conceive how Theology can rally for another bout 

 from such a sorites of dilemma as is there presented. My own humble 

 purpose is not to criticise this paper, but to point its practical moral, 

 and, if I may, to add to it a rider of my own. As a summary of philo- 

 sophical conclusions on the .theological problem, it seems to me frankly 

 unanswerable. Speaking generally, I shall now dispute no part of it 

 but one word, and that is the title. It is entitled " Religion." To me 

 it is rather the ghost of religion. Religion as a living force lies in a 

 different sphere. 



The essay, which is packed with thought to a degree unusual even 

 with Mr. Herbert Spencer, contains evidently three parts. The first 

 (pp. 1-5) deals with the historical Evolution of Religion, of which Mr. 

 Spencer traces the germs in the primitive belief in ghosts. The secc7id 

 (pp. 6-8) arrays the moral and intellectual dilemmas involved in all 

 anthropomorphic theology into one long catena of difficulty, out of 

 which it is hard to conceive any free mind emerging with success. 

 The third part (pp. 8-12) deals with the evolution of religion in the 

 future, and formulates, more precisely than has ever yet been effected, 

 the positive creed of Agnostic philosophy. 



Has, then, the Agnostic a positive creed? It would seem so ; for 

 Mr. Spencer brings us at last " to the one absolute certainty, the pres- 

 ence of an Infinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things proceed." 

 But let no one suppose that this is merely a new name for the Great 

 First Cause of so many theologies and metaphysics. In spite of the 

 capital letters, and the use of theological terms as old as Isaiah or 

 Athanasius, Mr. Spencer's Energy has no analogy with God. It is 

 Eternal, Infinite, and Incomprehensible ; but still it is not He, but It. 

 It remains always Energy, Force, nothing anthropomorphic ; such as 

 electricity, or anything else that we might conceive as the ultimate 

 basis of all the physical forces. None of the positive attributes which 



* See "Popular Science Monthly" for January, 1884. 



