258 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



Strange as it may appear, Spencer's master was 

 none other than an Anglican divine, whose ortho- 

 doxy and loyalty to the established church of Eng- 

 land were never suspected, and who, at the time of 

 his death, held the honorable position of dean of St. 

 Paul's, London. The name of this divine was Dean 

 Mansel, one of the most distinguished theologians 

 and metaphysicians of England in the latter half of 

 the nineteenth century. 



The germs of modern Agnosticism, according to 

 Spencer's showing, are unequivocally contained in 

 Mansel's Bampton " Lectures on the Limits of Re- 

 ligious Thought," delivered in the University of 

 Oxford in 1859. In one sentence he stated by im- 

 plication, if not directly, all that Spencer has devel- 

 oped in his " First Principles," and supplied, as it 

 were, the charter for all the extreme forms of Agnos- 

 ticism which have had such a vogue during the past 

 generation, and whose progress has been marked 

 with such dire results to faith, not only in Great 

 Britain, but also throughout the entire Christian 

 world. 



" Of the nature and attributes of God in his infi- 

 nite being, philosophy," asserts Mansel, " can tell us 

 nothing ; of man's inability to apprehend that na- 

 ture, and why he is thus unable, she tells us all that 

 we can know, and all that we need to know." ' 



God being thus separated from His creatures by 

 an impassable gulf, it is useless for us to attempt to 

 investigate His nature and attributes. No knowledge 

 that we can acquire of God will satisfy the demands 



1 Lecture VIII, p. 126. 



