270 E VOL UTION AND DOGMA. 



apprehension by the intellect. That, therefore, which 

 the imagination cannot admit, cannot be accepted by 

 reason ; that which is unimaginable is, ipso facto, un- 

 thinkable. Such is the suicidal skepticism of those 

 who confuse the immaterial thought, which is above 

 and beyond sense, with the material imagination, 

 which is always intimately connected with sense, and 

 which, by its very nature, is incompetent to rise above 

 the conditions and limitations of matter. 



Again, probably no two terms are more prolific 

 of fallacy and confusion than the much-abused words 

 time and space. 



Infinite Time. 



One of the gravest objections against the exist- 

 ence of God, from Spencer's point of view, is that 

 we cannot conceive of a self-existent being, because 

 self-existence implies infinite past time, which is a 

 contradiction in terms. We cannot conceive of 

 God existing from all eternity, because eternity is 

 but time multiplied to infinity, and we cannot con- 

 ceive time multiplied to infinity. 



The difficulty here indicated arises from a mis- 

 apprehension of the nature of time, and from an an- 

 thropomorphic view of God, which subjects Him to 

 the conditions and limitations of His creatures. God 

 has not existed through infinite time, as is supposed. 

 He does not exist in time at all. He exists apart 

 from time ; and before time was, God was. Time 

 implies change and succession ; but in God there is 

 neither change nor succession. As the measure of the 

 existence of created things, it is something relative; 



