The Destiny of Man. /j 



name it may be veiled, is at bottom neither 

 more nor less than Atheism. On its met- 

 aphysical side Atheism is (the denial of 

 anything psychical in the universe outside 

 of human consciousness J and it is almost 

 inseparably associated with the materialis- 

 tic interpretation of human consciousness 

 as the ephemeral result of a fleeting collo- 

 cation of particles of matter. Viewed upon 

 this side, it is easy to show that ^Atheism 

 is very bad metaphysics,! while the materi- 

 alism which goes with it is utterly con- 

 demned by modern science. 1 But our feel- 

 ing toward Atheism goes much deeper 

 than the mere recognition of it as philo- 

 sophically untrue. The mood in which we 

 condemn it is not at all like the mood in 

 which we reject the corpuscular theory of 

 light or Sir G. C. Lewis's vagaries on the 

 subject of Egyptian hieroglyphics. We 

 are wont to look upon Atheism with un- 

 speakable horror and loathing. Our moral 

 sense revolts against it no less than our 

 intelligence ; and this is because, on its 



