1 8 From Matter to Man. 



preceding phenomena, a force preceding even the force 

 or energy in noumena ; in other words, a force pre- 

 ceding existence. Consequently, while he bases his 

 criticism on, acquires his notion of, and deduces his 

 principle or hypothesis of an " Unknowable " from the 

 energy resident in the knowable, he applies his theory 

 to both non-existence and existence indiscriminately, 

 as if both were alike. In other words, he confounds 

 nothing with something, the impossible with the 

 possible, the inconceivable with the conceivable, 

 and does not know it. 



5. No particular exigency demands the translation 

 of a mere law, or force, or energy, or phenomenal 

 cause, or any mere man-made natural mystery, into 

 a deity; yet, as a consequence of his confusion, and 

 to the confusion of his whole philosophy, Mr Spencer 

 confesses to the existence of a something correspond- 

 ing to a God. Even an agnostic cannot thus exist 

 without his fetich. 



III. The Unknown as an Infinite Energy. — Mr 

 Spencer's latest definition of the Unknowable is to 

 the effect that "at the bottom of all argument we at 

 last come to the one absolute certainty, the presence 

 of an infinite and eternal Energy from which all 

 things proceed." * But, as definition implies know- 

 ledge, this categorical enumeration virtually states 

 what is alleged to be unstateable. For what is 

 defined cannot be unknown, far less unknowable ; 

 hence much has been conveyed as actually known 



* Nineteenth Century, January 1S85. 



