516 FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



comprehend." Though "knowledge" is here disavowed, 

 the " feelings " of Mr. Martineau and myself are, I think, 

 very much alike. He, nevertheless, censures me almost 

 denounces me for referring religion to the region of 

 emotion. Surely he is inconsistent here. The foregoing 

 words refer to an inward hue or temperature, rather than 

 to an external object of thought. .When I attempt to give 

 the Power which I see manifested in the Universe an ob- 

 jective form, personal or otherwise, it slips away from 

 me, declining all intellectual manipulation. I dare not, 

 save poetically, use the pronoun "He" regarding it; I 

 dare not call it a "Mind;" I refuse to call it even a 

 " Cause." Its mystery overshadows me; but it remains a 

 mystery, while the objective frames which some of my 

 neighbors try to make it fit, seem to me to distort and 

 desecrate it. 



It is otherwise with Mr. Martineau, and hence his dis- 

 content. He prof esses to know where I only claim to feel. 

 He could make his contention good against me if, by a 

 process of verification, he would transform his assumptions 

 into " objective knowledge." But he makes no attempt to 

 do so. They remain assumptions from the beginning of 

 his address to its end. And yet he frequently uses the 

 word " unverified," as if it were fatal to the position on 

 which its incidence falls. "The scrutiny of Nature " is 

 one of his sources of " religious faith;" what logical foot- 

 hold does that scrutiny furnish, on which any one of the 

 foregoing three assumptions could be planted? Nature, 

 according to his picturing, is base and cruel: what is the 

 inference to be drawn regarding its author? If nature be 

 "red in tooth and claw," who is responsible? On a mind- 

 less nature Mr. Martineau pours the full torrent of his 

 gorgeous invective; but could the " assumption " of "an 

 Eternal Mind" even of a Beneficent Eternal Mind render 

 the world objectively a whit less mean and ugly than it is? 

 Not an iota. It is man's feelings, and not external 

 phenomena, that are influenced by the assumption. 

 It adds not a ray of light nor a strain of music to the 

 objective sum of things. It does not touch the phe- 

 nomena of physical nature storm, flood, or fire nor 

 diminish by a pang the bloody combats of the animal 

 world. But it does add the glow of religious emotion 

 to the human soul, as represented by Mr. Martineau. 



