WHY PANTHEISM IS ATHEISM. 327 



the world, In whatever way we look at it, must of 

 necessity be meaning- and purpose-less. In short, 

 it is in vain that Pantheism tries to avoid the con- 

 fession that our life is a senseless illusion : it cannot 

 vindicate the reality of our partial life against the 

 all-absorbing claims of the whole. 



In the first place Pantheism is Atheism, and only 

 a lack of courage or of logic can distinguish between 

 them. For if all is God and all is one, all distinc- 

 tions vanisL All is right and all is well, for all 

 things exist but by the favour and support of the 

 Infinite: to decry the perfection of any existing thing 

 is to blaspheme against God. Hence all appeal to 

 God is futile: it is for God to appeal to God against 

 God. So being equally in all, God is not a factor 

 in the course of life : God is a quantite ndgligeable, 

 because equally shared by all things. To suppose 

 that Pantheism leaves more room for religion than 

 Atheism is as absurd as though we thought to 

 diminish the inequalities of wealth by multiplying 

 every man's property a thousandfold. So for prac- 

 tical purposes Pantheism and Atheism are the same, 

 except that the latter has the frankness to call things 

 by their true names. In the mouth of a Pantheist 

 the accusation of Atheism is indeed ridiculous. 

 For just as King Charles II. wittily declared during 

 the Popish Plot, that he feared to be dethroned for 

 his complicity in the plot against his own life, so the 

 Atheist may plead against the Pantheist that in his 

 impiety he ofiends against no one but himself, and 

 that no one need interfere if it pleases God to 

 blaspheme himself. 



In the second place, Pantheism is no less fatal to 

 the moral than to the religious sentiments. For it 

 must regard all good and evil as relative and there- 



