IX.] ANIMAL AUTOMATISM. 241 



among atheists, for the problem of the ultimate cause 

 of existence is one which seems to me to be hopelessly 

 out of reach of my poor powers. Of all the senseless 

 babble I have ever had occasion to read, the demon- 

 strations of these philosophers who undertake to tell 

 us all about the nature of God would be the worst, if 

 they were not surpassed by the still greater absurdities 

 of the philosophers who try to prove that there is no 

 God. 



And if this personal disclaimer should not be 

 enough, let me further point out that a great many 

 persons whose acuteness and learning will not be 

 contested, and whose Christian piety, and, in some 

 cases, strict orthodoxy, are above suspicion, have held 

 more or less definitely the view that man is a conscious 

 automaton. 



It is held, for example, in substance, by the whole 

 school of predestinarian theologians, typified by St. 

 Augustine, Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards the great 

 work of the latter on the will showing in this, as in 

 other cases, that the growth of physical science has 

 introduced no new difficulties of principle into theo- 

 logical problems, but has merely given visible body, 

 as it were, to those which already existed. 



Among philosophers, the pious Geulincx and the 

 whole school of occasionalist Cartesians held this view ; 

 the orthodox Leibnitz invented the term " automate 

 spirituel," and applied it to man ; the fervent Christian, 

 Hartley, was one of the chief advocates and best 

 expositors of the doctrine ; while another zealous 

 apologist of Christianity in a sceptical age, and a con- 



R 



