292 THE FUTURE OF RELIGION AND MORALS. 



not raise the question, because it is a metaphysical one, 

 and to positivism all metaphysical inquiries are vain and 

 insoluble. It neither affirms nor denies the existence of 

 God, because, if God exists, it must be in the sphere 

 outside phenomena, and the scientific human mind is 

 only competent to deal with phenomenal existences, and 

 is only concerned with these. It is true that, by ignor- 

 ing the question, positivism becomes practically atheism, 

 though there is no real reason why it should be so, 

 beyond the fact that it has banned all metaphysical 

 questions. The positivist belief, that the hierarchical 

 classification of the sciences may serve for a philosophy, 

 and that the quintessence of experience, as proved and 

 tested and generalized by science, should guide our life 

 and constitute our conception of the universe, is not 

 really exclusive of the question whether God exists or no 

 a question which has been answered in the affirmative 

 by positive thinkers like Locke and Bacon, long before 

 the time of Comte. The question Is there a cause of 

 experience, of phenomena other than the phenomenal 

 facts themselves ? is indeed metaphysical, but it is also 

 one w^hich the human mind perpetually insists on raising, 

 whether it can answer it or no ; and positivism is only 

 practical atheism, so far as it ignores this question, in- 

 volving the question of the existence of God ; while, so 

 far as it denies that there is anything behind experience, 

 or more than isolated phenomena self-produced, it is 

 speculative and genuine atheism. In brief, then, when 

 the positive spirit fills the man of science, when his 

 philosophy goes no further than the conclusions of 

 science, when he tries following the prescription of Comte 

 to seal up the metaphysical eye, his philosophy is to all 

 intents and purposes atheistic, though the question of 

 the existence of a First Cause has never been raised. 



