200 W. L. COURTNEY, M.A., LL.D., ON 
Then, the tone of Kant’s ethics is of the very highest kind, not that 
limp molluscous kind which is so common now-a-days. He finds 
all true morals most intimately related to the existence of God, 
as proved by the practical reason, the reality of a moral order and 
the freedom of the will of man. To him the goodness of the will 
is the only absolute good on earth; practical reason, the revealer 
of moral order, is the governor of will, constituting it good; and 
the human will itself is essentially free in order to goodness. 
This last, according to Kant, is indeed the grand essential to 
morality. 
Recognising sin as universal and the need of an atonement and 
a justification through Christ, and thus a conversion from evil to 
good, what a beautiful picture he draws of the true Church of 
Christ,—‘‘ a great family under a common though invisible moral 
Father, acting through His Son Who knows His will, and who 
at the same time is bound to all the other members of the Family 
by ties of blood.” R.x., 121.” 
Then in regard to the Bible, it is instructive that he accepts what 
he calls “the principle of reasonable modesty with regard to all 
that is called revelation,” as established by the critically enlightened 
reason of modern times. ‘For as we cannot deny the possibility 
of the divine origin of a book which in a practical point of view 
contains nothing but divine truth; it is best to take the book which 
we find generally recognised as sacred, and make it the foundation 
of the teaching of the Church.” R. x., 159. 
I do not mean to say that Kant was an orthodox Christian. 
He never looked at the questions or problems of Christianity from 
that standpoint; but I do mean to say that looking at them from 
the standpoint of a mere philosopher, his words do not justify the 
charge brought against him by the French critic that “ Kant has 
spread through the whole of Europe the spirit of doubt.” The 
author has drawn a very important distinction, and in the case of 
Kant one of great practical value, between the sceptical attitude 
which men of the atheistic and we may say agnostic stamp assume, 
and the critical attitude of the philosopher. 
* As all readers may not recognise this reference, Professor Wallace, of 
Oxford, has kindly given me the full title of the publication, it is :— 
“ Rosenkranz and Schubert's Edition of Kant’s Works.”— Ep. 
