ON THK UNREASONABLENESS OF AGNOSTICISM. 65 



But is Mr. Spencer right in the assertion that the mind 

 of man is not able to form a true concept of the size 

 of the earth ? We think he is not right. We admit that 

 there are many persons who, from a want of extended 

 observation, may not be able to form a true concept of 

 the size of the earth, and we are quite willing to admit 

 that Mr. Herbert Spencer, like the writer, may be one of 

 these individuals : but we maintain that he is altogether 

 wrong when he says the hmnaii mind is not able to form 

 the concept. In point of fact, Mr. Spencer asserts that 

 there is no one to be found who can form this particular 

 concept. To this we demur. Let us put away from our 

 thoughts, ourselves, Mr. Herbert Spencer, and his followers, 

 and take the case of a sea-captain who has many times sailed 

 round the world. Such a man has had many opportunities of 

 observing the curvature of the earth : he has noted the 

 number of miles which he has travelled, each of which he 

 knew was a portion of a curved surface; and putting his know- 

 ledge of continuous curvature to his knowledge of distance, he 

 hiGVJS that the thousands of miles which he has travelled have 

 been on an ocean which is not an extended plain, but a part 

 of a sphere : and then, when he, after a number of days, finds 

 himself entering the same port from which he started, he has 

 an evidence that the earth is a sphere, and the records of his 

 log-book prove that this sphere is twentj-five thousand 

 miles in circumference. This man can, we say, form a true 

 concept of the shape and size of the earth without the aid of 

 any symbol. Now, what one sea-captain can do, a thousand 

 others can do, and so we maintain that Mr. Spencer is alto- 

 gether wrong when he asserts that the human mind is unable 

 to form a true concept of the size and form of the earth on 

 which, we live. His argument in this particular is fallacious. 



In the third place^ it will be necessai-y to examine Mr. 

 Spencer^s application of this fallacious argument. Having 

 thus shown, as he supposes, that there are tangible things 

 of which the mind of man can form no true concept, Mr. 

 Spencer next proceeds to apply his agument, and endeavours 

 to prove that, concerning the origin of the world and the 

 Person of God, man can also form no intelligible idea. 



Respecting the origin of the universe, Mr. Spencer says 

 three ideas are possible : — 



1st. — That the universe is ''self-existent^^; 2nd, that it 

 is " self-created " ; and 3rd, that it is created by an external 

 agency. He then examines separately these hypotheses, and 

 endeavours to show that each is '' unthinkable.-" From this 

 he infei's that the origin of the universe is one of the things 



