FUNDAMENTAL ASSUMPTIONS OF AGNOSTICISM EXAMINED. 191 



as that which cannot be defined by length, or breadth, or thickness, or 

 dimensions of any kind, because it is universal in time and space, as far as 

 we can judge, both in quantity and quality, — or, in other words, in strength 

 and power and wisdom. This, we say, exists wherever we bring our re- 

 searches to bear ; for even to the uttermost lengths to which our researches 

 can be carried, we find ourselves landed, if I may say so, in the presence of 

 the spirit of creation, or, to put it in another way, the power of God. If we 

 take, for example, the atomic view, adverted to in the paper, what do we 

 arrive at ? We can only see things that are capable of being appreciated 

 by our senses ; but, nevertheless, we are brought by the most irresistible 

 logic into a belief in things which we cannot know by the exercise of our 

 senses, but only by the exercise of our intellectual power. When, however, 

 we come to the use of our intellectual power we find ourselves brought, as 

 I may say, into the region of spirit, or, in other words, the relations of the 

 mind to things visible and perceptible — that is to say, its relations to the per- 

 ceptible and immaterial atoms of which everything known to exist is wrought 

 according to a well-ordained principle . But this is really by the spiritual 

 power of God, as manifested in the condition of every material thing ; 

 and as every material thing, of whatever species or kind, has attributes 

 of its own, which are known by the way in which all things stand in 

 relation to each other in this world, it follows that, if these things, or 

 the atoms of which they are composed, are inappreciable by our senses, 

 then, by the pursuit of science, as the agnostics pursue it, we shall be 

 taken away from the question of the origin of life and matter, which is 

 entirely in the dominion of the spiritual power of God in creation. This 

 argument appears to me to be irresistible. If we could see an atom of 

 matter, and know what it is, we should be able to examine it, as we examine 

 other things in ordinary life, whether an elephant, or the smallest possible 

 insect ; but we cannot discover, and do not really know, the constitution of 

 a single atom that is used in the growth, either of the tiniest insect, or the 

 greatest object in organised creation. We know the atom must be there, 

 because we see the thing visibly growing and existing ; but how it comes 

 there, and what its particular qualities and properties are, no one can know, 

 because we cannot appreciate it by our senses in any way, and, conse- 

 quently, are only able to do so by the use of our intellect. Whatever we 

 may have regard to, we find ourselves brought to that state of things, 

 inappreciable by the senses, which, however, is most positively known 

 to exist. The reproduction of life, — the thread of reproduction and con- 

 trauity of species, — we know to exist ; and we also know that, as to 

 its origin, no one has ever been able to discover what it is, nor what are 

 its conditions. Yet we are positive that there must be a beginning of 

 all life, and that that beginning must reside, of course, in the parent 

 species, which, in the same way, must have had its beginning, so that 

 there must be a continuous thread of existence in everything in creation ; 

 and yet, that thread itself we can only arrive at by our intellectual knowledge, 



