94: THE LIGHT OF DAT 



materialistic ages foster. In one is its charm for 

 fine natures ; in the other its power over the mul- 

 titude. 



Theological writers are in general prone to mag- 

 nify subjective certitude at the expense of objective 

 proof ; to place faith above reason, in the domain of 

 reason. They sneer at science and logic as if in 

 their sphere they could be dispensed with and some- 

 thing else be substituted in their place. Thus Pro- 

 fessor Blackie, in that vituperative book of his, " The 

 Katural History of Atheism," — a book the style of 

 which is like a man going through a house and bang- 

 ing the doors behind him, — says, as a finishing 

 stroke to the " drivel " of our " boastful science," 

 that the " highest cognitions are never reached by 

 the mere exercise of the knowing faculties, on what- 

 ever subject exercised." Not even, I suppose, when 

 exercised upon the multiplication table ! " Instinct 

 and aspiration," he goes on to say, " are higher than 

 knowledge ; and the pretensions of the merely sci- 

 entific man to assume the dictatorship of things that 

 be are not founded on nature. Many things can be 

 known only by being felt ; all vital forces are fun- 

 damentally unknowable ; but they exist not the less 

 because would-be philosopher B or would-be philoso- 

 pher C has no machinery with which to measure or 

 control them." Are instinct and aspiration " cog- 

 nitions " ? Do they belong to the sphere of know- 

 ledge ? Do they even point to any certain and 

 demonstrable conclusions ? They may or they may 

 not be higher than knowledge ; it is certain that 



