REPLIES TO CRITICISMS. 295 



EEPLIES TO CRITICISMS. 



By HERBERT SPENCER. 



I. 



WHEN made by a competent reader, an objection usually implies 

 one of two things. Either the statement to which he demurs 

 is wholly or partially untrue ; or, if true, it is presented in such a way 

 as to permit misapprehensions. A need for some change or addition 

 is in any case shown. 



Not recognizing the errors alleged, but thinking rather that mis- 

 apprehensions cause the dissent of those who have attacked the meta- 

 physico-theo logical doctrines held by me, I propose here to meet, by 

 explanations and arguments, the chief objections they have urged : 

 partly with the view of justifying these doctrines, and partly with the 

 view of guarding against the incorrect interpretations which it appears 

 are apt to be made. 



It may be thought that the pages of a periodical intended for gen- 

 eral reading are scarcely fit for the treatment of these highly-abstract 

 questions. There is now, however, so considerable a class interested 

 in them, and they are everywhere felt to be so deeply involved with 

 the great changes of opinion in progress, that I have ventured to hope 

 for readers outside the circle of those who occupy themselves with 

 philosophy. 



Of course the criticisms to be noticed I have selected, either be- 

 cause of their intrinsic force, or because they come from men whose 

 positions or reputations give them weight. To meet more than a few 

 of my opponents is out of the question. 



Let me begin with a criticism contained in the sermon preached 

 by the Rev. Principal Caird before the British Association on the 

 occasion of its meeting in Edinburgh, in August, 18 11. Expressed 

 with a courtesy which, happily, is now less rare than of yore in theo- 

 logical controversy, Dr. Caird's objection might, I think, be admitted 

 without involving essential change in the conclusion demurred to ; 

 while it might be shown to tell with greater force against the conclu- 

 sions of thinkers classed as orthodox, Sir W. Hamilton, and Dean 

 Mansel, than against my own. Describing this as set forth by me, 

 Dr. Caird says : 



" His thesis is, that the provinces of science and religion are distinguished 

 from each other as the known from the unknown and unknowable. This thesis 

 is maintained mainly on a critical examination of the nature of human intelli- 

 gence, in which the writer adopts and carries to its extreme logical results the 

 doctrine of the relativity of human knowledge which, propounded by Kant, has 

 been reproduced with special application to theology by a famous school of 



