292 
by analyzing Descartes’ proof of existence ;* we may bewilder 
our minds about tbe existence of matter; but unless we 
take something for granted, unless we consider ourselves 
entitled to assume that the phenomena of the visible 
world and the forces that obviously underlie them are 
facts, which we may regard as the basis of all argument, 
there is no other conclusion open to us than that of the 
philosophic poet in The Rejected Addresses , that “ nought is 
everything and everything is nought.” 
26. When Mr. Arnold contends, in defence of his position 
that there is no personal God, that the words used in the Bible 
are not capable of scientific demonstration, but are “ thrown 
out,” as it were, at “ something beyond our power to grasp,” he 
is on safer ground. No one, not even the most illiterate of 
the believers in His Personality, believes that he can com- 
prehend God. But, because we are unable to comprehend 
God, it does not follow that we can comprehend nothing 
about Him. We speak of a mountain, and, when we do so, 
we form a definite conception of what we mean, but we do 
not say that we know all about the mountain. We see it 
from one point of view, and it impi’esses us with an idea of 
size and form which is definite, and true so far as it goes. 
W e travel round it ; we obtain glimpses of it from different 
points of view, we correct and improve our first impressions, 
but still we cannot form any idea of it as a whole. Yet 
will any one assert that we have no idea of it at all, or that 
the idea we have is incori’ect ? We proceed further. Since 
the whole of the interior of the mountain is still unknown to 
us, we collect specimens from various parts of its sui'face, 
and form conclusions as to the materials of which it is com- 
posed. We have made another advance in our diagnosis, 
wo have learned something, not only of its form, but of its 
properties, and that something is indisputably true. Still, 
we have formed but a very inadequate conception of the 
great reality which stares us in $the face, and which trans- 
cends our powers to comprehend as a whole. 
27. Or we may take an instance from the heavenly bodies. 
There is much in the conditions of existence of the sun that is 
entirely beyond our conceptions. Of theproperties of substances 
exposed to the enormous pressure and intense heat to which 
they are exposed in the sun, we can form no idea. Yet do 
you to define every word lie uses, and every word employed in his definition 
and conversation is nt once reduced to a ludicrous absurdity. 
* God and the Bible, p. 66. 
