15 
a distinct conception of both the repugnant members. Where 
no such conception exists, the object is above reason, but is 
not opposed to it : we may be warranted in believing the fact 
of its existence, though we are unable to conceive the mode 
[Limits j &c., p. 67, note). 
5. Thus the apparent contradiction involved in the belief 
that an absolute Being should be placed in the relation of 
Cause to the universe, arising, as it does, from our inability to 
comprehend the Absolute and the Infinite, supplies no argu- 
ment whatever against the Scriptural doctrine that God 
created the heaven and the earth.'’^ It only shows the imper- 
fection of our understandings, and justifies Dean Mansehs 
words when, in another passage of his book, he speaks of 
those barren, vague, meaningless abstractions in which men 
babble about nothing under the name of Infinite"’^ [Limits, &c., 
p. 61). Mr. Herbert Spencer gives a lengthened quotation 
from this work of Dean Mansehs, on the subject of the 
apparent contradictions of which I have been speaking, but 
draws from them a different conclusion, namely, that the 
power which the universe manifests to us is utterly inscrut- 
able [First Principles, p. 46); whereas the Dean, acknowledg- 
ing that it is inscrutable to unaided reason, would have us to 
go to another source of information, viz., Kevelation. 
6. It is to be observed that Mr. Spencer, in a subsequent 
portion of his book, reduces everything to Force as the ultimate 
of ultimates — as that Power, in fact, which guides the universe, 
and which he has pronounced to be utterly inscrutable.^^ It 
may be presumed that he has satisfied his own mind that there 
is no contradiction between the alleged inscrutability of that 
Power, and his pronouncing the Persistence of Force to be an 
axiom [First Principles, pp. 192b and 192c, 3rded.). But I 
confess myself unable to see how the two assertions can be 
compatible. If Force be utterly inscrutable, how can we know 
that persistence is a quality of it ? We are, indeed, aware 
that the unit of force has not been known to vary throughout 
human experience. But it would require something beyond 
and above experience to justify the assertion that it can never 
vary under any circumstances, not even at the volition of a 
Divine Being. I ventured to make some remarks on the 
alleged axiomatic character of the Persistence of Force in the 
paper already alluded to, and need not now repeat them. 
7. To deny the supernatural is to strike at the root of all 
religion. We must endeavour, however, to give a clear 
account of what we mean by the supernatural. It is, as the 
word denotes, something which is above, or beyond, nature. 
But what, again, is nature ? The word, as I conceive, applies 
