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much importance in these days : in fact, it may be said to be 
the question of the day. Just as, a few years ago, men who 
shrank from the responsibility of making up their minds on 
the great problems debated around them, betook themselves 
in large numbers to the only body which professed itself able 
to solve all these problems authoritatively, so now there are 
hundreds, it may be thousands, who excuse themselves the 
same responsibility, on the ground that on such points nothing 
can ever be settled at all. The object of this paper is to 
examine into the soundness of this conclusion : to inquire, 
first, whether it be true that God is absolutely and utterly 
unknowable ; and next, what data there are whereby anything 
may be known about Him. And it may here be stated that 
such knowledge only is referred to as may serve as a guide to 
conduct. There will appear, as we proceed, grounds for 
believing that it is impossible to form adequate abstract or 
metaphysical conceptions of any object whatever. This may 
form an admirable reason for inquiring whether there be not 
some inherent vice in our metaphysical systems, but it consti- 
tutes none whatever for dismissing everything whatever into 
the region of the inscrutable. Whatever metaphysicians say, 
we do live and we must act, whether we can form satisfactory 
metaphysical conceptions of the things with which we have to 
deal or not. There can be no more reason for relegating God 
and religion to the domain of the unknowable, and therefore 
the practically non-existent^ than there is for placing every- 
thing else in the world around us in the same category. 
3. I. It will be impossible, within the limits of this paper, to 
enter into a detailed examination of the statements contained 
in Part I. of Mr. Herbert Spencer's First Principles : and 
it will be the more so in that it is my desire, if possible, to be 
not merely destructive, but constructive. I hope not only to 
give reasons for rejecting Mr. Spencer's “ First Principles " 
so far as they relate to religion, but to lay down some grounds, 
at least, for positive belief. I must, therefore, merely deal with 
the general principles of Mr. Spencer's system on this par- 
ticular point, and leave the details alone. There is much 
that is worth notice in these details ; there is certainly a great 
deal that is open to criticism. But, interesting as a more 
minute examination would be, it would be too lengthy for our 
present purpose. 
4. Mr. Herbert Spencer's main principle, which he derives 
from Dean Mansel, and the Dean's great authority, Sir W. 
Hamilton, is that the nature of the “ Inscrutable Power which 
is manifested to us through all phenomena," “ transcends 
intuition and is beyond imagination." “This," he informs 
