119 
cannot do without it* It is necessary, for the present, as a 
factor in the moral education of the world. That is to say, 
that the false is necessary for the elucidation of the true. You 
cannot get men to act as they should without deceiving them. 
We have heard a great deal about the unworthy tricks of 
divines in dressing up phantoms in order to frighten mankind, 
and keep them under priestly influence. But now one of the 
most eminent philosophers of the day, himself no friend to 
Revelation, informs us that it is the only way to deal with 
men whose mental development is imperfect. f May we not, 
in all humility, venture to believe that it is the only way, 
because it is the true one ? Can we be fairly condemned for 
holding that under no circumstances can falsehood lead to 
truth ? An imperfect belief may lead to a more perfect one ; 
but a belief fundamentally unphilosophical, ungrounded, and 
absurd, must be utterly renounced before one step is taken 
towards the truth. From Mr. Herbert Spencer's own ad- 
missions, therefore, we may find some reason for the belief 
that it is vain to preach “ righteousness and temperance 99 
without a reference to “ judgment to come," and vain to try 
to influence men by the terrors of that judgment, without 
pointing them to One Who can save them, not only from its 
penalties, but from their cause. 
36. We have now given some reasons for the belief that, 
though we cannot know all about God, we may know some- 
thing about Him. Partial knowledge is not the same thing 
as no knowledge at all. Our ideas are not “ speculatively 
false 99 because they are speculatively inadequate. All know- 
ledge consists of successive approximations to the truth. We 
are all of us familiar with calculations based on the ratio of 
the diameter of a circle to its circumference, and on the ex- 
traction of roots of numbers which are not complete squares. 
Carried on to as many places of decimals as the nicety of the 
operation requires, the most valuable practical results are 
attained from premises which are speculatively defective. 
Similarly, in infinite series, we take as many terms as are 
* First Principles, p. 122. “We cannot avoid the inference that they 
are needful accompaniments of human life .... elements in that great 
evolution of which the beginning and the end are beyond our knowledge 
and conception.” But it is remarkable that many who take upon themselves 
to expound Mr. Spencer’s doctrines have nothing but contempt for that to 
which he esteems it a duty to extend “ the widest possible toleration.” 
t “ As certainly as a barbarous race needs a harsh terrestrial rule, and 
habitually shows attachment to a despotism capable of the necessary rigour, 
so certainly does such a race need a belief that is similarly harsh, and 
habitually shows attachment to such a belief .” — First Principles , p. 119. 
K 2 
