,,reason ,,and ,,faith2 ,,their ,,claims
 ,,and ,,conflicts4  by ,henry ,rogers  
,,the ,,edinburgh ,,review1  ,,october1 
#ahdi4  ,volume #ij ,no4 ,,clxxxii4     
,pages #bic-cef   ,art4,i--#a4 ,historic
 ,doubts relative to ,napoleon          
,buonaparte ,eighth edition1 pp4 #fj4   
#hvo4 ,london4 #b4 ,the ,nemesis of     
,faith4 ,by ,j4 ,a4 ,froude1 ,m4 ,a41   
,fellow of ,exeter ,college1 ,oxford4   
#abmo4 ,london3 pp4 #bbg4 #c4 ,popular  
,christianity1 its ,transition ,state   
and ,probable ,development4 ,by ,f4 ,j4 
,foxton1 ,b4 ,a42 formerly of ,pembroke 
,college1 ,oxford1 and ,perpetual       
,curate of ,stoke ,prior and ,docklow1  
,herefordshire4 #abmo4 ,london3 pp4     
#bbf4  ',reason and ,faith1' says one of
 our old divines1 with the quaintness   
characteristic of his day1 'resemble the
 two sons of the patriarch2 ,reason is  
the firstborn1 but ,faith inherits the  
blessing4 ,the image is ingenious1 and  
the antithesis striking2 but            
nevertheless the sentiment is far from  

just4 ,it is hardly right to represent  
,faith as younger than reason3 the fact 
undoubtedly being1 that human creatures 
trust and believe1 long before they     
reason or know4 ,but the truth is1 that 
both reason and ,faith are coeval with  
the nature of man1 and were designed to 
dwell in his heart together4 ,in truth  
they are1 and were1 and1 in such        
creatures as ourselves1 must be1        
reciprocally complementary--neither can 
exclude the other4 ,it is as impossible 
to exercise an acceptable faith without 
reason for so exercising it1--that is1  
without exercising reason while we      
exercise faith991--as it is to apprehend
 by our reason1 exclusive of faith1 all 
the truths on which we are daily        
compelled to act1 whether in relation to
 this world or the next4 ,neither is it 
right to represent either of them as    
failing of the promised heritage1 except
 as both may fail alike1 by perversion  
from their true end1 and depravation of 
their genuine nature2 for it to the     

faith of which the ,new ,testament      
speaks so much1 a peculiar blessing is  
promised1 it is evident from the same   
volume that it is not a 'faith without  
reason' any more than a 'faith without  
works1' which is approved by the ,author
 of ,christianity4 ,and this is         
sufficiently proved by the injunction   
'to be ready to give a reason for the   
hope1'--and therefore for the           
faith1--'which is in us4'    99 ,let it 
be said that we are here playing upon an
 ambiguity in the word                  
,reason2--considered in the first clause
 as an argument2 and in the second1 as  
the characteristic endowment of our     
species4 ,the distinction between       
,reason and ,reasoning 7though most     
important7 does not affect our          
statement2 for though ,reason may be    
exercised where there is no giving of   
reasons1 there can be no giving of      
reasons without the exercise of ,reason4
    ,if1 therefore1 we were to imitate  
the quaintness of the old divine1 on    

whose dictum we have been commenting1 we
 should rather compare ,reason and      
,faith to the two trusty spies1         
'faithful amongst the 'faithless1' who  
confirmed each other's report of 'that  
good land which flowed with milk and    
honey1' and to both of whom the promise 
of a rich inheritance there was         
given1--and1 in due time1 amply         
redeemed4 ,or1 rather1 if we might be   
permitted to pursue the same vein a     
little further1 and throw over our      
shoulders for a moment that mantle of   
allegory which none but ,bunyan could   
wear long and successfully1 we should   
represent ,reason and ,faith as         
twin-born beings1--the one1 in form and 
features the image of manly beauty1--the
 other1 of feminine grace and           
gentleness2 but to each of whom1 alas6  
was allotted a sad privation4 ,while the
 bright eyes of ,reason are full of     
piercing and restless intelligence1 his 
ear is closed to sound2 and while ,faith
 has an ear of exquisite delicacy1 on   

her sightless orbs1 as she lifts them   
towards heaven1 the sunbeam plays in    
vain4 ,hand in hand the brother and     
sister1 in all mutual love1 pursue their
 way1 through a world on which1 like    
ours1 day breaks and night falls        
alternate2 by day the eyes of ,reason   
are the guide of ,faith1 and by night   
the ear of ,faith is the guide of       
,reason4 ,as is wont with those who     
labour under these privations           
respectively ,reason is apt to be eager1
 impetuous1 impatient of that           
instruction which his infirmity will not
 permit him readily to apprehend2 while 
,faith1 gentle and docile1 is ever      
willing to listen to the voice by which 
alone truth and wisdom can effectually  
reach her4  ,it has been shown by       
,butler in the fourth and fifth chapters
 7,part ,i47 of his great work1 that the
 entire constitution and condition of   
man1 viewed in relation to the present  
world alone1 and consequently all the   
analogies derived from that fact in     

relation to a future world1 suggest the 
conclusion that we are here the subjects
 of a probation discipline1 or in a     
course of education for another state of
 existence4 ,but it has not1 perhaps1   
been sufficiently insisted on1 that if  
in the actual course of that education1 
of which enlightened obedience to the   
'law of virtue1' as ,butler expresses   
it1 or1 which is the same thing1 to the 
dictates of supreme wisdom and goodness1
 is the great end1 we give an unchecked 
ascendency to either ,reason or ,faith1 
we vitiate the whole process4 ,the chief
 instrument by which that process is    
carried on is not ,reason alone1 or     
,faith alone1 but their well-balanced   
and reciprocal interaction4 ,it is a    
system of alternate checks and          
limitations1 in which ,reason does not  
supersede ,faith1 nor ,faith encroach on
 ,reason4 ,but our meaning will be more 
evident when we have made one or two    
remarks on what are conceived to be     
their respective provinces4 ,in the     

domain of ,reason men generally include1
 #ast1 what are called 'intuitions1'    
#b;d1 'necessary deductions' from them2 
and #c;d1 deductions from their own     
direct 'experience2 while in the domain 
of ,faith are ranked all truths and     
propositions which are received1 not    
without reasons indeed1 but for reasons 
underived from the intrinsic evidence   
7whether intuitive or deductive1 or from
 our own experience7 of propositions    
themselves2--for reasons 7such as       
credible testimony1 for example17       
extrinsic to the proper meaning and     
significance of such propositions3      
although such reasons1 by accumulation  
and convergency1 may be capable of      
subduing the force of any difficulties  
or improbabilities1 which cannot be     
demonstrated to involve absolute        
contradictions499    99 ,of the first   
kind of truths1 or those received by    
intuition1 we have examples in what are 
called 'self-evident axioms1' and       
'fundamental laws' or 'conditions of    

thought1' which no wise man has ever    
attempted to prove4 ,of the second1 we  
have examples in the whole fabric of    
mathematical science1 reared from its   
basis of axioms and definitions1 as well
 as in every other necessary deduction  
from admitted premises4 ,the third      
virtually includes any conclusion in    
science based on direct experiment1 or  
observation2 though the belief of the   
truth even of ,newton's system of the   
world1 when received as ,locke says he  
received and as the generality of men   
receive it1--without being able to      
follow the steps by which the great     
geometer proves his conclusions1--may be
 represented rather as an act of faith  
rather than an act of ,reason2 as much  
so as a belief in the truth of          
,christianity1 founded on its historic  
and other evidences4 ,the greater part  
of man's knowledge1 indeed1 even of     
science1--even the greater part of a    
scientific man's knowledge of science1  
based as it is on testimony alone 7and  

which so often compels him to renounce  
to-day what he thought certain          
yesterday71--may be not unjustly        
considered as more allied to ,faith than
 ,reason4 ,it may be said1 perhaps1 that
 the above classification of the truths 
received by ,reason and ,faith          
respectively is arbitrary2 that even as 
to some of their alleged sources1 they  
are not always clearly distinguishable2 
that the evidence of experience may in  
some sort be reduced to testimony1--that
 of sense1 and testimony reduced to     
experience1--that of human veracity     
under given circumstances2 both being   
founded upon the observed uniformity of 
certain phenomena under similar         
conditions4 ,we admit the truth of this2
 and we admit it the more willingly1 as 
it shows that so inextricably           
intertwined are the roots both of       
,reason and ,faith in our nature1 that  
no definitions that can be framed will  
completely separate them2 none that will
 not involve many phenomena which may be

 said to fall under the dominion of one 
as much as the other4 ,we have been     
content1 for our practical purpose1     
without any too subtle refinement1 to   
take the line of demarcation which is1  
perhaps1 as obvious as any1 and as      
generally recognised4 ,few would say    
that a generalised inference from direct
 experience was not matter of reason    
rather than of faith2 though an act of  
faith is involved in the process2 and   
few would not call confidence in        
testimony where probabilities were      
nearly balanced1 by the name of faith   
rather than reason1 though an act of    
reason is involved in that process4 ,we 
are much more anxious to show their     
general involution with one another than
 the points of discrimination between   
them4    ,in receiving important        
doctrines on the strength of such       
evidence1 and in holding to them against
 the perplexities they involve1 or1 what
 is harder still1 against the prejudices
 they oppose1 every exercise of an      

intelligent faith will1 on analysis1 be 
found to consist2 its only necessary    
limit will be proven contradictions in  
the propositions submitted to it2 for1  
then1 no evidence can justify belief1 or
 even render it possible4 ,but no other 
difficulties1 however1 great1 will      
justify unbelief1 where man has all that
 he can justly demand1--evidence such in
 its nature as he can deal with1 and on 
which he is accustomed to act in his    
most important affairs in this world    
7thus admitting its validity71 and such 
in amount as to render it more likely   
that the doctrines it substantiates are 
true1 than1 from mere ignorance of the  
mode in which these difficulties can be 
solved1 he can infer them to be false4  
',probabilities1' says ,bishop ,bulter1 
'are to us the very guide to life2 and  
when the probabilities arise out of     
evidence which we are competent to      
pronounce1 and the improbabilities      
merely from our surmises1 where we have 
no evidence to deal with1 and perhaps1  

from the limitation of our capacities1  
could not deal with it1 if we had it1 it
 is not difficult to see what course    
practical wisdom tells man he ought to  
pursue2 and which he always does pursue1
 whatever difficulties beset him1--in   
all cases except one6  ,such is the     
strict union--that mutual dependence of 
,reason and ,faith--which would seem to 
be the great law under which the moral  
school in which we are being educated is
 conducted4 ,this law is equally1 or    
almost equally1 its characteristic1     
,whether we regard man simply in his    
present condition1 or in his present in 
relation to his future condition1--as an
 inhabitant only of this world1 or a    
candidate for another2 and to this law1 
by a series of analogies as striking as 
any of those which ,butler has pointed  
out 7and on which we heartily wish his  
comprehensive genius had expended a     
chapter or two71 ,christianity1 in the  
demands it makes on both principles     
conjointly1 is evidently adapted4  ,men 

often speak1 indeed1 as if the exercise 
of faith was excluded from their        
condition as inhabitants of the present 
world4 ,but it requires but a very      
slight consideration to show that the   
boasted prerogative of reason is here   
also that of a limited monarch2 and that
 its attempts to make itself absolute   
can only end in its own dethronement1   
and1 after successive revolutions1 in   
all the anarchy of absolute pyrrhonism4 
,for in the intellectual and moral      
education of man1 considered merely as a
 citizen of the present world1 we see   
the constant and inseparable union of   
the two principles1 and provision made  
for their perpetual exercise4 ,he cannot
 advance a step1 indeed without both4   
,we see faith demanded not only amidst  
the dependence and ignorance in which   
childhood and youth are passed2 not only
 in the whole process by which we       
acquire the imperfect knowledge which is
 to fit us for being men2 but to the    
very last we may be truly said to       

believe far more than we know4          
',indeed1' said ,butler1 'the           
unsatisfactory nature of the evidence   
with which we are obliged to take up in 
the daily course of life1 is scarce to  
be expected4' ,nay1 in an intelligible  
sense1 even the 'primary truths1' or    
'first principles1' or 'fundamental laws
 of thought1' or 'self-evident maxims1' 
or 'intuitions1' or by whatever other   
names philosophers have been pleased to 
designate them1 which1 in a special     
sense1 are the very province of reason1 
as contra-distinguished from 'reasoning'
 or logical deduction1 may be said      
almost as truly to depend on faith as on
 reason for their reception499 ,for the 
only ground for believing them true is  
that man cannot help so believing them6 
,the same may be said of that great     
fact1 without which the whole world     
would be at a stand-still--a belief in  
the uniformity of the phenomena of      
external nature2 that the same sun1 for 
example1 which rose yesterday and       

to-day1 will rise again tomorrow4 ,that 
this cannot be demonstrated1 is admitted
 on all hands2 and that it is not       
absolutely proved from experience is    
evident1 both from the fact that the    
uniformity supposed is only accepted as 
partially and transiently true2 the     
great bulk of mankind1 even while they  
so confidently act upon that uniformity1
 rejecting the idea of its being an     
eternal uniformity4 ,every theist       
believes that the order of the universe 
once began to be2 and every ,christian  
and most other men1 believe that it will
 also one day cease to be4    99 ,common
 language seems to indicate this3 ,since
 we call that disposition of mind which 
leads some men to deny the above        
fundamental truths 7or affect to deny   
them71 not by a word which indicates the
 opposite of reason1 but the opposite of
 faith1--,scepticism1 ,unbelief1        
,incredulity4   ,but perhaps the most   
striking example of the helplessness to 
which man is soon reduced if he relies  

upon his reason alone1 is ,the spectacle
 of the issue of his investigations into
 that which one would imagine he must   
know most intimately1 if he knows       
anything2 and that is1 his own          
nature--his own mind4 ,there is         
something1 to one who reflects long     
enough upon it1 inexpressibly whimsical 
in the questions which the mind is for  
ever putting to itself respecting       
itself2 and to which the said mind      
returns from its dark caverns only an   
echo4 ,we are apt1 when we speculate    
about the mind1 to forget for the       
moment1 that it is at once the querist  
and the oracle3 and to regard it as     
something out of itself1 like a mineral 
in the hands of the analytic chemist4   
,we cannot fully enter into the         
absurdities of its condition1 except by 
remembering that it is our own wise     
selves who so grotesquely bewilder us4  
,the mind1 on such occasions1 takes     
itself 7if we may so speak7 into its own
 hands1 turns itself about itself1      

listens to the echo of its own voice1   
and is obliged1 after all1 to lay itself
 down again with a very puzzled         
expression--and acknowledge that of its 
very self1 itself knows little or       
nothing6 ',i am material1' exclaims one 
of those whimsical beings1 to whom the  
heaven-descended ',know thyself' would  
seem to have been ironically addressed4 
',no6--immaterial1' says another4 ',i am
 both material and immaterial1'         
exclaims1 perhaps1 the very same mind at
 different times4 ',thought itself may  
be matter modified1' says one4          
',rather1' says another of the same     
perplexed species1 'matter is thought   
modified2 for what you call matter is   
but a phenomenon4' ,but are independent 
and totally distinct substances1        
mysteriously1 inexplicably conjoined1'  
says a third4 ',how they are conjoined  
we know no more than the dead4 ,not so  
much1 perhaps4' ',do ,i ever cease to   
think1' says the mind to itself1 'even  
in sleep8 ,is not my essence thought8'  

',you ought to know your own essence    
best1' all creation will reply4 ',i am  
confident1' says one1 'that ,i never do 
cease to think1--not even in the        
soundest sleep4' ',you do1 for a long   
time1 every night of your life1'        
exclaims another1 equally confident and 
equally ignorant4 ',where do ,i exist8' 
it goes on4 ',am ,i in the brain8 ,am ,i
 in the whole body8 ',am ,i anywhere8   
,am ,i nowhere8' ',i cannot have any    
local existence1 for ,i know ,i am      
immaterial1' says one4 ',i have a local 
existence1 because ,i am material1' says
 another4 ',i have a local existence1   
though ,i am not material1' says a      
third4 ',are my habitual actions        
voluntary1' it exclaims1 'however rapid 
they become2 though ,i am unconscious of
 these volitions when they have attained
 a certain rapidity2 or do ,i become a  
mere automaton as respects such actions8
 and therefore an automaton nine times  
out of ten1 when ,i act at all8' ,to    
this query two opposite answers are     

given by different minds2 and by others1
 perhaps wiser1 none at all2 while1     
often1 opposite answers are given by the
 same mind at different times4 ,in like 
manner has every action1 every          
operation1 every emotion of the mind    
been made the subject of endless doubt  
and disputation4 ,surely if1 as ,soame  
,jenyns imagined1 the infirmities of    
man1 and even graver evils1 were        
permitted in order to afford amusement  
to superior intelligences1 and make the 
angels laugh1 few things could afford   
them better sport than the perplexities 
of this child of clay engaged in the    
study of himself4 ',alas1' exclaims at  
last the baffled spirit of this babe in 
intellect1 as he surveys his shattered  
toys--his broken theories of            
metaphysics1 ',i know that ,i am2 but   
what ,i am--where ,i am--even how ,i    
act--not only what is my essence1 but   
what even my mode of operation1--of all 
this ,i know nothing2 and1 boast of     
reason as ,i may1 all that ,i think on  

these points is matter of opinion--or is
 matter of faith6' ,he resembles1 in    
fact1 nothing so much as a kitten first 
introduced to its own image in a mirror3
 she runs to the back of it1 she leaps  
over it1 she turns and twists1 and jumps
 and frisks1 in all directions1 in the  
vain attempt to reach the fair illusion2
 and1 at length1 turns away in weariness
 from that incomprehensible enigma--the 
image of herself4  ,one would           
imagine--perhaps not untruly--that the  
,divine ,creator had subjected us to    
these difficulties--and especially that 
incomprehensible trilemma1--that there  
is an union and interaction of two      
totally distinct substances1 or that    
matter is but thought1 or that thought  
is but matter1--one of which must be    
true1 and all of which approach as near 
to the mutual contradictions as can well
 be conceived1--for the very purpose of 
rebuking the presumption of man1 and of 
teaching him humility2 that ,he had left
 these obscurities at the very          

threshold--nay1 within the very mansion 
of the mind itself1--for the express    
purpose of deterring man from playing   
the dogmatising fool when he looked     
abroad4 ,yet1 in spite of his raggedness
 and poverty at home1 no sooner does man
 look out of his dusky dwelling1 than1  
like ,goldsmith's little ,beau1 who1 in 
his garret up five pair of stairs1      
boasts of his friendship with lords1 he 
is apt to assume airs of magnificence1  
and1 glancing at the infinite through   
his little eye-glass1 to affect an      
intimate acquaintance with the most     
respectable secrets of the universe6    
,it is undeniable1 then1 that the       
perplexities which uniformly puzzle man 
in the physical world1 and even in the  
little world of his own mind1 when he   
passes a certain limit1 are just as     
unmanageable as those found in the moral
 constitution and government of the     
universe1 or in the disclosures of the  
volume ,revelation4 ,in both we find    
abundance of inexplicable difficulties  

sometimes arising from our absolute     
ignorance1 and perhaps quite as often   
from our partial knowledge4 ,these      
difficulties are probably left on the   
pages of both volumes for some of the   
same reasons2 many of them1 it may be1  
because even the commentary of the      
,creator himself could not render them  
plain to finite understanding1 though a 
necessary and salutary exercise of our  
humility may be involved in their       
reception2 others1 if not purely 7which 
seems not probable7 yet partly for the  
sake of exercising and training that    
humility1 as an essential part of the   
education of a child2 others1           
surmountable1 indeed1 in the progress of
 knowledge and by prolonged effort of   
the human intellect1 may be designed to 
stimulate that intellect to strenuous   
action and healthy effort--as well as to
 supply1 in their solution1 as time     
rolls on1 an ever-accumulating mass of  
proofs of the profundity of the wisdom  
which has so far anticipated all the    

wisdom of man2 and of the divine origin 
of both the great books which he is     
privileged to study as a pupil1 and even
 to illustrate as a commentator1--but   
the text of which he cannot alter4      
,but1 for submitting to us many profound
 and insoluble problems1 the second of  
the above reasons--the training of the  
intellect and heart of man to submission
 to the ,supreme ,intelligence alone be 
sufficient4 ,for it2 as is indicated by 
every thing in human nature1 and by the 
representations of ,scripture1 which are
 in analogy with both1 the present world
 is but the school of man in this the   
childhood of his being1 to prepare him  
for the enjoyment of an immortal manhood
 in another1 everything might be        
expected to be subordinated to this     
great end2 and as the end of that       
education1 can be no other than an      
enlightened obedience to ,god1 the      
harmonious and concurrent exercise of   
reason and faith becomes absolutely     
necessary--not of reason to the         

exclusion of faith1 for otherwise there 
would be no adequate test of man's      
docility and submission2 nor of a faith 
that would assert itself1 not only      
independent of reason1 but in           
contradiction to it1--which would not be
 what ,god requires1 and what alone can 
quadrate with that intelligent nature   
,he has impressed on ,his offspring--a  
reasonable obedience4 ,implicit         
obedience1 then1 to the dictates of an  
all-perfect wisdom1 exercised amidst    
many difficulties and perplexities1 as  
so many tests of sincerity1 and yet     
sustained by evidences which justify the
 conclusions which involve them1 would  
seem to be the great object of man's    
moral education here2 and to justify    
both the partial evidence addressed to  
his reason1 and the abundant            
difficulties which it leaves to his     
faith4 ',the evidence of religion1' says
 ,butler1 'is fully sufficient for all  
the purposes of probation1 how far      
soever it is from being satisfactory as 

to the purposes of curiosity1 or any    
other3 and1 indeed1 it answers the      
purposes of the former in several       
respects which it would not do if it    
were as over-bearing as is required4'99 
,or as ,pascal beautifully puts         
it3--',there is light enough for those  
whose sincere wish is to see1--and      
darkness enough to confound those of an 
opposite disposition4'    99 ,analogy1  
part #b4 chap4 viii4  ,pensees4         
,faugere's edition1 tom4 ii4 p4 #aea4   
,the views here developed will be found 
an expansion of some brief hints at the 
close of the article on ,pascal's ',life
 and ,genius' 7,ed4 ,review1 ,jan4      
#ahdg71 though our space then prevented 
us from more than touching these topics4
 ,we may add that we gladly take this   
opportunity of pointing the attention of
 our readers to a tract of ,archbishop  
,whately's1 entitled ',the example of   
children as proposed to ,christians1'   
which his ,grace1 having been struck    
with a coincidence between some of the  

thoughts in the tract and those         
expressed in the ',review1' did us the  
favour to transmit to us4 ,had we seen  
the tract before1 we should have been   
glad to illustrate and confirm our own  
views by those of this highly gifted    
prelate4 ,we earnestly recommend the    
tract in question 7as well as the whole 
of the remarkable volume in which it is 
now incorporated1 ',essays on some of   
the ,peculiarities of the ,christian    
,religion'7 to the perusal of our       
readers1 and at the same time venture to
 express our conviction 7having been led
 by the circumstances above mentioned to
 a fuller acquaintance with his ,grace's
 theological writings than we had       
previously possessed7 that1 though this 
lucid and eloquent writer may1 for      
obvious reasons1 be most widely known by
 his ',logic and ',rhetoric1' the time  
will come when his ,theological works   
will be1 if not more widely read1 still 
more highly prized4 ,to great powers of 
argument and illustration1 and          

delightful transparency of diction and  
style1 he adds a higher quality         
still--and a very rare quality it is--an
 evident and intense honesty of purpose1
 an absorbing desire to arrive at the   
exact truth1 and to state it with       
perfect fairness and with the just      
limitations4 ,without pretending to     
agree with all that ,archbishop ,whately
 has written on the subject of theology 
7though be carries his readers with him 
as frequently as any writer with whom we
 are acquainted7 we may remark that in  
relation to that whole class of         
subjects1 to which the present essay has
 reference1 we know of no writer of the 
present day whose contributions are more
 numerous or more valuable4 ,the highly 
ingenious ironical brochure1 entitled   
',historic ,doubts relative to ,napoleon
 ,buonaparte2' the ,essays above        
mentioned1 ',on some of the             
,peculiarities of the ,christian        
,religion2' those ',on some of the      
,dangers to ,christian ,faith1' and on  

the ',errors of ,romanism2' the work on 
the ',kingdom of ,christ1' not to       
mention others1 are well worthy of      
universal perusal4 ,they abound in views
 both original and just1 stated with all
 the author's aptness of illustration   
and transparency of language4 ,we may   
remark1 too1 that in many of his        
occasional sermons1 he has incidentally 
added many most beautiful fragments to  
that ever accumulating mass of internal 
evidence which the ,scriptures          
themselves supply in their very         
structure1 and which is evolved by      
diligent investigation of the relation  
and coherence of one part of them with  
another4 ,we are also rejoiced to see   
that a small and unpretending1 but very 
powerful1 little tract1 by the same     
writer1 entitled ',introductory ,lessons
 on ,christian ,evidences4' has passed  
through many editions1 has been         
translated into most of the ,european   
languages1 and1 amongst the rest1 very  
recently into ,german1 with an          

appropriate preface1 by professor       
,abeltzhauser1 of the ,university of    
,dublin4 ,it shows to demonstration that
 as much of the evidence of             
,christianity as is necessary for       
conviction may be made perfectly clear  
to the meanest capacity' and that1 in   
spite of the assertions of ,rome and of 
,oxford to the contrary1 the apostolic  
injunction to every ,christian to be    
ready to render a reason 'for the hope  
that is in him1'--somewhat better than  
that no reason of the ,hindoo or the    
,hottentot1 that he believes what he is 
told1 without any reason except that he 
is told it1--is an injunction possible  
to obey4   ,as ,he 'who spake as never  
man spake' is pleased often to          
illustrate the conduct of the ,father of
 ,spirits to his intelligent offspring  
by a reference to the conduct which     
flows from the relations of the human   
parent to his children1 so the present  
subject admits of similar illustration4 
,what ,god does with us in that process 

of moral education to which we have just
 adverted1 is exactly what every wise   
parent endeavours to do with his        
children1--though by methods1 as we may 
well judge1 proportionably less perfect4
 ,man too instinctively1 or by          
reflection1 adapts himself to the nature
 of his children2 and seeing that only  
so far as it is justly trained can they 
be happy1 makes the harmonious and      
concurrent development of their reason  
and their faith his object2 he too      
endeavours to teach them that without   
which they cannot be happy1--obedience1 
but a reasonable obedience ,he gives    
them1 in his general procedure and      
conduct1 sufficient proof of his        
superior knowledge1 superior wisdom1 and
 unchanging love2 and secure in the     
general effect of this1 he leaves them  
to receive by faith many things which he
 cannot explain to them if he would1    
till they get older2 many things which  
he can only partially explain2 and      
others which he might more perfectly    

explain1 but will not1 partly as a test 
of their docility and partly to invite  
and necessitate the healthy and         
energetic exercise of their reason in   
finding out the explanation for         
themselves4 ,confiding in the same      
general effect of his procedure and     
conduct1 he does not hesitate1 when the 
foresight of their ultimate welfare     
justifies it1 to draw still more largely
 on their faith1 in acts of apparent    
harshness and severity4 ,time1 he knows1
 will show1 though perhaps not till his 
yearning heart has ceased to beat for   
their welfare1 that all that all he did1
 he did in love4 ,he knows1 too1 that if
 his lessons are taken aright1 and his  
children become the good and happy men  
he wishes them to be1 they will say1 as 
they visit his sepulchre1 and recall    
with sorrow the once unappreciated love 
which animated him1--and perhaps with a 
sorrow1 deeper still1 remember the      
transient resentments caused by a       
solitary severity3 ',he was indeed a    

friend2 he corrected us not for his     
pleasure1 but for our profit2 and what  
we once thought was caprice or passion1 
we now know was love4'  ,these analogies
 afford a true1 though most imperfect1  
representation of the moral discipline  
to which ,supreme ,wisdom is subjecting 
us2 and as we are accustomed to despair 
of any child with whom parental         
experience and authority go for nothing1
 unless he can fully understand the     
intrinsic reasons for every special act 
of duty which that experience and       
authority dictate2 as we are sure that  
he who has not learned to obey when     
young will never1 when of age1 know how 
to govern either himself or others3 so a
 singular conduct in all the children of
 dust towards the ,father of ,spirits   
justifies a still more gloomy augury2   
inasmuch as the difference between the  
knowledge of man and the ignorance of a 
child1 absolutely vanishes1 in          
comparison with that interval which must
 ever subsist between the knowledge of  

the ,eternal and the ignorance of man4  
,the remarks that have been made are not
 uncalled for in the present day4 ,for  
unfortunately1 it is now easy to detect 
in many classes of minds a tendency to  
divorce ,reason from ,faith1 or ,faith  
from reason2 and to proclaim that 'what 
,god hath joined together' shall        
henceforth exist in alienation4 ,we see 
this tendency manifested in relation    
both to ,natural ,theology1 and to      
,revealed ,religion4 ,the old conflict  
between the claims of these two guiding 
principles of man 7in no age wholly     
suppressed7 is visibly renewed in our   
day4 ,in relation to ,christianity      
especially1 there are large classes     
amongst us who press the claims of faith
 so far1 that it would become1 if they  
had their will1 an utterly unreasonable 
faith2 some of whom do not scruple to   
speak slightingly of the evidences which
 substantiate ,christianity2 to decry   
and depreciate the study of them2 to    
pronounce that study unnecessary2 and   

even in many cases to insinuate their   
insufficiency4 ,they are loud in the    
mean time in extolling a faith which1 as
 ,whately truly observes1 is no whit    
better than the faith of a heathen2 who 
has no other or better reason to offer  
for his religion than that his father   
told him it was true6 ,but this plainly 
is not the intelligent faith which1 as  
we have seen1 is everywhere inculcated  
and applauded in the ,scriptures2 it is 
not 'that faith by which ,christianity1 
appealing ,in the midst of a multitude  
of such traditional religions1 to       
palpable evidence addressed to man's    
senses and understandings 7in a way no  
other religion ever did7 everywhere     
destroyed the systems for which their   
votaries could only say that their      
fathers told them they were true4 ,and  
yet this blind belief in such tradition1
 many advocates of ,christianity would  
now enjoin us to imitate6 ,it might have
 occurred to them1 one would think1     
that1 on their principles1 ,christianity

 never could have succeeded2 for every  
mind must have been hopelessly          
pre-occupied against all examination of 
its claims4 ,it is1 indeed1 incomparably
 better that a man should be a sincere  
,christian even by an utterly           
unreasoning and passive faith 7if that  
be possible71 than no ,christian at all2
 but at the best1 such a man is a       
possessor of the truth only by accident3
 he ought to have1 and1 if he be a      
sincere disciple of truth1 will seek1   
some more solid grounds for holding it4 
,but it is but too obvious1 we fear1    
that the disposition to enjoin this     
obsequious mood of mind is prompted by a
 strong desire to revive the ancient    
empire of priestcraft and the           
pretensions of ecclesiastical despotism2
 to secure readmission to the human mind
 of extravagant and preposterous claims1
 which their advocates are sadly        
conscious rest on no solid foundation4  
,they feel that reason is not with them1
 it must be against them3 and reason    

therefore they are determined to        
exclude4  ,but the experience of the    
present 'developments' of ,oxford       
teaching may serve to show us how       
infinitely perilous is this course2 and 
how fearfully1 both outraged reason and 
outraged faith will avenge the wrongs   
done them by their alienation and       
disjunction4 ,those results1 indeed1 we 
predicted in #ahdc2 before a single     
leader of the ,oxford school had gone   
over to ,rome1 and before any tendencies
 to the opposite extreme of ,scepticism 
had manifested themselves4 ,we then     
affirmed that1 on the one hand1 those   
who were contending for the corruptions 
of the fourth century could not possibly
 find footing there1 but must inevitably
 seek their ultimate resting place in   
,rome--a prediction which has been too  
amply fulfilled2 and that1 on the other1
 the extravagant pretensions put forth  
on behalf of an uninquiring faith1 and  
the desperate assertion that the        
'evidence for ,christianity' was no     

stronger than that for ',church         
,principles1' must1 by reaction1 lead on
 to an outbreak of infidelity4 ,that    
prophecy1 too1 has been to the letter   
accomplished4 ,we then said1--  ,we have
 seen it recently asserted by some of   
the ,oxford school that there is as much
 reason for rejecting the most essential
 doctrines of ,christianity--nay        
,christianity itself--as for rejecting  
their church principles4 ,that1 in      
short1 we have as much reason for being 
infidels as for rejecting the doctrine  
of ,apostolical succession6 ,what other 
effect such reasoning can have than that
 of compelling men to believe that there
 is nothing between infidelity and      
popery1 and of urging them to make a    
selection between the two1 we know not  
4444 ,indeed1 we fully expect that1 as a
 reaction of the present extravagancies1
 of the revival of obsolete             
superstition1 we shall have ere long to 
fight over again the battle with a      
modified form of infidelity1 as now with

 a modified form of popery4 ,thus1      
probably1 for some time to come1 will   
the human mind continue to oscillate    
between the extremes of error2 but with 
a diminished are at each vibration2     
until truth shall at last prevail1 and  
compel it to repose in the centre499    
99 ,oxford ,tract ,school1 ,ed4 ,rev41  
,april1 #ahdc4    ,the offensive        
displays of self-sufficiency and        
flippancy1 of ignorance and presumption1
 found in the productions of the        
apostles of the new infidelity of       
,oxford1 7of which we shall have a few  
words to say by-and-by7 are the natural 
and instructive1 though most painful1   
result of attempting to give            
predominance to one principle of our    
nature1 where two or more are designed  
reciprocally to guard and check each    
other2 and such results must ever follow
 such attempts4 ,the excellence of      
man--so complexly constituted is his    
nature--must consist in the harmonious  
action and proper balance of all the    

constituents of that nature2 the        
equilibrium he sighs for must be the    
result of the combined action of forces 
operating in different directions2 of   
his reason1 his faith1 his appetites1   
his affections1 his emotions2 when these
 operate each in due proportion1 then1  
and then only1 can he be at rest4 ,it   
may1 indeed1 transcend any calculus of  
man to estimate exactly the several     
elements in this complicated polygon of 
forces2 but we are at least sure that1  
if any one principle be so developed as 
to supersede another1 no safe equipoise 
will be attained4 ,we all know          
familiarly enough that this is the case 
when the affections or the appetites are
 more powerful than the reason and the  
conscience1 instead of being in         
subjection to them3 but it is not less  
the case1 though the result is not so   
palpable1 when reason and faith either  
exclude one another1 or trench on each  
other's domain2 when one is pampered and
 the other starved499 ,hence the perils 

attendant upon their attempted          
separation1 and the ruin which results  
from their actual alienation and        
hostility4 ,there is no depth of dreary 
superstition into which men may not sink
 in the one case1 and no extravagance of
 ignorant presumption to which they may 
not soar in the other4 ,it is only by   
the mutual and alternate action of these
 different forces that man can safely   
navigate his little bark through the    
narrow straits and by the dangerous     
rocks which impede his course2 and if   
,faith spread not the sail to the       
breeze1 or if ,reason desert the helm1  
we are in equal peril4   99 ,it has been
 our lot to meet with disciples of the  
,oxford ,tract ,school1 who have1 by a  
fatal indulgence of an appetite of      
belief2 brought themselves to believe   
any mediaeval miracle1 nay1 any ghost   
story1 without examination1 saying1 with
 a solemn face1 ',it is better to       
believe that to reason4' ,they believe  
as they will to believe2 and thus is    

reason avenged4 ,reason1 similarly      
indulged1 believes1 with ,mr4 ,foxton   
and ,mr4 ,froude1 that a miracle is even
 an impossibility2 and this is the      
',nemesis' of faith4   ,if it be said   
that this is a disconsolate and dreary  
doctrine2 that man seeks and needs a    
simpler navigation than this troublesome
 and intricate course1 by star and      
chart1 compass and lead line2 and that  
this responsibility1 of ever  ',sounding
 on his dim and perilous way1'  is too  
grave for so feeble a nature2 we answer 
that such is his actual condition4 ,this
 is a plain matter of fact which cannot 
be denied4 ,the various principles of   
his constitution1 and his position in   
relation to the external world1         
obviously and absolutely subject him to 
this very responsibility throughout his 
whole course in this life4 ,it is never 
remitted or abated3 resolves are        
necessitated upon imperfect evidence2   
and action imperatively demanded amidst 
doubts and difficulties in which reason 

is not satisfied1 and faith is required4
 ,to argue therefore1 that ,god cannot  
have left man to such uncertainty1 is to
 argue1 as the pertinacious lawyer did1 
who1 on seeing a man in the stocks1     
asked him what he was there for2 and on 
being told1 said1 ',they cannot put you 
there for that4' ',but ,i am here1' was 
the laconic answer4  ,the analogy1 then1
 of man's whole condition in this life  
might lead us to expect the same system 
of procedure throughout2 that the       
evidence which substantiates religious  
truth1 and claims religious action1     
would involve this responsibility as    
well as that which substantiates other  
kinds of truth1 and demands other kinds 
of action4 ,and after all1 what else1 in
 either case1 could answer the purpose1 
if 7as already said7 this world be the  
school of training of man's moral       
nature8 ,how else could the discipline  
of his faculties1 the exercise of       
patience1 humility1 and fortitude1 be   
secured8 ,how1 except amidst a state of 

things less than certainty--whether     
under the form of that passive faith    
which mimics the possession of absolute 
certainty1 or absolute certainty        
itself--could man's nature be trained to
 combined self-reliance and             
self-distrust1 circumspection and       
resolution1 and1 above all1 to          
confidence in ,god8 ,man cannot be      
nursed and dandled into the manhood of  
his nature1 by that unthinking faith    
which leaves no doubts to be felt1 and  
no objections to be weighed2 ,nor can   
his docility ever be tested1 if he is   
never called upon to believe any thing  
which it would not be an absurdity and  
contradiction to deny4 ,this species of 
responsibility1 then1 not only cannot be
 dispensed with1 but is absolutely      
necessary2 and1 consequently1 however   
desirable it may appear that we should  
have furnished to us that short path to 
certainty which a pretended             
infallibility99 promises to man1 or that
 equally short path which leads to the  

same termination1 by telling us that we 
are to believe nothing which we cannot  
demonstrate to be true1 or which1 a     
priori1 we may presume to be false1 must
 be a path which leads astray4 ,in the  
one case1 how can the 'reasonable       
service' which ,scripture demands--the  
enlightened love and conscientious      
investigation of truth--its reception1  
not without doubts1 but against         
doubts--how could all this co-exist with
 a faith which presents the whole sum of
 religion in the formulary1 ',i am to   
believe without a doubt1 and perform    
without hesitation4 whatever my guide1  
,parson ,a4 tells me8' ,not that1 even  
in that case 7as has often been shown71 
the man would be relieved form the      
necessity of absolutely depending on the
 dreaded exercise of his private        
judgment2 for he must at least have     
exercised it once for all 7unless each  
man is to remit his religion wholly to  
the accident of his birth71 and that on 
two of the most arduous of all          

questions3 first1 which of several      
churches1 pretending to infallibility1  
is truly infallible8 ,and next1 whether 
the man may infallibly regard his worthy
 ,parson ,a4 as an infallible expounder 
of the infallibility4 ,but1 supposing   
this stupendous difficulty surmounted1  
though then1 it is true1 all may seem   
genuine faith1 in reality there is none3
 where absolute infallibility is        
supposed to have been attained 7even    
though erroneously71 faith1 in strict   
propriety--certainly that faith which is
 alone of any value as an instrument of 
man's moral training--which recognises  
and intelligently struggles with        
objections and difficulties--is         
impossible4 ,men may be said1 in such   
case1 to know1 but can hardly be said to
 believe4 ,before ,columbus had seen    
,america1 he believed in its existence2 
but when he had seen it1 his faith      
became knowledge4 ,equally impossible1  
and for the same reason1 is any place   
for faith on the opposite hypothesis2   

for if man is to believe nothing but    
what his reason can comprehend1 and to  
act only upon evidence which amounts to 
certainly1 the same paradox is true2 for
 when there is no reason to doubt1 there
 can be none to believe4 ,faith ever    
stands between conflicting              
probabilities2 but her position is 7if  
we may use the metaphor7 the centre of  
gravity between them1 and will be       
proportionally nearer the greater mass4 
99 ,see ,archbishop ,whately's admirable
 discourse1 entitled ',the ,search after
 ,infallibility1 considered in reference
 to the ,danger of ,religious ,errors   
arising within the ,church1 in the      
primitive as well as in all later       
,ages4' ,he here makes excellent use of 
the fruitful principle of ,butler's     
great work1 by showing that1 however    
desirable1 a priori1 an infallible guide
 would seem to fallible man1 ,god in    
fact has every where denied it2 and     
that1 in denying it in relation to      
religion1 he has acted only as he always

 acts4   ,in the mean time1 that arduous
 responsibility which attaches to man1  
and which is obviated neither by an     
implicit faith in a human infallibility1
 nor an exclusive reference of that     
faith to cases in which reason is       
synonymous with demonstration1 that is1 
to cases which leave no room for it1 is 
at once relieved1 and effectually       
relieved1 by the maxim--the key-stone of
 all ethical truth--that only voluntary 
error condemns us2--that all we are     
really responsible for1 is a faithful1  
honest1 patient1 investigation and      
weighing of evidence1 as far as our     
abilities and opportunities admit1 and a
 conscientious pursuit of what we       
honestly deem truth1 wherever it may    
lead us4 ,we concede that a really      
dispassionate and patient conduct in    
this respect is what man is too ready to
 assume he has practised1--and this     
fallacy cannot be too sedulously guarded
 against4 ,but that guilty liability to 
selfdeception1 does not militate against

 the truth of the representation now    
made4 ,it is his duty to see that he    
does not abuse the maxim1--that he does 
not rashly acquiesce in any conclusion  
that he wishes to be true1 or which he  
is too lazy to examine4 ,if all possible
 diligence and honesty have been exerted
 in the search1 the statement of        
,chillingworth1 bold as it is1 we should
 not hesitate to adopt1 in all the      
rigour of his own language4 ,it is to   
the effect1 that if 'in him alone there 
were a confluence of all the errors     
which have befallen the sincere         
professors of ,christianity1 he should  
not be so much afraid of them1 as to ask
 ,god's pardon for them2' absolutely    
involuntary error being justly regarded 
by him as blameless4  ,on the other     
hand1 we firmly believe1 from the       
natural relations of truth with the     
constitution of the mind of man1 that1  
with the exception of a very few cases  
of obliquity of intellect1 which may    
safely be left to the merciful          

interpretations and apologies of ,him   
who created such intellects1 those who  
thus honestly and industriously 'seek'  
shall 'find2'--not all truth1 indeed1   
but enough to secure their safety2 and  
that whatever remaining errors may      
infest and disfigure the truth they have
 attained1 they shall not be imputed to 
them for sin4 ,according to the image   
which apostolic eloquence has employed1 
the ,baser materials which unavoidable  
haste1 prejudice1 and ignorance may have
 incorporated with the gold of the      
edifice1 will be consumed by the fire   
which 'will try every man's work of what
 sort it is1' but he himself will be    
saved amidst those purifying flames4    
,like the bark which contained the      
,apostle and the fortunes of the        
,gospel1 the frail vessel may go to     
pieces on the rocks1 'but by boat or    
plank' the voyager himself shall 'get   
safe to shore4'  ,it is amply           
sufficient1 then1 to lighten our        
responsibility1 that we are answerable  

only for our honest endeavours to       
discover and to practise the truth2 and1
 in fact1 the responsibility is         
principally felt to be irksome1 and man 
is so prompt by devices of his own1 to  
release himself from it1 not on account 
of any intrinsic difficulty which       
remains after the above limitations are 
admitted1 but because he wishes to be   
exempt from that very necessity of      
patient and honest investigation4 ,it is
 not so much the difficulty of finding1 
as the trouble of seeking the truth1    
from which he shrinks2 a necessity1     
however1 from which1 as it is an        
essential instrument of his moral       
education and discipline1 he can never  
be released4  ,if the previous          
representations be true1 the conditions 
of that intelligent faith which ,god    
requires from his intelligent offspring1
 may be fairly inferred to be such as we
 have already stated2--that the evidence
 for the truths we are to believe shall 
be1 first1 such as our faculties are    

competent to appreciate1 and against    
which1 therefore1 the mere negative     
argument arising from our ignorance of  
the true solution of such difficulties1 
as are1 perhaps1 insoluble because we   
are finite1 can be no reply2 and1       
secondly1 such an amount of this        
evidence as shall fairly overbalance all
 the objections which we can appreciate4
 ,this is the condition to which ,god   
has obviously subjected us as           
inhabitants of this world2 and it is on 
such evidence we are here perpetually   
acting4 ,we now believe a thousand      
things we cannot fully comprehend4 ,we  
may not see the intrinsic evidence of   
their truth1 but their extrinsic        
evidence is sufficient to induce us     
unhesitatingly to believe1 and to act   
upon them4 ,when that evidence is       
sufficient in amount1 we allow it to    
overbear all the individual difficulties
 and perplexities which hang round the  
truths to which it is applied1 unless1  
indeed1 such difficulties can be proved 

to involve absolute contradictions2 for 
these1 of course1 no evidence can       
substantiate4 ,for example1 in a        
thousand cases1 a certain combination of
 merely circumstantial evidence in      
favour of a certain judicial decision1  
is familiarly allowed to vanquish all   
apparent discrepancy on particular and  
subordinate points2--the want of        
concurrence in the evidence of the      
witnesses on such points shall not cause
 a shadow of a doubt as to the          
conclusion4 ,for we feel that it is far 
more improbable that the conclusion     
should be untrue1 than that the         
difficulty we cannot solve is truly     
incapable of a solution2 and when the   
evidence reaches this point the         
objection no longer troubles us4  ,it is
 the same with historic investigations4 
,there are ten thousand facts in history
 which no one doubts1 though the        
narrators of them may materially vary in
 their version1 and though some of the  
circumstances alleged may be in         

appearance inexplicable1 but the last   
thing a man would think of doing1 in    
such cases1 would be to neglect the     
preponderant evidence on account of the 
residuum of insoluble objections4 ,he   
does not1 in short1 allow his ignorance 
to control his knowledge1 nor the       
evidence which he has not got to destroy
 what he has2 and the less so1 that     
experience has taught him that in many  
cases such apparent difficulties have   
been cleared up1 in the course of time1 
and by the progress of knowledge1 and   
proved to be contradictions in          
appearance only4  ,it is the same with  
the conclusions of natural philosophy1  
when well proved by experiment1 however 
unaccountable for awhile may be the     
discrepancy with apparently opposing    
phenomena4 ,no one disbelieves the      
,copernican theory now2 though thousands
 did for awhile1 on what they believed  
the irrefragable evidence of their      
senses4 ,now1 let us only suppose the   
,copernican theory not to have been     

discovered by human reason1 but made    
known by revelation1 and its reception  
enjoined on faith1 leaving the apparent 
inconsistency with the evidence of the  
senses just as it was4 ,thousands1 no   
doubt1 would have said1 that no such    
evidence could justify them in          
disbelieving their own eyes1 and that   
such an insoluble objection was         
sufficient to overturn the evidence4    
,yet we now see1 in point of fact1 that 
it is not only possible1 but true1 that 
the objection was apparent only1 and    
admits of a complete solution4          
,thousands accordingly receive          
philosophy--this very philosophy--on    
testimony which apparently contradicts  
their senses1 without even yet knowing  
more of it than if it were revealed from
 heaven4 ,this gives too much reason to 
suspect1 that in other and higher cases1
 the will has much to do with human     
scepticism4 ,nor do we well know what   
thousands who neglect religion on       
account of the alleged uncertainty of   

its evidence could reply1 if ,god were  
to say to them1  ',and yet on such      
evidence1 and that far inferior in      
degree1 you have never hesitated to act1
 when your own temporal interests were  
concerned4 ,you never feared to commit  
the bark of your worldly fortunes to    
that fluctuating element4 ,in many cases
 you believed on the testimony of others
 what seemed even to contradict your own
 senses4 ,why were you so much more     
scrupulous in relation to ,,me8'  ,the  
above examples are fair illustrations1  
we venture to think1 of the conditions  
under which we are required to believe  
the far higher truths1 attended no doubt
 with great difficulties1 which are     
authenticated in the pages of the two   
volumes 7,nature and ,scripture7 which  
,god has put into our hands to study2 of
 the conditions to which ,he subjects us
 in training us for a future state1 and 
developing in us the twofold perfection 
involved in the words 'a reasonable     
faith4' ,if the considerations just     

urged were duly borne in mind1 we cannot
 help thinking that they would afford   
7where any modesty remained7 all answer 
to most of those forms of unbelief      
which1 from time to time1 rise up in the
 world1 and not least in our own day4   
,these are usually founded on one or    
more supposed insoluble objections1     
arising out of our ignorance4 ,the      
probability that they are incapable of  
solution is rashly assumed1 and made to 
overbear the far stronger probability   
arising from the positive and           
appreciable evidence which substantiates
 the truths involved in those           
difficulties3 a course the more         
unreasonable inasmuch as--first1 many   
such difficulties might be expected2    
and1 secondly1 in analogous cases1 we   
see that many such difficulties have in 
time disappeared4 ,on the other hand1 it
 is1 no doubt much more easy to insist  
on individual objections1 which no man  
can effectually answer1 than it is to   
appreciate at once the total effect of  

many lines of argument1 and many sources
 of evidence1 all bearing on one point4 
,that difficulty was long ago           
beautifully stated by ,butler991 in a   
passage well worthy of the reader's     
perusal2 and as ,pascal had observed    
before him1 not only is it difficult1   
but impossible1 for the human mind to   
retain the impression of a large        
combination of evidence1 even if it     
could for a moment fully realise the    
collective effect of the whole4 ,but it 
cannot do even this1 any more than the  
eye can take in at once1 in mass and    
detail1 the objects of an extensive     
landscape4   99 ',the truth of our      
religion1 like the truth of common      
matters1 is to be judged of by all the  
evidence taken together4 ,and1 unless   
the whole series of things which may be 
alleged in this argument1 and every     
particular thing in it1 can reasonably  
be supposing to have been by accident   
7for here the stress of the argument of 
,christianity lies71 then is the truth  

of it proved4 4 4 4 ,it is obvious how  
much advantage the nature of this       
evidence gives to those persons who     
attack ,christianity1 especially in     
conversation4 ,for it is easy to show in
 a short and lively manner that such and
 such things are liable to objection1   
but impossible to show1 in like manner1 
the united force of the whole argument  
in one view4'--,analogy1 part ,,ii4     
chap4 vii4   ,let us now be permitted   
briefly to apply the preceding          
principles to two of the greatest       
controversies which have exercised the  
minds of men2 that which relates to the 
existence of ,god1 and that which       
relates to the truth of ,christianity2  
in both of which1 if we mistake not1    
man's position is precisely             
similar--placed1 that is1 amidst        
evidence abundantly sufficient to       
justify his reasonable faith1 and yet   
attended with difficulties abundantly   
sufficient to baffle an indocile reason4
  ,without entering into the many       

different sources of argument for the   
existence of a ,supreme ,intelligence1  
we shall only refer to that proof on    
which all theists1 savage and civilised1
 in some form or other1 rely--the traces
 of an 'eternal power and godhead' in   
the visible creation4 ,the argument     
depends on a principle which1 whatever  
may be its metaphysical history or      
origin1 is one which man perpetually    
recognises1 which every act of his own  
consciousness verifies1 which he applies
 fearlessly to every phenomenon1 known  
or unknown2 and it is this1--,that every
 effect has a cause 7though he knows    
nothing of their connexion71 and that   
effects which bear marks of design have 
a designing cause4 ,this principle is so
 familiar that if he were to affect to  
doubt it in any practical case in human 
life1 he would only be laughed at as a  
fool1 or pitied as insane4 ,the         
evidence1 then1 which substantiates the 
greatest and first of truths mainly     
depends on a principle perfectly        

familiar and perfectly recognised4 ,man 
can estimate the nature of that         
evidence2 and the amount of it1 in this 
instance1 he sees to be as vast as the  
sum of created objects2--nay1 far more1 
for it is as vast as the sum of their   
relations4 ,so that if 7as is apt to be 
the case7 the difficulties of realising 
this tremendous truth are in proportion 
to the extent of knowledge and the      
powers of reflection1 the evidence we   
can perfectly appreciate is cumulative  
in an equal or still higher proportion4 
,obvious as are the marks of design in  
each individual object1 the sum of proof
 is not merely the sum of such          
indications1 but that sum infinitely    
multiplied by the relations established 
and preserved amongst all these objects2
 by the adjustment which harmonises them
 all into one system1 and impresses on  
all the parts of the universe a palpable
 order and subordination4 ,while even in
 a single part of an organised being 7as
 a hand or an eye7 the traces of design 

are not to be mistaken1 these are       
indefinitely multiplied by similar      
proofs of contrivance in the many       
individual organs of one such being--as 
of an entire animal or vegetable4 ,these
 are yet to be multiplied by the        
harmonious relations which are          
established of mutual proportion and    
subserviency amongst all the organs of  
any one such being3 ,and as many beings 
even of that one species or class as    
there are1 so many multiples are there  
of the same proofs4 ,similar indications
 yield similar proofs of design in each 
individual part1 and in the whole       
individual of all the individuals of    
every other class of beings2 and this   
sum of proof is again to be multiplied  
by the proofs of design in the          
adjustment and mutual dependence and    
subordination of each of these classes  
of organised beings to every other1 and 
to all2 of the vegetable to the         
animal---of the lower animal to the     
higher4 ,their magnitudes1 numbers1     

physical force1 faculties1 functions1   
duration of life1 rates of              
multiplication and development1 sources 
of subsistence1 must all have been      
determined in exact ratios1 and could   
not transgress certain limits without   
involving the whole universe in         
confusion4 ,this amazing sum of         
probabilities is yet to be further      
augmented by the fact that all these    
classes of organised substances are     
intimately related to those great       
elements of the material world in which 
they live1 to which they are adapted1   
and which are adapted to them2 that all 
of them are subject to the influence of 
certain mighty and subtle agencies which
 pervade all nature1--and which are of  
such tremendous potency that any chance 
error in their proportions of activity  
would be sufficient to destroy all1 and 
which yet axe exquisitely balanced and  
inscrutably harmonised4  ,the proofs of 
design1 arising from the relations thus 
maintained between all the parts1 from  

the most minute to the most vast1 of our
 own world1 are still to be further     
multiplied by the inconceivably         
momentous relations subsisting between  
our own and other planets and their     
common centre2 amidst whose sublime and 
solemn phenomena science has most       
clearly discovered that everything is   
accurately adjusted by geometrical      
precision of force and movement2 where  
the chances of error are infinite1 and  
the proofs of intelligence1 therefore1  
equal4 ,these proofs of design in each  
fragment of the universe1 and in all    
combined1 are continually further       
multiplied by every fresh discovery1    
whether in the minute or the vast--by   
the microscope or the telescope2 for    
every fresh law that is discovered1     
being in harmony with all that has      
previously been discovered1 not only    
yields its own proof of design1 but     
infinitely more1 by all the relations in
 which it stands to other laws3 it      
yields1 in fact1 as many as there are   

adjustments which have been effected    
between itself and all besides4 ,each   
new proof of design1 therefore1 is not a
 solitary fact2 but one which entering  
as another element into a most complex  
machinery1 indefinitely multiplies the  
combinations1 in any one of which chance
 might have gone astray4 ,from this     
infinite array of proofs of design1 it  
seems to man's reason1 in ordinary      
moods1 stark madness to account for the 
phenomena of the universe upon any other
 supposition than that which docs       
account1 and can alone account1 for them
 all1--the supposition of a ,presiding  
,intelligence1 illimitable alike in     
power and in wisdom4  ,the only         
difficulty is justly to appreciate such 
an argument to obtain a sufficiently    
vivid impression of such an accumulation
 of probabilities4 ,this very           
difficulty1 indeed1 in some moods1 may  
minister to a temporary doubt4 ,for let 
us catch man in those moods1--perhaps   
after long meditation on the            

metaphysical grounds of human           
belief1--and he begins to doubt1 with   
unusual modesty1 whether the child of   
dust is warranted to conclude anything  
on a subject which loses itself in the  
infinite1 and which so far transcends   
all his powers of apprehension2 he      
begins half to doubt1 with ,hume1       
whether he can reason analogically from 
the petty specimens of human ingenuity  
to phenomena so vast and so unique2 a   
misgiving which is strengthened by      
reflecting on all those to him          
incomprehensible inferences to which the
 admission of the argument leads him1   
and which seem almost to involve        
contradictions4 ,let him ponder for     
awhile the ideas involved in the notion 
of ,selfsubsistence1 ,eternity1         
,creation2 ,power1 ,wisdom1 and         
,knowledge1 so unlimited as to embrace  
at once all things1 and all their       
relations1 actual and possible1--this   
'unlimited' expanding into a dim        
apprehension of the 'infinite'2--of     

infinitude of attributes1 omnipresent in
 every point of space1 and yet but one  
and not many infinitudes2--let him once 
humbly ponder such incomprehensible     
difficulties as these1 and he will soon 
feel that though in the argument from   
design1 there seemed but one vast scene 
of triumph for his reason1 there is as  
large a scene of exertion left for his  
faith4 ,that faith he ordinarily yields2
 he sees it is justified by those proofs
 of the great truth he can appreciate1  
and which he will not allow to be       
controlled by the difficulties his      
conscious feebleness cannot solve2 and  
the rather1 that he sees that if he does
 not accept that evidence1 he has       
equally incomprehensible difficulties to
 encounter1 and two or three stark      
contradictions into the bargain4 ,his   
reason1 therefore1 triumphs in the      
proofs1 and his faith triumphs over the 
difficulties4  ,it is the same with the 
doctrine of the ,divine government of   
the world4 ,in ordinary states of mind  

man counts it an absurdity to suppose   
that the ,deity would have created a    
world to abandon it2 that1 having       
employed wisdom and power so vast in its
 construction1 he would leave it to be  
the sport of chance4 ,he feels that the 
intuitions of right and wrong2 the voice
 of conscience2 satisfaction in         
well-doing2 remorse for crime2 the      
present tendency1 at least1 of the laws 
of the universe1--all point to the same 
conclusion1 while their imperfect       
fulfilment equally points to a future   
and more accurate adjustment4 ,yet let  
the man look exclusively for awhile on  
the opposite side of the tapestry2 let  
him brood over any of the facts which   
seem at war with the above conclusion2  
on some signal triumph of baseness and  
malignity2 on oppressed virtue1 on      
triumphant vice2 on 'the wicked         
spreading himself like a green bay      
tree2' and especially on the mournfull  
and inscrutable mystery of the ',origin 
of ,evil1' and he feels that 'clouds and

 darkness' envelope the administration  
of the ,moral ,governor1 though 'justice
 and judgment are the habitation of his 
throne4' ,the evidences above mentioned 
for the last conclusion are direct and  
positive1 and such as man can           
appreciate2 the difficulties spring from
 his limited capacity1 or imperfect     
glimpses of a very small segment of the 
universal plan4 ,nor are those          
difficulties less upon the opposite     
hypothesis3 and they are there further  
burdened with two or three additional   
absurdities4 ,the preponderant evidence1
 far from removing the difficulties1    
scarcely touches them1--yet it is felt  
to be sufficient to justify faith1      
though most abundant faith is required  
still4  ,are the evidences1 then1 in    
behalf of ,christianity less of a nature
 which man can appreciate8 or can the   
difficulties involved in its reception  
be greater than in the preceding cases8 
,if not1 and if1 moreover1 while the    
evidence turns as before on principles  

with which we are familiar1 the more    
formidable objections1 as before1 are   
such that we are not competent to decide
 upon their absolute insolubility1 we   
see how man ought to act2 that is1 not  
to let his ignorance control his        
knowledge1 but to let his reason accept 
the proofs which justify his faith1 in  
accepting the difficulties4 ,in no case 
is he1 it appears1 warranted to look for
 the certainty which shall exclude      
7whatever the triumphs of his reason7 a 
gigantic exercise of his faith4 ,let us 
briefly consider a few of the evidences4
 ,and in order to give the statement a  
little novelty1 we shall indicate the   
principal topics of evidence1 not by    
enumerating what the advocate of        
,christianity believes in believing it  
to be true1 but what the infidel must   
believe in believing it to be false4    
,the a priori objection to ,miracles we 
shall briefly touch afterwards4  ,first1
 then1 in relation to the ,miracles of  
the ,new ,testament1 whether they be    

supposed masterly frauds on men's senses
 committed at the time and by the       
parties supposed in the records1 or     
fictions 7designed or accidental7       
subsequently fabricated--but still1 in  
either case1 undeniably successful and  
triumphant beyond all else in the       
history whether of fraud or fiction--the
 infidel must believe as follows3 ,on   
the first hypothesis1 he must believe   
that a vast number of apparent          
miracles--involving the most astounding 
phenomena--such as the instant          
restoration of the sick1 blind1 deaf1   
and lame1 and the resurrection of the   
dead--performed in open day1 amidst     
multitudes of malignant enemies--imposed
 alike on all1 and triumphed at once    
over the strongest prejudices and the   
deepest enmity3--those who received them
 and those who rejected them differing  
only in the certainly not very trifling 
particular--as to whether they came from
 heaven or from hell4 ,he must believe  
that those who were thus successful in  

this extraordinary conspiracy against   
men's senses and against common sense1  
were ,galilaean ,jews1 such as all      
history of the period represents them2  
ignorant1 obscure1 illiterate2 and1     
above all1 previously bigoted1 like all 
their countrymen1 to the very system1 of
 which1 together with all other         
religions on the earth1 they modestly   
meditated the abrogation2 he must       
believe that1 appealing to these        
astounding frauds in the face both of   
,jews and ,gentiles as an open evidence 
of the truth of a new revelation1 and   
demanding on the strength of them that  
their countrymen should surrender a     
religion which they acknowledged to be  
divine1 and that all other nations      
should abandon their scarcely less      
venerable systems of superstition1 they 
rapidly succeeded in both these very    
probable adventures2 and in a few years1
 though without arms1 power1 wealth1 or 
science1 were to an enormous extent     
victorious over all prejudice1          

philosophy1 and persecution2 and in     
three centuries took nearly undisputed  
possession1 amongst many nations1 of the
 temples of the ejected deities4 ,he    
must farther believe that the original  
performers1 in these prodigious frauds  
on the world1 acted not only without any
 assignable motive1 but against all     
assignable motive2 that they maintained 
this uniform constancy in unprofitable  
falsehoods1 not only together1 but      
separately1 in different countries1     
before different tribunals1 under all   
sorts of examinations and               
cross-examinations1 and in defiance of  
the gyves1 the scourge1 the axe1 the    
cross1 the stake2 that these whom they  
persuaded to join their enterprise1     
persisted like themselves in the same   
obstinate belief of the same 'cunningly 
devised' frauds2 and though they had    
many accomplices in their singular      
conspiracy1 had the equally singular    
fortune to free themselves and their    
coadjutors flout all transient weakness 

towards their cause and treachery       
towards one another2 and1 lastly1 that  
these men1 having1 amidst all their     
ignorance1 originality enough to invent 
the most pure and sublime system of     
morality which the world has ever       
listened to1 had1 amidst all their      
conscious villany1 the effrontery to    
preach it1 and1 which is more           
extraordinary1 the inconsistency to     
practise it699   99 ,so far as we have  
any knowledge from history1 this must   
have been the case2 and ,gibbon fully   
admits and insists upon it4 ,indeed1 no 
infidel hypothesis can afford to do     
without the virtues of the early        
,christians in accounting for the       
success of the falsehoods of            
,christianity4 ,hard alternatives of a  
wayward hypothesis6   ,on the second of 
the above-mentioned hypothesis1 that    
these miracles were either a congeries  
of deeply contrived fictions1 or        
accidental myths1 subsequently invented1
 the infidel must believe1 on the former

 supposition1 that1 though even         
transient success in literary forgery1  
when there are any prejudices to resist1
 is among the rarest of occurrences2 yet
 that these forgeries--the hazardous    
work of many minds1 making the most     
outrageous pretensions1 and necessarily 
challenging the opposition of ,jew and  
,gentile were successful beyond all     
imagination1 over the hearts of mankind2
 and have continued to impose1 by an    
exquisite appearance of artless truth1  
and a most elaborate mosaic of feigned  
events artfully cemented into the ground
 of true history1 on the acutest minds  
of different races and different ages2  
while1 on the second supposition1 he    
must believe that accident and chance   
have given to these legends their       
exquisite appearance of historic        
plausibility2 and on either supposition1
 he must believe 7what is still more    
wonderful7 that the world1 while the    
fictions were being published1 and in   
the known absence of the facts they     

asserted to be true1 suffered itself to 
be befooled into the belief of their    
truth1 and out of its belief of all the 
systems it did previously believe to be 
true2 and that it acted thus            
notwithstanding persecution from        
without1 as well as prejudice front     
within2 that strange to say the         
strictest historic investigation bring  
this compilation of fictions or         
myths-even by the admission of ,strauss 
himself--within thirty or forty years of
 the very time in which all the alleged 
wonders they relate are said to have    
occurred2 wonders which the perverse    
world knew it had not seen1 but which it
 was determined to believe in spite of  
evidence1 prejudice1 and persecution6   
,in addition to all this1 the infidel   
must believe that the men who were      
engaged in the compilation of these     
monstrous fictions1 chose them as the   
vehicle of the purest morality2 and1    
though the most pernicious deceivers of 
mankind were yet the most scrupulous    

preachers of veracity and benevolence6  
,surely of him1 who can receive all     
these paradoxes--and they form but a    
small part of what might be             
mentioned--we may say1 ',o infidel1     
great is thy ,faith6'  ,on the          
supposition that neither of these       
theories1 whether of fraud or fiction1  
will account1 if taken by itself1 for   
the whole of the supernatural phenomena1
 which strew the pages of the ,new      
,testament1 then the objector1 who      
relies on both1 must believe1 in turn1  
both sets of the above paradoxes2 and   
then1 with still more reason than       
before1 may we exclaim1 ',o infidel1    
great is thy ,faith6'  ,again2 he must  
believe that till those apparent        
coincidences1 which seem to connect     
,prophecy with the facts of the origin  
and history of ,christianity1--some1    
embracing events too vast for hazardous 
speculations and others1 incidents too  
minute for it1--are purely fortuitous2  
that all the cases in which the event   

seems to tally with the prediction1 are 
mere chance coincidences3 and he must   
believe this1 amongst other events1 of  
two of the most unlikely to which human 
sagacity was likely to pledge itself1   
and yet which have as undeniably        
occurred1 7and after the predictions7 as
 they were a priori improbable and      
anomalous in the world's history2 the   
one is that the ,jews should exist as a 
distinct nation in the very bosom of all
 other nations1 without extinction1 and 
without amalgamation1--other nations and
 even races having so readily melted    
away under less than half the influence 
which have been at work upon them992 the
 other1 and opposite paradox1--that a   
religion1 propagated by ignorant1       
obscure1 and penniless vagabonds1 should
 diffuse itself amongst the most diverse
 nations in spite of all opposition1--it
 being the rarest of phenomena to find  
any religion which is capable of        
transcending the limits of race1 clime1 
and the scene of its historic origin2 a 

religion which1 if transplanted1 will   
not die1 a religion which is more than a
 local or national growth of            
superstition6 ,that such a religion as  
,christianity should so easily break    
these barriers1 and though supposed to  
be cradled in ignorance1 fanaticism1 and
 fraud1 should1 without force of arms1  
and in the face of persecution1 'ride   
forth conquering and to conquer1'       
through a long career of victories1     
defying the power of kings and emptying 
the temples of deities1--who1 but an    
infidel1 has faith enough to believe8   
99 ,the case of the ,gipsies1 often     
alleged as a parallel1 is a ludicrous   
evasion of the argument4 ,these few and 
scattered vagabonds1 whose very safety  
has been obscurity and contempt1 have   
never attracted towards them a          
thousandth part of the attention1 or the
 hundred thousandth part of the         
cruelties1 which have been directed     
against the ,jews4 ,had it been         
otherwise1 they would long since have   

melted away from every country in       
,europe4 ,we repeat that the existence  
of a nation for #ahjj years in the bosom
 of all nations1 conquered and          
persecuted1 yet never extinguished1 and 
the propagation of a religion amongst   
different races without force1 and even 
against it1--are both1 so far as known1 
paradoxes in history4  ',they may say1' 
says ,butler1 'that the conformity      
between the prophecies and the event is 
by accident2 but there are many         
instances in which such conformity      
itself cannot be denied4' ,his whole    
remarks on the subject1 and especially  
those on the impression to be derived   
from the multitude of apparent          
coincidences1 in a long series of       
prophecies1 some vast1 some minute2 and 
the improbability of their all being    
accidental are worthy of his            
comprehensive genius4 ,it is on the     
effect of the whole1 not on single      
coincidences1 that the argument depends4
   ,once more then2 if1 from the        

external evidences of this religion1 we 
pass to those which the only records by 
which we know any thing of its nature   
and origin supplies1 the infidel must   
believe1 amongst other paradoxes1 that  
it is probable that a knot of obscure   
and despised plebeians--regarded as the 
scum of a nation which was itself       
regarded as the scum of all other       
nations--originated the purest1 most    
elevated1 and most influential theory of
 ethics the world has ever seen2 that a 
system of sublimest truth1 expressed    
with unparalleled simplicity1 sprang    
from ignorance2 that precepts enjoining 
the most refined sanctity were          
inculcated by imposture2 that the first 
injunctions to universal love broke from
 the lips of bigotry6 ,he must further  
believe that these men exemplified the  
ideal perfection of that beautiful      
system in the most unique1 original1 and
 faultless picture of virtue ever       
conceived--a picture which has extorted 
the admiration even of those who could  

not believe it to be a portrait1 and who
 have yet confessed themselves unable to
 account for it except as such499 ,he   
must believe1 too1 that these ignorant  
and fraudulent ,galileans voluntarily   
aggravated the difficulty of their task1
 by exhibiting their proposed ideal1 not
 by bare enumeration and description of 
qualities1 but by the most arduous of   
all methods of representation--that of  
dramatic action2 and1 what is more1 that
 they succeeded2 that in that           
representation they undertook to make   
him act with sublime consistency in     
scenes of the most extraordinary        
character and the most touching pathos1 
and utter moral truth in the most       
exquisite fictions in which such truth  
was ever embodied2 and that again they  
succeeded2 that so ineffably rich in    
genius were these obscure wretches1 that
 no less than four of them were found   
equal to this intellectual achievement2 
and while each has told many events1 and
 given many traits which the others have

 omitted1 that they have all performed  
their task in the same unique style of  
invention and the same unearthly tone of
 art2 that one and all1 while preserving
 each his own individuality1 has1       
nevertheless1 attained a certain        
majestic simplicity of style unlike any 
tiring else 7not only in any writings of
 their own nation1 their alleged sacred 
writings1 and infinitely superior to any
 thing which their successors1 ,jews or 
,christians1 though with the advantage  
of these models1 could ever attain17    
but1 unlike any acknowledged human      
writings in the world1 and possessing   
the singular property of being capable  
of ready transfusion1 without the loss  
of a thought or a grace1 into every     
language spoken by man3 he must believe 
that these fabricators of fiction1 in   
common with the many other contributors 
to the ,new ,testament1 most insanely   
added to the difficulty of their task by
 delivering the whole in fragments and  
in the most various kinds of            

composition1--in biography1 history1    
travels1 and familiar letters2          
incorporating and interfusing with the  
whole an amazing number of minute facts1
 historic allusions1 and specific       
references to persons1 places1 and      
dates1 as if for the very purpose of    
supplying posterity with the easy means 
of detecting their impositions3 he must 
believe that1 in spite of their thus    
encountering what ,paley calls the      
'danger of scattering names and         
circumstances in writings where nothing 
but truth can preserve consistency1'    
they so happy succeeded1 that whole     
volumes have been employed pointing out 
their latent and often most recondite   
congruities2 many of them lying so deep1
 and coming out after such comparison of
 various passages and collateral lights1
 that they could never have answered the
 purposes of fraud1 even if the most    
prodigious genius for fraud had been    
equal to the fabrication2 congruities   
which1 in fact1 were never suspected to 

exist till they were expressly elicited 
by the attacks of ,infidelity1 and were 
evidently never thought of by the       
writers2 he must believe that they were 
profoundly sagacious enough to construct
 such a fabric of artful harmonies1 and 
yet such simpletons as1 by doing        
infinitely more than was necessary1 to  
encounter infinite risks of detection1  
to no purpose2 sagacious enough to      
out-do all that sagacity has ever done1 
as shown by the effects1 and yet not    
sagacious enough to be merely specious3 
and finally1 he must believe that these 
illiterate impostors had the art in all 
their various writings1 which evidently 
proceed from different minds1 to        
preserve the same inimitable marks of   
reality1 truth1 and nature in their     
narrations--the miraculous and the      
ordinary alike--and to assume and       
preserve1 with infinite case1 amidst    
their infinite impostures1 the tone and 
air of undissembled earnestness4   99   
,to ,christ alone1 of all the characters

 ever portrayed to man1 belongs that    
assemblage of qualities which equally   
attract love and veneration2 to him     
alone belong in perfection those rare   
traits which the ,roman historian1 with 
affectionate flattery1 attributes too   
absolutely to the merely mortal object  
of his eulogy3 ',nec illi1 quod est     
rarissimum aut facilitas auctoritatem1  
aut severitas amorem1 deminuit4' ,still 
more beautiful is the ,apostles         
description of superiority to all ,human
 failings1 with ineffable pity for human
 sorrows3 ',he can be touched with the  
feelings of our infirmities1 though     
without sin4'  ,was there ever in truth 
a man who could read the appeals of     
,paul to his converts1 and doubt either 
that the letters were real or that the  
man was in earnest8 ,we scarcely venture
 to think it4   ,if1 on the other hand1 
he supposes that all the congruities of 
which we have spoken1 were the effect   
not of fraudulent design1 but of happy  
accident1--that they arranged themselves

 in spontaneous harmony--he must believe
 that chance has done what even the most
 prodigious powers of invention could   
not do4 ,and lastly1 he must believe    
that these same illiterate men1 who were
 capable of so much1 were also capable  
of projecting a system of doctrine      
singularly remote from all ordinary and 
previous speculation2 of discerning the 
necessity of taking under their special 
patronage those passive virtues which   
man least loved1 and found it must      
difficult to cultivate2 and of          
exhibiting1 in their preference of the  
spiritual to the ceremonial1 and their  
treatment of many of the most delicate  
questions of practical ethics and       
casuistry1 a justness and elevation of  
sentiment as alien as possible from the 
superstition and fanaticism of their    
predecessors who had corrupted the      
,law--and the superstition and          
fanaticism of their followers very soon 
corrupted the ,gospel2 and that they1   
and they alone1 rose above the strong   

tendencies to the extravagances which   
had been so conspicuous during the past1
 and were soon to be as conspicuous in  
the future4--,these and a thousand other
 paradoxes 7arising out of the          
supposition that ,christianity is the   
fraudulent or fictitious product of such
 an age1 country1 and1 above all1 such  
men as the problem limits us to71 must  
the infidel receive1 and receive all at 
once2 and of him who can receive them we
 can but once more declare that so far  
'from having no faith'1 he rather       
possesses the 'faith' which removes     
'mountains6'--only it appears that his  
faith1 like that of ,rome or of ,oxford1
 is a faith which excludes reason4  ,on 
the other hand1 to him who accepts      
,christianity1 none of these paradoxes  
present themselves4 ,on the supposition 
of the truth of the miracles and the    
prophecies1 he does not wonder at its   
origin or success3 and as little does he
 wonder at all the literary and         
intellectual achievements of its early  

chroniclers--if their elevation of      
sentiment was from a divine source1 and 
if the artless harmony1 and reality of  
their narratives was the simple effect  
of the consistency of truth1 and of     
transcription from the life4  ,now1 on  
the other hand1 what are the chief      
objections which ,reconcile the infidel 
to his enormous burden of paradoxes1 and
 which appear to the ,christian far less
 invincible than the paradoxes          
themselves8 ,they are1 especially with  
all modern infidelity1 objections to the
 a priori improbability of the doctrines
 revealed1 and of the miracles which    
sustain them4 ,now1 here we come to the 
very distinction on which we have       
already insisted1 and which is so much  
insisted on by ,butler4 ,the evidence   
which sustains ,christianity is all such
 as man is competent to consider2 and is
 precisely of the same nature as that   
which enters into his every-day         
calculations of probability2 ,while the 
objections are founded entirely on our  

ignorance and presumption4 ,they suppose
 that we know more of the modes of the  
divine administration--of what ,god may 
have permitted1 of what is possible and 
impossible to the ultimate development  
of an imperfectly developed system1 and 
its relations to the entire             
universe1--than we do or can know499    
99 ,the possible implications of        
,christianity with distant regions of   
the universe1 and the dim hints which   
hints which ,scripture seems to throw   
out as to such implication1 are         
beautifully treated in the #dth1 #eth1  
and #fth of ,chalmer's ',astronomical   
,discourses2' and we need not tell the  
read of ,butler how much he insists upon
 similar considerations4   ,of these    
objections the most widely felt and the 
most specious1 especially in our day1 is
 the assumption that miracles are an    
impossibility2 and yet we will venture  
to say that there is none more truly    
unphilosophical4 ,that miracles are     
improbable viewed in relation to the    

experience of the individual or of the  
mass of men1 is granted2 for if they    
were not1 they would1 as ,paley says1 be
 no miracles2 an every-day miracle is   
none4 ,but that they are either         
impossible or so improbable that1 if    
they were wrought1 no evidence could    
establish them1 is another matter4 ,the 
first allegation involves a curious     
limitation of omnipotence2 and the      
second affirms in effect1 that1 if ,god 
were to work a miracle1 it would be our 
duty to disbelieve him6    ,it is1 as we
 shall see1 the avowed axiom of         
,strauss2 he even acknowledges1 that if 
it be not true1 he would not think it   
worth while to discredit the history of 
the ,evangelists2 that is1 the history  
must be discredited1 because he has     
resolved that a miracle is an           
impossibility6   ,we repeat our firm    
conviction that this a priori assumption
 against miracles is but a vulgar       
illusion of one of ,bacon's idola       
tribus4 ,so far from being disposed to  

admit the principle that a 'miracle is  
an impossibility1' we shall venture on  
what may seem to some a paradox1 but    
which we are convinced is a truth1--that
 time will come1 and is coming1 when    
even those who shall object to the      
evidence which sustains the ,christian  
miracles will acknowledge that          
philosophy requires them to admit that  
men have no ground whatever to dogmatise
 on the antecedent impossibility of     
miracles in general2 and that not merely
 because if theists at all1 they will   
see the absurdity of the assertion1     
while they admit that the present order 
of things had a beginning2 and1 if      
,christians at all1 the equal absurdity 
of the assertion1 while they admit that 
it will have an end2--not only because  
the geologist will have familiarised the
 world with the idea of successive      
interventions1 and1 in fact1 distinct   
creative acts1 having all the nature of 
miracles2--not only1 we say1 for these  
special reasons1 but for a more general 

one4 ,the true philosopher will see     
that1 with his limited experience and   
that of all his contemporaries1 he has  
no right to dogmatise about all that may
 have been permitted or will be         
permitted in the ,divine administration 
of the universe2 he will see that those 
who with one voice denied1 about half a 
century ago1 the existence of aerolites1
 and summarily dismissed all the alleged
 facts as a silly fable1 because it     
contradicted their experience1--that    
those who refused to admit the          
,copernican theory because1 as they     
said1 it manifestly contradicted their  
experience1--that the schoolboy who     
refuses to admit the first law of motion
 because1 as he says1 it gives the lie  
to all his experience1--that the        
,oriental prince 7whose scepticism ,hume
 vainly attempts1 on his principle1 to  
meet7 who denied the possibility of ice 
because it contradicted his             
experience1--and1 in the same manner1   
that the men who1 with ,dr4 ,strauss1   

lay down the dictum that a miracle is   
impossible and a contradiction because  
it contradicts their experience1--have  
all been alike contravening the first   
principles of the modest philosophy of  
,bacon1 and have fallen into one of the 
most ordinary illusions against which he
 has warned us namely1 that that cannot 
be true which seems in contradiction to 
our own experience4 ,we confidently     
predict that the day will come when the 
favourite argument of many so called    
philosopher in this matter will be felt 
to be the philosophy of the vulgar only2
 and that though many may1 even then1   
deny that the testimony which supports  
the ,scripture miracles is equal to the 
task1 they will all alike abandon the   
axiom which supersedes the necessity of 
at all examining such evidence1 by      
asserting that no evidence can establish
 them4  ,while on this subject1 we may  
notice a certain fantastical tone of    
depreciation of miracles as an evidence 
of ,christianity1 which is occasionally 

adopted even by some who do not deny the
 possibility or probability1 or even the
 fact1 of their occurrence4 ,they affirm
 them to be of little moment1 and       
represent them--with an exquisite       
affectation of metaphysical             
propriety--as totally incapable of      
convincing men of any moral truth2 upon 
the ground that there is no natural     
relation between any displays of        
physical power and any such truth4 ,now 
without denying that the nature of the  
doctrine is a criterion1 and must be    
taken into account in judging of the    
reality of any alleged miracle1 we have 
but two things to reply to this3 first1 
that1 as ,paley says in relation to the 
question whether any accumulation of    
testimony can establish a miraculous    
fact1 we are content 'to try the theorem
 upon a simple case1' and affirm that   
man is so constituted that if he himself
 sees the blind restored to sight and   
the dead raised1 under such             
circumstances as exclude all doubt of   

fraud on the part of others and all     
mistake on his own1 he will uniformly   
associate authority with such displays  
of superhuman power2 and1 secondly1 that
 the notion in question is in direct    
contravention of the language and spirit
 of ,christ himself1 who expressly      
suspends his claims to men's belief and 
the authority of his doctrine on the    
fact of his miracles4 ',the works that  
,i do in my ,father's name1 they bear   
witness of me4' ',if ye believe not me1 
believe my works4' ',if ,i had not come 
among them1 and done the works that none
 other man did1 they had not had sin2   
but now they have no cloak for their    
sin4'  ,we have enumerated some of the  
paradoxes which infidelity is required  
to believe2 and the old-fashioned1 open1
 intelligible infidelity of the last    
century accepted them1 and rejected     
,christianity accordingly4 ,that was a  
self-consistent1 simple1 ,ingenuous     
thing1 compared with those monstrous    
forms of credulous reason1 incredulous  

faith1 metaphysical mysticism1 even     
,christian ,pantheism--so many varieties
 of which have sprung out of the        
incubation of ,german rationalism and   
,german philosophy upon the ,new        
,testament4 ,the advocates of these     
systems1 after adopting the most        
formidable of the above paradoxes of    
infidelity1 and 7notwithstanding the    
frequent boast of originality7 depending
 mainly on the same objections1 and     
defending them by the very same critical
 arguments991 delude themselves with the
 idea that they have but purified and   
embalmed ,christianity2 not aware that  
they have first made a mummy of it4     
,they are so greedy of paradox1 that    
they1 in fact1 aspire to be ,christians 
and infidels at the same time4          
,proclaiming the miracles of            
,christianity to be illusions of        
imagination or mythical legends1--the   
inspiration of its records no other or  
greater than that of ,homer's ',iliad1' 
or even ',aesop's ,fables2'--rejecting  

the whole of that supernatural clement  
with which the only records which can   
tell us any thing about the matter are  
full2 declaring its whole history so    
uncertain that the ratio of truth to    
error must be a vanishing fraction2--the
 advocates of these systems yet proceed 
to rant and rave--they are really the   
only words we know which can express our
 sense of their absurdity--in a most    
edifying vein about the divinity of     
,christianity1 and to reveal to us its  
true glories4 ',christ1' says ,strauss1 
'is not an individual1 but an idea2 that
 is to say1 humanity4 ,in the human race
 behold the ,god-made-man6 behold the   
child of the visible virgin and the     
invisible ,father6--that is1 of matter  
and of mind2 behold the ,saviour1 the   
,redeemer1 the ,sinless ,one2 behold him
 who dies1 who is raised again1 who     
mounts into the heavens ,i ,believe in  
this ,christ6 ,in his death1 his        
resurrection1 man is justified before   
,god6'    99 ,the main objection1 both  

with the old and the new forms of       
infidelity1 is1 that against the        
miracles2 the main argument with both1  
those which attempt to show their       
antecedent impossibility2 and criticism 
directed against the credulity of the   
records which contain them4 ,the        
principal difference is1 that modern    
infidelity shrinks from the coarse      
imputation of fraud and imposture on the
 founders of ,christianity2 and prefers 
the theory of illusion or myth to that  
of deliberate fraud4 ,but with this     
exception1 which touches only the       
personal character of the founders of   
,christianity1 the case remains the     
same4 ,the same postulates and the same 
arguments are made to yield             
substantially the same conclusion4 ,for1
 all that is supernatural in            
,christianity and all credibility in its
 records1 vanish equally on either      
assumption4 ,nor is even the modern mode
 of interpreting many of the miracles   
7as illusions or legends7 unknown to the

 older infidelity2 only it more         
consistently felt that neither the one  
theory nor the other1 could be trusted  
to alone4 ,velis et remis was its motto4
  ,such is ,quinet's brief statement of 
,strauss's mystico-mythical             
,christiantity1 founded on the ,hegelian
 philosophy4 ,for a fuller1 we dare not 
say a more intelligible1 account of it  
in ,strauss's own words1 and the        
metaphysical mysteries on which it      
depends1 the reader may consult ,dr4    
,beard's translation2--pp4 #dd1 #de4 of 
his ,essay entitled ',strauss1 ,hegel1  
and their ,opinions4   ,whether it be   
the ,rationalism of ,paulus1 or the     
,rationalism of ,strauss--whether that  
which declares all that is supernatural 
in ,christianity 7forming the bulk of   
its history7 to be illusion1 or that    
which declares it myth1--the conclusions
 can be made out only by a system of    
interpretation which can be compared to 
nothing but the wildest dreams and      
allegorical systems of some of the early

 ,fathers2 while the results themselves 
are either those elementary principles  
of ethics for which there was no need to
 invoke a revelation at all1 or some    
mystico-metaphysical philosophy1        
expressed in language as unintelligible 
as the veriest gibberish of the         
,alexandrian ,platonists4 ,in fact1 by  
such exegesis and by such philosophy1   
any thing may be made out of any thing2 
and the most fantastical data be        
compelled to yield equally fantastical  
conclusions4    ,of the mode of         
accounting for the supernatural         
occurrences in the ,scriptures by the   
illusion produced by mistaken natural   
phenomena1 7perhaps the most stupidly   
jejune of all the theories ever         
projected by man71 ,quinet eloquently   
says1 ',the pen which wrote the         
,provincial ,letters would be necessary 
to lay bare the strange consequences of 
this theology4 ,according to its        
conclusion1 the tree of good and evil   
was nothing but a venomous plant1       

probably a manchineal tree1 under which 
our first parents fell asleep4 ,the     
shining face of ,moses on the heights of
 ,mount ,sinai was the natural result of
 electricity2 the vision of ,zachariah  
was effected by the smoke of the        
chandeliers in the temple2 the ,magian  
kings1 with their offerings of myrrh1 of
 gold1 and of incense1 were three       
wandering merchants1 who brought some   
glittering tinsel to the ,child of      
,bethlehem2 the star which went before  
them a servant bearing a flambeau2 the  
angels in the scene of the temptation1 a
 caravan traversing the desert1 laden   
with provisions2 the two angels in the  
tomb1 clothed in white linen1 an        
illusion caused by a linen garment2 the 
,transfiguration1 a storm4' ,who would  
not sooner be an old-fashioned infidel  
than such a doting and maundering       
rationalist8   ,but the first and most  
natural question to ask is obviously    
this3 how any mortal can pretend to     
extract any thing certain1 much more    

divine1 from records1 the great bulk of 
which he has reduced to pure frauds1    
illusions1 or legends1--and the great   
bulk of the remainder to an absolute    
uncertainty of how little is true and   
how much false899 ,surely it would need 
nothing less than a new revelation to   
reveal this sweeping restriction of the 
old2 and we should then be left in an   
ecstasy of astonishment-first1 that the 
whole significance of it should have    
been veiled in frauds1 illusions1 or    
fictions2 secondly1 that its true       
meaning should have been hidden from the
 world for eighteen hundred years after 
its divine promulgation2 thirdly1 that  
it should be revealed at last1 either in
 results which needed no revelation to  
reveal them1 or in the ,egyptian        
darkness of the                         
allegorieo-metaphysico-mystico-logico-tr
ansendental1 'formulae' of the most     
obscure and contentious philosophy ever 
devised by man2 and lastly1 that all    
this superfluous trouble is to give us1 

after all1 only the mysteries of a most 
enigmatical philosophy3 ,for of ,hegel1 
in particular1 we think it may with     
truth be said that the reader is seldom 
fortunate enough to know that he knows  
his meaning1 or even to know that ,hegel
 knew his own4   99 ,daub naively enough
 declares that1 if you except all that  
relates to angels1 demons1 and miracle1 
there is scarcely any mythology in the  
,gospel4' ,an exception which reminds   
one of the ,irish prelate who1 on       
reading ',gulliver's ,travels1' remarked
 that there were some things in that    
book which he could not think true4     
,whether1 then1 we regard the original  
compilers of the evangelic records as   
inventing all that ,paulus or ,strauss  
rejects1 or sincerely believing their   
own delusions1 or that their statements 
have been artfully corrupted or         
unconsciously disguised1 till ,christ   
and his ,apostles are as effectually    
transformed and travestied as these     
dreamers are pleased to imagine1 with   

what consistency can we believe any     
thing certain amidst so many            
acknowledged fictions inseparably       
incorporated with them8 ,if ,a has told 
,b truth once and falsehood fifty times1
 7wittingly or unwittingly17 what can   
induce ,b to believe that he has any    
reason to believe ,a in that only time  
in which he does believe him1 unless he 
knows the same truth by evidence quite  
independent of ,a1 and for which he is  
not indebted to him at all8 ,should we  
not1 then1 at once acknowledge the      
futility of attempting to educe any     
certain historic fact1 however meagre1  
or any doctrine1 whether intelligible or
 obscure1 from documents nine tenths of 
which are to be rejected as a tissue of 
absurd fictions8 ,or why should we not  
fairly confess that1 for aught we can   
tell1 the whole is a fiction8 ,for      
certainly1 as to the amount of historic 
fact which these men affect to leave1 it
 is obviously a matter of the most      
trivial importance whether we regard the

 whole ,bible as absolute fiction or    
not4 ,whether an obscure ,galilean      
teacher1 who taught a moral system which
 may have been as good 7we can never    
know from such corrupt documents that it
 was as good7 as that of ,confucius1 or 
,zoroaster1 ever lived or not2 and      
whether we are to add another name to   
those who have enunciated the elementary
 truths of ethics1 is really of very    
little moment4 ,upon their principles we
 can clearly know nothing about him     
except that he is the centre of a vast  
mass of fictions1 the invisible nucleus 
of a huge conglomerate of myths4 ,a     
thousand times more1 therefore1 do we   
respect those1 as both more honest and  
more logical1 who1 on similar grounds1  
openly reject ,christianity altogether2 
and regard the ,new ,testament1 and     
speak of it1 exactly as they would of   
,homer's ',iliad1' or ,virgil's         
',aeneid4' ,such men1 consistently      
enough1 trouble themselves not at all in
 ascertaining what residuum of truth1   

historical or critical1 may remain in a 
book which certainly gives ten          
falsehoods for one truth1 and welds both
 together in inextricable confusion4    
,the ,german infidels1 on the other     
hand1 with infinite labour1 and amidst  
infinite uncertainties1 extract either  
truth 'as old as the creation1' and as  
universal as human reason1--or truth    
which1 after being hidden from the world
 for eighteen hundred years in mythical 
obscurity1 is unhappily lost again the  
moment it is discovered1 in the         
infinitely deeper darkness of the       
philosophy of ,hegel and ,strauss2 who  
in vain endeavour to gasp out1 in       
articulate language1 the still latent   
mystery of the ,gospel6 ,hegel1 in his  
last hours1 is said to have said1--and  
if he did not say1 he ought to have     
said1--',alas6 there is but one man in  
all ,germany who understands my         
doctrine1--and he does not understand   
it6' ,and yet1 by his account1          
,hegelianism and ,christianity1 'in     

their highest results1' language1 as    
usual1 felicitously obscure 'are one4'  
,both1 therefore1 are1 alas6 now for    
ever lost4  ,that great problem--to     
account for the origin and establishment
 ,of ,christianity in the world1 with a 
denial at the same time of its          
miraculous pretensions--a problem1 the  
fair solution of which is obviously     
incumbent on infidelity--has            
necessitated the most gratuitous and    
even contradictory hypotheses1 and may  
safely be said still to present as hard 
a knot as ever4 ,the favourite          
hypothesis1 recently1 has been that of  
,strauss--frequently re-modified and    
re-adjusted indeed by himself--that     
,christianity is a myth1 or collection  
of myths--that is1 a conglomerate 7as   
geologists would say7 of a very slender 
portion of facts and truth1 with an     
enormous accretion of undesigned        
fiction1 fable1 and superstitions2      
gradually framed and insensibly         
received1 like the mythologies of       

,greece and ,rome1 or the ancient       
systems of ,hindoo theology4 ,it is     
true1 indeed1 that the particular       
critical arguments1 the alleged historic
 discrepancies and so forth1 on which   
this author founds his conclusion--are  
for the most part1 not original2 most of
 them having been insisted on before1   
both in ,germany1 and especially in our 
own country during the ,deistical       
controversies of the preceding century4 
,his idea of myths1 however1 may be     
supposed original2 and he is very       
welcome to it4 ,for of all the attempted
 solutions of the great problem1 this   
will be hereafter regarded as1 perhaps1 
the most untenable4 ,gibbon1 in solving 
the same problem1 and starting in fact  
from the same axioms1--for he too       
endeavoured to account for the          
intractable phenomenon--on natural      
causes alone1--assigned1 as one cause1  
the reputation of working miracles1 the 
reality of which he denied2 but he was  
far too cautious to decide whether the  

original thunders of ,christianity had  
pretended to work miracles1 and had been
 enabled to cheat the world into the    
belief of them1 or whether the world had
 been pleased universally to cheat      
itself into that belief4 ,he was far too
 wise to tie himself to the proof that  
in the most enlightened period of the   
world's history--amidst the strongest   
contrarieties of national and religious 
feeling--amidst the bitterest bigotry of
 millions in behalf of what was old1 and
 the bitterest contempt of millions of  
all that was new--amidst the opposing   
forces of ignorance and prejudice on the
 one hand and philosophy and scepticism 
on the other--amidst all the            
persecutions which attested and proved  
those hostile feelings on the part of   
the bulk of mankind--and above all1 in  
the short space of thirty years 7which  
is all that ,dr4 ,stauss allows         
himself71--,christianity could be thus  
deposited1 like the mythology of ,greece
 and ,rome6 ,these1 he knew1 were very  

gradual and silent formations2          
originating in the midst of a remote    
antiquity and an unhistoric age1 during 
the very infancy and barbarism of the   
races which adopted them1 confined1 be  
it remembered1 to those races alone2 and
 displaying1 instead of the exquisite   
and symmetrical beauty of ,christianity1
 those manifest signs of gradual        
accretion which were fairly to be       
expected2 in the varieties of the       
deposited or irrupted substances--in the
 diffracted appearance of various       
parts--in the very weather stains1 so to
 speak1 which mark the whole mass4      
,that the prodigious aggregate of       
miracles which the ,new ,testament      
asserts1 would1 if fabulous1 pass       
unchallenged1 elude all detection1 and  
baffle all scepticism4--collect in the  
course of a few years energetic and     
zealous assertors of their reality1 in  
the heart of every civilised and almost 
every barbarous community1 and in the   
course of three centuries1 change the   

face of the world and destroy every     
other myth which fairly came in contact 
with it1--who but ,dr4 ,strauss can     
believe8 ,was there no ,dr4 ,strauss in 
those days8 ,none to question and       
detect1 as the process went on1 the     
utter baselessness of these legends8    
,was all the world doting--was even the 
persecuting world asleep8 ,were all     
mankind resolved on befooling           
themselves8 ,are men wont thus quietly  
to admit miraculous pretensions1 whether
 they be prejudiced votaries of another 
system or sceptics as to all8 ,no3      
whether we consider the age1 the        
country1 the men assigned for the origin
 of these myths1 we see the futility of 
the theory4 ,it does not account even   
for their invention1 much less for their
 success4 ,we see that if any mythology 
could in such an age have germinated at 
all1 it must have been one very         
different from ,christianity2 whether we
 consider the sort of ,messiah the ,jews
 expected1 or the hatred of all ,jewish 

,messiahs1 which the ,gentiles could not
 but have felt4 ,the ,christ offered    
them so far from being welcome1 was to  
the one a 'stumbling block' and to the  
other 'foolishness'2 and yet he         
conquered the prejudices of both4  ,let 
us suppose a parallel myth--if we may   
abuse the name4 ,let us suppose the son 
of some ,canadian carpenter aspiring to 
be a moral teacher1 but neither working 
nor pretending to work miracles2 as much
 hated by his countrymen as ,jesus      
,christ was hated by his1 and both he   
and his countrymen as much hated by all 
the civilised world beside1 as were     
,jesus ,christ and the ,jews3 let us    
further suppose him forbidding his      
followers the use of all force in       
propagating his doctrine's1 and then let
 us calculate the probability of an     
unnoticed and accidental deposit1 in    
thirty short years1 of a prodigious     
accumulation about these simple facts4  
of supernatural but universally         
accredited fables1 these legends        

escaping detection or suspicion as they 
accumulated1 and suddenly laying hold in
 a few years of myriads of votaries in  
all parts of both worlds1 and in three  
centuries uprooting and destroying      
,christianity and all opposing systems6 
,how long will it be before the         
,swedenborgian1 or the ,mormonite1 or   
any such pretenders1 will have similar  
success8 ,have there not been a thousand
 such1 and has any one of them had the  
slightest chance against systems in     
possession1--against the strongly rooted
 prejudices of ignorance and the        
,argus-eyed investigations of           
scepticism8 ,but all these were opposed 
to the pretensions of ,christianity2 nor
 can any one example of at all similar  
sudden success be alleged1 except in the
 case of ,mahomet2 and to that the      
answer is brief4 ,the history of        
,mahomet is the history of a            
conqueror--and his logic was the logic  
of the sword4  ,in spite of the theory  
of ,strauss1 therefore1 not less than   

that of ,gibbon1 the old and ever       
recurring difficulty of giving a        
rational account of the origin and      
establishment of ,christianity still    
presents itself for solution to the     
infidel1 as it always has done1 and1 we 
venture to say1 always will do4 ,it is  
an insoluble phenomenon1 except by the  
admission of the facts of the--,new     
,testament4 ',the miracles1' says       
,butler1 'are a satisfactory account of 
the events1 of which no other           
satisfactory account can be given2 nor  
any account at all1 but what is         
imaginary merely and invented4'  ,in the
 meantime1 the different theories of    
unbelief mutually refute one another2   
and we may plead the authority of one   
against the authority of another4 ,those
 who believe ,strauss believe both the  
theory of imposture and the theory of   
illusion improbable2 and those who      
believe in the theory of imposture      
believe the theory of myths improbable4 
,and both parties1 we are glad to think1

 are quite right in the judgment they   
form of one another4  ,but what must    
strike every one who reflects as the    
most surprising thing in ,dr4 ,strauss1 
is1 that with the postulatum with which 
he sets out1 and which he modestly takes
 for granted as too evident to need     
proof1 he should have thought it worth  
while to write two bulky volumes of     
minute criticism on the subject4 ,a     
miracle he declares to be an absurdity1 
an contradiction1 an impossibility4 ,if 
we believed this1 we should deem a very 
concise enthymene 7after having proved  
that postulatum though7 all that it was 
necessary to construct on the subject4  
,a miracle cannot be true2 ergo1        
,christianity1 which in the only records
 by which we know anything about it1    
avows its absolute dependence upon      
miracles1 must be false4  ,it is a      
modification of one or other of these   
monstrous forms of unbelieving belief   
and ,christian infidelity1 that ,mr4    
,foxton1 late of ,oxford1 has adopted in

 his ',popular ,christianity2' as       
perhaps also ,mr4 ,froude in his        
',nemesis4' ,it is not very easy1       
indeed1 to say what ,mr4 ,foxton        
positively believes2 having1 like his   
,german prototypes1 a greater facility  
of telling what he does believe1 and of 
wrapping up what he does believe in a   
most impregnable mysticism4 ,he         
certainly rejects1 however1 all that    
which1 when rejected a century ago1     
left1 in the estimate of every one1 an  
infidel in puris naturalibus4 ,like his 
,german acquaintances1 he accepts the   
infidel paradoxes--only1 like them1 he  
will still be a ,christian4 ,he         
believes1 with ,strauss1 that a miracle 
is an impossibility and                 
contradiction--'incredible per se4' ,as 
to the inspiration of ,christ--he       
regards it as1 in its nature1 the same  
as that of ,zoraster1 ,confucius1       
,mahomet1 ,plato1 ,luther1 and          
,wickliffe--a curious assortment of     
'heroic souls4'7,pp4 #fb1 #fc47 ,with a 

happy art of confusing the 'gifts of    
genius' no matter whether displayed in  
intellectual or moral power1 and of     
forgetting that other men are not likely
 to overlook the difference1 he         
complacently declares 'the wisdom of    
,solomon and the poetry of ,isaiah the  
fruit of the same inspiration which is  
popularly attributed to ,milton or      
,shakspeare1 or even to the homely      
wisdom of ,benjamin ,franklin' 7,p4     
#gb47 in the same pleasant confusion of 
mind1 he thinks that the 'pens of       
,plato1 of ,paul and of ,dante1 the     
pencils of ,raphael and of ,claude1 the 
,chisels of ,canova and of ,chantrey1 no
 less than the voices of ,knox of       
,wickliffe1 and of ,luther are          
ministering instruments1 in different   
degrees1 of the same spirit4' 7,p4 #gg47
 ,he thinks that 'we find1 both in the  
writers and the records of ,scripture1  
every evidence of human infirmity that  
can possibly be conceived2 and yet we   
are to believe that ,god himself        

specially inspired them with false      
philosophy1 vicious logic1 and bad      
grammar4'7,p4 #gd47 ,he denies the      
originality both of the ,christian ethic
 7which he says are a gross plagiarism  
from ,plato7 as also in great part of   
the system of ,christian doctrine499    
,nevertheless1 it would be quite a      
mistake1 it seems1 to suppose that ,mr4 
,foxton is no ,christian6 ,he is1 on the
 contrary1 of the very few who can tell 
us what ,christianity really is2 and who
 can separate the falsehoods and the    
myths which have so long disguised it4  
,he even talks most spiritually and with
 an edifying onction4 ,he tells us ,god 
was1 indeed1 in ,christ1 reconciling the
 world unto himself4 ,and but little    
deduction need be made from the         
rapturous language of ,paul1 who tells  
us that in him dwelt all the fullness of
 the ,godhead bodily 7,p4 #fe72 ,i      
concede to ,christ' 7generous           
admission67 'the highest inspiration    
hitherto granted to the prophets of     

,god' 7,p4 #adc71--,mahomet1 it appears1
 and ,zoroaster and ,confucius1 having  
also statues in his truly ,catholic     
,pantheon4 ',the position of ,christ1'  
he tells us in another place1 is 'simply
 that of the foremost man in all the    
world1' though he 'soars far above all  
principalities and powers--above all    
philosophies hitherto known--above all  
creeds hitherto propagated in his       
name'--the true ,christian doctrine1    
after having been hid from ages and     
generations1 being reserved to be       
disclosed1 we presume1 by ,mr4 ,foxton4 
,his spiritualism1 as usual with the    
whole school of our new ,christian      
infidels1 is1 of course1 exquisitely    
refined1--but1 unhappily1 very vague4   
,he is full of talk of 'a deeep         
insight1'--of a 'faith not in dead      
histories1 but living realities--a      
revelation to our innermost nature4'    
',the true seer1' he says1 'looking deep
 into causes1 carries in his heart the  
simple wisdom of ,god4 ,the secret      

harmonies of ,nature vibrate on his ear1
 and her fair proportions reveal        
themselves to his eye4 ,he has a deep   
faith in the truth of ,god4' 7,p4 #adf47
 ',the inspired man is one whose outward
 life derives all its radiance from the 
light within him4 ,he walks through     
stony places by the light of his own    
soul1 and stumbles not4 ,no human motive
 is present to such a mind in its       
highest exultation--no love of          
praise--no desire of fame--no affection1
 no passion mingles with the divine     
afflatus1 which passes over without     
ruffling the soul4' 7,p4 #dd47 ,and a   
great many fine phrases of the same     
kind1 equally innocent of all meaning4  
99 7,pp4 #ea--fj47 ,we are hardly likely
 to yield to ,mr4 ,foxton in our love of
 ,plato1 for whom we have expressed1 and
 that very recently1 7,april1 #ahdh17 no
 stinted admiration3 and what we have   
there affirmed we are by no means       
disposed to retract1--that no ancient   
author has approached1 in the expression

 of ethical truth1 so near to the maxims
 and sometimes the very expressions1 of 
the ,gospel4 ,nevertheless1 we as       
strongly affirm1 that he who contrasts  
7whatever the occasional sublimity of   
expression7 the faltering and often     
sceptical tone of ,plato on religious   
subjects1 with the uniformity and       
decision of the ,evangelical            
system1--his dark notions in relation to
 ,god 7candidly confessed7 with the     
glorious recognition of ,him in the     
,gospel as 'our ,father1'--his utterly  
absurd application of his general       
principles of morals1 in his most       
,utopian of all ,republics1 with the    
broad1 plain social ethics of           
,christianity1--the tone of mournful    
familiarity 7whatever his personal      
immunity7 in which he too often speaks  
of the saddest pollutions that ever     
degraded humanity1 with the spotless    
purity of the ,christian rule of        
life1--the hesitating1 speculative tone 
of the ,master of the ,academy with the 

decision and majesty of ,him who 'spake 
with authority1 and not as the          
,scribes1' whether ,greek or            
,jewish4--the metaphysical and abstract 
character of ,plato's reasonings with   
the severely practical character of     
,christ's1--the feebleness of the       
motives supplied by the abstractions of 
the one1 and the intensity of those     
supplied by the other1--the adaptation  
of the one to the intelligent only1 and 
the adaptation of the other to universal
 humanity1--the very manner of ,plato1  
his gorgeous style1 with the still more 
impressive simplicity of the ,great     
,teacher1--must surely see in the       
contrast every indication1 to say       
nothing of the utter gratuitousness     
7historically7 of the contrary          
hypothesis1 that the sublime ethics of  
the ,gospel1 whether we regard          
substance1 or manner1 or1 tone1 or      
style1 are no plagiarism from ,plato4   
,as for the man who can hold such a     
notion1 he must certainly be very       

ignorant either of ,plate or of ,christ4
 ,as the best apology for ,mr4 ,foxton's
 offensive folly we may1 perhaps1       
charitably hope that he is nearly       
ignorant of both4--,equally absurd is   
the attempt to identify the metaphysical
 dreams of ,plato with the doctrinal    
system of the ,gospel1 though it is     
quite true1 that long subsequent to     
,christ the ,platonising ,christians    
tried to accommodate the speculations of
 the sage they loved1 to the doctrines  
of a still greater master4 ,but ,plato  
never extorted from his friends stronger
 eulogies than ,christ has often        
extorted from his enemies4    ,it is    
amazing and amusing to see with what    
case ,mr4 ,foxton decides points which  
have filled folios of controversy4 ',in 
the teaching of ,christ himself1 there  
is not the slightest allusion to the    
modern evangelical notion of an         
atonement4' ',the diversities of gifts  
to which ,paul alludes1 ,cor4 i4 #ab4   
are nothing more than those different   

gifts which1 in common parlance1 we     
attribute to the various tempers and    
talents of men4' 7,p4 #fg47 ',it is1    
however1 after all1 absurd to suppose   
that the miracles of the ,scriptures are
 subjects of actual belief2 either to   
the vulgar or the learned4' 7,p4 #ajd47 
,what an easy time of it must such an   
all-sufficient controvertist have6  ,he 
thinks it possible2 too1 that ,christ1  
though nothing more than an ordinary    
man1 may really have 'thought himself   
,divine1' without being liable to the   
charge of a visionary self-idolatry or  
of blasphemy1--as supposed by every     
body1 ,trinitarian or ,unitarian1 except
 ,mr4 ,foxton4 ,he accounts for it by   
the 'wild sublimity of human emotion1   
when the rapt spirit first feels the    
throbbings of the divine afflatus1' c4  
c4 ,a singular afflatus which teaches a 
man to usurp the name and prerogatives  
of ,deity1 and a strange 'inspiration'  
which inspires him with so profound an  
ignorance of his own nature6 ,this      

interpretation1 we believe1 is          
peculiarly ,mr4 ,foxton's owe4  ,the way
 in which he disposes of the miracles1  
is essentially that of a vulgar1        
undiscriminating1 unphilosophic mind4   
,there have been1 he tells us in effect1
 so many false miracles1 superstitious  
stories of witches1 conjurors1 ghosts1  
hobgoblins1 of cures by royal touch1 and
 the like1--and therefore the ,scripture
 miracles are false6 ,why1 who denies   
that there have been plenty of false    
miracles8 ,and there have been as many  
false religions4 ,is there1 therefore1  
none true8 ,the proper business in every
 such case is to examine fairly the     
evidence1 and not to generalise after   
this absurd fashion4 ,otherwise we shall
 never believe any thing2 for there is  
hardly one truth that has not its half  
score of audacious counterfeits4  ,still
 he is amusingly perplexed1 like all the
 rest of the infidel world1 how to get  
rid of the miracles--whether on the     
principle of fraud1 or fiction1 or      

illusion4 ,he thinks there would be 'a  
great accession to the ranks of reason  
and common sense by disproving the      
reality of the miracles1 without        
damaging the veracity or honestly of the
 simple1 earnest1 and enthusiastic      
writers by whom they are recorded2' and 
complains of the coarse and             
undiscriminating criticism of most of   
the ,french and ,english ,deists1 who   
explain the miracles 'on the supposition
 of the grossest fraud acting on the    
grossest credulity4' ,but he soon finds 
that the materials for such a compromise
 are utterly intractable4 ,he thinks    
that the ,german ,rationalists have     
depended too much on some 'single       
hypothesis1 which often proves to be    
insufficient to meet the great variety  
of conditions and circumstances with    
which the miracles have been handed down
 to us4' ,very true2 but what remedy8   
',we find one ,german writer            
endeavouring to explain away the        
miracles on the mystical 7mythical7     

theory2 and another riding into the     
arena of controversy on the miserable   
hobby-horse of clairvoyance or          
mesmerism2 each of these1 and a host of 
others of the same class1 rejecting     
whatever light is thrown on the question
 by all the theories together4' ,he     
therefore proposes1 with great and      
gratuitous liberality1 to heap all these
 theories together1 and to take them as 
they are wanted2 not withholding any of 
the wonders of modern science--even1 as 
would seem1 the possible knowledge of   
'chloroform' 7,,pp4 #ajd44 #hf1         
#hg47--;from the propagators of         
,christianity6  ,but1 alas6 the         
phenomena are still intractable4 ,the   
stubborn ',book' will still baffle all  
such efforts to explain it away2 it is  
willing to be rejected1 if it so pleases
 men1 but it guards itself from being   
thus made a fool of4 ,for who can fail  
to see that neither all or any          
considerable part of the multifarious   
miracles of the ,new ,testament can be  

explained by any such gratuitous        
extension of ingenious fancies2 and that
 if they could be so explained1 it would
 be still impossible to exculpate the   
men who need such explanations from the 
charge of perpetuating the grossest     
frauds6 ,yet this logical ostrich1 who  
am digest all these stones1             
presumptuously declares a miracle an    
impossibility and the very notion of it 
a contradiction499 ,but enough of ,mr4  
,foxton4    99 ,mr4 ,foxton denies that 
men1 in ,paley's 'single case in which  
he tries the general theorem1' would    
believe the miracle2 but he finds it    
convenient to leave out the most        
significant circumstances on which      
,paley makes the validity of the        
testimony to depend1 instead of stating 
them fairly in ,paley's own words4 ,yet 
that the sceptics 7if such there could  
be7 must be the merest fraction of the  
species1 ,mr4 ,foxton himself           
immediately proceeds to prove by showing
 what is undeniably the case7 that      

almost all mankind readily receive      
miraculous occurrences on far lower     
evidence than ,paley's common sense     
would require them to demand4 ,surely he
 must be related to the ,irishman who   
placed his ladder against the bough he  
was cutting off4 ,i     ,there are no   
doubt some minds amongst us1 whose power
 we admit1 and whose perversion of power
 we lament1 who have bewildered         
themselves by really deep meditation on 
inexplicable mysteries2 who demand      
certainty where certainty is not given  
to man1 or demand for truths which are  
established by sufficient evidence1     
other evidence than those truths will   
admit4 ,we can even painfully sympathise
 in that ordeal of doubt which such     
powerful minds are peculiarly           
exposed--with their ,titanic struggles  
against the still mightier power of ,him
 who has said to the turbulent intellect
 of man1 as well as to the stormy ocean 
',hitherto shalt thou come1 but no      
farther1--and here shall thy proud waves

 be staid4' ,we cannot wish better to   
any such agitated mind than that it may 
listen to those potent and majestic     
words3 ',peace--be still6' uttered by   
the voice of ,him who so suddenly hushed
 the billows of the ,galilean lake4     
,but we are at the same time fully      
convinced that in our day there are     
thousands of youths who are falling into
 the same errors and perils from sheer  
vanity and affectation2 who admire most 
what they least understand1 and adopt   
all the obscurities and paradoxes they  
stumble upon1 as a cheap path to a      
reputation for profundity2 who awkwardly
 imitate the manner and retail the      
phrases of the writers they study2 and1 
as usual1 exaggerate to caricature their
 least agreeable eccentricities4 ,we    
should think that some of these more    
powerful minds must be by this time     
ashamed of that ragged regiment of      
shallow thinkers1 and obscure writers   
and talkers who at present infest our   
literature1 and whose parrot-like       

repetition of their own stereotyped     
phraseology1 mingled with some barbarous
 infusion of half ,anglicised ,german1  
threatens to form as odious a cant as   
ever polluted the stream of thought or  
disfigured the purity of language4      
,happily it is not likely to be more    
than a passing fashion2 but still it is 
a very unpleasant fashion while it      
lasts4 ,as in ,johnson's day1 every     
young writer imitated as well as he     
could the ponderous diction and         
everlasting antitheses of the great     
dictator as in ,byron's day1 there were 
thousands to whom the world 'was a      
blank' at twenty or thereabouts1 and of 
whose dark imaginings1' as ,macaulay    
says1 the waste was prodigious2 so now  
there are hundreds of dilettanti        
pantheists'1 mystics and sceptics to    
whom everything is a 'sham1' an         
'unreality'2 ,who tell us that the world
 stands in need of a great 'prophet1' a 
seer1' a 'true prophet'1 a large soul1' 
a god-like soul1'99--who shall dive into

 'the depths of the human               
consciousness1' and whose 'utterances'  
shall rouse the human mind from the     
'cheats and frauds' which have hitherto 
everywhere practised on its simplicity4 
,the tell us1 in relation to philosophy1
 religion1 and especially in relation to
 ,christianity1 that all that has been  
believed by mankind has been believed   
only on 'empirical' grounds2 and that   
the old answers to difficulties will do 
no longer4 ,they shake their sage heads 
at such men as ,clarke1 ,paley1 ,butler1
 and declare that such arguments as     
theirs will not satisfy them41--,we are 
glad to admit that all this vague       
pretension is now but rarely displayed  
with the scurrilous spirit of that elder
 unbelief against which the long series 
of ,british apologists for ,christianity
 arose between #agjj and #agej2 ,but    
there is often in it an arrogance as    
real1 though not in so offensive a form4
 ,sometimes the spirit of unbelief even 
assumes an air of sentimental regret at 

its own inconvenient profundity4 ,many a
 worthy youth tells us he almost wishes 
he could believe4 ,he admires1 of all   
things1 the 'moral grandeur'--the       
'ethical beauty' of many parts of       
,christianity2 he condescends to        
patronize ,jesus ,christ1 though he     
believes that the great mass of words   
and actions by which alone we know      
anything about him1 are sheer fictions  
or legends2 he believes--gratuitously   
enough in this instance1 for he has no  
ground for it--that ,jesus ,christ was a
 very 'great man' worthy of comparison  
at least with ,mahomet1 ,luther1        
,napoleon1 and 'other heroes'2 he even  
admits that happiness of a simple1      
child-like faith1 in the puerilities of 
,christianity--it produces such content 
of mind6 ,but alas6 he cannot           
believe--his intellect is not           
satisfied--he has revolved the matter   
too profoundly to be thus taken in2 he  
must1 he supposes1 7and our beardless   
philosopher sighs as he says it7 bear   

the penalty of a too restless intellect1
 and a too speculative genius2 he knows 
all the usual arguments which satisfied 
,pascal1 ,butler1 ,bacon1 ,leibnitz2 but
 they will do no longer3 more radical1  
more tremendous difficulties have       
suggested themselves1 'from the 'depths 
of philosophy1' and far different       
answers are required now6    99         
,foxton's last chapter1 passim1 from    
some expressions one would almost       
imagine that our author himself aspired 
to be1 if not the ,messiah1 at least the
 ,elias1 of this new dispensation4 ,we  
fear1 however1 that this 'vox clamantis'
 would reverse the ,baptist's           
proclamation1 and would cry1 ',the      
straight shall be made crooked4 and the 
plain places rough4'  ,we fear that many
 young minds in our day are exposed to  
the danger of falling into one or other 
of the prevailing forms of unbelief1 and
 especially into that of pantheistic    
mysticism--from rashly meditating in the
 cloudy regions of ,german              

philosophy--on difficulties which would 
seem beyond the limits of human reason1 
but which that philosophy too often     
promises to solve--with what success we 
may see from the rapid succession and   
impenetrable obscurities of its various 
systems4 ,alas6 when will men learn that
 one of the highest achievements of     
philosophy is to know when it is vain to
 philosophise4 ,when the obscure        
principles of these most uncouth        
philosophies1 expressed1 we verily      
believe1 in the darkest language ever   
used by civilised man1 are applied to   
the solution of the problems of theology
 and ethics1 no wonder that the natural 
consequence1 as well as just            
retribution1 of such temerity is a      
plunge into tenfold night4 ,systems of  
,german philosophy may perhaps be       
advantageously studied by those who are 
mature enough to study them2 but that   
they have an incomparable power of      
intoxicating the intellect of the young 
aspirant to their mysteries1 is1 we     

think1 undeniable4 ,they are producing  
the effect just now in a multitude of   
our juveniles1 who are beclouding       
themselves in the vain attempt to       
comprehend ill-translated fragments of  
ill-understood philosophies1 7executed  
in a sort of ,anglicised-,german1 or    
,germanised-,english1 we know not which 
to call it1 but certainly neither       
,german nor ,english17 from the perusal 
of which they carry away nothing but    
some very obscure terms1 on which they  
themselves have superinduced a very     
vague meaning4 ,these terms you in vain 
implore them to define2 or1 if they     
define them1 they define them in terms  
which as much need definition4 ,heartily
 do we wish that ,socrates would        
reappear amongst us1 to exercise his    
accoucheur's art on these hapless       
,theaetetuses and ,menos of our day6    
,many such youths might no doubt reply  
at first to the sarcastic ,querist1 7who
 might gently complain of a slight      
cloudiness in their speculations47 that 

the truths they uttered were too        
profound for ordinary reasoners4 ,we may
 easily imagine how ,socrates would have
 dealt with such assumptions4 ,his reply
 would be rather more severe than that  
of ,mackintosh to ,coleridge in a       
somewhat similar case2 namely1 that if a
 notion cannot be made clear to persons 
who have spent the better part of their 
days in resolving the difficulties of   
metaphysics and philosophy1 and who are 
conscious that they are not destitute of
 patience for the effort requisite to   
understand them1 it may suggest a doubt 
whether the truth be not in the medium  
of communication rather than elsewhere2 
and1 indeed1 whether the philosopher be 
not aiming to communicate thoughts on   
subjects on which man can have no       
thoughts to communicate4 ,socrates would
 add1 perhaps1 that language was given  
us to express1 not to conceal our       
thoughts2 and that1 if they cannot be   
communicated1 invaluable as they        
doubtless are1 we had better keep them  

to ourselves2 one thing it is clear he  
would do1--he would insist on precise   
defintions4 ,but in truth it may be more
 than surmised that the obscurities of  
which all complain1 except those 7and in
 our day they are not a few7 to whom    
obscurity is a recommendation1 result   
from suffering the intellect to         
speculate in realms forbidden to its    
access2 into caverns of tremendous depth
 and darkness1 with nothing better than 
our own rushlight4 ,surely we have      
reason to suspect as much when some     
learned professor1 after muttering his  
logical incantations1 and conjuring with
 his logical formulae1 surprises you by 
saying1 that he has disposed of the     
great mysteries of existence and the    
universe1 and solved to your entire     
satisfaction1 in his own curt way1 the  
problems of the ,,absolute and the      
,,infinite6 ,if the cardinal truths of  
philosophy and religion hitherto        
received are doomed to be imperilled by 
such speculations1 one feels strongly   

inclined to pray with the old ,homeric  
hero1--'that if they must perish1 it may
 be at least in daylight4' ,we earnestly
 counsel the youthful reader to defer   
the study of ,german philosophy1 at     
least till he has matured and           
disciplined his mind1 and familiarised  
himself with the best models of what    
used to be our boast--,english clearness
 of thought and expression4 ,he will    
then learn to ask rigidly for           
definitions1 and not rest satisfied with
 half-meanings--or no meaning4 ,to the  
naturally venturous pertinacity of young
 metaphysicians1 few would be disposed  
to be more indulgent than ourselves4    
,from the time of ,plato downwards--who 
tells us that no sooner do they 'taste' 
of dialectics than they are ready to    
dispute with every body--'sparing       
neither father nor mother1 scarcely even
 the lower animals1' if they had but a  
voice to reply4 ,they have always       
expected more from metaphysics than     
7except as a discipline7 they will ever 

yield4 ,he elsewhere1 still more        
humorously describes the same trait4 ,he
 compares then1 to young dogs who are   
perpetually snapping at every thing     
about them3--,hoimai gar se ou          
lelthenai1 hoti hoi meirakiskoi1 hotan  
to prton logn geuntai1 s paidia autois  
katachrntai1 aei eis antilogian chrmenoi
 kai mimoumenoi tous exelenchontas autoi
 allous elenchousi1 chairontes sper     
skulakia te kai sparattein tous plsion  
aei4 ,but we hope we shall not see our  
metaphysical 'puppies' amusing          
themselves--as so many 'old dogs'       
amongst neighbours 7who ought to have   
known better7 have done1--by tearing    
into tatters the sacred leaves of that  
volume1 which contains what is better   
than all their philosophy4     ,this is 
easily said1 and we know is often said1 
and loudly4 ,but the justice with which 
it is said is another matter2 for when  
we can get these cloudy objectors to put
 down1 not their vague assertions of    
profound difficulties1 uttered in the   

obscure language they love1 but a       
precise statement of their objections1  
we find them either the very same with  
those which were quite as powerfully    
urged in the course of the deistical    
controversies of the last century 7the  
case with far the greater part71 or else
 such as are of similar character1 and  
susceptible of similar answers4 ,we say 
not that the answers were always        
satisfactory1 nor are now inquiring     
whether any of them were so2 we merely  
maintain that the objections in question
 are not the novelties they affect to   
be4 ,we say this to obviate an advantage
 which the very vagueness of much modern
 opposition to ,christianity would      
obtain1 from the notion that some       
prodigious arguments have been          
discovered which the intellect of a     
,pascal or a ,butler was not            
comprehensive enough to anticipate1 and 
which no ,clarke or ,paley would have   
been logician enough to refute4 ,we     
affirm1 without hesitation1 that when   

the new advocates of infidelity descend 
from their airy elevation1 and state    
their objections in intelligible terms1 
they are found1 for the most part1 what 
we have represented them4 ,when we read 
many of the speculations of ,german     
infidelity1 we seem to be re-perusing   
many of our own authors of the last     
century4 ,it is as if our neighbours had
 imported our manufactures2 and1 after  
re-packing them1 in new forms and with  
some additions1 had re-shipped and sent 
them back to us as new commodities4     
,hardly an instance of discrepancy is   
mentioned in the ',wolfenbutted         
,fragments1' which will not be found in 
the pages of our own deists a century   
ago2 and1 as already hinted1 of ,dr4    
,strauss's elaborate strictures1 the    
vast majority will be found in the same 
sources4 ,in fact1 though far from      
thinking it to our national credit1 none
 but those who will dive a little deeper
 than most do into a happily forgotten  
portion of our literature1 7which made  

noise enough in its day1 and created    
very superfluous terrors for the fate of
 ,christianity17 can have any idea of   
the extent to which the modern forms of 
unbelief in ,germany--so far as founded 
on any positive grounds1 whether of     
reason or of criticism1--are indebted to
 our ,english ,deists4 ,tholuck1        
however1 and others of his countrymen1  
seem thoroughly aware of it4  ,the      
objections to the truth of ,christianity
 are directed either against the        
evidence itself2 or that which it       
substantiates4 ,against the latter1 as  
,bishop ,butler says1 unless the        
objections be truly such as prove       
contradictions in it1 they are          
'perfectly frivolous2' since we cannot  
be competent judges either as to what it
 is worthy of the ,supreme ,mind to     
reveal1 or how far a portion of an      
imperfectly-developed system may        
harmonise with the whole2 and1 perhaps1 
on many points1 we never can be         
competent judges1 unless we can cease to

 be finite4 ,the objections to the      
evidence itself are1 as the same great  
author observes1 'well worthy of the    
fullest attention4' ,the a priori       
objection to miracles we have already   
briefly touched4 ,if that objection be  
valid1 it is vain to argue further2 but 
if not1 the remaining objections must be
 powerful enough to neutralise the      
entire mass of the evidence1 and1 in    
fact1 to mount to a proof of            
contradictions2 'not on this or that    
minute point of historic detail1--but on
 such as shake the foundations of the   
whole edifice of evidence4 ,it will not 
do to say1 ',here is a minute           
discrepancy in the history of ,matthew  
or ,luke as compared with that of ',mark
 or ,john2' for1 first1 such            
discrepancies are often found1 in other 
authors1 to be apparent1 and not        
real1--founded on our taking for granted
 that there is no circumstance          
unmentioned by two writers which1 if    
known1 would have been seen to harmonise

 their statements4 ,we admit this       
possible reconciliation readily enough  
in the case of many seeming             
discrepancies of other historians2 but  
it is a benefit which men are slow to   
admit in the case of the sacred         
narratives4 ,there the objector is      
always apt to take it for granted that  
the discrepancy is real2 though it may  
be easy to suppose a case 7a possible   
case is quite sufficient for the        
purpose7 which would neutralise the     
objection4 ,of this perverseness 7we can
 call it by no other name7 the examples 
are perpetual in the critical tortures  
which ,strauss has subjected the sacred 
historians499--  ,it may be objected1   
perhaps1 that the gratuitous supposition
 of some unmentioned fact--which1 if    
mentioned1 would harmonise the          
apparently counter-statements of two    
historians--cannot be admitted1 and is1 
in fact1 a surrender of the argument4   
,but to say so1 is only to betray an    
utter ignorance of what the argument is4

 ,if an objection be founded on the     
alleged absolute contradiction of two   
statements1 it is quite sufficient to   
show any 7not the real1 but only a      
hypothetical and possible7 medium of    
reconciling them2 and the objection is1 
in all fairness1 dissolved4 ,and this   
would be felt by the honest logician1   
even if we did not know of any such     
instances in point of fact4 ,we do know 
however1 of many4 ,nothing is more      
common than to find1 in the narration of
 two perfectly honest                   
historians1--referring to the same      
events from different points of view1 or
 for a different purpose1--the omission 
a fact which gives a seeming contrariety
 to their statements2 a contrariety     
which the mention of the omitted fact by
 a third writer instantly clears up4    
99 ,the reader may see some striking    
instances of his disposition to take the
 worse sense1 in ,beard's ',voices of   
the ,church4' ,tholuck truly observes1  
too1 in his strictures on ,strauss1 ',we

 know how frequently the loss of a few  
words in one ancient author would be    
sufficient to cast an inexplicable      
obscurity over another4' ,the same      
writer well observes1 that there never  
was a historian who1 if treated on the  
principles of criticism which his       
countryman has applied to the           
,evangelists1 might not be proved a mere
 mytholographer 444 ',it is plain'1 he  
says1 'that if absolute among           
historians'--and still more absolute    
apparent agreement--is necessary to     
assure us that we possess in their      
writings credible history1 we must      
renounce all pretence to any such       
possession4' ,the translations from     
,quinet1 ,coquerel1 and ,tholuck are    
all1 in different ways1 well worth      
reading4 ,the last truly says1 ',strauss
 came to the study of the ,evangelical  
history with the forgone conclusion that
 miracles are impossible2 and where an  
investigator brings with him an absolute
 conviction of the guilt of the accused 

to the examination of his case1 we know 
how even the most innocent may be       
implicated and condemned out of his own 
mouth4' ,in fact1 so strong and various 
are the proofs of truth and reality in  
the history of the ,new ,testament1 that
 none would ever have suspected the     
veracity of the writers1 or tried to    
disprove it1 except for the above       
forgone conclusion--'that miracles are  
impossible4' ,we also recommend to the  
reader an ingenious brochure included in
 the ',voices of the ,church1 in reply  
to ,strauss1' constructed on the same   
principle with ,whately's admirable     
',historic ,doubts1' namely2 ',the      
,fallacy of the ,mythical ,theory of    
,dr4 ,strauss1 illustrated from the     
,history of ,martin ,luther1 and from   
the actual ,mohammedan ,myths of the    
,life of ,jesus4' ,what a subject for   
the same play of ingenuity would be     
,dean ,swift6 ,the date1 and place of   
his birth disputed--whether he was an   
,englishman or an ,irishman--his        

incomprehensible relations to ,stella   
and ,vanessa1 utterly incomprehensible  
on any hypothesis--his alleged seduction
 of one of one1 of both1 of neither--his
 marriage with ,stella affirmed1        
disputed1 and still wholly              
unsettled--the numberless other         
incidents in his life full of           
contradiction and mystery--and1 not     
least1 the eccentricities and           
inconsistencies of his whole character  
and conduct6 ,why1 with a thousandth    
part of ,dr4 ,strauss's assumptions1 it 
would be easy to reduce ,swift to as    
fabulous a personage as his own ,lemuel 
,gulliver4 ,any apparent discrepancy    
with either themselves or profane       
historians is usually sufficient to     
satisfy ,dr4 ,strauss4 ,he is ever ready
 to conclude that the discrepancy is    
real1 and that the profane historians   
are right4 ,in adducing some striking   
instances of the minute accuracy of     
,luke1 only revealed by obscure         
collateral evidence 7historic or        

numismatic7 discovered since1 ,tholuck  
remarks1 ',what an outcry would have    
been made had not the specious          
appearance of error been thus obviated4 
,luke calls ,gallio proconsul of        
,achaia3 we should not have expected it1
 since though ,achaia was originally to 
senatorial province4 ,tiberius had      
changed it into an imperial one1 and the
 title of its governor1 therefore1 was  
procurator2 now a passage in ,suetonius 
informs us1 that ,claudius had restored 
the province to the senate4' ,the same  
,evangelist calls ,sergius ,paulus      
governor of ,cyprus2 yet we might have  
expected to find only a praetor1 since  
,cyprus was an imperial province4 ,in   
this case1 again3 says ,tholuck1 the    
correctness of the historian has been   
remarkable attested4 ,coins and later   
still a passage in ,dion ,cassius1 have 
been found1 giving proof that ,augustus 
restored the province to the senate2 and
 thus1 as if to vindicate the           
,evangelist1 the ,roman historian adds1 

',thus1 proconsuls began to be sent into
 that island also4' ,trans4 ,from       
,tholuck1 pp4 #ba1 #bb4 ,in the same    
manner coins have been found proving he 
is correct in some other once disputed  
instances4 ,is it not fair to suppose   
that many apparent discrepancies of the 
same order may be eventually removed by 
similar evidence8     ,very forgetful of
 this have the advocates of infidelity  
usually been3 nay1 7as if they would    
make up in the number of objections what
 they want in weight17 they have        
frequently availed themselves not only  
of apparent contrarieties1 but of mere  
incompleteness in the statements of two 
different writers1 on which to found a  
charge of contradiction4 ,thus1 if one  
writer says that a certain person was   
present at a given time or place1 when  
another says that he and two more were  
there2 or that one man was cured of     
blindness1 when another says that two   
were1-- such a thing is often alleged as
 a contradiction2 whereas1 in truth1 it 

resents not even a difficulty--unless   
one historian be bound to say not only  
all that another says but just so much1 
and no more4 ,let such objections be    
what they will1 unless they prove       
absolute contradictions in the          
narrative1 they are as mere dust in the 
balance1 compared with the stupendous   
mass and variety of that evidence which 
confirms the substantial truth of       
,christianity4 ,and even if they        
establish real contradictions1 they     
still amount1 for reasons we are about  
to state1 to dust in the balance1 unless
 they establish contradictions not in   
immaterial but in vital points4 ,the    
objections must be such as1 if proved1  
leave the whole fabric of evidence in   
ruins4 ,for1 secondly1 we are fully     
disposed to concede to the objector that
 there are1 in the books of ,scripture1 
not only apparent but real              
discrepancies1--a point which many of   
the advocates of ,christianity are1     
indeed1 reluctant to admit but which we 

think1 no candid advocate will feel to  
be the less true4 ,nevertheless1 even   
such an advocate of the ,scriptures may 
justly contend that the very reasons    
which necessitate this admission of     
discrepancies also reduce them to such a
 limit that they do not affect1 in the  
slightest degree1 the substantial       
credibility of the sacred records2 and1 
in our judgment1 ,christians have       
unwisely damaged their cause1 and given 
a needless advantage to the infidel1 by 
denying that any discrepancies exist1 or
 by endeavouring to prove that they do  
not4 ,the discrepancies to which we     
refer are just those which1 in the      
course of the transcription of ancient  
books1 divine or human1 through many    
ages1--their constant transcription by  
different hands1--their translation into
 various languages1--may not only be    
expected to occur1 but which must occur1
 unless there be a perpetual series of  
most minute and ludicrous               
miracles--certainly never promised1 and 

as certainly never performed--to        
counteract all the effects of negligence
 and inadvertence1 to guide the pen of  
every transcriber to infallible         
accuracy1 and to prevent his ever       
deviating into any casual error6 ,such  
miraculous intervention1 we need not    
say1 has never been pleaded for by any  
apologist of ,christianity2 has         
certainly never been promised2 and1 if  
it had1--since we see1 as a matter of   
fact1 that the promise has never been   
fulfilled1--the whole of ,christianity  
would fall to the ground4 ,but then1    
from a large induction1 we know that the
 limits within which discrepancies and  
errors from such causes will occur1 must
 be very moderate2 we know1 from        
numberless examples of other writings1  
what the maximum is1--and that it leaves
 their substantial authenticity         
untouched and unimpeached4 ,no one      
supposes the writings of ,plato and     
,cicero1 of ,thucydides and ,tacitus1 of
 ,bacon or ,shakspeare1 fundamentally   

vitiated by the like discrepancies1     
errors1 and absurdities which time and  
inadvertence have occasioned4  ,the     
corruptions in the ,scriptures from     
these causes are likely to be even less 
than in the case of any other writings2 
from their very structure1--the varied  
and reiterated forms in which all the   
great truths are expressed2 from the    
greater veneration they inspired2 the   
greater care with which they would be   
transcribed2 the greater number of      
copies which would be diffused through  
the world1--and which1 though that very 
circumstance would multiply the number  
of variations1 would also afford1 in    
their collation1 the means of reciprocal
 correction2--a correction which we have
 seen applied in our day1 with admirable
 success1 to so many ancient writers1   
under a system of canons which have now 
raised this species of criticism to the 
rank of an inductive science4 ,this     
criticism1 applied to the ,scriptures1  
has in many instances restored the true 

rending1 and dissolved the objections   
which might have been founded on the    
uncorrected variations2 and1 as time    
rolls on1 may lead1 by yet fresh        
discoveries and more comprehensive      
recensions1 to a yet further clarifying 
of the stream of ,divine truth1 till    
'the river of the water of life' shall  
flow nearly in its original limpid      
purity4 ,within such limits as these1   
the most consistent advocate of         
,christianity not only must admit--not  
only may safely admit--the existence of 
discrepancies1 but may do so even with  
advantage to his cause4 he must admit   
them1 since such variations must be the 
result of the manner in which the       
records have been transmitted1 unless we
 suppose a supernatural intervention1   
neither promised by ,god nor pleaded for
 by man3 he may safely admit them1      
because--from a general induction from  
the history of all literature--we see   
that1 where copies of writings have been
 sufficiently multiplied1 and sufficient

 motives for care have existed in the   
transcription1 the limits of error are  
very narrow1 and leave the substantial  
identity untouched3 and he may admit    
them with advantage2 for the admission  
is a reply to many objections rounded on
 the assumption that he must contend    
that there are no variations1 when he   
need only contend that there are none   
that can be material4  ,but it may be   
said1 ',may not we be permitted1 while  
conceding the miraculous and other      
evidences of ,christianity1 and the     
general authority of the records which  
contain it1 to go a step further1 and to
 reject some things which seem palpably 
ill-reasoned1 distasteful1 inconsistent1
 or immoral8' ',let every man be fully  
persuaded in his own mind4' ,for        
ourselves1 we honestly confess we cannot
 see the logical consistency of such a  
position2 any more than the             
reasonableness1 after having admitted   
the preponderant evidence for the great 
truth of ,theism1 of excepting some     

phenomena as apparently at variance with
 the ,divine perfections2 and thus      
virtually adopting a ,manichaean        
hypothesis4 ,we must recollect that we  
know nothing of ,christianity except    
from its records2 and as these1 once    
fairly ascertained to be authentic and  
genuine1 are all1 as regards their      
contents1 supported precisely by the    
same miraculous and other evidence2 as  
they bear upon them precisely the same  
internal marks of artlessness1 truth1   
and sincerity2 and1 historically and in 
other respects1 are inextricably        
interwoven with one another2 we see not 
on what principles we can safely reject 
portions as improbable1 distasteful1 not
 quadrating with the dictates of        
reason2' our 'intuitional               
consciousness1' and what not4 ,this     
assumed liberty1 however is1 as we      
apprehend1 of the very essence of       
,rationalism2 and it may be called the  
,manichaeism of interpretation4 ,so long
 as the canonicity of any of the        

records1 or any portion of them1 or     
their true interpretation1 is in        
dispute1 we may fairly doubt2 but that  
point once decided by honest criticism1 
to say we receive such and such         
portions1 on account of the weight of   
the general evidence1 and yet reject    
other portions1 though sustained by the 
same evidence1 because we think there is
 something unreasonable or revolting in 
their substance1 is plainly to accept   
evidence only where it pleases us1 and  
to reject it where it pleases us not4   
,the only question fairly at issue must 
ever be whether the general evidence for
 ,christianity will overbear the        
difficulty which we cannot separate from
 the truths4 ,if it will not1 we must   
reject it wholly2 and if it will1 we    
must receive it wholly4 ,there is       
plainly no tenable position between     
absolute infidelity and absolute belief4
 ,and this is proved by the infinitely  
various and ,protean character of       
,rationalism1 and the perfectly         

indeterminate1 but always arbitrary1    
limits it imposes on itself4 ,it exists 
in all forms and degrees1 from a        
moderation which accepts nearly the     
entire system of ,christianity1 and     
which certainly rejects nothing that can
 be said to constitute its distinctive  
truth1 to an audacity of unbelief1      
which1 professing still vaguely to      
reverence ,christianity as 'something   
divine1' sponges out nine tenths of the 
whole2 or1 after reducing the mass of it
 to a caput mortuum of lies1 fiction1   
and superstitions1 retains only a few   
drops of fact and doctrine1--so few as  
certainly not to pay for the expenses of
 the critical distillation499    99 ,it 
may be as well to remark1 that we have  
frequently observed a disposition to    
represent the very general abandonment  
of the theory of 'verbal inspiration' as
 a concession to ,rationalism2 as if it 
necessarily followed from admitting that
 inspiration is not verbal1 that        
therefore an indeterminate portion of   

the substance or doctrine is purely     
human4 ,it is plain1 however1 that this 
is no necessary consequence3 an advocate
 of plenary inspiration may contend1    
that1 though he does not believe that   
the very words of ,scripture were       
dictated1 yet that the thoughts were    
either so suggested1 7if the matter was 
such as could be known only by          
revelation17 or so controlled1 7if the  
matter were such as was previously      
known17 that 7excluding errors          
introduced into the text since7 the     
,scriptures as first composed were--what
 no book of man ever was1 or can be1    
even in the plainest narrative of the   
simplest events--a perfectly accurate   
expression of truth4 ,we enter not here1
 however1 into the question whether such
 a view of inspiration is better or     
worse than another4 ,we are simply      
anxious to correct a fallacy which has1 
judging from what we have recently read1
 operated rather extensively4           
,inspiration may be verbal1 or the      

contrary2 but1 whether one or the other1
 he who takes the affirmative or        
negative of that question may still     
consistently contend that it may still  
be plenary4 ,the question of the        
inspiration of the whole or the         
inspiration of a part1 is widely        
different from that as to the suggestion
 of the words or the suggestion of the  
thoughts4 ,but these questions we leave 
to professed theologians4 ,we merely    
enter our protest against a prevailing  
fallacy4     ,nor will the theory of    
what some call the 'intuitional         
consciousness avail us here4 ,it is     
true1 as they assert1 that the          
constitution of human nature is such    
that1 before its actual development1 it 
has a capacity of developing to certain 
effects only1--just as the flower in the
 germ1 as it expands to the sun1 will   
have certain colours and a certain      
fragrance1 and no other2--all which1    
indeed1 though not very new or profound1
 is very important4 ,but it is not so   

dear that it will give us any help on   
the present occasion4 ,we have an       
original susceptibility of music1 of    
beauty1 of religion1 it is said4        
,granted2 but as the actual development 
of this susceptibility exhibits all the 
diversities between ,handel's notions of
 harmony and those of an ,american      
,indian--between ,raphael's notions of  
beauty and those of a                   
,hottentot--between ,st4 ,paul's notions
 of a ,god and those of a ,new          
,zealander--it would appear that the    
education of this susceptibility is at  
least as important as the susceptibility
 itself1 if not more so2 for without the
 susceptibility itself1 we should simply
 have no notion of music1 beauty1 or    
religion2 and between such negation and 
that notion of all these which ,new     
,zealanders and ,hottentots possess1 not
 a few of our species would probably    
prefer the former4 ,it is in vain then  
to tell us to look into the 'depths of  
our own nature' 7as some vaguely say71  

and to judge thence what1 in a professed
 revelation1 is suitable to us1 or      
worthy of our acceptance and rejection  
respectively4 ,this criterion is1 as we 
see by the utterly different judgments  
formed by different classes of          
,rationalists as to the how much they   
shall receive of the revelation they    
might generally admit1 a very shifting  
one--a measure which has no linear unit2
 it is to employ1 as mathematicians say1
 a variable as if it were a constant    
quantity2 or1 rather1 it is to attempt  
to find the value of an unknown quantity
 by another equally unknown4  ,we cannot
 but judge1 then1 the principles of     
,rationalism to be logically untenable4 
,and we do so1 not merely or principally
 on account of the absurdity it         
involves1--that ,god has expressly      
supplemented human reason by a          
revelation containing an indeterminate  
but large portion of falsities1 errors1 
and absurdities and which we are to     
commit to our little alembic1 and distil

 as we may2 not only from the absurdity 
of supposing that ,god has demanded our 
faith1 for statements which are to be   
received only as they appear perfectly  
comprehensible by our reason2--or1 in   
other words1 only for what it is        
impossible that we should doubt or deny2
 not merely because the principle       
inevitably leaves man to construct the  
so-called revelation entirely for       
himself2 so that what one man receives  
as genuine communication from heaven1   
another1 from having a different        
development of 'his intuitional         
consciousness1' rejects as an absurdity 
too gross for human belief3--,not       
wholly1 we say1 nor even principally1   
for these reasons2 but for the still    
stronger reason1 that such a system of  
objections is an egregious trifling with
 that great complex mass of evidence    
which1 as we have said1 applies to the  
whole of ,christianity or to none of it4
 ,as if to baffle the efforts of man    
consistently to disengage these elements

 of our belief1 the whole are           
inextricably blended together4 ,the     
supernatural element1 especially1 is so 
diffused through all the records1 that  
it is more and more felt1 at every step1
 to be impossible to obliterate it      
without obliterating the entire system  
in which it circulates4 ,the stain1 if  
stain it be1 is far too deep for any    
scouring fluids of ,rationalism to wash 
it out1 without destroying the whole    
texture of our creed3 and1 in our       
judgment1 the only consistent           
,rationalism is the ,rationalism which  
rejects it all4  ,at whatever point the 
,rationalist we have attempted to       
describe may take his stand1 we do not  
think it difficult to prove that his    
conduct is eminently irrational4 ,if1   
for example1 he be one of those moderate
 ,rationalists who admit 7as thousands  
do7 the miraculous and other evidence of
 the supernatural origin of the ,gospel1
 and therefore also admit such and such 
doctrines to be true1--what can he      

reply1 if further asked what reason he  
can have for accepting these truths and 
rejecting others which are supported by 
the very same evidence8 ,how can he be  
sure that the truths he receives are    
established by evidence which1 to all   
appearance1 equally authenticates the   
falsehoods he rejects8 ,surely1 as      
already said1 this is to reject and     
accept evidence as he pleases4 ,if1 on  
the other hand1 he says that he receives
 the miracles only to authenticate what 
he knows very well without them1 and    
believes true on the information of     
reason alone1 why trouble miracles and  
revelation at all8 ,is not this1        
according to the old proverb to 'take a 
hatchet to break an egg'899     99 ,if  
such a man says that he rejects certain 
doctrines1 not on rationalistic grounds1
 but because he denies the canonical    
authority1 or the interpretation of     
portions of the records in which they   
are found1 and is willing to abide by   
the issue if the evidence on those      

points--evidence with which the human   
mind is quite competent to deal1--we    
answer1 that he is not the man with whom
 we are now arguing4 ,the points in     
dispute will be determined by the honest
 use of history1 criticism1 and         
philology4 ,but between such a man and  
one who rejects ,christianity           
altogether1 we can imagine no consistent
 position4     ,nor can we disguise from
 ourselves1 indeed1 that consistency in 
the application of the essential        
principle of ,rationalism would compel  
us to go a few steps further2 for since1
 as ,bishop ,butler has shown1 no       
greater difficulties 7if so great7      
attach to the page of ,revelation than  
to the volume of ,nature                
itself1--especially those which are     
involved in that dread enigma1 'the     
origin of evil1' compared with which all
 other enigmas are trifles1--that abyss 
into which so many of the difficulties  
of all theology1 natural and revealed1  
at last disembogue themselves1--we feel 

that the admission of the principle of  
,rationalism would ultimately drive us1 
not only to reject ,christianity1 but to
 reject ,theism in all its forms1       
whether ,monotheism1 or ,pantheism1 and 
even positive or dogmatic ,atheism      
itself4 ,nor could we stop1 indeed1 till
 we had arrived at that absolute        
pyrrhonism which consists1 if such a    
thing be possible1 in the negation of   
all belief1--even to the belief that we 
do not believe6  ,but though the        
objections to the reception of          
,christianity are numerous1 and some    
insoluble1 the question always returns1 
whether they over balance the mass of   
the evidence in its favour8 nor is it to
 be forgotten that they are susceptible 
of indefinite alleviation as time rolls 
on2 and with a few observations on this 
point we will close the present article4
  ,a refinement of modern philosophy    
often leads our rationalist to speak    
depreciatingly1 if not contemptuously1  
of what he calls a stereotyped          

revelation--revelation in a book4 ,it   
ties down1 he is fond of saying1 the    
spirit to the letter2 and limits the    
'progress' and 'development' of the     
human mind in its 'free' pursuit of     
truth4 ,the answer we should be disposed
 to make is1 first1 that if a book does 
contain truth1 the sooner that truth is 
stereotyped the better2 secondly1 that  
if such book1 like the book of ,nature1 
or1 as we deem1 the book of ,revelation1
 really contains truth1 its study1 so   
far from being incompatible with the    
spirit of free inquiry1 will invite and 
repay continual efforts more completely 
to understand it4 ,though the great and 
fundamental truths contained in either  
volume will be obvious in proportion to 
their importance and necessity1 there is
 no limit to be placed on the degree of 
accuracy with which the truths they     
severally contain may be deciphered1    
stated1 adjusted--or even on the period 
in which fragments of new truth shall   
cease to be elicited4 ,it is true indeed

 that theology cannot be said to admit  
of unlimited progress1 in the same sense
 as chemistry--which may1 for aught we  
know1 treble or quadruple its present   
accumulations1 vast as they are1 both in
 bulk and importance4 ,but1 even in     
theology as deduced from the ,scripture1
 minute fragments of new truth1 or more 
exact adjustments of old truth1 may be  
perpetually expected4 ,lastly1 we shall 
reply1 that the objection to a          
revelation's being consigned to a 'book'
 is singularly inapposite1 considering  
that by the constitution of the world   
and of human nature1 man1 without       
books1--without the power of recording1 
transmitting1 and perpetuating thought1 
of rendering it permanent and diffusive1
 ever is1 ever has been1 and ever must  
be little better than a savage2 and     
therefore1 if there was to be a         
revelation at all1 it might fairly be   
expected that it would be communicated  
in this form2 thus affording us one more
 analogy1 in addition to the many which 

,butler has stated1 and which may in    
time be multiplied without end1 between 
',revealed ,religion and the            
,constitution and ,course of ,nature4'  
,and this leads us to notice a saying of
 that comprehensive genius1 which we do 
not recollect having seen quoted in     
connexion with recent controversies1 but
 which is well worthy of being borne in 
mind1 as teaching us to beware of       
hastily assuming that objections to     
,revelation1 whether suggested by the   
progress of science1 or from the        
supposed incongruity of its own         
contents1 are unanswerable4 ,we are not1
 he says1 rashly to suppose that we have
 arrived at the true meaning of the     
whole of that book4 ',it is not at all  
incredible that a book which has been so
 long in the possession of mankind1     
should contain many truths as yet       
undiscerned4 ,for all the same phenomena
 and the same faculties of              
investigation1 from which such great    
discoveries in natural knowledge have   

been made in the present and last age1  
were equally in the possession of       
mankind several thousand year's before4'
 ,these words are worthy of ,butler3 and
 as many illustrations of their truth   
have been supplied since his day1 so    
many others may fairly be anticipated in
 the course of time4 ,several distinct  
species of argument for the truth of    
,christianity from the very structure   
and contents of the books containing it 
have been invented--of which ,paley's   
',horae ,paulinae' is a memorable       
example4 ,the diligent collation of the 
text1 too1 has removed many             
difficulties2 the diligent study of the 
original languages of ancient history1  
manners and customs1 has cleared up many
 more2 and by supplying proof of        
accuracy where error of falsehood had   
been charged1 has supplied important    
additions to the evidence which         
substantiates the truth of ,revelation4 
,against the alleged absurdity of the   
laws of ,moses1 again1 such works as    

that of ,micholis have disclosed much of
 that relative wisdom which aims not at 
the abstractedly best1 but the best     
which a given condition of humanity1 a  
given period of the world's history1 and
 a given purpose could dictate4 ,in     
pondering such difficulties as still    
remain in those laws1 we may remember   
the answer of ,solon to the question1   
whether he had given the ,athenians the 
best laws2 viz4 that he had given them  
the best of which they were capable3 or 
the judgment of the illustrious         
,montesquieu1 who remarks1 ',when       
,divine ,wisdom said to the ,jews1 ,i   
have given you precepts which are not   
good1 this signifies that they had only 
a relative goodness3 and this is the    
sponge which wipes out all the          
difficulties which are to be found in   
the laws of ,moses4' ,this is a truth   
which we are persuaded a profound       
philosophy will understand the better   
the more deeply it is revolved2 and only
 those legislative pedants will refuse  

weight to it1 who would venturously     
propose to give ,new ,zealanders and    
,hottentots1 in the starkness of their  
savage ignorance1 the complex forms of  
the ,british constitution4 ,in similar  
manner1 many of the old objections of   
our deistical writers have ceased to be 
heard of in our day1 unless it be from  
the lips of the veriest sciolism2 the   
objections1 for instance1 of that truly 
pedantic philosophy which once argued   
that ethical and religious truth are not
 given in the ,scripture in a system    
such as a schoolman might have digested 
it into2 as if the brief iteration and  
varied illustration of pregnant truth1  
intermingled with narrative1 parable1   
and example1 were not infinitely better 
adapted to the condition of the human   
intellect in general6 ,for similar      
reasons1 the old objection1 that        
statements of ,christian morality are   
given without the requisite limitations1
 and cannot be literally acted upon1 has
 been long since abandoned as an        

absurdity4 ,it is granted that a hundred
 folios could not contain the hundredth 
part of all the limitations of human    
actions1 and all the possible cases of a
 contentious casuistry2 and it is also  
granted that human nature is not so     
inept as to be incapable of interpreting
 and limiting for itself such rules as  
',whatsoever ye would that men should do
 to you1 do ye even so to them4'  ,in   
the same manner have many of the        
objections suggested at different       
periods by the progress of science been 
dissolved2 and1 amongst the rest1 those 
alleged from the remote historic        
antiquity of certain nations on which   
infidels1 like ,volney and ,voltaire1   
once so confidently relied4 ,and it is  
worthy of remark1 that some of the old  
objections of philosophers have         
disappeared by the aid of that very     
science--geology--which has led1 as     
every new branch of science probably    
will1 to new ones4 ,geology has1        
however1 in our judgment1 done at least 

as much already to remove difficulties  
as to occasion them2 and it is not      
illogical1 or perhaps unfair1 to surmise
 that1 we will only have patience1 its  
own difficulties1 as those of so many   
other branches of science1 will be      
eventually solved4 ,one thing is        
clear1--that1 if the ,bible be true and 
geology be true1 that cannot be         
geologically true which is scripturally 
false1 or vice versa2 and we may        
therefore laugh at the polite compromise
 which is sometimes affected by learned 
professors of theology and geology      
respectively4 ,all we demand of         
either--all that is needed--is1 that    
they refrain from a too hasty conclusion
 of absolute contradictions between     
their respective sciences1 and retain   
quiet remembrance of the imperfection of
 our present knowledge both of geology  
and1 as ,butler says1 of the ,bible4    
,the recent interpretation of the       
commencement of ,genesis--by which the  
first verse is simply supposed to affirm

 the original creation of all things1   
while the second immediately refers to  
the commencement of the human economy2  
passing by those prodigious cycles which
 geology demands1 with a silence worthy 
of a true revelation1 which does not    
pretend to gratify our curiosity as to  
the previous condition of our globe any 
more than our curiosity as to the       
history of other worlds--was first      
suggested by geology1 though suspected  
and indeed anticipated by some of the   
early church ,fathers4 ,but it is now   
felt by multitudes to be the more       
reasonable interpretation1--the second  
verse certainly more naturally          
suggesting previous revolutions in the  
history of the earth than its then      
instant creation3 and though we frankly 
concede that we have not yet seen any   
account of the whole first chapter of   
,genesis which quadrates with the       
doctrines of geology1 it does not become
 us hastily to conclude that there can  
be none4 ,if a further adjustment of    

those doctrines1 and a more diligent    
investigation of the ,scripture         
together1 should hereafter suggest any  
possible harmony1--though not the true  
one but one ever so gratuitously        
assumed1--it will be sufficient to      
neutralise the objection4 ,this1 it will
 be observed1 is in accordance with what
 has been already shown1--that wherever 
an objection is founded on an apparent  
contradiction between two statements1 it
 is sufficient to show any possible way 
in which the statements may be          
reconciled1 whether the true one or not4
 ,the objection1 in that case1 to the   
supposition that the facts are          
gratuitously assumed1 though often      
urged1 is1 in reality1 nothing to the   
purpose499 ,if it should ever be shown1 
for example1 that supposing as many     
geological eras as the philosopher      
requires to have passed in the chasm    
between the first verse1 which asserts  
the original dependence of all things on
 the fiat of the ,creator1 and the      

second1 which is supposed to commence   
the human era1 any imaginable condition 
of our system--at the close1 so to      
speak1 of a given geological            
period--would harmonise with a fair     
interpretation of the first chapter or  
,genesis1 the objection will be         
neutralised4    99 ,some admirable      
remarks in relation to the answers we   
are bound to give to objections to      
revealed religion have been made by     
,leibnitz 7in reply to ,bayle7 in the   
little tract prefixed to his ,theodicee1
 entitled ',de la ,conformite de la ,foi
 avec la ,raison4' ,he there shows that 
the utmost that can fairly be asked is1 
to prove that the affirmed truths       
involve no necessary contradiction4     
,we have little doubt in our own minds  
that the ultimately converging though1  
it may be1 transiently discrepant       
conclusions of the sciences of          
philology1 ethnology1 and geology 7in   
all of which we may rest assured great  
discoveries are yet to be made7 will    

tend to harmonise with the ultimate     
results of a more thorough study of the 
records of the race as contained in the 
book of ,revelation4 ,let us be         
permitted to imagine one example of such
 possible harmony4 ,we think that the   
philologist may engage to make out1 on  
the strictest principles of induction1  
from the tenacity with which all        
communities cling to their language1 and
 the slow observed rate of change by    
which they alter2 by which              
,anglo-,saxon1 for example has become   
,english991 ,latin ,italian1 and ancient
 ,greek modern 7though these languages  
have been affected by every conceivable 
cause of variation and depravation72    
that it would require hundreds of       
thousands1 nay millions1 of years to    
account for the production1 by known    
natural causes1 of the vast multitude of
 totally distinct languages1 and tens of
 thousands of dialects1 which man now   
utters4 ,on the other hand1 the         
geologist is more and more persuaded of 

comparatively recent origin of the human
 race4 ,what1 then1 is to harmonise     
these conflicting statements8 ,will it  
not be curious if it should turn out    
that nothing can possibly harmonise them
 but the statement of ,genesis1 that in 
order to prevent the natural tendency of
 the race to accumulate on one spot and 
facilitate their dispersion and destined
 occupancy of the globe1 a preternatural
 intervention expedited the operation of
 the causes which would gradually have  
given birth to distinct languages8 ,of  
the probability of this intervention1   
some profound philologist have1 on      
scientific grounds alone1 expressed     
their conviction4 ,but in all such      
matters1 what we plead for is           
only--patience2 we wish not to          
dogmatise2 all we ask is1 a philosophic 
abstinence from dogmatism4 ,in relation 
to many difficulties1 what is now a     
reasonable exercise of faith may one day
 be rewarded by a knowledge which on    
those particular points may terminate   

it4 ,and1 in such ways1 it is surely    
conceivable that a great part of the    
objections against ,revelation may1 in  
time1 disappear2 and1 though other      
objections may be the result of the     
progress of the other sciences or the   
origination of new1 the solution of     
previous objections1 together with the  
additions to the evidences of           
,christianity1 external and internal1   
which the study of history and of the   
,scriptures may supply1 and the still   
brighter light cast by the progress of  
,christianity and the fulfilment of its 
prophecies1 may inspire increasing      
confidence that the new objections are  
also destined to yield to similar       
solvents4 ,meanwhile1 such new          
difficulties1 and those more awful and  
gigantic shadows which we have no reason
 to believe will ever be chased from the
 sacred page1--mysteries which probably 
could not be explained from the         
necessary limitation of our faculties1  
and are1 at all events1 submitted to us 

as a salutary discipline of our         
humility1--will continue to form that   
exercise of faith which is probably     
nearly equal in every age--and necessary
 in all ages1 if we would be made       
'little children1' qualified 'to enter  
the kingdom of ,god4'     ,it contains1 
let us recollect1 7after all causes of  
changes1 including a conquest1 have been
 at work upon it17 a vast majority of   
the ,saxon words spoken in the time of  
,alfred--nearly a thousand years ago6   
,in conclusion we may remark1 that while
 many are proclaiming that ,christianity
 is effete1 and that1 in the language of
 ,mr4 ,proudhon 7who complacently says  
it amidst the ignominious failure of a  
thousand social panaceas or his own age 
and country71 it will certainly 'die out
 in about three hundred years2' and     
while many more proclaim that1 as a     
religion of supernatural origin and     
supernatural evidence1 it is already    
dying1 if not dead2 we must beg leave to
 remind them that1 even if              

',christianity be false1 as they allege1
 they are utterly forgetting the maxims 
of a cautious induction in saying that  
it will therefore cease to exert        
dominion over mankind4 ,what proof is   
there of this8 ,whether true or false1  
it has already survived numberless      
revolutions of human opinions1 and all  
sorts of changes and assaults4 ,it is   
not confined1 like other religions1 to  
any one race--to any one clime--or any  
one form of political constitution4     
,while it transmigrates freely from race
 to race1 and clime to clime1 its chief 
home2 too1 is still in the bosom of     
enterprise1 wealth1 science1 and        
civilisation2 and it is at this moment  
most powerful amongst the nations that  
have most of these4 ,if not true1 it has
 such an appearance of truth as to have 
satisfied many of the acutest and most  
powerful intellects of the species2--a  
,bacon1 a ,pascal1 a ,leibnitz1 a       
,locke1 a ,newton1 a ,butler2--such an  
appearance of truth as to have enlisted 

in its support an immense army of genius
 and learning3 genius and learning1 not 
only in some sense professional1 and    
often wrongfully represented as         
therefore interested1 but much of both1 
strictly extra-professional2 animated to
 its defence by nothing but a conviction
 of the force of the arguments by which 
its truth is sustained1 and that 'hope  
full of immortality' which its promises 
have inspired4 ,under such circumstances
 it must appear equally rash and        
gratuitous to suppose1 even if it be a  
delusion1 that an institute1 which has  
thus enlisted the sympathies of so many 
of the greatest minds of all races and  
of all ages--which is alone stable and  
progressive amidst instability and      
fluctuation1--will soon come to an end4 
,still more absurdly premature is it to 
raise a paean over its fall1 upon every 
new attack upon it1 when it has already 
survived so many4 ,this1 in fact1 is a  
tone which1 though every age renews it1 
should long since have been rebuked by  

the constant falsification of similar   
prophecies1 from the time of ,julian to 
the time of ,bolingbroke1 and from the  
time of ,bolingbroke to the time of     
,strauss4 ,as ,addison1 we think1       
humorously tells the ,atheist1 that he  
is hasty in his logic when he infers    
that if there be no ,god1 immortality   
must be a delusion1 since1 if chance has
 actually found him a place in this bad 
world1 it may1 perchance1 hereafter find
 him another place in a worse1---so we  
say1 that if ,christianity be a         
delusion1 since it is a delusion which  
has been proof against so much of bitter
 opposition1 and has imposed upon such  
hosts of mighty intellects1 these is    
nothing to show that it will not do so  
still1 in spite of the efforts either of
 ,proudhon or a ,strauss4 ,such a tone  
was1 perhaps1 never so triumphant as    
during the heat of the ,deistical       
controversy in our own country1 and to  
which ,butler alludes with so much      
characteristic but deeply satirical     

simplicity1 in the preface to his great 
work3--',it is come1' says he1 ',i know 
not how1 to be taken for granted by many
 persons that ,christianity is not so   
much a subject of inquiry1 but that it  
is now at length discovered to be       
fictitious 4444 ,on the contrary1 thus  
much at least will here be found1 not   
taken for granted1 but proved1 that any 
reasonable man1 who will thoroughly     
consider the matter1 may be as much     
assured as he is of his own being1 that 
it is not1 however1 so clear that there 
is nothing in it4' ,the ,christian1 we  
conceive1 may now say the same to the   
,froudes1 and ,foxtons1 and to much more
 formidable adversaries of the present  
day4 ,christianity1 we doubt not1 will  
still live1 when they and their works1  
and the refutations of their works1 are 
alike forgotten2 and a new series of    
attacks and defences shall have occupied
 for a while 7as so many others have    
done7 the attention of the world4       
,christianity1 like ,rome1 has had both 

the ,gaul and ,hannibal at her gates3   
,but as the ',eternal ,city' in the     
latter case calmly offered for sale1 and
 sold1 at an undepreciated price1 the   
very ground on which the ,carthaginian  
had fixed his camp1 with equal calmness 
may ,christianity imitate her example of
 magnanimity4 ,she may feel assured     
that1 as in so many past instances of   
premature triumph on the part of her    
enemies1 the ground they occupy will one
 day be its own2 that the very          
discoveries1 apparently hostile1 of     
science and philosophy1 will be a great 
extent with the discoveries in          
chronology and history2 and thus will it
 be1 we are confident1 7and to a certain
 extent has been already71 with those in
 geology4 ,that science has done much1  
not only to render the old theories of  
,atheism untenable and to familiarise   
the minds of men to the idea of         
miracles1 by that of successive         
creations1 but to confirm the           
,scriptural statement of the            

comparatively recent origin of our      
,race4 ,only the men of science and the 
men of theology must alike ,guard       
against the besetting fallacy of their  
kind1--that of too hastily taking for   
granted that they already know the whole
 of their respective sciences1 and of   
forgetting the declaration of the       
,apostle1 equally true of all man's     
attainments1 whether in one department  
of science or another1--',we know but in
 part1 and we prophesy in part4'        
,though ,socrates perhaps expressed     
himself too absolutely when he said that
 'he only knew nothing1' yet a tinge of 
the same spirit1--a deep conviction of  
the profound ignorance of the human     
mind1 even at its best--has ever been a 
characteristic of the most comprehensive
 genius4 ,it has been a topic on which  
it has been fond of mournfully dilating4
 ,it is thus with ,socrates1 with       
,plato1 with ,bacon 7even amidst all his
 magnificent aspirations and bold       
predictions71 with ,newton1 with        

,pascal1 and especially with ,butler1 in
 whom1 if in any1 the sentiment is      
carried to excess4 ,we need not say that
 it is seldom found in the writings of  
those modern speculators who rush1 in   
the hardihood of their adventurous      
logic1 on a solution of the problems of 
the ,absolute and the ,infinite1 and    
resolve in delightfully brief           
demonstrations the mightiest problems of
 the universe--those great enigmas1 from
 which true philosophy shrinks1 not     
because it has never ventured to think  
of them1 but because it has thought of  
them enough to know that it is in vain  
to attempt their solution4 ,to know the 
limits of human philosophy is the       
'better part' of all philosophy2 and    
though the conviction of our ignorance  
is humiliating1 it is1 like every true  
conviction1 salutary4 ,amidst this night
 of the soul1 bright stars--far distant 
fountains of illumination--are wont to  
steal out1 which shine not while the    
imagined ,sun of reason is above the    

horizon6 and it is in that night1 as in 
the darkness of outward nature1 that we 
gain our only true ideas of the         
illimitable dimensions of the universe1 
and of our true position in it4         
,meanwhile we conclude that ,god has    
created 'two great lights1'--the greater
 light to rule man's busy day--and that 
is ,reason1 and the lesser to rule his  
contemplative night--and that is ,faith4
  ,but faith itself shines only so long 
as she reflects some faint ,illumination
 from the brighter orb4