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THE HESPERIAN" STUDENT.
tj&iimm
The last number of tho Ala. University
Monthly is unusually good, oven for It.
Wo acknowledge llio receipt of u copy
of the Alumni Journal, Illinois Wesloyau
University. We nre much pleased with it.
The Hesplan Society, of Ilersoliel Col
lege, has lately sold its library for $!K0,
proceeds being applied to the building of
a line now yacht. CMtyiVm.
There is an unmistakable evidence of
intellectual advancement for you!
Tho Archangel, from Oregon, continues
to be as full of vitality as ever. We are
always glad to receive It.
The MeKcndree Repository pays tho
HksI'KIUAN' a very pretty compliment,
which we can sincerely return by saying(
Unit the Repository is one of the nwst
welcome visitors to our sanctum. Rut,
my friend, you have paid us an other com
lilitnent, unconsciously, perhaps, in the
same issue, which we value more highly.
If you will please lake notice of tho re
inuikablc similarity between the intro
duction to your Criticism on Exchanges,
in your November issue, and the introduc
tion to our " Notes on Exchanges," in our
October issue, you will tinil another proof
that the ideas of great minds run in the
same channel. This will doubtless be
mutually satisfactory to both you and us.
The High School Is improving rapidly
in literary merit.
The University Review for November is
unusually interesting.
The Prltehett School Institute, hasuoro
solid matter in tho November issue, than
the former.
The Chronicle criticises a paragraph
from our article on "Incentives to Politi-i-ul
Life," in a manner unworthy of a pa
per of its standing; for if we gel the idea
meant to be conveyed by the editor's ridi
cule, he would have found, had he been
candid enough to read the whole article,
before making his conclusion, that the
whole spirit of the piece was to censure
the very idea for which he takes us to
task. There is too much such hup lin.nrd
criticising done by college papers, simply
more reasonable still, between error and
error? Between human prejudice
nnd tho spurious conceptions of
tho finite mind, foisted upon the
spirit of truth, tho manifestation
of tho Infinite Intelligence, contained in
either? For tho essential element of er
ror is discord and chaos.
Perhaps there has never been a thinking
mind, Pagan, Mahometan, or Sceptic,
Christian fanatic, or absolute Atheist,
which, In spite of self, or prejudice or
will, has not been conscious of trying
to solve these questions, and thereby, vir
tually, confessing that there is a grave
question to bo solved. Clearly, if the last
question proposed can be answered afllrm
atively, all the others will really have been
answered, and It will be comparatively
easy to detect tho elements of prejudice
in discussion and belief, in reference to
this matter. It is not, however, the bold
presumption of this article to attempt to
elaborate a systematic investigation of
tho existence ot that absolute Infinite
First Priiiciiile of thimrs to enouire loir-
ically whether there is really a great Mys
tery, to which ultimate religious and sci
entific ideas all lend, and to which they
all bear unimpeachable testimony. This
truth may safely be taken for granted, on
a priori and prima facie evidence, refer
ring for the direct argument to those ph 11
osophers who have been able to discuss
the subject thoroughly. Hut it is our pur.
pose to point out a few of the elements of
bias, observable by all in the common oc
curronces and experiences of life, which
have blinded the eye of judgment, In
both science and religion, and prevented
It from discerning the fundamental verity
upon which each is based, and rendering
them almost Insensible.that they are natural
sisters, born of the same parent, the con
sciousness of the Inllnite, and destined
for harmony, loving coadjutors, and the
conservators of tho happiness of
all moral beings not for strife
and hatred. The arguments which
will here be presented are such, as the
dlliiront. thouirh humble, disciple of
Herbert Spencer and Sir William llamil-
A.... ...!!! ......,.JIIIIII .111 ItttlttlU
l.) till space, when wit, or sense is lacking. . l" wmi.6.... . .
i 1. What, then, arc some ot the a prion
Our friend Evans is making a lively pa-1 mis0y f0r believing that the ultimate
per of the hnctll Register, which iimkos j(jcll ()r l fonns of religions, or oxplunu-
IN appearance on our table regularly. , limw u(,i,r. Kvistoneo. First Cause, are
vww " -- -nT '
Spencer and Hamilton have shown by lr
resistible logic.
Thus all forms of religious belief, from
the grossest Fetlchism to Christianity,
and, as can be shown, all notions of sci
ence of what the nature of the Potentiality,
expressed by all phenomena, Is, from tho
crude and vague conceptions of Thalos
and lleraolitus, to those of Ilerschel and
Tyndall, are equally enoneous and un
thinkable, but each predicates in reality,
an ultimate truth, the same fact. That
fact if, that there is something to
be explained, but a something which can
never be explained. This the Atheist and
tho Pantheist, by denying tho existence of
any creative force outside of matter itself,
proves no less clearly than tho Monotheist,
who claims that all such potency exists
in some external agency. For, after all,
if thoUniverse is self-existent, self-created,
or created by an external something, how
came it so? If there is a First Cause, a
creating God, ho is a Cause or Creator,
only in relation to the thing caused or
created. The Cause and the Caused nre
correlatives there is a relation existing
between thorn. If a relation, they mutu
ally limit one another: Hence, the First
Cause Is not inllnite Is not a llrst cause
at all. For how came this relation? We
must conceive of it as caused by some
thing, If caused at all. This something
would bo superior and prior to tho First
Cause. Again this second First Cause
must have its relation, and this cause and
relation, their cause and so on in Inllnite
series.
Here we find ourselves lost in a bound
less ocean of mystery; no amount of re
search or sailing will over llml its limits
it has none. Is it not enough for us that
we are conscious of a Power beyond our
ken? Is not that Existence, which is
inconceivable, superior and more worthy
of reverence, than a being which Is con
ceivable, and can be represented in thought
with form and attributes?
2. It has been seen from the foregoing,
guilty, is tho unceasing ell'ort to drug
down the Infinite within the narrow scope
ofhumuueonceptton. Anthropomorphism,
tho attempt to represent the Inllnite First
Cause In sensible forms, and as possessed
of atti Unites like human beings, oi , at lent,
that human beings can apprehend, however
pure and holy, has been the cliicl means of
self-degradat'on, and has excited the con
tempt of logic and reason. The blocks and
stones of Fetlchism, tho innumerable sen
suous,even sensual. ideals of lIindoo,Egyp
Man, or Grecian Polytheism, tho Mnnitau
of the Indian, the Jehovah of Monotheism,
all are mere caricatures of the Inllnite,
more or less crude, or debusing, uncord
ing to the development of the subject.
In short, us Mr. Spencer has observed, tile
vice of Religion, the pretext for strife, is,
that it is essentially irreligious.
Here, also, Science has decidedly the
advantage; she is more consistent, inas
much as she predicates more nearly than
Religion itself, the unconditioned First
Principle, without attribute., divine or
human. In other words, Science is more
sincerely religious than Religion itself.
Certainly that religion which shall predi
cate absolutely nothing of the Creator,
save the consciousness of His existence
when tho proper time shall come, when
the average human intellect shall be de
veloped sulliciently to grasp so abstract 'a
conception will be grander and moro
worthy, than any system of Monotheism.
It has been necessary, in the past, to as
sign attributes and form to the Eternal, in
order to satisfy man's Unite conception.
The conception has grown immensely
more refined and more abstract, but per
haps tho time is not even yet, when tho
conception of an unconditioned First
Cause can be allirmed, with safety, by
the masses.
While Science, by keeping more nearly
within her proper sphere, lias tho advan
tage, she is not entirely guiltleso of con
tributing to this element of prejudice.
While she justly contemns Religion for
The lttijUU r wants us to tell .what kind ot
a tiling is a " tony church." We did speak
Identical with tho ultimate idea, or expla
nation of Nature, Heing, Lilo, Forms of
if a "tony congregation," and might, on at((,r iVeied by science?
a pinch, give some sort of an idea of what
was meant thereby. Hut wo really dure
not venture fur into the discussion of the
ological questions. Hesides, Ide, you
know you nre not any more familiar with
"meeting" things than ourselves, and
would not comprehend a definition should
wc oiler one. So, pray excuse us, pnrd.
ELEMENTS OF PREJUDICE IN RE
LIGIOUS DISCUSSION.
Wherefore exists this Irrepressible con
Hid between Religion and Science ? Why
have tho dogmas of Creed and the (tog
mas of Theory ever been waging
btubborn and uncharitable war?
Whence this bitter prejudice, this
enmity, this contempt on tho one hand,
nnd abhorrence on tho other? Is Relig
ion all truth and Science all error, oi
ls Science all truth, uad Religion
all evil abominable superstition, weak
"ess and priestcraft? Is tho conllidt
which exists, a contest between
truth nnd truth, which is absurd, or, moro
probable, between truth and error, or,
() The first witness wo may summon
is consciousness. Every individual Is ab
solutely unable to rid himself of the con
viction, the consciousness, that there is
something which is unknowable, unthink
able; a something which transcends Con
ception, and which lies back, and consti
tutes the cause ot every phenomenon in
thimrs, and is shadowed forth by all the
noumena arising in tho intuition, call
that however grotesque or ignoble the her irreligion, she lias been guilty ot tno
form which Unite conception bus forced sumo oll'eiiee. Whenever she transcends
Religion or Science to assume, yet, as Mr. the investigation of the laws and modes
Spencer says, there bus been fo'und in each of phenomena, and attempts to ic-ssiga
"A soul of goodness in tilings evil'' and , conditions to the Potentiality of which
"A soul of truth in thiugsrroiieoua."
Since each is based on an identical ulti
mate truth, why this conUiot? Why does
human intellect do violence to Itself, its
own consciousness and labor to create
antagonism, and stir up discord, where
none exists?
00 The llrst element of discord appears
to bo this: Each contending party aban
dons, to some extent, its legitimate Held
of action, and encroaches upon the prov-
lu-.n of the other. In so tur us eltlier is
phenomena are the expression, slio is guil
ty of irreligion, of anthropomorphism.
She may safely dellne the laws of Heat,
Light, Life, Magnetism or Electricity;
but when she attempts to show that the
ultimate Force, of which each phenome
non is u manifestation, is a d I Heron t foieo
in each, or to tell what the force is, then
Science is encroaching on the domain of
Nescience, of Religion.
(;) Luck of candor in reasoning is the
second element of discord. Tho mortal
thus guilty, is it degraded and inlU'cl to ! dread on the part of one, to submit her
itself. Tho scientiilc element ami the re-
liglous demon' of the mind are only dlf-
Intellectual
UGod r First Cause, tho Absolute, the W modes of intcllee mil acton.
Innte, the One, or the Many, us you "There must ever u main, there ore, wo
no Ho Is equally conscious that he antithetical modes of mental action.
' , he Lull v of being conscious of Throughout all future lime, us now the
possesses the faculty
such an Existence.
() Again the three theories for goner
ically theroaro but threo-of accounting for
the origin of the Universe all lead to the
sumo result. Atheism, which touches
that tho Universe is solf-cxistont; Pantho
ism, which teaches that it is self-created;
Theism, which teaches that it was
created by some external agency, some
dolty-ull ultimately load to contradlc
tion. all are absolutely beyond tho boun
darics of thought and conception, as
, !(.,.. II" ....1 ,.,!.,
human mum may uuuup nsun, "t j
with ascertained phenomena and their re
lutione, but also with that unascertained
something which phenomena nnd their
relations imply." The llrst, tho scientific
olomont, has to do, legitimately, only with
the laws of phenomena, the modes tin ough
which the Absolute manifesto itself. The
second tho religious clement.predicatcsthe
existence of a power buck of all phenom
ena tho unknowable Mystery.
Tho great error of whleli Religion is
dogmas and beliefs to the test of rigorous,
logical criticism, and the tendency on tho
part of the other conscious of her hon
esty of purpose, and the certainty of her
truths to ignore entirely the religious
element of the intellect, and scotl' at ov
erything savoring of the supersensible, or
supernatural, which Faith based upon tho
unshaken consciousness of eternal Exis
tence, afllrms, are ouch reprehensible
spirits. Here, too, Science bus tho advan
tago; for time, persecution, and criticism,
only strengthen her walls, and moro firm
ly establish her principles While Rolig
ion has always, after n bitter nnd tenacious
struggle, been forced to yield. One by one
sho bus laid aside her ideals, to adopt now
ones, more general and abstract. Nearer
wmww.' i ii. ii bwi-ju'i.i.ct"-
SjKSE
