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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/2513-h.zip b/2513-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8b48a7e --- /dev/null +++ b/2513-h.zip diff --git a/2513-h/2513-h.htm b/2513-h/2513-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..21c71b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/2513-h/2513-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2174 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + God the Known and God The Unknown, by Samuel Butler + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +Project Gutenberg's God the Known and God the Unknown, by Samuel Butler + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: God the Known and God the Unknown + +Author: Samuel Butler + +Release Date: December 14, 2008 [EBook #2513] +Last Updated: January 25, 2013 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOD THE KNOWN AND GOD THE UNKNOWN *** + + + + +Produced by Elliot S. Wheeler, and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + GOD THE KNOWN<br /><br />AND<br /><br />GOD THE UNKNOWN + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Samuel Butler + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <p> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> Prefatory Note </a><br /> <br /> <a + href="#link2H_4_0002"> GOD THE KNOWN AND GOD THE UNKNOWN </a><br /> + </p> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> + </td> + <td> + INTRODUCTION + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> + </td> + <td> + COMMON GROUND + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> + </td> + <td> + PANTHEISM. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> + </td> + <td> + PANTHEISM. + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> + </td> + <td> + ORTHODOX THEISM + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE TREE OF LIFE + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE LIKENESS OF GOD + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE LIFE EVERLASTING + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX. </a> + </td> + <td> + GOD THE UNKNOWN + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Prefatory Note + </h2> + <p> + "GOD the Known and God the Unknown" first appeared in the form of a series + of articles which were published in "The Examiner" in May, June, and July, + 1879. Samuel Butler subsequently revised the text of his work, presumably + with the intention of republishing it, though he never carried the + intention into effect. In the present edition I have followed his revised + version almost without deviation. I have, however, retained a few passages + which Butler proposed to omit, partly because they appear to me to render + the course of his argument clearer, and partly because they contain + characteristic thoughts and expressions of which none of his admirers + would wish to be deprived. In the list of Butler's works "God the Known + and God the Unknown" follows "Life and Habit," which appeared in 1877, and + "Evolution, Old and New," which was published in May, 1879. It is scarcely + necessary to point out that the three works are closely akin in subject + and treatment, and that "God the Known and God the Unknown" will gain in + interest by being considered in relation to its predecessors. + </p> + <p> + R. A. STREATFEILD <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + GOD THE KNOWN<br /> and GOD THE UNKNOWN + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION + </h2> + <p> + MANKIND has ever been ready to discuss matters in the inverse ratio of + their importance, so that the more closely a question is felt to touch the + hearts of all of us, the more incumbent it is considered upon prudent + people to profess that it does not exist, to frown it down, to tell it to + hold its tongue, to maintain that it has long been finally settled, so + that there is now no question concerning it. + </p> + <p> + So far, indeed, has this been carried through all time past that the + actions which are most important to us, such as our passage through the + embryonic stages, the circulation of our blood, our respiration, etc. + etc., have long been formulated beyond all power of reopening question + concerning them—the mere fact or manner of their being done at all + being ranked among the great discoveries of recent ages. Yet the analogy + of past settlements would lead us to suppose that so much unanimity was + not arrived at all at once, but rather that it must have been preceded by + much smouldering [sic] discontent, which again was followed by open + warfare; and that even after a settlement had been ostensibly arrived at, + there was still much secret want of conviction on the part of many for + several generations. + </p> + <p> + There are many who see nothing in this tendency of our nature but occasion + for sarcasm; those, on the other hand, who hold that the world is by this + time old enough to be the best judge concerning the management of its own + affairs will scrutinise [sic] this management with some closeness before + they venture to satirise [sic] it; nor will they do so for long without + finding justification for its apparent recklessness; for we must all fear + responsibility upon matters about which we feel we know but little; on the + other hand we must all continually act, and for the most part promptly. We + do so, therefore, with greater security when we can persuade both + ourselves and others that a matter is already pigeon-holed than if we feel + that we must use our own judgment for the collection, interpretation, and + arrangement of the papers which deal with it. Moreover, our action is thus + made to appear as if it received collective sanction; and by so appearing + it receives it. Almost any settlement, again, is felt to be better than + none, and the more nearly a matter comes home to everyone, the more + important is it that it should be treated as a sleeping dog, and be let to + lie, for if one person begins to open his mouth, fatal developments may + arise in the Babel that will follow. + </p> + <p> + It is not difficult, indeed, to show that, instead of having reason to + complain of the desire for the postponement of important questions, as + though the world were composed mainly of knaves or fools, such fixity as + animal and vegetable forms possess is due to this very instinct. For if + there had been no reluctance, if there were no friction and vis inertae to + be encountered even after a theoretical equilibrium had been upset, we + should have had no fixed organs nor settled proclivities, but should have + been daily and hourly undergoing Protean transformations, and have still + been throwing out pseudopodia like the amoeba. True, we might have come to + like this fashion of living as well as our more steady-going system if we + had taken to it many millions of ages ago when we were yet young; but we + have contracted other habits which have become so confirmed that we cannot + break with them. We therefore now hate that which we should perhaps have + loved if we had practised [sic] it. This, however, does not affect the + argument, for our concern is with our likes and dislikes, not with the + manner in which those likes and dislikes have come about. The discovery + that organism is capable of modification at all has occasioned so much + astonishment that it has taken the most enlightened part of the world more + than a hundred years to leave off expressing its contempt for such a + crude, shallow, and preposterous conception. Perhaps in another hundred + years we shall learn to admire the good sense, endurance, and thorough + Englishness of organism in having been so averse to change, even more than + its versatility in having been willing to change so much. + </p> + <p> + Nevertheless, however conservative we may be, and however much alive to + the folly and wickedness of tampering with settled convictions-no matter + what they are-without sufficient cause, there is yet such a constant + though gradual change in our surroundings as necessitates corresponding + modification in our ideas, desires, and actions. We may think that we + should like to find ourselves always in the same surroundings as our + ancestors, so that we might be guided at every touch and turn by the + experience of our race, and be saved from all self-communing or + interpretation of oracular responses uttered by the facts around us. Yet + the facts will change their utterances in spite of us; and we, too, change + with age and ages in spite of ourselves, so as to see the facts around us + as perhaps even more changed than they actually are. It has been said, + "Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis." The passage would have been no + less true if it had stood, "Nos mutamur et tempora mutantur in nobis." + Whether the organism or the surroundings began changing first is a matter + of such small moment that the two may be left to fight it out between + themselves; but, whichever view is taken, the fact will remain that + whenever the relations between the organism and its surroundings have been + changed, the organism must either succeed in putting the surroundings into + harmony with itself, or itself into harmony with the surroundings; or must + be made so uncomfortable as to be unable to remember itself as subjected + to any such difficulties, and therefore to die through inability to + recognise [sic] its own identity further. + </p> + <p> + Under these circumstances, organism must act in one or other of these two + ways: it must either change slowly and continuously with the surroundings, + paying cash for everything, meeting the smallest change with a + corresponding modification so far as is found convenient; or it must put + off change as long as possible, and then make larger and more sweeping + changes. + </p> + <p> + Both these courses are the same in principle, the difference being only + one of scale, and the one being a miniature of the other, as a ripple is + an Atlantic wave in little; both have their advantages and disadvantages, + so that most organisms will take the one course for one set of things and + the other for another. They will deal promptly with things which they can + get at easily, and which lie more upon the surface; those, however, which + are more troublesome to reach, and lie deeper, will be handled upon more + cataclysmic principles, being allowed longer periods of repose followed by + short periods of greater activity. + </p> + <p> + Animals breathe and circulate their blood by a little action many times a + minute; but they feed, some of them, only two or three times a day, and + breed for the most part not more than once a year, their breeding season + being much their busiest time. It is on the first principle that the + modification of animal forms has proceeded mainly; but it may be + questioned whether what is called a sport is not the organic expression of + discontent which has been long felt, but which has not been attended to, + nor been met step by step by as much small remedial modification as was + found practicable: so that when a change does come it comes by way of + revolution. Or, again (only that it comes to much the same thing), a sport + may be compared to one of those happy thoughts which sometimes come to us + unbidden after we have been thinking for a long time what to do, or how to + arrange our ideas, and have yet been unable to arrive at any conclusion. + </p> + <p> + So with politics, the smaller the matter the prompter, as a general rule, + the settlement; on the other hand, the more sweeping the change that is + felt to be necessary, the longer it will be deferred. + </p> + <p> + The advantages of dealing with the larger questions by more cataclysmic + methods are obvious. For, in the first place, all composite things must + have a system, or arrangement of parts, so that some parts shall depend + upon and be grouped round others, as in the articulation of a skeleton and + the arrangement of muscles, nerves, tendons, etc., which are attached to + it. To meddle with the skeleton is like taking up the street, or the + flooring of one's house; it so upsets our arrangements that we put it off + till whatever else is found wanted, or whatever else seems likely to be + wanted for a long time hence, can be done at the same time. Another + advantage is in the rest which is given to the attention during the long + hollows, so to speak, of the waves between the periods of resettlement. + Passion and prejudice have time to calm down, and when attention is next + directed to the same question, it is a refreshed and invigorated + attention-an attention, moreover, which may be given with the help of new + lights derived from other quarters that were not luminous when the + question was last considered. Thirdly, it is more easy and safer to make + such alterations as experience has proved to be necessary than to forecast + what is going to be wanted. Reformers are like paymasters, of whom there + are only two bad kinds, those who pay too soon, and those who do not pay + at all. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. COMMON GROUND + </h2> + <p> + I HAVE now, perhaps, sufficiently proved my sympathy with the reluctance + felt by many to tolerate discussion upon such a subject as the existence + and nature of God. I trust that I may have made the reader feel that he + need fear no sarcasm or levity in my treatment of the subject which I have + chosen. I will, therefore, proceed to sketch out a plan of what I hope to + establish, and this in no doubtful or unnatural sense, but by attaching + the same meanings to words as those which we usually attach to them, and + with the same certainty, precision, and clearness as anything else is + established which is commonly called known. + </p> + <p> + As to what God is, beyond the fact that he is the Spirit and the Life + which creates, governs, and upholds all living things, I can say nothing. + I cannot pretend that I can show more than others have done in what Spirit + and the Life consists, which governs living things and animates them. I + cannot show the connection between consciousness and the will, and the + organ, much less can I tear away the veil from the face of God, so as to + show wherein will and consciousness consist. No philosopher, whether + Christian or Rationalist, has attempted this without discomfiture; but I + can, I hope, do two things: Firstly, I can demonstrate, perhaps more + clearly than modern science is prepared to admit, that there does exist a + single Being or Animator of all living things—a single Spirit, whom + we cannot think of under any meaner name than God; and, secondly, I can + show something more of the persona or bodily expression, mask, and + mouthpiece of this vast Living Spirit than I know of as having been + familiarly expressed elsewhere, or as being accessible to myself or + others, though doubtless many works exist in which what I am going to say + has been already said. + </p> + <p> + Aware that much of this is widely accepted under the name of Pantheism, I + venture to think it differs from Pantheism with all the difference that + exists between a coherent, intelligible conception and an incoherent + unintelligible one. I shall therefore proceed to examine the doctrine + called Pantheism, and to show how incomprehensible and valueless it is. + </p> + <p> + I will then indicate the Living and Personal God about whose existence and + about many of whose attributes there is no room for question; I will show + that man has been so far made in the likeness of this Person or God, that + He possesses all its essential characteristics, and that it is this God + who has called man and all other living forms, whether animals or plants, + into existence, so that our bodies are the temples of His spirit; that it + is this which sustains them in their life and growth, who is one with + them, living, moving, and having His being in them; in whom, also, they + live and move, they in Him and He in them; He being not a Trinity in Unity + only, but an Infinity in Unity, and a Unity in an Infinity; eternal in + time past, for so much time at least that our minds can come no nearer to + eternity than this; eternal for the future as long as the universe shall + exist; ever changing, yet the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. + And I will show this with so little ambiguity that it shall be perceived + not as a phantom or hallucination following upon a painful straining of + the mind and a vain endeavour [sic] to give coherency to incoherent and + inconsistent ideas, but with the same ease, comfort, and palpable + flesh-and-blood clearness with which we see those near to us; whom, though + we see them at the best as through a glass darkly, we still see face to + face, even as we are ourselves seen. + </p> + <p> + I will also show in what way this Being exercises a moral government over + the world, and rewards and punishes us according to His own laws. + </p> + <p> + Having done this I shall proceed to compare this conception of God with + those that are currently accepted, and will endeavour [sic] to show that + the ideas now current are in truth efforts to grasp the one on which I + shall here insist. Finally, I shall persuade the reader that the + differences between the so-called atheist and the so-called theist are + differences rather about words than things, inasmuch as not even the most + prosaic of modern scientists will be inclined to deny the existence of + this God, while few theists will feel that this, the natural conception of + God, is a less worthy one than that to which they have been accustomed. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. PANTHEISM. + </h2> + <p> + THE Rev. J. H. Blunt, in his "Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, etc.," + defines Pantheists as "those who hold that God is everything, and + everything is God." + </p> + <p> + If it is granted that the value of words lies in the definiteness and + coherency of the ideas that present themselves to us when the words are + heard or spoken-then such a sentence as "God is everything and everything + is God" is worthless. + </p> + <p> + For we have so long associated the word "God" with the idea of a Living + Person, who can see, hear, will, feel pleasure, displeasure, etc., that we + cannot think of God, and also of something which we have not been + accustomed to think of as a Living Person, at one and the same time, so as + to connect the two ideas and fuse them into a coherent thought. While we + are thinking of the one, our minds involuntarily exclude the other, and + vice versa; so that it is as impossible for us to think of anything as + God, or as forming part of God, which we cannot also think of as a Person, + or as a part of a Person, as it is to produce a hybrid between two widely + distinct animals. If I am not mistaken, the barrenness of inconsistent + ideas, and the sterility of widely distant species or genera of plants and + animals, are one in principle-sterility of hybrids being due to barrenness + of ideas, and barrenness of ideas arising from inability to fuse + unfamiliar thoughts into a coherent conception. I have insisted on this at + some length in "Life and Habit," but can do so no further here. (Note: + Butler returned to this subject in "Luck, or cunning?" which was + originally published in 1887.} + </p> + <p> + In like manner we have so long associated the word "Person" with the idea + of a substantial visible body, limited in extent, and animated by an + invisible something which we call Spirit, that we can think of nothing as + a person which does not also bring these ideas before us. Any attempt to + make us imagine God as a Person who does not fulfil [sic] the conditions + which our ideas attach to the word "person," is ipso facto atheistic, as + rendering the word God without meaning, and therefore without reality, and + therefore non-existent to us. Our ideas are like our organism, they will + stand a vast amount of modification if it is effected slowly and without + shock, but the life departs out of them, leaving the form of an idea + without the power thereof, if they are jarred too rudely. + </p> + <p> + Any being, then, whom we can imagine as God, must have all the qualities, + capabilities, and also all the limitations which are implied when the word + "person" is used. + </p> + <p> + But, again, we cannot conceive of "everything" as a person. "Everything" + must comprehend all that is to be found on earth, or outside of it, and we + know of no such persons as this. When we say "persons" we intend living + people with flesh and blood; sometimes we extend our conceptions to + animals and plants, but we have not hitherto done so as generally as I + hope we shall some day come to do. Below animals and plants we have never + in any seriousness gone. All that we have been able to regard as personal + has had what we can call a living body, even though that body is vegetable + only; and this body has been tangible, and has been comprised within + certain definite limits, or within limits which have at any rate struck + the eye as definite. And every part within these limits has been animated + by an unseen something which we call soul or spirit. A person must be a + persona—that is to say, the living mask and mouthpiece of an energy + saturating it, and speaking through it. It must be animate in all its + parts. + </p> + <p> + But "everything" is not animate. Animals and plants alone produce in us + those ideas which can make reasonable people call them "persons" with + consistency of intention. We can conceive of each animal and of each plant + as a person; we can conceive again of a compound person like the coral + polypes [sic], or like a tree which is composed of a congeries of + subordinate persons, inasmuch as each bud is a separate and individual + plant. We can go farther than this, and, as I shall hope to show, we ought + to do so; that is to say, we shall find it easier and more agreeable with + our other ideas to go farther than not; for we should see all animal and + vegetable life as united by a subtle and till lately invisible + ramification, so that all living things are one tree-like growth, forming + a single person. But we cannot conceive of oceans, continents, and air as + forming parts of a person at all; much less can we think of them as + forming one person with the living forms that inhabit them. + </p> + <p> + To ask this of us is like asking us to see the bowl and the water in which + three gold-fish are swimming as part of the gold-fish. We cannot do it any + more than we can do something physically impossible. We can see the + gold-fish as forming one family, and therefore as in a way united to the + personality of the parents from which they sprang, and therefore as + members one of another, and therefore as forming a single growth of + gold-fish, as boughs and buds unite to form a tree; but we cannot by any + effort of the imagination introduce the bowl and the water into the + personality, for we have never been accustomed to think of such things as + living and personal. Those, therefore, who tell us that "God is + everything, and everything is God," require us to see "everything" as a + person, which we cannot; or God as not a person, which again we cannot. + </p> + <p> + Continuing the article of Mr. Blunt from which I have already quoted, I + read:— + </p> + <p> + "Linus, in a passage which has been preserved by Stobaeus, exactly + expresses the notion afterwards adopted by Spinoza: 'One sole energy + governs all things; all things are unity, and each portion is All; for of + one integer all things were born; in the end of time all things shall + again become unity; the unity of multiplicity.' Orpheus, his disciple, + taught no other doctrine." + </p> + <p> + According to Pythagoras, "an adept in the Orphic philosophy," "the soul of + the world is the Divine energy which interpenetrates every portion of the + mass, and the soul of man is an efflux of that energy. The world, too, is + an exact impress of the Eternal Idea, which is the mind of God." John + Scotus Erigena taught that "all is God and God is all." William of + Champeaux, again, two hundred years later, maintained that "all + individuality is one in substance, and varies only in its non-essential + accidents and transient properties." Amalric of Bena and David of Dinant + followed the theory out "into a thoroughgoing Pantheism." Amalric held + that "All is God and God is all. The Creator and the creature are one + Being. Ideas are at once creative and created, subjective and objective. + God is the end of all, and all return to Him. As every variety of humanity + forms one manhood, so the world contains individual forms of one eternal + essence." David of Dinant only varied upon this by "imagining a corporeal + unity. Although body, soul, and eternal substance are three, these three + are one and the same being." + </p> + <p> + Giordano Bruno maintained the world of sense to be "a vast animal having + the Deity for its living soul." The inanimate part of the world is thus + excluded from participation in the Deity, and a conception that our minds + can embrace is offered us instead of one which they cannot entertain, + except as in a dream, incoherently. But without such a view of evolution + as was prevalent at the beginning of this century, it was impossible to + see "the world of sense" intelligently, as forming "a vast animal." + Unless, therefore, Giordano Bruno held the opinions of Buffon, Dr. Erasmus + Darwin, and Lamarck, with more definiteness than I am yet aware of his + having done, his contention must be considered as a splendid prophecy, but + as little more than a prophecy. He continues, "Birth is expansion from the + one centre of Life; life is its continuance, and death is the necessary + return of the ray to the centre of light." This begins finely, but ends + mystically. I have not, however, compared the English translation with the + original, and must reserve a fuller examination of Giordano Bruno's + teaching for another opportunity. + </p> + <p> + Spinoza disbelieved in the world rather than in God. He was an Acosmist, + to use Jacobi's expression, rather than an Atheist. According to him, "the + Deity and the Universe are but one substance, at the same time both spirit + and matter, thought and extension, which are the only known attributes of + the Deity." + </p> + <p> + My readers will, I think, agree with me that there is very little of the + above which conveys ideas with the fluency and comfort which accompany + good words. Words are like servants: it is not enough that we should have + them-we must have the most able and willing that we can find, and at the + smallest wages that will content them. Having got them we must make the + best and not the worst of them. Surely, in the greater part of what has + been quoted above, the words are barren letters only: they do not quicken + within us and enable us to conceive a thought, such as we can in our turn + impress upon dead matter, and mould [sic] that matter into another shape + than its own, through the thought which has become alive within us. No + offspring of ideas has followed upon them, or, if any at all, yet in such + unwonted shape, and with such want of alacrity, that we loathe them as + malformations and miscarriages of our minds. Granted that if we examine + them closely we shall at length find them to embody a little germ of + truth-that is to say, of coherency with our other ideas; but there is too + little truth in proportion to the trouble necessary to get at it. We can + get more truth, that is to say, more coherency-for truth and coherency are + one-for less trouble in other ways. + </p> + <p> + But it may be urged that the beginnings of all tasks are difficult and + unremunerative, and that later developments of Pantheism may be more + intelligible than the earlier ones. Unfortunately, this is not the case. + On continuing Mr. Blunt's article, I find the later Pantheists a + hundredfold more perplexing than the earlier ones. With Kant, Schelling, + Fichte, and Hegel, we feel that we are with men who have been decoyed into + a hopeless quagmire; we understand nothing of their language-we doubt + whether they understand themselves, and feel that we can do nothing with + them but look at them and pass them by. + </p> + <p> + In my next chapter I propose to show the end which the early Pantheists + were striving after, and the reason and naturalness of their error. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. PANTHEISM. + </h2> + <p> + The earlier Pantheists were misled by the endeavour [sic] to lay hold of + two distinct ideas, the one of which was a reality that has since been + grasped and is of inestimable value, the other a phantom which has misled + all who have followed it. The reality is the unity of Life, the oneness of + the guiding and animating spirit which quickens animals and plants, so + that they are all the outcome and expression of a common mind, and are in + truth one animal; the phantom is the endeavour [sic] to find the origin of + things, to reach the fountain-head of all energy, and thus to lay the + foundations on which a philosophy may be constructed which none can accuse + of being baseless, or of arguing in a circle. + </p> + <p> + In following as through a thick wood after the phantom our forefathers + from time to time caught glimpses of the reality, which seemed so + wonderful as it eluded them, and flitted back again into the thickets, + that they declared it must be the phantom they were in search of, which + was thus evidenced as actually existing. Whereon, instead of mastering + such of the facts they met with as could be captured easily-which facts + would have betrayed the hiding-places of others, and these again of + others, and so ad infinitum-they overlooked what was within their reach, + and followed hotly through brier and brake after an imaginary greater + prize. + </p> + <p> + Great thoughts are not to be caught in this way. They must present + themselves for capture of their own free will, or be taken after a little + coyness only. They are like wealth and power, which, if a man is not born + to them, are the more likely to take him, the more he has restrained + himself from an attempt to snatch them. They hanker after those only who + have tamed their nearer thoughts. Nevertheless, it is impossible not to + feel that the early Pantheists were true prophets and seers, though the + things were unknown to them without which a complete view was + unattainable. What does Linus mean, we ask ourselves, when he says:—"One + sole energy governs all things"? How can one sole energy govern, we will + say, the reader and the chair on which he sits? What is meant by an energy + governing a chair? If by an effort we have made ourselves believe we + understand something which can be better expressed by these words than by + any others, no sooner do we turn our backs than the ideas so painfully + collected fly apart again. No matter how often we go in search of them, + and force them into juxtaposition, they prove to have none of that innate + coherent power with which ideas combine that we can hold as true and + profitable. + </p> + <p> + Yet if Linus had confined his statement to living things, and had said + that one sole energy governed all plants and animals, he would have come + near both to being intelligible and true. For if, as we now believe, all + animals and plants are descended from a single cell, they must be + considered as cousins to one another, and as forming a single tree-like + animal, every individual plant or animal of which is as truly one and the + same person with the primordial cell as the oak a thousand years old is + one and the same plant with the acorn out of which it has grown. This is + easily understood, but will, I trust, be made to appear simpler presently. + </p> + <p> + When Linus says, "All things are unity, and each portion is All; for of + one integer all things were born," it is impossible for plain people-who + do not wish to use words unless they mean the same things by them as both + they and others have been in the habit of meaning-to understand what is + intended. How can each portion be all? How can one Londoner be all London? + I know that this, too, can in a way be shown, but the resulting idea is + too far to fetch, and when fetched does not fit in well enough with our + other ideas to give it practical and commercial value. How, again, can all + things be said to be born of one integer, unless the statement is confined + to living things, which can alone be born at all, and unless a theory of + evolution is intended, such as Linus would hardly have accepted? + </p> + <p> + Yet limit the "all things" to "all living things," grant the theory of + evolution, and explain "each portion is All" to mean that all life is + akin, and possesses the same essential fundamental characteristics, and it + is surprising how nearly Linus approaches both to truth and + intelligibility. + </p> + <p> + It may be said that the animate and the inanimate have the same + fundamental substance, so that a chair might rot and be absorbed by grass, + which grass might be eaten by a cow, which cow might be eaten by a man; + and by similar processes the man might become a chair; but these facts are + not presented to the mind by saying that "one energy governs all things"-a + chair, we will say, and a man; we could only say that one energy governed + a man and a chair, if the chair were a reasonable living person, who was + actively and consciously engaged in helping the man to attain a certain + end, unless, that is to say, we are to depart from all usual + interpretation of words, in which case we invalidate the advantages of + language and all the sanctions of morality. + </p> + <p> + "All things shall again become unity" is intelligible as meaning that all + things probably have come from a single elementary substance, say hydrogen + or what not, and that they will return to it; but the explanation of unity + as being the "unity of multiplicity" puzzles; if there is any meaning it + is too recondite to be of service to us. + </p> + <p> + What, again, is meant by saying that "the soul of the world is the Divine + energy which interpenetrates every portion of the mass"? The soul of the + world is an expression which, to myself, and, I should imagine, to most + people, is without propriety. We cannot think of the world except as + earth, air, and water, in this or that state, on and in which there grow + plants and animals. What is meant by saying that earth has a soul, and + lives? Does it move from place to place erratically? Does it feed? Does it + reproduce itself? Does it make such noises, or commit such vagaries as + shall make us say that it feels? Can it achieve its ends, and fail of + achieving them through mistake? If it cannot, how has it a soul more than + a dead man has a soul, out of whom we say that the soul has departed, and + whose body we conceive of as returning to dead earth, inasmuch as it is + now soulless? Is there any unnatural violence which can be done to our + thoughts by which we can bring the ideas of a soul and of water, or of a + stone into combination, and keep them there for long together? The + ancients, indeed, said they believed their rivers to be gods, and carved + likenesses of them under the forms of men; but even supposing this to have + been their real mind, can it by any conceivable means become our own? + Granted that a stone is kept from falling to dust by an energy which + compels its particles to cohere, which energy can be taken out of it and + converted into some other form of energy; granted (which may or may not be + true) also, that the life of a living body is only the energy which keeps + the particles which compose it in a certain disposition; and granted that + the energy of the stone may be convertible into the energy of a living + form, and that thus, after a long journey a tired idea may lag after the + sound of such words as "the soul of the world." Granted all the above, + nevertheless to speak of the world as having a soul is not sufficiently in + harmony with our common notions, nor does it go sufficiently with the + grain of our thoughts to render the expression a meaning one, or one that + can be now used with any propriety or fitness, except by those who do not + know their own meaninglessness. Vigorous minds will harbour [sic] vigorous + thoughts only, or such as bid fair to become so; and vigorous thoughts are + always simple, definite, and in harmony with everyday ideas. + </p> + <p> + We can imagine a soul as living in the lowest slime that moves, feeds, + reproduces itself, remembers, and dies. The amoeba wants things, knows it + wants them, alters itself so as to try and alter them, thus preparing for + an intended modification of outside matter by a preliminary modification + of itself. It thrives if the modification from within is followed by the + desired modification in the external object; it knows that it is well, and + breeds more freely in consequence. If it cannot get hold of outside + matter, or cannot proselytise [sic] that matter and persuade it to see + things through its own (the amoeba's) spectacles-if it cannot convert that + matter, if the matter persists in disagreeing with it-its spirits droop, + its soul is disquieted within it, it becomes listless like a withering + flower-it languishes and dies. We cannot imagine a thing to live at all + and yet be soulless except in sleep for a short time, and even so not + quite soulless. The idea of a soul, or of that unknown something for which + the word "soul" is our hieroglyphic, and the idea of living organism, + unite so spontaneously, and stick together so inseparably, that no matter + how often we sunder them they will elude our vigilance and come together, + like true lovers, in spite of us. Let us not attempt to divorce ideas that + have so long been wedded together. + </p> + <p> + I submit, then, that Pantheism, even as explained by those who had entered + on the outskirts only of its great morass, nevertheless holds out so + little hope of leading to any comfortable conclusion that it will be more + reasonable to occupy our minds with other matter than to follow Pantheism + further. The Pantheists speak of a person without meaning a person; they + speak of a "him" and a "he" without having in their minds the idea of a + living person with all its inevitable limitations. Pantheism is, + therefore, as is said by Mr. Blunt in another article, "practically + nothing else than Atheism; it has no belief in a personal deity overruling + the affairs of the world, as Divine Providence, and is, therefore, + Atheistic," and again, "Theism believes in a spirit superior to matter, + and so does Pantheism; but the spirit of Theism is self-conscious, and + therefore personal and of individual existence-a nature per se, and + upholding all things by an active control; while Pantheism believes in + spirit that is of a higher nature than brute matter, but is a mere + unconscious principle of life, impersonal, irrational as the brute matter + that it quickens." + </p> + <p> + If this verdict concerning Pantheism is true—and from all I can + gather it is as nearly true as anything can be said to be which is + predicated of an incoherent idea—the Pantheistic God is an attempt + to lay hold of a truth which has nevertheless eluded its pursuers. + </p> + <p> + In my next chapter I will consider the commonly received, orthodox + conception of God, and compare it with the Pantheistic. I will show that + it, too, is Atheistic, inasmuch as, in spite of its professing to give us + a conception of God, it raises no ideas in our minds of a person or Living + Being—and a God who is not this is non-existent. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. ORTHODOX THEISM + </h2> + <p> + We have seen that Pantheism fails to satisfy, inasmuch as it requires us + to mean something different by the word "God" from what we have been in + the habit of meaning. I have already said-I fear, too often-that no + conception of God can have any value or meaning for us which does not + involve his existence as an independent Living Person of ineffable wisdom + and power, vastness, and duration both in the past and for the future. If + such a Being as this can be found existing and made evident, directly or + indirectly, to human senses, there is a God. If otherwise, there is no + God, or none, at any rate, so far as we can know, none with whom we need + concern ourselves. No conscious personality, no God. An impersonal God is + as much a contradiction in terms as an impersonal person. + </p> + <p> + Unfortunately, when we question orthodox theology closely, we find that it + supposes God to be a person who has no material body such as could come + within the range of any human sense, and make an impression upon it. He is + supposed to be of a spiritual nature only, except in so far as one part of + his triune personality is, according to the Athanasian Creed, "perfect + man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting." + </p> + <p> + Here, then, we find ourselves in a dilemma. On the one hand, we are + involved in the same difficulty as in the case of Pantheism, inasmuch as a + person without flesh and blood, or something analogous, is not a person; + we are required, therefore, to believe in a personal God, who has no true + person; to believe, that is to say, in an impersonal person. + </p> + <p> + This, as we have seen already, is Atheism under another name, being, as it + is, destructive of all idea of God whatever; for these words do not convey + an idea of something which human intelligence can understand up to a + certain point, and which it can watch going out of sight into regions + beyond our view, but in the same direction-as we may infer other stars in + space beyond the farthest that we know of; they convey utterly + self-destructive ideas, which can have no real meaning, and can only be + thought to have a meaning by ignorant and uncultivated people. Otherwise + such foundation as human reason rests upon-that is to say, the current + opinion of those whom the world appraises as reasonable and agreeable, or + capable of being agreed with for any time-is sapped; the whole thing + tumbles down, and we may have square circles and round triangles, which + may be declared to be no longer absurdities and contradictions in terms, + but mysteries that go beyond our reason, without being contrary to it. Few + will maintain this, and those few may be neglected; an impersonal person + must therefore be admitted to be nonsense, and an immaterial God to be + Atheism in another shape. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, if God is "of a reasonable soul and human flesh + subsisting," and if he thus has the body without which he is-as far as we + are concerned-non-existent, this body must yet be reasonably like other + bodies, and must exist in some place and at some time. Furthermore, it + must do sufficiently nearly what all other "human flesh" belonging to + "perfect man" must do, or cease to be human flesh. Our ideas are like our + organisms; they have some little elasticity and circumstance-suiting + power, some little margin on which, as I have elsewhere said, side-notes + may be written, and glosses on the original text; but this power is very + limited. As offspring will only, as a general rule, vary very little from + its immediate parents, and as it will fail either immediately or in the + second generation if the parents differ too widely from one another, so we + cannot get our idea of-we will say a horse-to conjure up to our minds the + idea of any animal more unlike a horse than a pony is; nor can we get a + well-defined idea of a combination between a horse and any animal more + remote from it than an ass, zebra, or giraffe. We may, indeed, make a + statue of a flying horse, but the idea is one which cannot be made + plausible to any but ignorant people. So "human flesh" may vary a little + from "human flesh" without undue violence being done to our reason and to + the right use of language, but it cannot differ from it so much as not to + eat, drink, nor waste and repair itself. "Human flesh," which is without + these necessary adjuncts, is human flesh only to those who can believe in + flying horses with feathered wings and bills like birds-that is to say, to + vulgar and superstitious persons. + </p> + <p> + Lastly, not only must the "perfect man," who is the second person of the + Godhead according to the orthodox faith, and who subsists of "human flesh" + as well as of a "reasonable soul," not only must this person exist, but he + must exist in some place either on this earth or outside it. If he exists + on earth, he must be in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, or on some island, + and if he were met with he must be capable of being seen and handled in + the same way as all other things that can be called perfect man are seen; + otherwise he is a perfect man who is not only not a perfect man, but who + does not in any considerable degree resemble one. It is not, however, + pretended by anyone that God, the "perfect man," is to be looked for in + any place upon the surface of the globe. + </p> + <p> + If, on the other hand, the person of God exists in some sphere outside the + earth, his human flesh again proves to be of an entirely different kind + from all other human flesh, for we know that such flesh cannot exist + except on earth; if in space unsupported, it must fall to the ground, or + into some other planet, or into a sun, or go on revolving round the earth + or some other heavenly body-or not be personal. None of those whose + opinions will carry weight will assign a position either in some country + on this earth, or yet again in space, to Jesus Christ, but this involves + the rendering meaningless of all expressions which involve his + personality. + </p> + <p> + The Christian conception, therefore, of the Deity proves when examined + with any desire to understand our own meaning (and what lawlessness so + great as the attempt to impose words upon our understandings which have no + lawful settlement within them?) to be no less a contradiction in terms + than the Pantheistic conception. It is Atheistic, as offering us a God + which is not a God, inasmuch as we can conceive of no such being, nor of + anything in the least like it. It is, like Pantheism, an illusion, which + can be believed only by those who repeat a formula which they have learnt + by heart in a foreign language of which they understand nothing, and yet + aver that they believe it. There are doubtless many who will say that this + is possible, but the majority of my readers will hold that no proposition + can be believed or disbelieved until its nature is understood. + </p> + <p> + It may perhaps be said that there is another conception of God possible, + and that we may see him as personal, without at the same time believing + that he has any actual tangible existence. Thus we personify hope, truth, + and justice, without intending to convey to anyone the impression that + these qualities are women, with flesh and blood. Again, we do not think of + Nature as an actual woman, though we call her one; why may we not conceive + of God, then, as an expression whereby we personify, by a figure of speech + only; the thing that is intended being no person, but our own highest + ideal of power, wisdom, and duration. + </p> + <p> + There would be no reason to complain of this if this manner of using the + word "God" were well understood. Many words have two meanings, or even + three, without any mischievous confusion of thought following. There can + not only be no objection to the use of the word God as a manner of + expressing the highest ideal of which our minds can conceive, but on the + contrary no better expression can be found, and it is a pity the word is + not thus more generally used. + </p> + <p> + Few, however, would be content with any such limitation of God as that he + should be an idea only, an expression for certain qualities of human + thought and action. Whence, it may be fairly asked, did our deeply rooted + belief in God as a Living Person originate? The idea of him as of an + inconceivably vast, ancient, powerful, loving, and yet formidable Person + is one which survives all changes of detail in men's opinion. I believe + there are a few very savage tribes who are as absolutely without religious + sense as the beasts of the field, but the vast majority for a long time + past have been possessed with an idea that there is somewhere a Living God + who is the Spirit and the Life of all that is, and who is a true Person + with an individuality and self-consciousness of his own. It is only + natural that we should be asked how such an idea has remained in the minds + of so many—who differ upon almost every other part of their + philosophy-for so long a time if it was without foundation, and a piece of + dreamy mysticism only. + </p> + <p> + True, it has generally been declared that this God is an infinite God, and + an infinite God is a God without any bounds or limitations; and a God + without bounds or limitations is an impersonal God; and an impersonal God + is Atheism. But may not this be the incoherency of prophecy which precedes + the successful mastering of an idea? May we not think of this illusory + expression as having arisen from inability to see the whereabouts of a + certain vast but tangible Person as to whose existence men were + nevertheless clear? If they felt that it existed, and yet could not say + where, nor wherein it was to be laid hands on, they would be very likely + to get out of the difficulty by saying that it existed as an infinite + Spirit, partly from a desire to magnify what they felt must be so vast and + powerful, and partly because they had as yet only a vague conception of + what they were aiming at, and must, therefore, best express it vaguely. + </p> + <p> + We must not be surprised that when an idea is still inchoate its + expression should be inconsistent and imperfect-ideas will almost always + during the earlier history of a thought be put together experimentally so + as to see whether or no they will cohere. Partly out of indolence, partly + out of the desire of those who brought the ideas together to be declared + right, and partly out of joy that the truth should be supposed found, + incoherent ideas will be kept together longer than they should be; + nevertheless they will in the end detach themselves and go, if others + present themselves which fit into their place better. There is no + consistency which has not once been inconsistent, nor coherency that has + not been incoherent. The incoherency of our ideas concerning God is due to + the fact that we have not yet truly found him, but it does not argue that + he does not exist and cannot be found anywhere after more diligent search; + on the contrary, the persistence of the main idea, in spite of the + incoherency of its details, points strongly in the direction of believing + that it rests upon a foundation in fact. + </p> + <p> + But it must be remembered there can be no God who is not personal and + material: and if personal, then, though inconceivably vast in comparison + with man, still limited in space and time, and capable of making mistakes + concerning his own interests, though as a general rule right in his + estimates concerning them. Where, then, is this Being? He must be on + earth, or what folly can be greater than speaking of him as a person? What + are persons on any other earth to us, or we to them? He must have existed + and be going to exist through all time, and he must have a tangible body. + Where, then, is the body of this God? And what is the mystery of his + Incarnation? + </p> + <p> + It will be my business to show this in the following chapter. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. THE TREE OF LIFE + </h2> + <p> + Atheism denies knowledge of a God of any kind. Pantheism and Theism alike + profess to give us a God, but they alike fail to perform what they have + promised. We can know nothing of the God they offer us, for not even do + they themselves profess that any of our senses can be cognisant [sic] of + him. They tell us that he is a personal God, but that he has no material + person. This is disguised Atheism. What we want is a Personal God, the + glory of whose Presence can be made in part evident to our senses, though + what we can realise [sic] is less than nothing in comparison with what we + must leave for ever unimagined. + </p> + <p> + And truly such a God is not far from every one of us; for if we survey the + broader and deeper currents of men's thoughts during the last three + thousand years, we may observe two great and steady sets as having carried + away with them the more eligible races of mankind. The one is a tendency + from Polytheism to Monotheism; the other from Polytypism to Monotypism of + the earliest forms of life-all animal and vegetable forms having at length + come to be regarded as differentiations of a single substance-to wit, + protoplasm. + </p> + <p> + No man does well so to kick against the pricks as to set himself against + tendencies of such depth, strength, and permanence as this. If he is to be + in harmony with the dominant opinion of his own and of many past ages, he + will see a single God-impregnate substance as having been the parent from + which all living forms have sprung. One spirit, and one form capable of + such modification as its directing spirit shall think fit; one soul and + one body, one God and one Life. + </p> + <p> + For the time has come when the two unities so painfully arrived at must be + joined together as body and soul, and be seen not as two, but one. There + is no living organism untenanted by the Spirit of God, nor any Spirit of + God perceivable by man apart from organism embodying and expressing it. + God and the Life of the World are like a mountain, which will present + different aspects as we look at it from different sides, but which, when + we have gone all round it, proves to be one only. God is the animal and + vegetable world, and the animal and vegetable world is God. + </p> + <p> + I have repeatedly said that we ought to see all animal and vegetable life + as uniting to form a single personality. I should perhaps explain this + more fully, for the idea of a compound person is one which at first is not + very easy to grasp, inasmuch as we are not conscious of any but our more + superficial aspects, and have therefore until lately failed to understand + that we are ourselves compound persons. I may perhaps be allowed to quote + from an earlier work. + </p> + <p> + "Each cell in the human body is now admitted by physiologists to be a + person with an intelligent soul, differing from our own more complex soul + in degree and not in kind, and, like ourselves, being born, living, and + dying. It would appear, then, as though 'we,' 'our souls,' or 'selves,' or + 'personalities,' or by whatever name we may prefer to be called, are but + the consensus and full-flowing stream of countless sensations and impulses + on the part of our tributary souls or 'selves,' who probably no more know + that we exist, and that they exist as a part of us, than a microscopic + insect knows the results of spectrum analysis, or than an agricultural + labourer [sic] knows the working of the British Constitution; and of whom + we know no more than we do of the habits and feelings of some class widely + separated from our own."-("Life and Habit," p. 110.) + </p> + <p> + After which it became natural to ask the following question:—"Is it + possible to avoid imagining that we may be ourselves atoms, undesignedly + combining to form some vaster being, though we are utterly incapable of + perceiving this being as a single individual, or of realising [sic] the + scheme and scope of our own combination? And this, too, not a spiritual + being, which, without matter or what we think matter of some sort, is as + complete nonsense to us as though men bade us love and lean upon an + intelligent vacuum, but a being with what is virtually flesh and blood and + bones, with organs, senses, dimensions in some way analogous to our own, + into some other part of which being at the time of our great change we + must infallibly re-enter, starting clean anew, with bygones bygones, and + no more ache for ever from age or antecedents. + </p> + <p> + "'An organic being,' writes Mr. Darwin, 'is a microcosm, a little + universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms inconceivably + minute and numerous as the stars in Heaven.' As these myriads of smaller + organisms are parts and processes of us, so are we parts and processes of + life at large." + </p> + <p> + A tree is composed of a multitude of subordinate trees, each bud being a + distinct individual. So coral polypes [sic] form a tree-like growth of + animal life, with branches from which spring individual polypes [sic] that + are connected by a common tissue and supported by a common skeleton. We + have no difficulty in seeing a unity in multitude, and a multitude in + unity here, because we can observe the wood and the gelatinous tissue + connecting together all the individuals which compose either the tree or + the mass of polypes [sic]. Yet the skeleton, whether of tree or of polype + [sic], is inanimate; and the tissue, whether of bark or gelatine [sic], is + only the matted roots of the individual buds; so that the outward and + striking connection between the individuals is more delusive than real. + The true connection is one which cannot be seen, and consists in the + animation of each bud by a like spirit-in the community of soul, in "the + voice of the Lord which maketh men to be of one mind in an house"-"to + dwell together in unity"-to take what are practically identical views of + things, and express themselves in concert under all circumstances. + Provided this-the true unifier of organism-can be shown to exist, the + absence of gross outward and visible but inanimate common skeleton is no + bar to oneness of personality. + </p> + <p> + Let us picture to our minds a tree of which all the woody fibre [sic] + shall be invisible, the buds and leaves seeming to stand in mid-air + unsupported and unconnected with one another, so that there is nothing but + a certain tree-like collocation of foliage to suggest any common principle + of growth uniting the leaves. + </p> + <p> + Three or four leaves of different ages stand living together at the place + in the air where the end of each bough should be; of these the youngest + are still tender and in the bud, while the older ones are turning yellow + and on the point of falling. Between these leaves a sort of twig-like + growth can be detected if they are looked at in certain lights, but it is + hard to see, except perhaps when a bud is on the point of coming out. Then + there does appear to be a connection which might be called branch-like. + </p> + <p> + The separate tufts are very different from one another, so that oak + leaves, ash leaves, horse-chestnut leaves, etc., are each represented, but + there is one species only at the end of each bough. + </p> + <p> + Though the trunk and all the inner boughs and leaves have disappeared, yet + there hang here and there fossil leaves, also in mid-air; they appear to + have been petrified, without method or selection, by what we call the + caprices of nature; they hang in the path which the boughs and twigs would + have taken, and they seem to indicate that if the tree could have been + seen a million years earlier, before it had grown near its present size, + the leaves standing at the end of each bough would have been found very + different from what they are now. Let us suppose that all the leaves at + the end of all the invisible boughs, no matter how different they now are + from one another, were found in earliest budhood to be absolutely + indistinguishable, and afterwards to develop towards each differentiation + through stages which were indicated by the fossil leaves. Lastly, let us + suppose that though the boughs which seem wanted to connect all the living + forms of leaves with the fossil leaves, and with countless forms of which + all trace has disappeared, and also with a single root-have become + invisible, yet that there is irrefragable evidence to show that they once + actually existed, and indeed are existing at this moment, in a condition + as real though as invisible to the eye as air or electricity. Should we, I + ask, under these circumstances hesitate to call our imaginary plant or + tree by a single name, and to think of it as one person, merely upon the + score that the woody fibre [sic] was invisible? Should we not esteem the + common soul, memories and principles of growth which are preserved between + all the buds, no matter how widely they differ in detail, as a more living + bond of union than a framework of wood would be, which, though it were + visible to the eye, would still be inanimate? + </p> + <p> + The mistletoe appears as closely connected with the tree on which it grows + as any of the buds of the tree itself; it is fed upon the same sap as the + other buds are, which sap-however much it may modify it at the last + moment-it draws through the same fibres [sic] as do its + foster-brothers-why then do we at once feel that the mistletoe is no part + of the apple tree? Not from any want of manifest continuity, but from the + spiritual difference-from the profoundly different views of life and + things which are taken by the parasite and the tree on which it grows-the + two are now different because they think differently-as long as they + thought alike they were alike-that is to say they were protoplasm-they and + we and all that lives meeting in this common substance. + </p> + <p> + We ought therefore to regard our supposed tufts of leaves as a tree, that + is to say, as a compound existence, each one of whose component items is + compounded of others which are also in their turn compounded. But the tree + above described is no imaginary parallel to the condition of life upon the + globe; it is perhaps as accurate a description of the Tree of Life as can + be put into so small a compass. The most sure proof of a man's identity is + the power to remember that such and such things happened, which none but + he can know; the most sure proof of his remembering is the power to react + his part in the original drama, whatever it may have been; if a man can + repeat a performance with consummate truth, and can stand any amount of + cross-questioning about it, he is the performer of the original + performance, whatever it was. The memories which all living forms prove by + their actions that they possess-the memories of their common identity with + a single person in whom they meet-this is incontestable proof of their + being animated by a common soul. It is certain, therefore, that all living + forms, whether animal or vegetable, are in reality one animal; we and the + mosses being part of the same vast person in no figurative sense, but with + as much bona fide literal truth as when we say that a man's finger-nails + and his eyes are parts of the same man. + </p> + <p> + It is in this Person that we may see the Body of God-and in the evolution + of this Person, the mystery of His Incarnation. + </p> + <p> + [In "Unconscious Memory," Chapter V, Butler wrote: "In the articles above + alluded to ("God the Known and God the Unknown") I separated the organic + from the inorganic, but when I came to rewrite them I found that this + could not be done, and that I must reconstruct what I had written." This + reconstruction never having been effected, it may be well to quote further + from "Unconscious Memory" (concluding chapter): "At parting, therefore, I + would recommend the reader to see every atom in the universe as living and + able to feel and remember, but in a humble way. He must have life eternal + as well as matter eternal; and the life and the matter must be joined + together inseparably as body and soul to one another. Thus he will see God + everywhere, not as those who repeat phrases conventionally, but as people + who would have their words taken according to their most natural and + legitimate meaning; and he will feel that the main difference between him + and many of those who oppose him lies in the fact that whereas both he and + they use the same language, his opponents only half mean what they say, + while he means it entirely... We shall endeavour [sic] to see the + so-called inorganic as living, in respect of the qualities it has in + common with the organic, rather than the organic as non-living in respect + of the qualities it has in common with the inorganic."] + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. THE LIKENESS OF GOD + </h2> + <p> + In my last chapter I endeavoured [sic] to show that each living being, + whether animal or plant, throughout the world is a component item of a + single personality, in the same way as each individual citizen of a + community is a member of one state, or as each cell of our own bodies is a + separate person, or each bud of a tree a separate plant. We must therefore + see the whole varied congeries of living things as a single very ancient + Being, of inconceivable vastness, and animated by one Spirit. + </p> + <p> + We call the octogenarian one person with the embryo of a few days old from + which he has developed. An oak or yew tree may be two thousand years old, + but we call it one plant with the seed from which it has grown. Millions + of individual buds have come and gone, to the yearly wasting and repairing + of its substance; but the tree still lives and thrives, and the dead + leaves have life therein. So the Tree of Life still lives and thrives as a + single person, no matter how many new features it has acquired during its + development, nor, again, how many of its individual leaves fall yellow to + the ground daily. The spirit or soul of this person is the Spirit of God, + and its body-for we know of no soul or spirit without a body, nor of any + living body without a spirit or soul, and if there is a God at all there + must be a body of God-is the many-membered outgrowth of protoplasm, the + ensemble of animal and vegetable life. + </p> + <p> + To repeat. The Theologian of to-day tells us that there is a God, but is + horrified at the idea of that God having a body. We say that we believe in + God, but that our minds refuse to realise [sic] an intelligent Being who + has no bodily person. "Where then," says the Theologian, "is the body of + your God?" We have answered, "In the living forms upon the earth, which, + though they look many, are, when we regard them by the light of their + history and of true analogies, one person only." The spiritual connection + between them is a more real bond of union than the visible discontinuity + of material parts is ground for separating them in our thoughts. + </p> + <p> + Let the reader look at a case of moths in the shop-window of a naturalist, + and note the unspeakable delicacy, beauty, and yet serviceableness of + their wings; or let him look at a case of humming-birds, and remember how + infinitely small a part of Nature is the whole group of the animals he may + be considering, and how infinitely small a part of that group is the case + that he is looking at. Let him bear in mind that he is looking on the dead + husks only of what was inconceivably more marvellous [sic] when the moths + or humming-birds were alive. Let him think of the vastness of the earth, + and of the activity by day and night through countless ages of such + countless forms of animal and vegetable life as that no human mind can + form the faintest approach to anything that can be called a conception of + their multitude, and let him remember that all these forms have touched + and touched and touched other living beings till they meet back on a + common substance in which they are rooted, and from which they all branch + forth so as to be one animal. Will he not in this real and tangible + existence find a God who is as much more worthy of admiration than the God + of the ordinary Theologian-as He is also more easy of comprehension? + </p> + <p> + For the Theologian dreams of a God sitting above the clouds among the + cherubim, who blow their loud uplifted angel trumpets before Him, and + humour [sic] Him as though He were some despot in an Oriental tale; but we + enthrone Him upon the wings of birds, on the petals of flowers, on the + faces of our friends, and upon whatever we most delight in of all that + lives upon the earth. We then can not only love Him, but we can do that + without which love has neither power nor sweetness, but is a phantom only, + an impersonal person, a vain stretching forth of arms towards something + that can never fill them-we can express our love and have it expressed to + us in return. And this not in the uprearing of stone temples-for the Lord + dwelleth [sic] in temples made with other organs than hands-nor yet in the + cleansing of our hearts, but in the caress bestowed upon horse and dog, + and kisses upon the lips of those we love. + </p> + <p> + Wide, however, as is the difference between the orthodox Theologian and + ourselves, it is not more remarkable than the number of the points on + which we can agree with him, and on which, moreover, we can make his + meaning clearer to himself than it can have ever hitherto been. He, for + example, says that man has been made in the image of God, but he cannot + mean what he says, unless his God has a material body; we, on the other + hand, do not indeed believe that the body of God-the incorporation of all + life-is like the body of a man, more than we believe each one of our own + cells or subordinate personalities to be like a man in miniature; but we + nevertheless hold that each of our tributary selves is so far made after + the likeness of the body corporate that it possesses all our main and + essential characteristics-that is to say, that it can waste and repair + itself; can feel, move, and remember. To this extent, also, we-who stand + in mean proportional between our tributary personalities and God-are made + in the likeness of God; for we, and God, and our subordinate cells alike + possess the essential characteristics of life which have been above + recited. It is more true, therefore, for us to say that we are made in the + likeness of God than for the orthodox Theologian to do so. + </p> + <p> + Nor, again, do we find difficulty in adopting such an expression as that + "God has taken our nature upon Him." We hold this as firmly, and much more + so, than Christians can do, but we say that this is no new thing for Him + to do, for that He has taken flesh and dwelt among us from the day that He + first assumed our shape, some millions of years ago, until now. God cannot + become man more especially than He can become other living forms, any more + than we can be our eyes more especially than any other of our organs. We + may develop larger eyes, so that our eyes may come to occupy a still more + important place in our economy than they do at present; and in a similar + way the human race may become a more predominant part of God than it now + is-but we cannot admit that one living form is more like God than another; + we must hold all equally like Him, inasmuch as they "keep ever," as Buffon + says, "the same fundamental unity, in spite of differences of + detail-nutrition, development, reproduction" (and, I would add, "memory") + "being the common traits of all organic bodies." The utmost we can admit + is, that some embodiments of the Spirit of Life may be more important than + others to the welfare of Life as a whole, in the same way as some of our + organs are more important than others to ourselves. + </p> + <p> + But the above resemblances between the language which we can adopt + intelligently and that which Theologians use vaguely, seem to reduce the + differences of opinion between the two contending parties to disputes + about detail. For even those who believe their ideas to be the most + definite, and who picture to themselves a God as anthropomorphic as He was + represented by Raffaelle, are yet not prepared to stand by their ideas if + they are hard pressed in the same way as we are by ours. Those who say + that God became man and took flesh upon Him, and that He is now perfect + God and perfect man of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting, will + yet not mean that Christ has a heart, blood, a stomach, etc., like man's, + which, if he has not, it is idle to speak of him as "perfect man." I am + persuaded that they do not mean this, nor wish to mean it; but that they + have been led into saying it by a series of steps which it is very easy to + understand and sympathise [sic] with, if they are considered with any + diligence. + </p> + <p> + For our forefathers, though they might and did feel the existence of a + Personal God in the world, yet could not demonstrate this existence, and + made mistakes in their endeavour [sic] to persuade themselves that they + understood thoroughly a truth which they had as yet perceived only from a + long distance. Hence all the dogmatism and theology of many centuries. It + was impossible for them to form a clear or definite conception concerning + God until they had studied His works more deeply, so as to grasp the idea + of many animals of different kinds and with no apparent connection between + them, being yet truly parts of one and the same animal which comprised + them in the same way as a tree comprises all its buds. They might speak of + this by a figure of speech, but they could not see it as a fact. Before + this could be intended literally, Evolution must be grasped, and not + Evolution as taught in what is now commonly called Darwinism, but the old + teleological Darwinism of eighty years ago. Nor is this again sufficient, + for it must be supplemented by a perception of the oneness of personality + between parents and offspring, the persistence of memory through all + generations, the latency of this memory until rekindled by the recurrence + of the associated ideas, and the unconsciousness with which repeated acts + come to be performed. These are modern ideas which might be caught sight + of now and again by prophets in time past, but which are even now mastered + and held firmly only by the few. + </p> + <p> + When once, however, these ideas have been accepted, the chief difference + between the orthodox God and the God who can be seen of all men is, that + the first is supposed to have existed from all time, while the second has + only lived for more millions of years than our minds can reckon + intelligently; the first is omnipresent in all space, while the second is + only present in the living forms upon this earth-that is to say, is only + more widely present than our minds can intelligently embrace. The first is + omnipotent and all-wise; the second is only quasi-omnipotent and quasi + all-wise. It is true, then, that we deprive God of that infinity which + orthodox Theologians have ascribed to Him, but the bounds we leave Him are + of such incalculable extent that nothing can be imagined more glorious or + vaster; and in return for the limitations we have assigned to Him, we + render it possible for men to believe in Him, and love Him, not with their + lips only, but with their hearts and lives. + </p> + <p> + Which, I may now venture to ask my readers, is the true God-the God of the + Theologian, or He whom we may see around us, and in whose presence we + stand each hour and moment of our lives? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VIII. THE LIFE EVERLASTING + </h2> + <p> + Let us now consider the life which we can look forward to with certainty + after death, and the moral government of the world here on earth. + </p> + <p> + If we could hear the leaves complaining to one another that they must die, + and commiserating the hardness of their lot in having ever been induced to + bud forth, we should, I imagine, despise them for their peevishness more + than we should pity them. We should tell them that though we could not see + reason for thinking that they would ever hang again upon the same-or any + at all similar-bough as the same individual leaves, after they had once + faded and fallen off, yet that as they had been changing personalities + without feeling it during the whole of their leafhood, so they would on + death continue to do this selfsame thing by entering into new phases of + life. True, death will deprive them of conscious memory concerning their + now current life; but, though they die as leaves, they live in the tree + whom they have helped to vivify, and whose growth and continued well-being + is due solely to this life and death of its component personalities. + </p> + <p> + We consider the cells which are born and die within us yearly to have been + sufficiently honoured [sic] in having contributed their quotum to our + life; why should we have such difficulty in seeing that a healthy + enjoyment and employment of our life will give us a sufficient reward in + that growth of God wherein we may live more truly and effectually after + death than we have lived when we were conscious of existence? Is Handel + dead when he influences and sets in motion more human beings in three + months now than during the whole, probably, of the years in which he + thought that he was alive? What is being alive if the power to draw men + for many miles in order that they may put themselves en rapport with him + is not being so? True, Handel no longer knows the power which he has over + us, but this is a small matter; he no longer animates six feet of flesh + and blood, but he lives in us as the dead leaf lives in the tree. He is + with God, and God knows him though he knows himself no more. + </p> + <p> + This should suffice, and I observe in practice does suffice, for all + reasonable persons. It may be said that one day the tree itself must die, + and the leaves no longer live therein; and so, also, that the very God or + Life of the World will one day perish, as all that is born must surely in + the end die. But they who fret upon such grounds as this must be in so + much want of a grievance that it were a cruelty to rob them of one: if a + man who is fond of music tortures himself on the ground that one day all + possible combinations and permutations of sounds will have been exhausted + so that there can be no more new tunes, the only thing we can do with him + is to pity him and leave him; nor is there any better course than this to + take with those idle people who worry themselves and others on the score + that they will one day be unable to remember the small balance of their + lives that they have not already forgotten as unimportant to them-that + they will one day die to the balance of what they have not already died + to. I never knew a well-bred or amiable person who complained seriously of + the fact that he would have to die. Granted we must all sometimes find + ourselves feeling sorry that we cannot remain for ever at our present age, + and that we may die so much sooner than we like; but these regrets are + passing with well-disposed people, and are a sine qua non for the + existence of life at all. For if people could live for ever so as to + suffer from no such regret, there would be no growth nor development in + life; if, on the other hand, there were no unwillingness to die, people + would commit suicide upon the smallest contradiction, and the race would + end in a twelvemonth. + </p> + <p> + We then offer immortality, but we do not offer resurrection from the dead; + we say that those who die live in the Lord whether they be just or unjust, + and that the present growth of God is the outcome of all past lives; but + we believe that as they live in God-in the effect they have produced upon + the universal life-when once their individual life is ended, so it is God + who knows of their life thenceforward and not themselves; and we urge that + this immortality, this entrance into the joy of the Lord, this being ever + with God, is true, and can be apprehended by all men, and that the + perception of it should and will tend to make them lead happier, healthier + lives; whereas the commonly received opinion is true with a stage truth + only, and has little permanent effect upon those who are best worth + considering. Nevertheless the expressions in common use among the orthodox + fit in so perfectly with facts, which we must all acknowledge, that it is + impossible not to regard the expressions as founded upon a prophetic + perception of the facts. + </p> + <p> + Two things stand out with sufficient clearness. The first is the rarity of + suicide even among those who rail at life most bitterly. The other is the + little eagerness with which those who cry out most loudly for a + resurrection desire to begin their new life. When comforting a husband + upon the loss of his wife we do not tell him we hope he will soon join + her; but we should certainly do this if we could even pretend we thought + the husband would like it. I can never remember having felt or witnessed + any pain, bodily or mental, which would have made me or anyone else + receive a suggestion that we had better commit suicide without indignantly + asking how our adviser would like to commit suicide himself. Yet there are + so many and such easy ways of dying that indignation at being advised to + commit suicide arises more from enjoyment of life than from fear of the + mere physical pain of dying. Granted that there is much deplorable pain in + the world from ill-health, loss of money, loss of reputation, misconduct + of those nearest to us, or what not, and granted that in some cases these + causes do drive men to actual self-destruction, yet suffering such as this + happens to a comparatively small number, and occupies comparatively a + small space in the lives of those to whom it does happen. + </p> + <p> + What, however, have we to say to those cases in which suffering and + injustice are inflicted upon defenceless [sic] people for years and years, + so that the iron enters into their souls, and they have no avenger. Can we + give any comfort to such sufferers? and, if not, is our religion any + better than a mockery-a filling the rich with good things and sending the + hungry empty away? Can we tell them, when they are oppressed with burdens, + yet that their cry will come up to God and be heard? The question suggests + its own answer, for assuredly our God knows our innermost secrets: there + is not a word in our hearts but He knoweth it altogether; He knoweth our + down-sitting and our uprising, He is about our path and about our bed, and + spieth out all our ways; He has fashioned us behind and before, and "we + cannot attain such knowledge," for, like all knowledge when it has become + perfect, "it is too excellent for us." + </p> + <p> + "Whither then," says David, "shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither shall + I go, then, from thy presence? If I climb up into heaven thou art there; + if I go down into hell thou art there also. If I take the wings of the + morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there also + shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say + peradventure the darkness shall cover me, then shall my night be turned + into day: the darkness and light to thee are both alike. For my reins are + thine; thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. My bones are not hid from + thee: though I be made secretly and fashioned beneath in the earth, thine + eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect; and in thy book were all my + members written, which day by day were fashioned when as yet there was + none of them. Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am I not + grieved with them that rise up against thee? Yea, I hate them right sore, + as though they were mine enemies." (Psalm CXXXIX.) There is not a word of + this which we cannot endorse with more significance, as well as with + greater heartiness than those can who look upon God as He is commonly + represented to them; whatever comfort, therefore, those in distress have + been in the habit of receiving from these and kindred passages, we + intensify rather than not. We cannot, alas! make pain cease to be pain, + nor injustice easy to bear; but we can show that no pain is bootless, and + that there is a tendency in all injustice to right itself; suffering is + not inflicted wilfully, [sic] as it were by a magician who could have + averted it; nor is it vain in its results, but unless we are cut off from + God by having dwelt in some place where none of our kind can know of what + has happened to us, it will move God's heart to redress our grievance, and + will tend to the happiness of those who come after us, even if not to our + own. + </p> + <p> + The moral government of God over the world is exercised through us, who + are his ministers and persons, and a government of this description is the + only one which can be observed as practically influencing men's conduct. + God helps those who help themselves, because in helping themselves they + are helping Him. Again, Vox Populi vox Dei. The current feeling of our + peers is what we instinctively turn to when we would know whether such and + such a course of conduct is right or wrong; and so Paul clenches his list + of things that the Philippians were to hold fast with the words, + "whatsoever things are of good fame"-that is to say, he falls back upon an + appeal to the educated conscience of his age. Certainly the wicked do + sometimes appear to escape punishment, but it must be remembered there are + punishments from within which do not meet the eye. If these fall on a man, + he is sufficiently punished; if they do not fall on him, it is probable we + have been over hasty in assuming that he is wicked. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IX. GOD THE UNKNOWN + </h2> + <p> + The reader will already have felt that the panzoistic conception of + God-the conception, that is to say, of God as comprising all living units + in His own single person-does not help us to understand the origin of + matter, nor yet that of the primordial cell which has grown and unfolded + itself into the present life of the world. How was the world rendered fit + for the habitation of the first germ of Life? How came it to have air and + water, without which nothing that we know of as living can exist? Was the + world fashioned and furnished with aqueous and atmospheric adjuncts with a + view to the requirements of the infant monad, and to his due development? + If so, we have evidence of design, and if so of a designer, and if so + there must be Some far vaster Person who looms out behind our God, and who + stands in the same relation to him as he to us. And behind this vaster and + more unknown God there may be yet another, and another, and another. + </p> + <p> + It is certain that Life did not make the world with a view to its own + future requirements. For the world was at one time red hot, and there can + have been no living being upon it. Nor is it conceivable that matter in + which there was no life-inasmuch as it was infinitely hotter than the + hottest infusion which any living germ can support-could gradually come to + be alive without impregnation from a living parent. All living things that + we know of have come from other living things with bodies and souls, whose + existence can be satisfactorily established in spite of their being often + too small for our detection. Since, then, the world was once without life, + and since no analogy points in the direction of thinking that life can + spring up spontaneously, we are driven to suppose that it was introduced + into this world from some other source extraneous to it altogether, and if + so we find ourselves irresistibly drawn to the inquiry whether the source + of the life that is in the world-the impregnator of this earth-may not + also have prepared the earth for the reception of his offspring, as a hen + makes an egg-shell or a peach a stone for the protection of the germ + within it? Not only are we drawn to the inquiry, but we are drawn also to + the answer that the earth was so prepared designedly by a Person with body + and soul who knew beforehand the kind of thing he required, and who took + the necessary steps to bring it about. + </p> + <p> + If this is so we are members indeed of the God of this world, but we are + not his children; we are children of the Unknown and Vaster God who called + him into existence; and this in a far more literal sense than we have been + in the habit of realising [sic] to ourselves. For it may be doubted + whether the monads are not as truly seminal in character as the + procreative matter from which all animals spring. + </p> + <p> + It must be remembered that if there is any truth in the view put forward + in "Life and Habit," and in "Evolution Old and New" (and I have met with + no serious attempt to upset the line of argument taken in either of these + books), then no complex animal or plant can reach its full development + without having already gone through the stages of that development on an + infinite number of past occasions. An egg makes itself into a hen because + it knows the way to do so, having already made itself into a hen millions + and millions of times over; the ease and unconsciousness with which it + grows being in themselves sufficient demonstration of this fact. At each + stage in its growth the chicken is reminded, by a return of the associated + ideas, of the next step that it should take, and it accordingly takes it. + </p> + <p> + But if this is so, and if also the congeries of all the living forms in + the world must be regarded as a single person, throughout their long + growth from the primordial cell onwards to the present day, then, by + parity of reasoning, the person thus compounded-that is to say, Life or + God-should have already passed through a growth analogous to that which we + find he has taken upon this earth on an infinite number of past occasions; + and the development of each class of life, with its culmination in the + vertebrate animals and in man, should be due to recollection by God of his + having passed through the same stages, or nearly so, in worlds and + universes, which we know of from personal recollection, as evidenced in + the growth and structure of our bodies, but concerning which we have no + other knowledge whatsoever. + </p> + <p> + So small a space remains to me that I cannot pursue further the + reflections which suggest themselves. A few concluding considerations are + here alone possible. + </p> + <p> + We know of three great concentric phases of life, and we are not without + reason to suspect a fourth. If there are so many there are very likely + more, but we do not know whether there are or not. The innermost sphere of + life we know of is that of our own cells. These people live in a world of + their own, knowing nothing of us, nor being known by ourselves until very + recently. Yet they can be seen under a microscope; they can be taken out + of us, and may then be watched going here and there in perturbation of + mind, endeavouring [sic] to find something in their new environment that + will suit them, and then dying on finding how hopelessly different it is + from any to which they have been accustomed. They live in us, and make us + up into the single person which we conceive ourselves to form; we are to + them a world comprising an organic and an inorganic kingdom, of which they + consider themselves to be the organic, and whatever is not very like + themselves to be the inorganic. Whether they are composed of subordinate + personalities or not we do not know, but we have no reason to think that + they are, and if we touch ground, so to speak, with life in the units of + which our own bodies are composed, it is likely that there is a limit also + in an upward direction, though we have nothing whatever to guide us as to + where it is, nor any certainty that there is a limit at all. + </p> + <p> + We are ourselves the second concentric sphere of life, we being the + constituent cells which unite to form the body of God. Of the third sphere + we know a single member only-the God of this world; but we see also the + stars in heaven, and know their multitude. Analogy points irresistibly in + the direction of thinking that these other worlds are like our own, + begodded and full of life; it also bids us believe that the God of their + world is begotten of one more or less like himself, and that his growth + has followed the same course as that of all other growths we know of. + </p> + <p> + If so, he is one of the constituent units of an unknown and vaster + personality who is composed of Gods, as our God is composed of all the + living forms on earth, and as all those living forms are composed of + cells. This is the Unknown God. Beyond this second God we cannot at + present go, nor should we wish to do so, if we are wise. It is no reproach + to a system that it does not profess to give an account of the origin of + things; the reproach rather should lie against a system which professed to + explain it, for we may be well assured that such a profession would, for + the present at any rate, be an empty boast. It is enough if a system is + true as far as it goes; if it throws new light on old problems, and opens + up vistas which reveal a hope of further addition to our knowledge, and + this I believe may be fairly claimed for the theory of life put forward in + "Life and Habit" and "Evolution, Old and New," and for the corollary + insisted upon in these pages; a corollary which follows logically and + irresistibly if the position I have taken in the above-named books is + admitted. + </p> + <p> + Let us imagine that one of the cells of which we are composed could attain + to a glimmering perception of the manner in which he unites with other + cells, of whom he knows very little, so as to form a greater compound + person of whom he has hitherto known nothing at all. Would he not do well + to content himself with the mastering of this conception, at any rate for + a considerable time? Would it be any just ground of complaint against him + on the part of his brother cells, that he had failed to explain to them + who made the man (or, as he would call it, the omnipotent deity) whose + existence and relations to himself he had just caught sight of? + </p> + <p> + But if he were to argue further on the same lines as those on which he had + travelled hitherto, and were to arrive at the conclusion that there might + be other men in the world. besides the one whom he had just learnt to + apprehend, it would be still no refutation or just ground of complaint + against him that he had failed to show the manner in which his supposed + human race had come into existence. + </p> + <p> + Here our cell would probably stop. He could hardly be expected to arrive + at the existence of animals and plants differing from the human race, and + uniting with that race to form a single Person or God, in the same way as + he has himself united with other cells to form man. The existence, and + much more the roundness of the earth itself, would be unknown to him, + except by way of inference and deduction. The only universe which he could + at all understand would be the body of the man of whom he was a component + part. + </p> + <p> + How would not such a cell be astounded if all that we know ourselves could + be suddenly revealed to him, so that not only should the vastness of this + earth burst upon his dazzled view, but that of the sun and of his planets + also, and not only these, but the countless other suns which we may see by + night around us. Yet it is probable that an actual being is hidden from + us, which no less transcends the wildest dream of our theologians than the + existence of the heavenly bodies transcends the perception of our own + constituent cells. + </p> + <p> + THE END <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's God the Known and God the Unknown, by Samuel Butler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOD THE KNOWN AND GOD THE UNKNOWN *** + +***** This file should be named 2513-h.htm or 2513-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/1/2513/ + +Produced by Elliot S. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: God the Known and God the Unknown + +Author: Samuel Butler + +Posting Date: December 14, 2008 [EBook #2513] +Release Date: February, 2001 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOD THE KNOWN AND GOD THE UNKNOWN *** + + + + +Produced by Elliot S. Wheeler + + + + + +GOD THE KNOWN AND GOD THE UNKNOWN + +By Samuel Butler + + + + +Prefatory Note + +"GOD the Known and God the Unknown" first appeared in the form of a +series of articles which were published in "The Examiner" in May, June, +and July, 1879. Samuel Butler subsequently revised the text of his +work, presumably with the intention of republishing it, though he +never carried the intention into effect. In the present edition I have +followed his revised version almost without deviation. I have, however, +retained a few passages which Butler proposed to omit, partly because +they appear to me to render the course of his argument clearer, and +partly because they contain characteristic thoughts and expressions of +which none of his admirers would wish to be deprived. In the list of +Butler's works "God the Known and God the Unknown" follows "Life and +Habit," which appeared in 1877, and "Evolution, Old and New," which was +published in May, 1879. It is scarcely necessary to point out that the +three works are closely akin in subject and treatment, and that "God the +Known and God the Unknown" will gain in interest by being considered in +relation to its predecessors. + +R. A. STREATFEILD + + + + +GOD THE KNOWN AND GOD THE UNKNOWN + + + +CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION + +MANKIND has ever been ready to discuss matters in the inverse ratio of +their importance, so that the more closely a question is felt to touch +the hearts of all of us, the more incumbent it is considered upon +prudent people to profess that it does not exist, to frown it down, to +tell it to hold its tongue, to maintain that it has long been finally +settled, so that there is now no question concerning it. + +So far, indeed, has this been carried through all time past that the +actions which are most important to us, such as our passage through the +embryonic stages, the circulation of our blood, our respiration, etc. +etc., have long been formulated beyond all power of reopening question +concerning them--the mere fact or manner of their being done at all +being ranked among the great discoveries of recent ages. Yet the analogy +of past settlements would lead us to suppose that so much unanimity was +not arrived at all at once, but rather that it must have been preceded +by much smouldering [sic] discontent, which again was followed by open +warfare; and that even after a settlement had been ostensibly arrived +at, there was still much secret want of conviction on the part of many +for several generations. + +There are many who see nothing in this tendency of our nature but +occasion for sarcasm; those, on the other hand, who hold that the +world is by this time old enough to be the best judge concerning the +management of its own affairs will scrutinise [sic] this management with +some closeness before they venture to satirise [sic] it; nor will +they do so for long without finding justification for its apparent +recklessness; for we must all fear responsibility upon matters about +which we feel we know but little; on the other hand we must all +continually act, and for the most part promptly. We do so, therefore, +with greater security when we can persuade both ourselves and others +that a matter is already pigeon-holed than if we feel that we must use +our own judgment for the collection, interpretation, and arrangement +of the papers which deal with it. Moreover, our action is thus made to +appear as if it received collective sanction; and by so appearing it +receives it. Almost any settlement, again, is felt to be better than +none, and the more nearly a matter comes home to everyone, the more +important is it that it should be treated as a sleeping dog, and be let +to lie, for if one person begins to open his mouth, fatal developments +may arise in the Babel that will follow. + +It is not difficult, indeed, to show that, instead of having reason to +complain of the desire for the postponement of important questions, as +though the world were composed mainly of knaves or fools, such fixity as +animal and vegetable forms possess is due to this very instinct. For if +there had been no reluctance, if there were no friction and vis inertae +to be encountered even after a theoretical equilibrium had been upset, +we should have had no fixed organs nor settled proclivities, but should +have been daily and hourly undergoing Protean transformations, and have +still been throwing out pseudopodia like the amoeba. True, we might have +come to like this fashion of living as well as our more steady-going +system if we had taken to it many millions of ages ago when we were +yet young; but we have contracted other habits which have become so +confirmed that we cannot break with them. We therefore now hate that +which we should perhaps have loved if we had practised [sic] it. This, +however, does not affect the argument, for our concern is with our likes +and dislikes, not with the manner in which those likes and dislikes have +come about. The discovery that organism is capable of modification +at all has occasioned so much astonishment that it has taken the most +enlightened part of the world more than a hundred years to leave off +expressing its contempt for such a crude, shallow, and preposterous +conception. Perhaps in another hundred years we shall learn to admire +the good sense, endurance, and thorough Englishness of organism in +having been so averse to change, even more than its versatility in +having been willing to change so much. + +Nevertheless, however conservative we may be, and however much alive to +the folly and wickedness of tampering with settled convictions-no matter +what they are-without sufficient cause, there is yet such a constant +though gradual change in our surroundings as necessitates corresponding +modification in our ideas, desires, and actions. We may think that we +should like to find ourselves always in the same surroundings as our +ancestors, so that we might be guided at every touch and turn by +the experience of our race, and be saved from all self-communing or +interpretation of oracular responses uttered by the facts around us. +Yet the facts will change their utterances in spite of us; and we, too, +change with age and ages in spite of ourselves, so as to see the facts +around us as perhaps even more changed than they actually are. It has +been said, "Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis." The passage would +have been no less true if it had stood, "Nos mutamur et tempora mutantur +in nobis." Whether the organism or the surroundings began changing first +is a matter of such small moment that the two may be left to fight it +out between themselves; but, whichever view is taken, the fact will +remain that whenever the relations between the organism and its +surroundings have been changed, the organism must either succeed in +putting the surroundings into harmony with itself, or itself into +harmony with the surroundings; or must be made so uncomfortable as to +be unable to remember itself as subjected to any such difficulties, and +therefore to die through inability to recognise [sic] its own identity +further. + +Under these circumstances, organism must act in one or other of these +two ways: it must either change slowly and continuously with the +surroundings, paying cash for everything, meeting the smallest change +with a corresponding modification so far as is found convenient; or it +must put off change as long as possible, and then make larger and more +sweeping changes. + +Both these courses are the same in principle, the difference being only +one of scale, and the one being a miniature of the other, as a ripple +is an Atlantic wave in little; both have their advantages and +disadvantages, so that most organisms will take the one course for one +set of things and the other for another. They will deal promptly +with things which they can get at easily, and which lie more upon the +surface; those, however, which are more troublesome to reach, and lie +deeper, will be handled upon more cataclysmic principles, being allowed +longer periods of repose followed by short periods of greater activity. + +Animals breathe and circulate their blood by a little action many times +a minute; but they feed, some of them, only two or three times a day, +and breed for the most part not more than once a year, their breeding +season being much their busiest time. It is on the first principle that +the modification of animal forms has proceeded mainly; but it may be +questioned whether what is called a sport is not the organic expression +of discontent which has been long felt, but which has not been attended +to, nor been met step by step by as much small remedial modification as +was found practicable: so that when a change does come it comes by way +of revolution. Or, again (only that it comes to much the same thing), +a sport may be compared to one of those happy thoughts which sometimes +come to us unbidden after we have been thinking for a long time what to +do, or how to arrange our ideas, and have yet been unable to arrive at +any conclusion. + +So with politics, the smaller the matter the prompter, as a general +rule, the settlement; on the other hand, the more sweeping the change +that is felt to be necessary, the longer it will be deferred. + +The advantages of dealing with the larger questions by more cataclysmic +methods are obvious. For, in the first place, all composite things must +have a system, or arrangement of parts, so that some parts shall depend +upon and be grouped round others, as in the articulation of a skeleton +and the arrangement of muscles, nerves, tendons, etc., which are +attached to it. To meddle with the skeleton is like taking up the +street, or the flooring of one's house; it so upsets our arrangements +that we put it off till whatever else is found wanted, or whatever else +seems likely to be wanted for a long time hence, can be done at the same +time. Another advantage is in the rest which is given to the attention +during the long hollows, so to speak, of the waves between the periods +of resettlement. Passion and prejudice have time to calm down, and when +attention is next directed to the same question, it is a refreshed and +invigorated attention-an attention, moreover, which may be given +with the help of new lights derived from other quarters that were not +luminous when the question was last considered. Thirdly, it is more +easy and safer to make such alterations as experience has proved to be +necessary than to forecast what is going to be wanted. Reformers are +like paymasters, of whom there are only two bad kinds, those who pay too +soon, and those who do not pay at all. + + + +CHAPTER II. COMMON GROUND + +I HAVE now, perhaps, sufficiently proved my sympathy with the reluctance +felt by many to tolerate discussion upon such a subject as the existence +and nature of God. I trust that I may have made the reader feel that he +need fear no sarcasm or levity in my treatment of the subject which I +have chosen. I will, therefore, proceed to sketch out a plan of what I +hope to establish, and this in no doubtful or unnatural sense, but by +attaching the same meanings to words as those which we usually attach to +them, and with the same certainty, precision, and clearness as anything +else is established which is commonly called known. + +As to what God is, beyond the fact that he is the Spirit and the +Life which creates, governs, and upholds all living things, I can say +nothing. I cannot pretend that I can show more than others have done +in what Spirit and the Life consists, which governs living things and +animates them. I cannot show the connection between consciousness and +the will, and the organ, much less can I tear away the veil from the +face of God, so as to show wherein will and consciousness consist. +No philosopher, whether Christian or Rationalist, has attempted this +without discomfiture; but I can, I hope, do two things: Firstly, I can +demonstrate, perhaps more clearly than modern science is prepared to +admit, that there does exist a single Being or Animator of all living +things--a single Spirit, whom we cannot think of under any meaner name +than God; and, secondly, I can show something more of the persona or +bodily expression, mask, and mouthpiece of this vast Living Spirit than +I know of as having been familiarly expressed elsewhere, or as being +accessible to myself or others, though doubtless many works exist in +which what I am going to say has been already said. + +Aware that much of this is widely accepted under the name of Pantheism, +I venture to think it differs from Pantheism with all the difference +that exists between a coherent, intelligible conception and an +incoherent unintelligible one. I shall therefore proceed to examine +the doctrine called Pantheism, and to show how incomprehensible and +valueless it is. + +I will then indicate the Living and Personal God about whose existence +and about many of whose attributes there is no room for question; I will +show that man has been so far made in the likeness of this Person or +God, that He possesses all its essential characteristics, and that it is +this God who has called man and all other living forms, whether animals +or plants, into existence, so that our bodies are the temples of His +spirit; that it is this which sustains them in their life and growth, +who is one with them, living, moving, and having His being in them; in +whom, also, they live and move, they in Him and He in them; He being +not a Trinity in Unity only, but an Infinity in Unity, and a Unity in an +Infinity; eternal in time past, for so much time at least that our minds +can come no nearer to eternity than this; eternal for the future as long +as the universe shall exist; ever changing, yet the same yesterday, and +to-day, and for ever. And I will show this with so little ambiguity that +it shall be perceived not as a phantom or hallucination following upon +a painful straining of the mind and a vain endeavour [sic] to give +coherency to incoherent and inconsistent ideas, but with the same ease, +comfort, and palpable flesh-and-blood clearness with which we see those +near to us; whom, though we see them at the best as through a glass +darkly, we still see face to face, even as we are ourselves seen. + +I will also show in what way this Being exercises a moral government +over the world, and rewards and punishes us according to His own laws. + +Having done this I shall proceed to compare this conception of God with +those that are currently accepted, and will endeavour [sic] to show that +the ideas now current are in truth efforts to grasp the one on which +I shall here insist. Finally, I shall persuade the reader that the +differences between the so-called atheist and the so-called theist are +differences rather about words than things, inasmuch as not even the +most prosaic of modern scientists will be inclined to deny the existence +of this God, while few theists will feel that this, the natural +conception of God, is a less worthy one than that to which they have +been accustomed. + + + +CHAPTER III. PANTHEISM. + +THE Rev. J. H. Blunt, in his "Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, etc.," +defines Pantheists as "those who hold that God is everything, and +everything is God." + +If it is granted that the value of words lies in the definiteness and +coherency of the ideas that present themselves to us when the words +are heard or spoken-then such a sentence as "God is everything and +everything is God" is worthless. + +For we have so long associated the word "God" with the idea of a Living +Person, who can see, hear, will, feel pleasure, displeasure, etc., that +we cannot think of God, and also of something which we have not been +accustomed to think of as a Living Person, at one and the same time, so +as to connect the two ideas and fuse them into a coherent thought. While +we are thinking of the one, our minds involuntarily exclude the other, +and vice versa; so that it is as impossible for us to think of anything +as God, or as forming part of God, which we cannot also think of as a +Person, or as a part of a Person, as it is to produce a hybrid between +two widely distinct animals. If I am not mistaken, the barrenness of +inconsistent ideas, and the sterility of widely distant species or +genera of plants and animals, are one in principle-sterility of hybrids +being due to barrenness of ideas, and barrenness of ideas arising from +inability to fuse unfamiliar thoughts into a coherent conception. I have +insisted on this at some length in "Life and Habit," but can do so no +further here. (Note: Butler returned to this subject in "Luck, or +cunning?" which was originally published in 1887.} + +In like manner we have so long associated the word "Person" with the +idea of a substantial visible body, limited in extent, and animated +by an invisible something which we call Spirit, that we can think of +nothing as a person which does not also bring these ideas before us. Any +attempt to make us imagine God as a Person who does not fulfil [sic] the +conditions which our ideas attach to the word "person," is ipso facto +atheistic, as rendering the word God without meaning, and therefore +without reality, and therefore non-existent to us. Our ideas are like +our organism, they will stand a vast amount of modification if it is +effected slowly and without shock, but the life departs out of them, +leaving the form of an idea without the power thereof, if they are +jarred too rudely. + +Any being, then, whom we can imagine as God, must have all the +qualities, capabilities, and also all the limitations which are implied +when the word "person" is used. + +But, again, we cannot conceive of "everything" as a person. "Everything" +must comprehend all that is to be found on earth, or outside of it, +and we know of no such persons as this. When we say "persons" we intend +living people with flesh and blood; sometimes we extend our conceptions +to animals and plants, but we have not hitherto done so as generally as +I hope we shall some day come to do. Below animals and plants we have +never in any seriousness gone. All that we have been able to regard as +personal has had what we can call a living body, even though that +body is vegetable only; and this body has been tangible, and has been +comprised within certain definite limits, or within limits which have at +any rate struck the eye as definite. And every part within these limits +has been animated by an unseen something which we call soul or spirit. A +person must be a persona--that is to say, the living mask and mouthpiece +of an energy saturating it, and speaking through it. It must be animate +in all its parts. + +But "everything" is not animate. Animals and plants alone produce in us +those ideas which can make reasonable people call them "persons" with +consistency of intention. We can conceive of each animal and of each +plant as a person; we can conceive again of a compound person like the +coral polypes [sic], or like a tree which is composed of a congeries of +subordinate persons, inasmuch as each bud is a separate and individual +plant. We can go farther than this, and, as I shall hope to show, +we ought to do so; that is to say, we shall find it easier and more +agreeable with our other ideas to go farther than not; for we should +see all animal and vegetable life as united by a subtle and till lately +invisible ramification, so that all living things are one tree-like +growth, forming a single person. But we cannot conceive of oceans, +continents, and air as forming parts of a person at all; much less +can we think of them as forming one person with the living forms that +inhabit them. + +To ask this of us is like asking us to see the bowl and the water in +which three gold-fish are swimming as part of the gold-fish. We cannot +do it any more than we can do something physically impossible. We can +see the gold-fish as forming one family, and therefore as in a way +united to the personality of the parents from which they sprang, and +therefore as members one of another, and therefore as forming a single +growth of gold-fish, as boughs and buds unite to form a tree; but we +cannot by any effort of the imagination introduce the bowl and the water +into the personality, for we have never been accustomed to think of such +things as living and personal. Those, therefore, who tell us that "God +is everything, and everything is God," require us to see "everything" +as a person, which we cannot; or God as not a person, which again we +cannot. + +Continuing the article of Mr. Blunt from which I have already quoted, I +read:-- + +"Linus, in a passage which has been preserved by Stobaeus, exactly +expresses the notion afterwards adopted by Spinoza: 'One sole energy +governs all things; all things are unity, and each portion is All; for +of one integer all things were born; in the end of time all things shall +again become unity; the unity of multiplicity.' Orpheus, his disciple, +taught no other doctrine." + +According to Pythagoras, "an adept in the Orphic philosophy," "the soul +of the world is the Divine energy which interpenetrates every portion +of the mass, and the soul of man is an efflux of that energy. The world, +too, is an exact impress of the Eternal Idea, which is the mind of God." +John Scotus Erigena taught that "all is God and God is all." William +of Champeaux, again, two hundred years later, maintained that "all +individuality is one in substance, and varies only in its non-essential +accidents and transient properties." Amalric of Bena and David of Dinant +followed the theory out "into a thoroughgoing Pantheism." Amalric held +that "All is God and God is all. The Creator and the creature are one +Being. Ideas are at once creative and created, subjective and objective. +God is the end of all, and all return to Him. As every variety of +humanity forms one manhood, so the world contains individual forms +of one eternal essence." David of Dinant only varied upon this by +"imagining a corporeal unity. Although body, soul, and eternal substance +are three, these three are one and the same being." + +Giordano Bruno maintained the world of sense to be "a vast animal having +the Deity for its living soul." The inanimate part of the world is +thus excluded from participation in the Deity, and a conception that +our minds can embrace is offered us instead of one which they cannot +entertain, except as in a dream, incoherently. But without such a view +of evolution as was prevalent at the beginning of this century, it was +impossible to see "the world of sense" intelligently, as forming "a vast +animal." Unless, therefore, Giordano Bruno held the opinions of Buffon, +Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, with more definiteness than I am +yet aware of his having done, his contention must be considered as a +splendid prophecy, but as little more than a prophecy. He continues, +"Birth is expansion from the one centre of Life; life is its +continuance, and death is the necessary return of the ray to the centre +of light." This begins finely, but ends mystically. I have not, however, +compared the English translation with the original, and must reserve a +fuller examination of Giordano Bruno's teaching for another opportunity. + +Spinoza disbelieved in the world rather than in God. He was an Acosmist, +to use Jacobi's expression, rather than an Atheist. According to him, +"the Deity and the Universe are but one substance, at the same time +both spirit and matter, thought and extension, which are the only known +attributes of the Deity." + +My readers will, I think, agree with me that there is very little of the +above which conveys ideas with the fluency and comfort which accompany +good words. Words are like servants: it is not enough that we should +have them-we must have the most able and willing that we can find, and +at the smallest wages that will content them. Having got them we must +make the best and not the worst of them. Surely, in the greater part of +what has been quoted above, the words are barren letters only: they do +not quicken within us and enable us to conceive a thought, such as we +can in our turn impress upon dead matter, and mould [sic] that matter +into another shape than its own, through the thought which has become +alive within us. No offspring of ideas has followed upon them, or, if +any at all, yet in such unwonted shape, and with such want of alacrity, +that we loathe them as malformations and miscarriages of our minds. +Granted that if we examine them closely we shall at length find them +to embody a little germ of truth-that is to say, of coherency with our +other ideas; but there is too little truth in proportion to the trouble +necessary to get at it. We can get more truth, that is to say, more +coherency-for truth and coherency are one-for less trouble in other +ways. + +But it may be urged that the beginnings of all tasks are difficult and +unremunerative, and that later developments of Pantheism may be more +intelligible than the earlier ones. Unfortunately, this is not the +case. On continuing Mr. Blunt's article, I find the later Pantheists a +hundredfold more perplexing than the earlier ones. With Kant, Schelling, +Fichte, and Hegel, we feel that we are with men who have been decoyed +into a hopeless quagmire; we understand nothing of their language-we +doubt whether they understand themselves, and feel that we can do +nothing with them but look at them and pass them by. + +In my next chapter I propose to show the end which the early Pantheists +were striving after, and the reason and naturalness of their error. + + + +CHAPTER IV. PANTHEISM. + +The earlier Pantheists were misled by the endeavour [sic] to lay hold of +two distinct ideas, the one of which was a reality that has since been +grasped and is of inestimable value, the other a phantom which has +misled all who have followed it. The reality is the unity of Life, the +oneness of the guiding and animating spirit which quickens animals and +plants, so that they are all the outcome and expression of a common +mind, and are in truth one animal; the phantom is the endeavour [sic] to +find the origin of things, to reach the fountain-head of all energy, +and thus to lay the foundations on which a philosophy may be constructed +which none can accuse of being baseless, or of arguing in a circle. + +In following as through a thick wood after the phantom our forefathers +from time to time caught glimpses of the reality, which seemed so +wonderful as it eluded them, and flitted back again into the thickets, +that they declared it must be the phantom they were in search of, which +was thus evidenced as actually existing. Whereon, instead of mastering +such of the facts they met with as could be captured easily-which facts +would have betrayed the hiding-places of others, and these again of +others, and so ad infinitum-they overlooked what was within their reach, +and followed hotly through brier and brake after an imaginary greater +prize. + +Great thoughts are not to be caught in this way. They must present +themselves for capture of their own free will, or be taken after a +little coyness only. They are like wealth and power, which, if a man +is not born to them, are the more likely to take him, the more he has +restrained himself from an attempt to snatch them. They hanker after +those only who have tamed their nearer thoughts. Nevertheless, it is +impossible not to feel that the early Pantheists were true prophets and +seers, though the things were unknown to them without which a complete +view was unattainable. What does Linus mean, we ask ourselves, when he +says:--"One sole energy governs all things"? How can one sole energy +govern, we will say, the reader and the chair on which he sits? What +is meant by an energy governing a chair? If by an effort we have made +ourselves believe we understand something which can be better expressed +by these words than by any others, no sooner do we turn our backs than +the ideas so painfully collected fly apart again. No matter how often we +go in search of them, and force them into juxtaposition, they prove to +have none of that innate coherent power with which ideas combine that we +can hold as true and profitable. + +Yet if Linus had confined his statement to living things, and had said +that one sole energy governed all plants and animals, he would have come +near both to being intelligible and true. For if, as we now believe, +all animals and plants are descended from a single cell, they must be +considered as cousins to one another, and as forming a single tree-like +animal, every individual plant or animal of which is as truly one and +the same person with the primordial cell as the oak a thousand years old +is one and the same plant with the acorn out of which it has grown. +This is easily understood, but will, I trust, be made to appear simpler +presently. + +When Linus says, "All things are unity, and each portion is All; for of +one integer all things were born," it is impossible for plain people-who +do not wish to use words unless they mean the same things by them as +both they and others have been in the habit of meaning-to understand +what is intended. How can each portion be all? How can one Londoner +be all London? I know that this, too, can in a way be shown, but the +resulting idea is too far to fetch, and when fetched does not fit in +well enough with our other ideas to give it practical and commercial +value. How, again, can all things be said to be born of one integer, +unless the statement is confined to living things, which can alone be +born at all, and unless a theory of evolution is intended, such as Linus +would hardly have accepted? + +Yet limit the "all things" to "all living things," grant the theory of +evolution, and explain "each portion is All" to mean that all life is +akin, and possesses the same essential fundamental characteristics, +and it is surprising how nearly Linus approaches both to truth and +intelligibility. + +It may be said that the animate and the inanimate have the same +fundamental substance, so that a chair might rot and be absorbed by +grass, which grass might be eaten by a cow, which cow might be eaten by +a man; and by similar processes the man might become a chair; but these +facts are not presented to the mind by saying that "one energy governs +all things"-a chair, we will say, and a man; we could only say that one +energy governed a man and a chair, if the chair were a reasonable living +person, who was actively and consciously engaged in helping the man to +attain a certain end, unless, that is to say, we are to depart from +all usual interpretation of words, in which case we invalidate the +advantages of language and all the sanctions of morality. + +"All things shall again become unity" is intelligible as meaning that +all things probably have come from a single elementary substance, +say hydrogen or what not, and that they will return to it; but the +explanation of unity as being the "unity of multiplicity" puzzles; if +there is any meaning it is too recondite to be of service to us. + +What, again, is meant by saying that "the soul of the world is the +Divine energy which interpenetrates every portion of the mass"? The soul +of the world is an expression which, to myself, and, I should imagine, +to most people, is without propriety. We cannot think of the world +except as earth, air, and water, in this or that state, on and in which +there grow plants and animals. What is meant by saying that earth has a +soul, and lives? Does it move from place to place erratically? Does it +feed? Does it reproduce itself? Does it make such noises, or commit such +vagaries as shall make us say that it feels? Can it achieve its ends, +and fail of achieving them through mistake? If it cannot, how has it a +soul more than a dead man has a soul, out of whom we say that the soul +has departed, and whose body we conceive of as returning to dead earth, +inasmuch as it is now soulless? Is there any unnatural violence which +can be done to our thoughts by which we can bring the ideas of a soul +and of water, or of a stone into combination, and keep them there for +long together? The ancients, indeed, said they believed their rivers to +be gods, and carved likenesses of them under the forms of men; but even +supposing this to have been their real mind, can it by any conceivable +means become our own? Granted that a stone is kept from falling to dust +by an energy which compels its particles to cohere, which energy can be +taken out of it and converted into some other form of energy; granted +(which may or may not be true) also, that the life of a living body is +only the energy which keeps the particles which compose it in a certain +disposition; and granted that the energy of the stone may be convertible +into the energy of a living form, and that thus, after a long journey +a tired idea may lag after the sound of such words as "the soul of the +world." Granted all the above, nevertheless to speak of the world as +having a soul is not sufficiently in harmony with our common notions, +nor does it go sufficiently with the grain of our thoughts to render the +expression a meaning one, or one that can be now used with any propriety +or fitness, except by those who do not know their own meaninglessness. +Vigorous minds will harbour [sic] vigorous thoughts only, or such as bid +fair to become so; and vigorous thoughts are always simple, definite, +and in harmony with everyday ideas. + +We can imagine a soul as living in the lowest slime that moves, feeds, +reproduces itself, remembers, and dies. The amoeba wants things, knows +it wants them, alters itself so as to try and alter them, thus preparing +for an intended modification of outside matter by a preliminary +modification of itself. It thrives if the modification from within is +followed by the desired modification in the external object; it knows +that it is well, and breeds more freely in consequence. If it cannot +get hold of outside matter, or cannot proselytise [sic] that matter and +persuade it to see things through its own (the amoeba's) spectacles-if +it cannot convert that matter, if the matter persists in disagreeing +with it-its spirits droop, its soul is disquieted within it, it becomes +listless like a withering flower-it languishes and dies. We cannot +imagine a thing to live at all and yet be soulless except in sleep for +a short time, and even so not quite soulless. The idea of a soul, or of +that unknown something for which the word "soul" is our hieroglyphic, +and the idea of living organism, unite so spontaneously, and stick +together so inseparably, that no matter how often we sunder them they +will elude our vigilance and come together, like true lovers, in spite +of us. Let us not attempt to divorce ideas that have so long been wedded +together. + +I submit, then, that Pantheism, even as explained by those who had +entered on the outskirts only of its great morass, nevertheless holds +out so little hope of leading to any comfortable conclusion that it will +be more reasonable to occupy our minds with other matter than to follow +Pantheism further. The Pantheists speak of a person without meaning a +person; they speak of a "him" and a "he" without having in their +minds the idea of a living person with all its inevitable limitations. +Pantheism is, therefore, as is said by Mr. Blunt in another article, +"practically nothing else than Atheism; it has no belief in a personal +deity overruling the affairs of the world, as Divine Providence, and is, +therefore, Atheistic," and again, "Theism believes in a spirit +superior to matter, and so does Pantheism; but the spirit of Theism is +self-conscious, and therefore personal and of individual existence-a +nature per se, and upholding all things by an active control; while +Pantheism believes in spirit that is of a higher nature than brute +matter, but is a mere unconscious principle of life, impersonal, +irrational as the brute matter that it quickens." + +If this verdict concerning Pantheism is true--and from all I can gather +it is as nearly true as anything can be said to be which is predicated +of an incoherent idea--the Pantheistic God is an attempt to lay hold of a +truth which has nevertheless eluded its pursuers. + +In my next chapter I will consider the commonly received, orthodox +conception of God, and compare it with the Pantheistic. I will show that +it, too, is Atheistic, inasmuch as, in spite of its professing to give +us a conception of God, it raises no ideas in our minds of a person or +Living Being--and a God who is not this is non-existent. + + + +CHAPTER V. ORTHODOX THEISM + +We have seen that Pantheism fails to satisfy, inasmuch as it requires us +to mean something different by the word "God" from what we have been +in the habit of meaning. I have already said-I fear, too often-that no +conception of God can have any value or meaning for us which does not +involve his existence as an independent Living Person of ineffable +wisdom and power, vastness, and duration both in the past and for the +future. If such a Being as this can be found existing and made evident, +directly or indirectly, to human senses, there is a God. If otherwise, +there is no God, or none, at any rate, so far as we can know, none with +whom we need concern ourselves. No conscious personality, no God. An +impersonal God is as much a contradiction in terms as an impersonal +person. + +Unfortunately, when we question orthodox theology closely, we find that +it supposes God to be a person who has no material body such as could +come within the range of any human sense, and make an impression upon +it. He is supposed to be of a spiritual nature only, except in so far +as one part of his triune personality is, according to the Athanasian +Creed, "perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting." + +Here, then, we find ourselves in a dilemma. On the one hand, we are +involved in the same difficulty as in the case of Pantheism, inasmuch +as a person without flesh and blood, or something analogous, is not a +person; we are required, therefore, to believe in a personal God, who +has no true person; to believe, that is to say, in an impersonal person. + +This, as we have seen already, is Atheism under another name, being, as +it is, destructive of all idea of God whatever; for these words do not +convey an idea of something which human intelligence can understand +up to a certain point, and which it can watch going out of sight into +regions beyond our view, but in the same direction-as we may infer other +stars in space beyond the farthest that we know of; they convey utterly +self-destructive ideas, which can have no real meaning, and can only be +thought to have a meaning by ignorant and uncultivated people. Otherwise +such foundation as human reason rests upon-that is to say, the current +opinion of those whom the world appraises as reasonable and agreeable, +or capable of being agreed with for any time-is sapped; the whole thing +tumbles down, and we may have square circles and round triangles, which +may be declared to be no longer absurdities and contradictions in terms, +but mysteries that go beyond our reason, without being contrary to it. +Few will maintain this, and those few may be neglected; an impersonal +person must therefore be admitted to be nonsense, and an immaterial God +to be Atheism in another shape. + +On the other hand, if God is "of a reasonable soul and human flesh +subsisting," and if he thus has the body without which he is-as far as +we are concerned-non-existent, this body must yet be reasonably +like other bodies, and must exist in some place and at some time. +Furthermore, it must do sufficiently nearly what all other "human flesh" +belonging to "perfect man" must do, or cease to be human flesh. Our +ideas are like our organisms; they have some little elasticity and +circumstance-suiting power, some little margin on which, as I have +elsewhere said, side-notes may be written, and glosses on the original +text; but this power is very limited. As offspring will only, as a +general rule, vary very little from its immediate parents, and as it +will fail either immediately or in the second generation if the parents +differ too widely from one another, so we cannot get our idea of-we +will say a horse-to conjure up to our minds the idea of any animal more +unlike a horse than a pony is; nor can we get a well-defined idea of a +combination between a horse and any animal more remote from it than an +ass, zebra, or giraffe. We may, indeed, make a statue of a flying horse, +but the idea is one which cannot be made plausible to any but ignorant +people. So "human flesh" may vary a little from "human flesh" without +undue violence being done to our reason and to the right use of +language, but it cannot differ from it so much as not to eat, drink, nor +waste and repair itself. "Human flesh," which is without these necessary +adjuncts, is human flesh only to those who can believe in flying horses +with feathered wings and bills like birds-that is to say, to vulgar and +superstitious persons. + +Lastly, not only must the "perfect man," who is the second person of +the Godhead according to the orthodox faith, and who subsists of "human +flesh" as well as of a "reasonable soul," not only must this person +exist, but he must exist in some place either on this earth or outside +it. If he exists on earth, he must be in Europe, Asia, Africa, America, +or on some island, and if he were met with he must be capable of being +seen and handled in the same way as all other things that can be called +perfect man are seen; otherwise he is a perfect man who is not only not +a perfect man, but who does not in any considerable degree resemble one. +It is not, however, pretended by anyone that God, the "perfect man," is +to be looked for in any place upon the surface of the globe. + +If, on the other hand, the person of God exists in some sphere outside +the earth, his human flesh again proves to be of an entirely different +kind from all other human flesh, for we know that such flesh cannot +exist except on earth; if in space unsupported, it must fall to the +ground, or into some other planet, or into a sun, or go on revolving +round the earth or some other heavenly body-or not be personal. None of +those whose opinions will carry weight will assign a position either in +some country on this earth, or yet again in space, to Jesus Christ, but +this involves the rendering meaningless of all expressions which involve +his personality. + +The Christian conception, therefore, of the Deity proves when examined +with any desire to understand our own meaning (and what lawlessness so +great as the attempt to impose words upon our understandings which have +no lawful settlement within them?) to be no less a contradiction in +terms than the Pantheistic conception. It is Atheistic, as offering us +a God which is not a God, inasmuch as we can conceive of no such +being, nor of anything in the least like it. It is, like Pantheism, an +illusion, which can be believed only by those who repeat a formula which +they have learnt by heart in a foreign language of which they understand +nothing, and yet aver that they believe it. There are doubtless many who +will say that this is possible, but the majority of my readers will hold +that no proposition can be believed or disbelieved until its nature is +understood. + +It may perhaps be said that there is another conception of God possible, +and that we may see him as personal, without at the same time believing +that he has any actual tangible existence. Thus we personify hope, +truth, and justice, without intending to convey to anyone the impression +that these qualities are women, with flesh and blood. Again, we do not +think of Nature as an actual woman, though we call her one; why may we +not conceive of God, then, as an expression whereby we personify, by a +figure of speech only; the thing that is intended being no person, but +our own highest ideal of power, wisdom, and duration. + +There would be no reason to complain of this if this manner of using the +word "God" were well understood. Many words have two meanings, or even +three, without any mischievous confusion of thought following. There +can not only be no objection to the use of the word God as a manner of +expressing the highest ideal of which our minds can conceive, but on the +contrary no better expression can be found, and it is a pity the word is +not thus more generally used. + +Few, however, would be content with any such limitation of God as that +he should be an idea only, an expression for certain qualities of human +thought and action. Whence, it may be fairly asked, did our deeply +rooted belief in God as a Living Person originate? The idea of him as +of an inconceivably vast, ancient, powerful, loving, and yet formidable +Person is one which survives all changes of detail in men's opinion. I +believe there are a few very savage tribes who are as absolutely without +religious sense as the beasts of the field, but the vast majority for a +long time past have been possessed with an idea that there is somewhere +a Living God who is the Spirit and the Life of all that is, and who is a +true Person with an individuality and self-consciousness of his own. It +is only natural that we should be asked how such an idea has remained in +the minds of so many--who differ upon almost every other part of their +philosophy-for so long a time if it was without foundation, and a piece +of dreamy mysticism only. + +True, it has generally been declared that this God is an infinite God, +and an infinite God is a God without any bounds or limitations; and +a God without bounds or limitations is an impersonal God; and an +impersonal God is Atheism. But may not this be the incoherency of +prophecy which precedes the successful mastering of an idea? May we not +think of this illusory expression as having arisen from inability to +see the whereabouts of a certain vast but tangible Person as to whose +existence men were nevertheless clear? If they felt that it existed, and +yet could not say where, nor wherein it was to be laid hands on, they +would be very likely to get out of the difficulty by saying that it +existed as an infinite Spirit, partly from a desire to magnify what they +felt must be so vast and powerful, and partly because they had as +yet only a vague conception of what they were aiming at, and must, +therefore, best express it vaguely. + +We must not be surprised that when an idea is still inchoate its +expression should be inconsistent and imperfect-ideas will almost always +during the earlier history of a thought be put together experimentally +so as to see whether or no they will cohere. Partly out of indolence, +partly out of the desire of those who brought the ideas together to be +declared right, and partly out of joy that the truth should be supposed +found, incoherent ideas will be kept together longer than they should +be; nevertheless they will in the end detach themselves and go, if +others present themselves which fit into their place better. There is no +consistency which has not once been inconsistent, nor coherency that has +not been incoherent. The incoherency of our ideas concerning God is due +to the fact that we have not yet truly found him, but it does not argue +that he does not exist and cannot be found anywhere after more diligent +search; on the contrary, the persistence of the main idea, in spite +of the incoherency of its details, points strongly in the direction of +believing that it rests upon a foundation in fact. + +But it must be remembered there can be no God who is not personal and +material: and if personal, then, though inconceivably vast in comparison +with man, still limited in space and time, and capable of making +mistakes concerning his own interests, though as a general rule right in +his estimates concerning them. Where, then, is this Being? He must be +on earth, or what folly can be greater than speaking of him as a person? +What are persons on any other earth to us, or we to them? He must have +existed and be going to exist through all time, and he must have a +tangible body. Where, then, is the body of this God? And what is the +mystery of his Incarnation? + +It will be my business to show this in the following chapter. + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE TREE OF LIFE + +Atheism denies knowledge of a God of any kind. Pantheism and Theism +alike profess to give us a God, but they alike fail to perform what they +have promised. We can know nothing of the God they offer us, for not +even do they themselves profess that any of our senses can be cognisant +[sic] of him. They tell us that he is a personal God, but that he has no +material person. This is disguised Atheism. What we want is a Personal +God, the glory of whose Presence can be made in part evident to our +senses, though what we can realise [sic] is less than nothing in +comparison with what we must leave for ever unimagined. + +And truly such a God is not far from every one of us; for if we survey +the broader and deeper currents of men's thoughts during the last three +thousand years, we may observe two great and steady sets as having +carried away with them the more eligible races of mankind. The one is +a tendency from Polytheism to Monotheism; the other from Polytypism to +Monotypism of the earliest forms of life-all animal and vegetable forms +having at length come to be regarded as differentiations of a single +substance-to wit, protoplasm. + +No man does well so to kick against the pricks as to set himself against +tendencies of such depth, strength, and permanence as this. If he is +to be in harmony with the dominant opinion of his own and of many past +ages, he will see a single God-impregnate substance as having been the +parent from which all living forms have sprung. One spirit, and one form +capable of such modification as its directing spirit shall think fit; +one soul and one body, one God and one Life. + +For the time has come when the two unities so painfully arrived at must +be joined together as body and soul, and be seen not as two, but one. +There is no living organism untenanted by the Spirit of God, nor any +Spirit of God perceivable by man apart from organism embodying and +expressing it. God and the Life of the World are like a mountain, which +will present different aspects as we look at it from different sides, +but which, when we have gone all round it, proves to be one only. God +is the animal and vegetable world, and the animal and vegetable world is +God. + +I have repeatedly said that we ought to see all animal and vegetable +life as uniting to form a single personality. I should perhaps explain +this more fully, for the idea of a compound person is one which at first +is not very easy to grasp, inasmuch as we are not conscious of any but +our more superficial aspects, and have therefore until lately failed +to understand that we are ourselves compound persons. I may perhaps be +allowed to quote from an earlier work. + +"Each cell in the human body is now admitted by physiologists to be a +person with an intelligent soul, differing from our own more complex +soul in degree and not in kind, and, like ourselves, being born, living, +and dying. It would appear, then, as though 'we,' 'our souls,' or +'selves,' or 'personalities,' or by whatever name we may prefer to +be called, are but the consensus and full-flowing stream of countless +sensations and impulses on the part of our tributary souls or 'selves,' +who probably no more know that we exist, and that they exist as a part +of us, than a microscopic insect knows the results of spectrum analysis, +or than an agricultural labourer [sic] knows the working of the British +Constitution; and of whom we know no more than we do of the habits +and feelings of some class widely separated from our own."-("Life and +Habit," p. 110.) + +After which it became natural to ask the following question:--"Is it +possible to avoid imagining that we may be ourselves atoms, undesignedly +combining to form some vaster being, though we are utterly incapable of +perceiving this being as a single individual, or of realising [sic] the +scheme and scope of our own combination? And this, too, not a spiritual +being, which, without matter or what we think matter of some sort, is +as complete nonsense to us as though men bade us love and lean upon an +intelligent vacuum, but a being with what is virtually flesh and blood +and bones, with organs, senses, dimensions in some way analogous to our +own, into some other part of which being at the time of our great change +we must infallibly re-enter, starting clean anew, with bygones bygones, +and no more ache for ever from age or antecedents. + +"'An organic being,' writes Mr. Darwin, 'is a microcosm, a little +universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms inconceivably +minute and numerous as the stars in Heaven.' As these myriads of smaller +organisms are parts and processes of us, so are we parts and processes +of life at large." + +A tree is composed of a multitude of subordinate trees, each bud being +a distinct individual. So coral polypes [sic] form a tree-like growth +of animal life, with branches from which spring individual polypes +[sic] that are connected by a common tissue and supported by a common +skeleton. We have no difficulty in seeing a unity in multitude, and +a multitude in unity here, because we can observe the wood and the +gelatinous tissue connecting together all the individuals which compose +either the tree or the mass of polypes [sic]. Yet the skeleton, whether +of tree or of polype [sic], is inanimate; and the tissue, whether of +bark or gelatine [sic], is only the matted roots of the individual buds; +so that the outward and striking connection between the individuals +is more delusive than real. The true connection is one which cannot be +seen, and consists in the animation of each bud by a like spirit-in the +community of soul, in "the voice of the Lord which maketh men to be +of one mind in an house"-"to dwell together in unity"-to take what are +practically identical views of things, and express themselves in concert +under all circumstances. Provided this-the true unifier of organism-can +be shown to exist, the absence of gross outward and visible but +inanimate common skeleton is no bar to oneness of personality. + +Let us picture to our minds a tree of which all the woody fibre [sic] +shall be invisible, the buds and leaves seeming to stand in mid-air +unsupported and unconnected with one another, so that there is nothing +but a certain tree-like collocation of foliage to suggest any common +principle of growth uniting the leaves. + +Three or four leaves of different ages stand living together at the +place in the air where the end of each bough should be; of these the +youngest are still tender and in the bud, while the older ones are +turning yellow and on the point of falling. Between these leaves a sort +of twig-like growth can be detected if they are looked at in certain +lights, but it is hard to see, except perhaps when a bud is on the point +of coming out. Then there does appear to be a connection which might be +called branch-like. + +The separate tufts are very different from one another, so that oak +leaves, ash leaves, horse-chestnut leaves, etc., are each represented, +but there is one species only at the end of each bough. + +Though the trunk and all the inner boughs and leaves have disappeared, +yet there hang here and there fossil leaves, also in mid-air; they +appear to have been petrified, without method or selection, by what we +call the caprices of nature; they hang in the path which the boughs and +twigs would have taken, and they seem to indicate that if the tree could +have been seen a million years earlier, before it had grown near its +present size, the leaves standing at the end of each bough would have +been found very different from what they are now. Let us suppose that +all the leaves at the end of all the invisible boughs, no matter how +different they now are from one another, were found in earliest budhood +to be absolutely indistinguishable, and afterwards to develop towards +each differentiation through stages which were indicated by the fossil +leaves. Lastly, let us suppose that though the boughs which seem wanted +to connect all the living forms of leaves with the fossil leaves, and +with countless forms of which all trace has disappeared, and also with +a single root-have become invisible, yet that there is irrefragable +evidence to show that they once actually existed, and indeed are +existing at this moment, in a condition as real though as invisible +to the eye as air or electricity. Should we, I ask, under these +circumstances hesitate to call our imaginary plant or tree by a single +name, and to think of it as one person, merely upon the score that the +woody fibre [sic] was invisible? Should we not esteem the common soul, +memories and principles of growth which are preserved between all the +buds, no matter how widely they differ in detail, as a more living +bond of union than a framework of wood would be, which, though it were +visible to the eye, would still be inanimate? + +The mistletoe appears as closely connected with the tree on which it +grows as any of the buds of the tree itself; it is fed upon the same sap +as the other buds are, which sap-however much it may modify it at +the last moment-it draws through the same fibres [sic] as do its +foster-brothers-why then do we at once feel that the mistletoe is no +part of the apple tree? Not from any want of manifest continuity, but +from the spiritual difference-from the profoundly different views of +life and things which are taken by the parasite and the tree on which it +grows-the two are now different because they think differently-as +long as they thought alike they were alike-that is to say they were +protoplasm-they and we and all that lives meeting in this common +substance. + +We ought therefore to regard our supposed tufts of leaves as a tree, +that is to say, as a compound existence, each one of whose component +items is compounded of others which are also in their turn compounded. +But the tree above described is no imaginary parallel to the condition +of life upon the globe; it is perhaps as accurate a description of the +Tree of Life as can be put into so small a compass. The most sure proof +of a man's identity is the power to remember that such and such things +happened, which none but he can know; the most sure proof of his +remembering is the power to react his part in the original drama, +whatever it may have been; if a man can repeat a performance with +consummate truth, and can stand any amount of cross-questioning about +it, he is the performer of the original performance, whatever it was. +The memories which all living forms prove by their actions that they +possess-the memories of their common identity with a single person in +whom they meet-this is incontestable proof of their being animated by +a common soul. It is certain, therefore, that all living forms, whether +animal or vegetable, are in reality one animal; we and the mosses being +part of the same vast person in no figurative sense, but with as much +bona fide literal truth as when we say that a man's finger-nails and his +eyes are parts of the same man. + +It is in this Person that we may see the Body of God-and in the +evolution of this Person, the mystery of His Incarnation. + +[In "Unconscious Memory," Chapter V, Butler wrote: "In the articles +above alluded to ("God the Known and God the Unknown") I separated the +organic from the inorganic, but when I came to rewrite them I found that +this could not be done, and that I must reconstruct what I had written." +This reconstruction never having been effected, it may be well to quote +further from "Unconscious Memory" (concluding chapter): "At parting, +therefore, I would recommend the reader to see every atom in the +universe as living and able to feel and remember, but in a humble way. +He must have life eternal as well as matter eternal; and the life and +the matter must be joined together inseparably as body and soul to +one another. Thus he will see God everywhere, not as those who repeat +phrases conventionally, but as people who would have their words taken +according to their most natural and legitimate meaning; and he will feel +that the main difference between him and many of those who oppose him +lies in the fact that whereas both he and they use the same language, +his opponents only half mean what they say, while he means it +entirely... We shall endeavour [sic] to see the so-called inorganic as +living, in respect of the qualities it has in common with the organic, +rather than the organic as non-living in respect of the qualities it has +in common with the inorganic."] + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE LIKENESS OF GOD + +In my last chapter I endeavoured [sic] to show that each living being, +whether animal or plant, throughout the world is a component item of +a single personality, in the same way as each individual citizen of a +community is a member of one state, or as each cell of our own bodies +is a separate person, or each bud of a tree a separate plant. We must +therefore see the whole varied congeries of living things as a single +very ancient Being, of inconceivable vastness, and animated by one +Spirit. + +We call the octogenarian one person with the embryo of a few days old +from which he has developed. An oak or yew tree may be two thousand +years old, but we call it one plant with the seed from which it has +grown. Millions of individual buds have come and gone, to the yearly +wasting and repairing of its substance; but the tree still lives and +thrives, and the dead leaves have life therein. So the Tree of Life +still lives and thrives as a single person, no matter how many new +features it has acquired during its development, nor, again, how many +of its individual leaves fall yellow to the ground daily. The spirit or +soul of this person is the Spirit of God, and its body-for we know of no +soul or spirit without a body, nor of any living body without a spirit +or soul, and if there is a God at all there must be a body of God-is +the many-membered outgrowth of protoplasm, the ensemble of animal and +vegetable life. + +To repeat. The Theologian of to-day tells us that there is a God, but is +horrified at the idea of that God having a body. We say that we believe +in God, but that our minds refuse to realise [sic] an intelligent Being +who has no bodily person. "Where then," says the Theologian, "is the +body of your God?" We have answered, "In the living forms upon the +earth, which, though they look many, are, when we regard them by the +light of their history and of true analogies, one person only." The +spiritual connection between them is a more real bond of union than the +visible discontinuity of material parts is ground for separating them in +our thoughts. + +Let the reader look at a case of moths in the shop-window of a +naturalist, and note the unspeakable delicacy, beauty, and yet +serviceableness of their wings; or let him look at a case of +humming-birds, and remember how infinitely small a part of Nature is +the whole group of the animals he may be considering, and how infinitely +small a part of that group is the case that he is looking at. Let him +bear in mind that he is looking on the dead husks only of what was +inconceivably more marvellous [sic] when the moths or humming-birds were +alive. Let him think of the vastness of the earth, and of the activity +by day and night through countless ages of such countless forms of +animal and vegetable life as that no human mind can form the faintest +approach to anything that can be called a conception of their multitude, +and let him remember that all these forms have touched and touched and +touched other living beings till they meet back on a common substance in +which they are rooted, and from which they all branch forth so as to be +one animal. Will he not in this real and tangible existence find a God +who is as much more worthy of admiration than the God of the ordinary +Theologian-as He is also more easy of comprehension? + +For the Theologian dreams of a God sitting above the clouds among the +cherubim, who blow their loud uplifted angel trumpets before Him, and +humour [sic] Him as though He were some despot in an Oriental tale; but +we enthrone Him upon the wings of birds, on the petals of flowers, on +the faces of our friends, and upon whatever we most delight in of all +that lives upon the earth. We then can not only love Him, but we can +do that without which love has neither power nor sweetness, but is a +phantom only, an impersonal person, a vain stretching forth of arms +towards something that can never fill them-we can express our love and +have it expressed to us in return. And this not in the uprearing of +stone temples-for the Lord dwelleth [sic] in temples made with other +organs than hands-nor yet in the cleansing of our hearts, but in the +caress bestowed upon horse and dog, and kisses upon the lips of those we +love. + +Wide, however, as is the difference between the orthodox Theologian and +ourselves, it is not more remarkable than the number of the points on +which we can agree with him, and on which, moreover, we can make his +meaning clearer to himself than it can have ever hitherto been. He, for +example, says that man has been made in the image of God, but he cannot +mean what he says, unless his God has a material body; we, on the other +hand, do not indeed believe that the body of God-the incorporation of +all life-is like the body of a man, more than we believe each one of our +own cells or subordinate personalities to be like a man in miniature; +but we nevertheless hold that each of our tributary selves is so far +made after the likeness of the body corporate that it possesses all our +main and essential characteristics-that is to say, that it can waste +and repair itself; can feel, move, and remember. To this extent, also, +we-who stand in mean proportional between our tributary personalities +and God-are made in the likeness of God; for we, and God, and our +subordinate cells alike possess the essential characteristics of life +which have been above recited. It is more true, therefore, for us to say +that we are made in the likeness of God than for the orthodox Theologian +to do so. + +Nor, again, do we find difficulty in adopting such an expression as that +"God has taken our nature upon Him." We hold this as firmly, and much +more so, than Christians can do, but we say that this is no new thing +for Him to do, for that He has taken flesh and dwelt among us from the +day that He first assumed our shape, some millions of years ago, until +now. God cannot become man more especially than He can become other +living forms, any more than we can be our eyes more especially than any +other of our organs. We may develop larger eyes, so that our eyes may +come to occupy a still more important place in our economy than they +do at present; and in a similar way the human race may become a more +predominant part of God than it now is-but we cannot admit that one +living form is more like God than another; we must hold all equally like +Him, inasmuch as they "keep ever," as Buffon says, "the same fundamental +unity, in spite of differences of detail-nutrition, development, +reproduction" (and, I would add, "memory") "being the common traits of +all organic bodies." The utmost we can admit is, that some embodiments +of the Spirit of Life may be more important than others to the welfare +of Life as a whole, in the same way as some of our organs are more +important than others to ourselves. + +But the above resemblances between the language which we can adopt +intelligently and that which Theologians use vaguely, seem to reduce the +differences of opinion between the two contending parties to disputes +about detail. For even those who believe their ideas to be the most +definite, and who picture to themselves a God as anthropomorphic as He +was represented by Raffaelle, are yet not prepared to stand by their +ideas if they are hard pressed in the same way as we are by ours. Those +who say that God became man and took flesh upon Him, and that He is +now perfect God and perfect man of a reasonable soul and human flesh +subsisting, will yet not mean that Christ has a heart, blood, a stomach, +etc., like man's, which, if he has not, it is idle to speak of him as +"perfect man." I am persuaded that they do not mean this, nor wish to +mean it; but that they have been led into saying it by a series of steps +which it is very easy to understand and sympathise [sic] with, if they +are considered with any diligence. + +For our forefathers, though they might and did feel the existence of a +Personal God in the world, yet could not demonstrate this existence, and +made mistakes in their endeavour [sic] to persuade themselves that they +understood thoroughly a truth which they had as yet perceived only from +a long distance. Hence all the dogmatism and theology of many centuries. +It was impossible for them to form a clear or definite conception +concerning God until they had studied His works more deeply, so as to +grasp the idea of many animals of different kinds and with no apparent +connection between them, being yet truly parts of one and the same +animal which comprised them in the same way as a tree comprises all its +buds. They might speak of this by a figure of speech, but they could +not see it as a fact. Before this could be intended literally, Evolution +must be grasped, and not Evolution as taught in what is now commonly +called Darwinism, but the old teleological Darwinism of eighty years +ago. Nor is this again sufficient, for it must be supplemented by a +perception of the oneness of personality between parents and offspring, +the persistence of memory through all generations, the latency of this +memory until rekindled by the recurrence of the associated ideas, and +the unconsciousness with which repeated acts come to be performed. +These are modern ideas which might be caught sight of now and again by +prophets in time past, but which are even now mastered and held firmly +only by the few. + +When once, however, these ideas have been accepted, the chief difference +between the orthodox God and the God who can be seen of all men is, that +the first is supposed to have existed from all time, while the second +has only lived for more millions of years than our minds can reckon +intelligently; the first is omnipresent in all space, while the second +is only present in the living forms upon this earth-that is to say, is +only more widely present than our minds can intelligently embrace. The +first is omnipotent and all-wise; the second is only quasi-omnipotent +and quasi all-wise. It is true, then, that we deprive God of that +infinity which orthodox Theologians have ascribed to Him, but the +bounds we leave Him are of such incalculable extent that nothing can be +imagined more glorious or vaster; and in return for the limitations we +have assigned to Him, we render it possible for men to believe in Him, +and love Him, not with their lips only, but with their hearts and lives. + +Which, I may now venture to ask my readers, is the true God-the God of +the Theologian, or He whom we may see around us, and in whose presence +we stand each hour and moment of our lives? + + + +CHAPTER VIII. THE LIFE EVERLASTING + +Let us now consider the life which we can look forward to with certainty +after death, and the moral government of the world here on earth. + +If we could hear the leaves complaining to one another that they must +die, and commiserating the hardness of their lot in having ever been +induced to bud forth, we should, I imagine, despise them for their +peevishness more than we should pity them. We should tell them that +though we could not see reason for thinking that they would ever hang +again upon the same-or any at all similar-bough as the same individual +leaves, after they had once faded and fallen off, yet that as they had +been changing personalities without feeling it during the whole of their +leafhood, so they would on death continue to do this selfsame thing +by entering into new phases of life. True, death will deprive them of +conscious memory concerning their now current life; but, though they die +as leaves, they live in the tree whom they have helped to vivify, and +whose growth and continued well-being is due solely to this life and +death of its component personalities. + +We consider the cells which are born and die within us yearly to have +been sufficiently honoured [sic] in having contributed their quotum to +our life; why should we have such difficulty in seeing that a healthy +enjoyment and employment of our life will give us a sufficient reward in +that growth of God wherein we may live more truly and effectually after +death than we have lived when we were conscious of existence? Is Handel +dead when he influences and sets in motion more human beings in three +months now than during the whole, probably, of the years in which he +thought that he was alive? What is being alive if the power to draw men +for many miles in order that they may put themselves en rapport with +him is not being so? True, Handel no longer knows the power which he has +over us, but this is a small matter; he no longer animates six feet of +flesh and blood, but he lives in us as the dead leaf lives in the tree. +He is with God, and God knows him though he knows himself no more. + +This should suffice, and I observe in practice does suffice, for all +reasonable persons. It may be said that one day the tree itself must +die, and the leaves no longer live therein; and so, also, that the very +God or Life of the World will one day perish, as all that is born must +surely in the end die. But they who fret upon such grounds as this must +be in so much want of a grievance that it were a cruelty to rob them of +one: if a man who is fond of music tortures himself on the ground that +one day all possible combinations and permutations of sounds will have +been exhausted so that there can be no more new tunes, the only thing +we can do with him is to pity him and leave him; nor is there any better +course than this to take with those idle people who worry themselves +and others on the score that they will one day be unable to remember +the small balance of their lives that they have not already forgotten +as unimportant to them-that they will one day die to the balance of +what they have not already died to. I never knew a well-bred or amiable +person who complained seriously of the fact that he would have to die. +Granted we must all sometimes find ourselves feeling sorry that we +cannot remain for ever at our present age, and that we may die so much +sooner than we like; but these regrets are passing with well-disposed +people, and are a sine qua non for the existence of life at all. For if +people could live for ever so as to suffer from no such regret, there +would be no growth nor development in life; if, on the other hand, +there were no unwillingness to die, people would commit suicide upon the +smallest contradiction, and the race would end in a twelvemonth. + +We then offer immortality, but we do not offer resurrection from the +dead; we say that those who die live in the Lord whether they be just +or unjust, and that the present growth of God is the outcome of all past +lives; but we believe that as they live in God-in the effect they have +produced upon the universal life-when once their individual life is +ended, so it is God who knows of their life thenceforward and not +themselves; and we urge that this immortality, this entrance into +the joy of the Lord, this being ever with God, is true, and can be +apprehended by all men, and that the perception of it should and will +tend to make them lead happier, healthier lives; whereas the commonly +received opinion is true with a stage truth only, and has little +permanent effect upon those who are best worth considering. Nevertheless +the expressions in common use among the orthodox fit in so perfectly +with facts, which we must all acknowledge, that it is impossible not +to regard the expressions as founded upon a prophetic perception of the +facts. + +Two things stand out with sufficient clearness. The first is the rarity +of suicide even among those who rail at life most bitterly. The other +is the little eagerness with which those who cry out most loudly for a +resurrection desire to begin their new life. When comforting a husband +upon the loss of his wife we do not tell him we hope he will soon join +her; but we should certainly do this if we could even pretend we thought +the husband would like it. I can never remember having felt or witnessed +any pain, bodily or mental, which would have made me or anyone +else receive a suggestion that we had better commit suicide without +indignantly asking how our adviser would like to commit suicide himself. +Yet there are so many and such easy ways of dying that indignation at +being advised to commit suicide arises more from enjoyment of life than +from fear of the mere physical pain of dying. Granted that there is much +deplorable pain in the world from ill-health, loss of money, loss of +reputation, misconduct of those nearest to us, or what not, and granted +that in some cases these causes do drive men to actual self-destruction, +yet suffering such as this happens to a comparatively small number, and +occupies comparatively a small space in the lives of those to whom it +does happen. + +What, however, have we to say to those cases in which suffering and +injustice are inflicted upon defenceless [sic] people for years and +years, so that the iron enters into their souls, and they have no +avenger. Can we give any comfort to such sufferers? and, if not, is our +religion any better than a mockery-a filling the rich with good things +and sending the hungry empty away? Can we tell them, when they are +oppressed with burdens, yet that their cry will come up to God and be +heard? The question suggests its own answer, for assuredly our God knows +our innermost secrets: there is not a word in our hearts but He knoweth +it altogether; He knoweth our down-sitting and our uprising, He is +about our path and about our bed, and spieth out all our ways; He has +fashioned us behind and before, and "we cannot attain such knowledge," +for, like all knowledge when it has become perfect, "it is too excellent +for us." + +"Whither then," says David, "shall I go from thy Spirit, or whither +shall I go, then, from thy presence? If I climb up into heaven thou art +there; if I go down into hell thou art there also. If I take the wings +of the morning and remain in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there +also shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say +peradventure the darkness shall cover me, then shall my night be turned +into day: the darkness and light to thee are both alike. For my reins +are thine; thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. My bones are not +hid from thee: though I be made secretly and fashioned beneath in the +earth, thine eyes did see my substance yet being unperfect; and in thy +book were all my members written, which day by day were fashioned when +as yet there was none of them. Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate +thee? and am I not grieved with them that rise up against thee? Yea, I +hate them right sore, as though they were mine enemies." (Psalm +CXXXIX.) There is not a word of this which we cannot endorse with more +significance, as well as with greater heartiness than those can who +look upon God as He is commonly represented to them; whatever comfort, +therefore, those in distress have been in the habit of receiving from +these and kindred passages, we intensify rather than not. We cannot, +alas! make pain cease to be pain, nor injustice easy to bear; but we +can show that no pain is bootless, and that there is a tendency in all +injustice to right itself; suffering is not inflicted wilfully, [sic] as +it were by a magician who could have averted it; nor is it vain in its +results, but unless we are cut off from God by having dwelt in some +place where none of our kind can know of what has happened to us, it +will move God's heart to redress our grievance, and will tend to the +happiness of those who come after us, even if not to our own. + +The moral government of God over the world is exercised through us, who +are his ministers and persons, and a government of this description +is the only one which can be observed as practically influencing +men's conduct. God helps those who help themselves, because in helping +themselves they are helping Him. Again, Vox Populi vox Dei. The current +feeling of our peers is what we instinctively turn to when we would know +whether such and such a course of conduct is right or wrong; and so Paul +clenches his list of things that the Philippians were to hold fast with +the words, "whatsoever things are of good fame"-that is to say, he falls +back upon an appeal to the educated conscience of his age. Certainly +the wicked do sometimes appear to escape punishment, but it must be +remembered there are punishments from within which do not meet the eye. +If these fall on a man, he is sufficiently punished; if they do not fall +on him, it is probable we have been over hasty in assuming that he is +wicked. + + + +CHAPTER IX. GOD THE UNKNOWN + +The reader will already have felt that the panzoistic conception of +God-the conception, that is to say, of God as comprising all living +units in His own single person-does not help us to understand the origin +of matter, nor yet that of the primordial cell which has grown and +unfolded itself into the present life of the world. How was the world +rendered fit for the habitation of the first germ of Life? How came it +to have air and water, without which nothing that we know of as living +can exist? Was the world fashioned and furnished with aqueous and +atmospheric adjuncts with a view to the requirements of the infant +monad, and to his due development? If so, we have evidence of design, +and if so of a designer, and if so there must be Some far vaster Person +who looms out behind our God, and who stands in the same relation to him +as he to us. And behind this vaster and more unknown God there may be +yet another, and another, and another. + +It is certain that Life did not make the world with a view to its own +future requirements. For the world was at one time red hot, and there +can have been no living being upon it. Nor is it conceivable that matter +in which there was no life-inasmuch as it was infinitely hotter than the +hottest infusion which any living germ can support-could gradually come +to be alive without impregnation from a living parent. All living things +that we know of have come from other living things with bodies and +souls, whose existence can be satisfactorily established in spite of +their being often too small for our detection. Since, then, the world +was once without life, and since no analogy points in the direction of +thinking that life can spring up spontaneously, we are driven to suppose +that it was introduced into this world from some other source extraneous +to it altogether, and if so we find ourselves irresistibly drawn to +the inquiry whether the source of the life that is in the world-the +impregnator of this earth-may not also have prepared the earth for the +reception of his offspring, as a hen makes an egg-shell or a peach a +stone for the protection of the germ within it? Not only are we drawn to +the inquiry, but we are drawn also to the answer that the earth was so +prepared designedly by a Person with body and soul who knew beforehand +the kind of thing he required, and who took the necessary steps to bring +it about. + +If this is so we are members indeed of the God of this world, but we +are not his children; we are children of the Unknown and Vaster God who +called him into existence; and this in a far more literal sense than we +have been in the habit of realising [sic] to ourselves. For it may be +doubted whether the monads are not as truly seminal in character as the +procreative matter from which all animals spring. + +It must be remembered that if there is any truth in the view put forward +in "Life and Habit," and in "Evolution Old and New" (and I have met +with no serious attempt to upset the line of argument taken in either +of these books), then no complex animal or plant can reach its full +development without having already gone through the stages of that +development on an infinite number of past occasions. An egg makes itself +into a hen because it knows the way to do so, having already made +itself into a hen millions and millions of times over; the ease and +unconsciousness with which it grows being in themselves sufficient +demonstration of this fact. At each stage in its growth the chicken is +reminded, by a return of the associated ideas, of the next step that it +should take, and it accordingly takes it. + +But if this is so, and if also the congeries of all the living forms +in the world must be regarded as a single person, throughout their long +growth from the primordial cell onwards to the present day, then, by +parity of reasoning, the person thus compounded-that is to say, Life or +God-should have already passed through a growth analogous to that which +we find he has taken upon this earth on an infinite number of past +occasions; and the development of each class of life, with its +culmination in the vertebrate animals and in man, should be due to +recollection by God of his having passed through the same stages, or +nearly so, in worlds and universes, which we know of from personal +recollection, as evidenced in the growth and structure of our bodies, +but concerning which we have no other knowledge whatsoever. + +So small a space remains to me that I cannot pursue further the +reflections which suggest themselves. A few concluding considerations +are here alone possible. + +We know of three great concentric phases of life, and we are not without +reason to suspect a fourth. If there are so many there are very likely +more, but we do not know whether there are or not. The innermost sphere +of life we know of is that of our own cells. These people live in a +world of their own, knowing nothing of us, nor being known by ourselves +until very recently. Yet they can be seen under a microscope; they can +be taken out of us, and may then be watched going here and there in +perturbation of mind, endeavouring [sic] to find something in their +new environment that will suit them, and then dying on finding how +hopelessly different it is from any to which they have been accustomed. +They live in us, and make us up into the single person which we conceive +ourselves to form; we are to them a world comprising an organic and an +inorganic kingdom, of which they consider themselves to be the organic, +and whatever is not very like themselves to be the inorganic. Whether +they are composed of subordinate personalities or not we do not know, +but we have no reason to think that they are, and if we touch ground, so +to speak, with life in the units of which our own bodies are composed, +it is likely that there is a limit also in an upward direction, +though we have nothing whatever to guide us as to where it is, nor any +certainty that there is a limit at all. + +We are ourselves the second concentric sphere of life, we being the +constituent cells which unite to form the body of God. Of the third +sphere we know a single member only-the God of this world; but we see +also the stars in heaven, and know their multitude. Analogy points +irresistibly in the direction of thinking that these other worlds are +like our own, begodded and full of life; it also bids us believe that +the God of their world is begotten of one more or less like himself, +and that his growth has followed the same course as that of all other +growths we know of. + +If so, he is one of the constituent units of an unknown and vaster +personality who is composed of Gods, as our God is composed of all the +living forms on earth, and as all those living forms are composed of +cells. This is the Unknown God. Beyond this second God we cannot at +present go, nor should we wish to do so, if we are wise. It is no +reproach to a system that it does not profess to give an account of the +origin of things; the reproach rather should lie against a system +which professed to explain it, for we may be well assured that such a +profession would, for the present at any rate, be an empty boast. It is +enough if a system is true as far as it goes; if it throws new light +on old problems, and opens up vistas which reveal a hope of further +addition to our knowledge, and this I believe may be fairly claimed for +the theory of life put forward in "Life and Habit" and "Evolution, +Old and New," and for the corollary insisted upon in these pages; a +corollary which follows logically and irresistibly if the position I +have taken in the above-named books is admitted. + +Let us imagine that one of the cells of which we are composed could +attain to a glimmering perception of the manner in which he unites +with other cells, of whom he knows very little, so as to form a greater +compound person of whom he has hitherto known nothing at all. Would he +not do well to content himself with the mastering of this conception, +at any rate for a considerable time? Would it be any just ground of +complaint against him on the part of his brother cells, that he had +failed to explain to them who made the man (or, as he would call it, the +omnipotent deity) whose existence and relations to himself he had just +caught sight of? + +But if he were to argue further on the same lines as those on which he +had travelled hitherto, and were to arrive at the conclusion that there +might be other men in the world. besides the one whom he had just +learnt to apprehend, it would be still no refutation or just ground of +complaint against him that he had failed to show the manner in which his +supposed human race had come into existence. + +Here our cell would probably stop. He could hardly be expected to arrive +at the existence of animals and plants differing from the human race, +and uniting with that race to form a single Person or God, in the +same way as he has himself united with other cells to form man. The +existence, and much more the roundness of the earth itself, would be +unknown to him, except by way of inference and deduction. The only +universe which he could at all understand would be the body of the man +of whom he was a component part. + +How would not such a cell be astounded if all that we know ourselves +could be suddenly revealed to him, so that not only should the vastness +of this earth burst upon his dazzled view, but that of the sun and of +his planets also, and not only these, but the countless other suns which +we may see by night around us. Yet it is probable that an actual being +is hidden from us, which no less transcends the wildest dream of our +theologians than the existence of the heavenly bodies transcends the +perception of our own constituent cells. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's God the Known and God the Unknown, by Samuel Butler + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GOD THE KNOWN AND GOD THE UNKNOWN *** + +***** This file should be named 2513.txt or 2513.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/1/2513/ + +Produced by Elliot S. Wheeler + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + + + God the Known and + God the Unknown + + BY SAMUEL BUTLER + + + + Prefatory Note + +"GOD the Known and God the Unknown" first appeared in the form of +a series of articles which were published in "The Examiner" in +May, June, and July, 1879. Samuel Butler subsequently revised +the text of his work, presumably with the intention of +republishing it, though he never carried the intention into +effect. In the present edition I have followed his revised +version almost without deviation. I have, however, retained a +few passages which Butler proposed to omit, partly because they +appear to me to render the course of his argument clearer, and +partly because they contain characteristic thoughts and +expressions of which none of his admirers would wish to be +deprived. In the list of Butler's works "God the Known and God +the Unknown" follows "Life and Habit," which appeared in 1877, +and "Evolution, Old and New," which was published in May, 1879. +It is scarcely necessary to point out that the three works are +closely akin in subject and treatment, and that "God the Known +and God the Unknown" will gain in interest by being considered in +relation to its predecessors. + + R. A. STREATFEILD +------------------------------------------------ + + God the Known and + God the Unknown + + BY SAMUEL BUTLER + + + CHAPTER 1 + + INTRODUCTION + +MANKIND has ever been ready to discuss matters in the inverse +ratio of their importance, so that the more closely a question is +felt to touch the hearts of all of us, the more incumbent it is +considered upon prudent people to profess that it does not exist, +to frown it down, to tell it to hold its tongue, to maintain that +it has long been finally settled, so that there is now no +question concerning it. + +So far, indeed, has this been carried through all time past that +the actions which are most important to us, such as our passage +through the embryonic stages, the circulation of our blood, our +respiration, etc. etc., have long been formulated beyond all +power of reopening question concerning them - the mere fact or +manner of their being done at all being ranked among the great +discoveries of recent ages. Yet the analogy of past settlements +would lead us to suppose that so much unanimity was not arrived +at all at once, but rather that it must have been preceded by +much smouldering [sic] discontent, which again was followed by +open warfare; and that even after a settlement had been +ostensibly arrived at, there was still much secret want of +conviction on the part of many for several generations. + +There are many who see nothing in this tendency of our nature but +occasion for sarcasm; those, on the other hand, who hold that the +world is by this time old enough to be the best judge concerning +the management of its own affairs will scrutinise [sic] this +management with some closeness before they venture to satirise +[sic] it; nor will they do so for long without finding +justification for its apparent recklessness; for we must all fear +responsibility upon matters about which we feel we know but +little; on the other hand we must all continually act, and for +the most part promptly. We do so, therefore, with greater +security when we can persuade both ourselves and others that a +matter is already pigeon-holed than if we feel that we must use +our own judgment for the collection, interpretation, and +arrangement of the papers which deal with it. Moreover, our +action is thus made to appear as if it received collective +sanction; and by so appearing it receives it. Almost any +settlement, again, is felt to be better than none, and the more +nearly a matter comes home to everyone, the more important is it +that it should be treated as a sleeping dog, and be let to lie, +for if one person begins to open his mouth, fatal developments +may arise in the Babel that will follow. + +It is not difficult, indeed, to show that, instead of having +reason to complain of the desire for the postponement of +important questions, as though the world were composed mainly of +knaves or fools, such fixity as animal and vegetable forms +possess is due to this very instinct. For if there had been no +reluctance, if there were no friction and vis inertae to +be encountered even after a theoretical equilibrium had been +upset, we should have had no fixed organs nor settled +proclivities, but should have been daily and hourly undergoing +Protean transformations, and have still been throwing out +pseudopodia like the amoeba. True, we might have come to like +this fashion of living as well as our more steady-going system if +we had taken to it many millions of ages ago when we were yet +young; but we have contracted other habits which have become so +confirmed that we cannot break with them. We therefore now hate +that which we should perhaps have loved if we had practised [sic] +it. This, however, does not affect the argument, for our concern +is with our likes and dislikes, not with the manner in which +those likes and dislikes have come about. The discovery that +organism is capable of modification at all has occasioned so much +astonishment that it has taken the most enlightened part of the +world more than a hundred years to leave off expressing its +contempt for such a crude, shallow, and preposterous conception. +Perhaps in another hundred years we shall learn to admire the +good sense, endurance, and thorough Englishness of organism in +having been so averse to change, even more than its versatility +in having been willing to change so much. + +Nevertheless, however conservative we may be, and however much +alive to the folly and wickedness of tampering with settled +convictions-no matter what they are-without sufficient cause, +there is yet such a constant though gradual change in our +surroundings as necessitates corresponding modification in our +ideas, desires, and actions. We may think that we should like to +find ourselves always in the same surroundings as our ancestors, +so that we might be guided at every touch and turn by the +experience of our race, and be saved from all self-communing or +interpretation of oracular responses uttered by the facts around +us. Yet the facts will change their utterances in spite of us; +and we, too, change with age and ages in spite of ourselves, so +as to see the facts around us as perhaps even more changed than +they actually are. It has been said, "Tempora mutantur nos et +mutamur in illis." The passage would have been no less true +if it had stood, "Nos mutamur et tempora mutantur in +nobis." Whether the organism or the surroundings began +changing first is a matter of such small moment that the two may +be left to fight it out between themselves; but, whichever view +is taken, the fact will remain that whenever the relations +between the organism and its surroundings have been changed, the +organism must either succeed in putting the surroundings into +harmony with itself, or itself into harmony with the +surroundings; or must be made so uncomfortable as to be unable to +remember itself as subjected to any such difficulties, and there +fore to die through inability to recognise [sic] its own identity +further. + +Under these circumstances, organism must act in one or other of +these two ways: it must either change slowly and continuously +with the surroundings, paying cash for everything, meeting the +smallest change with a corresponding modification so far as is +found convenient; or it must put off change as long as possible, +and then make larger and more sweeping changes. + +Both these courses are the same in principle, the difference +being only one of scale, and the one being a miniature of the +other, as a ripple is an Atlantic wave in little; both have their +advantages and disadvantages, so that most organisms will take +the one course for one set of things and the other for another. +They will deal promptly with things which they can get at easily, +and which lie more upon the surface; those, however, which are +more troublesome to reach, and lie deeper, will be handled upon +more cataclysmic principles, being allowed longer periods of +repose followed by short periods of greater activity. + +Animals breathe and circulate their blood by a little action many +times a minute; but they feed, some of them, only two or three +times a day, and breed for the most part not more than once a +year, their breeding season being much their busiest time. It is +on the first principle that the modification of animal forms has +proceeded mainly; but it may be questioned whether what is called +a sport is not the organic expression of discontent which has +been long felt, but which has not been attended to, nor been met +step by step by as much small remedial modification as was found +practicable: so that when a change does come it comes by way of +revolution. Or, again (only that it comes to much the same +thing), a sport may be compared to one of those happy thoughts +which sometimes come to us unbidden after we have been thinking +for a long time what to do, or how to arrange our ideas, and have +yet been unable to arrive at any conclusion. + +So with politics, the smaller the matter the prompter, as a +general rule, the settlement; on the other hand, the more +sweeping the change that is felt to be necessary, the longer it +will be deferred. + +The advantages of dealing with the larger questions by more +cataclysmic methods are obvious. For, in the first place, all +composite things must have a system, or arrangement of parts, so +that some parts shall depend upon and be grouped round others, as +in the articulation of a skeleton and the arrangement of muscles, +nerves, tendons, etc., which are attached to it. To meddle with +the skeleton is like taking up the street, or the flooring of +one's house; it so upsets our arrangements that we put it off +till whatever else is found wanted, or whatever else seems likely +to be wanted for a long time hence, can be done at the same time. +Another advantage is in the rest which is given to the attention +during the long hollows, so to speak, of the waves between the +periods of resettlement. Passion and prejudice have time to calm +down, and when attention is next directed to the same question, +it is a refreshed and invigorated attention-an attention, +moreover, which may be given with the help of new lights derived +from other quarters that were not luminous when the question was +last considered. Thirdly, it is more easy and safer to make such +alterations as experience has proved to be necessary than to +forecast what is going to be wanted. Reformers are like +paymasters, of whom there are only two bad kinds, those who pay +too soon, and those who do not pay at all. + + + + CHAPTER II + + COMMON GROUND + +I HAVE now, perhaps, sufficiently proved my sympathy with the +reluctance felt by many to tolerate discussion upon such a +subject as the existence and nature of God. I trust that I may +have made the reader feel that he need fear no sarcasm or levity +in my treatment of the subject which I have chosen. I will, +therefore, proceed to sketch out a plan of what I hope to +establish, and this in no doubtful or unnatural sense, but by +attaching the same meanings to words as those which we usually +attach to them, and with the same certainty, precision, and +clearness as anything else is established which is commonly +called known. + +As to what God is, beyond the fact that he is the Spirit and the +Life which creates, governs, and upholds all living things, I can +say nothing. I cannot pretend that I can show more than others +have done in what Spirit and the Life consists, which governs +living things and animates them. I cannot show the connection +between consciousness and the will, and the organ, much less can +I tear away the veil from the face of God, so as to show wherein +will and consciousness consist. No philosopher, whether Christian +or Rationalist, has attempted this without discomfiture; but I +can, I hope, do two things: Firstly, I can demonstrate, perhaps +more clearly than modern science is prepared to admit, that there +does exist a single Being or Animator of all living things - a +single Spirit, whom we cannot think of under any meaner name than +God; and, secondly, I can show something more of the +persona or bodily expression, mask, and mouthpiece of this +vast Living Spirit than I know of as having been familiarly +expressed elsewhere, or as being accessible to myself or others, +though doubtless many works exist in which what I am going to say +has been already said. + +Aware that much of this is widely accepted under the name of +Pantheism, I venture to think it differs from Pantheism with all +the difference that exists between a coherent, intelligible +conception and an incoherent unintelligible one. I shall +therefore proceed to examine the doctrine called Pantheism, and +to show how incomprehensible and valueless it is. + +I will then indicate the Living and Personal God about whose +existence and about many of whose attributes there is no room for +question; I will show that man has been so far made in the +likeness of this Person or God, that He possesses all its +essential characteristics, and that it is this God who has called +man and all other living forms, whether animals or plants, into +existence, so that our bodies are the temples of His spirit; that +it is this which sustains them in their life and growth, who is +one with them, living, moving, and having His being in them; in +whom, also, they live and move, they in Him and He in them; He +being not a Trinity in Unity only, but an Infinity in Unity, and +a Unity in an Infinity; eternal in time past, for so much time at +least that our minds can come no nearer to eternity than this; +eternal for the future as long as the universe shall exist; ever +changing, yet the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. And I +will show this with so little ambiguity that it shall be +perceived not as a phantom or hallucination following upon a +painful straining of the mind and a vain endeavour [sic] to give +coherency to incoherent and inconsistent ideas, but with the same +ease, comfort, and palpable flesh-and-blood clearness with which +we see those near to us ; whom, though we see them at the best as +through a glass darkly, we still see face to face, even as we are +ourselves seen. + +I will also show in what way this Being exercises a moral +government over the world, and rewards and punishes us according +to His own laws. + +Having done this I shall proceed to compare this conception of +God with those that are currently accepted, and will endeavour +[sic] to show that the ideas now current are in truth efforts to +grasp the one on which I shall here insist. Finally, I shall +persuade the reader that the differences between the so-called +atheist and the so-called theist are differences rather about +words than things, inasmuch as not even the most prosaic of +modern scientists will be inclined to deny the existence of this +God, while few theists will feel that this, the natural +conception of God, is a less worthy one than that to which they +have been accustomed. + + + CHAPTER III + + PANTHEISM. I + +THE Rev. J. H. Blunt, in his "Dictionary of Sects, Heresies, +etc.," defines Pantheists as "those who hold that God is +everything, and everything is God." + +If it is granted that the value of words lies in the definiteness +and coherency of the ideas that present themselves to us when the +words are heard or spoken-then such a sentence as "God is +everything and everything is God" is worthless. + +For we have so long associated the word "God" with the idea of a +Living Person, who can see, hear, will, feel pleasure, +displeasure, etc., that we cannot think of God, and also of +something which we have not been accustomed to think of as a +Living Person, at one and the same time, so as to connect the two +ideas and fuse them into a coherent thought. While we are +thinking of the one, our minds involuntarily exclude the other, +and vice versa; so that it is as impossible for us to +think of anything as God, or as forming part of God, which we +cannot also think of as a Person, or as a part of a Person, as it +is to produce a hybrid between two widely distinct animals. If I +am not mistaken, the barrenness of inconsistent ideas, and the +sterility of widely distant species or genera of plants and +animals, are one in principle-sterility of hybrids being due to +barrenness of ideas, and barrenness of ideas arising from +inability to fuse unfamiliar thoughts into a coherent conception. +I have insisted on this at some length in "Life and Habit," but +can do so no further here. (Footnote: Butler returned to this +subject in "Luck, or cunning?" which was originally published in +1887. + +In like manner we have so long associated the word "Person" with +the idea of a substantial visible body, limited in extent, and +animated by an invisible something which we call Spirit, that we +can think of nothing as a person which does not also bring these +ideas before us. Any attempt to make us imagine God as a Person +who does not fulfil [sic] the conditions which our ideas attach +to the word "person," is ipso facto atheistic, as +rendering the word God without meaning, and therefore without +reality, and therefore non-existent to us. Our ideas are like +our organism, they will stand a vast amount of modification if it +is effected slowly and without shock, but the life departs out of +them, leaving the form of an idea without the power thereof, if +they are jarred too rudely. + +Any being, then, whom we can imagine as God, must have all the +qualities, capabilities, and also all the limitations which are +implied when the word "person" is used. + +But, again, we cannot conceive of "everything" as a person. +"Everything" must comprehend all that is to be found on earth, or +outside of it, and we know of no such persons as this. When we +say "persons" we intend living people with flesh and blood; +sometimes we extend our conceptions to animals and plants, but we +have not hitherto done so as generally as I hope we shall some +day come to do. Below animals and plants we have never in any +seriousness gone. All that we have been able to regard as +personal has had what we can call a living body, even though that +body is vegetable only; and this body has been tangible, and has +been comprised within certain definite limits, or within limits +which have at any rate struck the eye as definite. And every part +within these limits has been animated by an unseen something +which we call soul or spirit. A person must be a persona- +that is to say, the living mask and mouthpiece of an energy +saturating it, and speaking through it. It must be animate in all +its parts. + +But "everything" is not animate. Animals and plants alone produce +in us those ideas which can make reasonable people call them +"persons" with consistency of intention. We can conceive of each +animal and of each plant as a person; we can conceive again of a +compound person like the coral polypes [sic], or like a tree +which is composed of a congeries of subordinate persons, +inasmuch as each bud is a separate and individual plant. We can +go farther than this, and, as I shall hope to show, we ought to +do so; that is to say, we shall find it easier and more agreeable +with our other ideas to go farther than not; for we should see +all animal and vegetable life as united by a subtle and till +lately invisible ramification, so that all living things are one +tree-like growth, forming a single person. But we cannot conceive +of oceans, continents, and air as forming parts of a person at +all; much less can we think of them as forming one person with +the living forms that inhabit them. + +To ask this of us is like asking us to see the bowl and the water +in which three gold-fish are swimming as part of the gold-fish. +We cannot do it any more than we can do something physically +impossible. We can see the gold-fish as forming one family, and +therefore as in a way united to the personality of the parents +from which they sprang, and therefore as members one of another, +and therefore as forming a single growth of gold-fish, as boughs +and buds unite to form a tree; but we cannot by any effort of the +imagination introduce the bowl and the water into the +personality, for we have never been accustomed to think of such +things as living and personal. Those, therefore, who tell us that +"God is everything, and everything is God," require us to see +"everything" as a person, which we cannot; or God as not a +person, which again we cannot. + +Continuing the article of Mr. Blunt from which I have already +quoted, I read :- + +"Linus, in a passage which has been preserved by Stobaeus, +exactly expresses the notion afterwards adopted by Spinoza: 'One +sole energy governs all things; all things are unity, and each +portion is All; for of one integer all things were born; in the +end of time all things shall again become unity; the unity of +multiplicity.' Orpheus, his disciple, taught no other doctrine." + +According to Pythagoras, "an adept in the Orphic philosophy," +"the soul of the world is the Divine energy which interpenetrates +every portion of the mass, and the soul of man is an efflux of +that energy. The world, too, is an exact impress of the Eternal +Idea, which is the mind of God." John Scotus Erigena taught that +"all is God and God is all." William of Champeaux, again, two +hundred years later, maintained that "all individuality is one in +substance, and varies only in its non-essential accidents and +transient properties." Amalric of Bena and David of Dinant +followed the theory out "into a thoroughgoing Pantheism." +Amalric held that "All is God and God is all. The Creator and the +creature are one Being. Ideas are at once creative and created, +subjective and objective. God is the end of all, and all return +to Him. As every variety of humanity forms one manhood, so the +world contains individual forms of one eternal essence." David +of Dinant only varied upon this by "imagining a corporeal unity. +Although body, soul, and eternal substance are three, these three +are one and the same being." + +Giordano Bruno maintained the world of sense to be "a vast animal +having the Deity for its living. soul." The inanimate part of the +world is thus excluded from participation in the Deity, and a +conception that our minds can embrace is offered us instead of +one which they cannot entertain, except as in a dream, +incoherently. But without such a view of evolution as was +prevalent at the beginning of this century, it was impossible to +see "the world of sense" intelligently, as forming "a vast +animal." Unless, therefore, Giordano Bruno held the opinions of +Buffon, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and Lamarck, with more definiteness +than I am yet aware of his having done, his contention must be +considered as a splendid prophecy, but as little more than a +prophecy. He continues, "Birth is expansion from the one centre +of Life; life is its continuance, and death is the necessary +return of the ray to the centre of light." This begins finely, +but ends mystically. I have not, however, compared the English +translation with the original, and must reserve a fuller +examination of Giordano Bruno's teaching for another opportunity. + +Spinoza disbelieved in the world rather than in God. He was an +Acosmist, to use Jacobi's expression, rather than an Atheist. +According to him, "the Deity and the Universe are but one +substance, at the same time both spirit and matter, thought and +extension, which are the only known attributes of the Deity." + +My readers will, I think, agree with me that there is very little +of the above which conveys ideas with the fluency and comfort +which accompany good words. Words are like servants: it is not +enough that we should have them-we must have the most able and +willing that we can find, and at the smallest wages that will +content them. Having got them we must make the best and not the +worst of them. Surely, in the greater part of what has been +quoted above, the words are barren letters only: they do not +quicken within us and enable us to conceive a thought, such as we +can in our turn impress upon dead matter, and mould [sic] that +matter into another shape than its own, through the thought which +has become alive within us. No offspring of ideas has followed +upon them, or, if any at all, yet in such unwonted shape, and +with such want of alacrity, that we loathe them as malformations +and miscarriages of our minds. Granted that if we examine them +closely we shall at length find them to embody a little germ of +truth-that is to say, of coherency with our other ideas; but +there is too little truth in proportion to the trouble necessary +to get at it. We can get more truth, that is to say, more +coherency-for truth and coherency are one-for less trouble in +other ways. + +But it may be urged that the beginnings of all tasks are +difficult and unremunerative, and that later developments of +Pantheism may be more intelligible than the earlier ones. +Unfortunately, this is not the case. On continuing Mr. Blunt's +article, I find the later Pantheists a hundredfold more +perplexing than the earlier ones. With Kant, Schelling, Fichte, +and Hegel, we feel that we are with men who have been decoyed +into a hopeless quagmire; we understand nothing of their +language-we doubt whether they understand themselves, and feel +that we can do nothing with them but look at them and pass them +by. + +In my next chapter I propose to show the end which the early +Pantheists were striving after, and the reason and naturalness of +their error. + + + CHAPTER IV + + PANTHEISM. II + +The earlier Pantheists were misled by the endeavour [sic] to lay +hold of two distinct ideas, the one of which was a reality that +has since been grasped and is of inestimable value, the other a +phantom which has misled all who have followed it. The reality is +the unity of Life, the oneness of the guiding and animating +spirit which quickens animals and plants, so that they are all +the outcome and expression of a common mind, and are in truth one +animal; the phantom is the endeavour [sic] to find the origin of +things, to reach the fountain-head of all energy, and thus to lay +the foundations on which a philosophy may be constructed which +none can accuse of being baseless, or of arguing in a circle. + +In following as through a thick wood after the phantom our +forefathers from time to time caught glimpses of the reality, +which seemed so wonderful as it eluded them, and flitted back +again into the thickets, that they declared it must be the +phantom they were in search of, which was thus evidenced as +actually existing. Whereon, instead of mastering such of the +facts they met with as could be captured easily-which facts would +have betrayed the hiding-places of others, and these again of +others, and so ad infinitum-they overlooked what was +within their reach, and followed hotly through brier and brake +after an imaginary greater prize. + +Great thoughts are not to be caught in this way. They must +present themselves for capture of their own free will, or be +taken after a little coyness only. They are like wealth and +power, which, if a man is not born to them, are the more likely +to take him, the more he has restrained himself from an attempt +to snatch them. They hanker after those only who have tamed their +nearer thoughts. Nevertheless, it is impossible not to feel that +the early Pantheists were true prophets and seers, though the +things were unknown to them without which a complete view was +unattainable. What does Linus mean, we ask ourselves, when he +says :- "One sole energy governs all things" ? How can one sole +energy govern, we will say, the reader and the chair on which he +sits? What is meant by an energy governing a chair? If by an +effort we have made ourselves believe we understand something +which can be better expressed by these words than by any others, +no sooner do we turn our backs than the ideas so painfully +collected fly apart again. No matter how often we go in search of +them, and force them into juxtaposition, they prove to have none +of that innate coherent power with which ideas combine that we +can hold as true and profitable. + +Yet if Linus had confined his statement to living things, and had +said that one sole energy governed all plants and animals, he +would have come near both to being intelligible and true. For if, +as we now believe, all animals and plants are descended from a +single cell, they must be considered as cousins to one another, +and as forming a single tree-like animal, every individual plant +or animal of which is as truly one and the same person with the +primordial cell as the oak a thousand years old is one and the +same plant with the acorn out of which it has grown. This is +easily understood, but will, I trust, be made to appear simpler +presently. + +When Linus says, "All things are unity, and each portion is All; +for of one integer all things were born," it is impossible for +plain people-who do not wish to use words unless they mean the +same things by them as both they and others have been in the +habit of meaning-to understand what is intended. How can each +portion be all? How can one Londoner be all London? I know that +this, too, can in a way be shown, but the resulting idea is too +far to fetch, and when fetched does not fit in well enough with +our other ideas to give it practical and commercial value. How, +again, can all things be said to be born of one integer, unless +the statement is confined to living things, which can alone be +born at all, and unless a theory of evolution is intended, such +as Linus would hardly have accepted? + +Yet limit the "all things" to "all living things," grant the +theory of evolution, and explain "each portion is All" to mean +that all life is akin, and possesses the same essential +fundamental characteristics, and it is surprising how nearly +Linus approaches both to truth and intelligibility. + +It may be said that the animate and the inanimate have the same +fundamental substance, so that a chair might rot and be absorbed +by grass, which grass might be eaten by a cow, which cow might be +eaten by a man; and by similar processes the man might become a +chair; but these facts are not presented to the mind by saying +that "one energy governs all things"-a chair, we will say, and a +man; we could only say that one energy governed a man and a +chair, if the chair were a reasonable living person, who was +actively and consciously engaged in helping the man to attain a +certain end, unless, that is to say, we are to depart from all +usual interpretation of words, in which case we invalidate the +advantages of language and all the sanctions of morality. + +"All things shall again become unity" is intelligible as meaning +that all things probably have come from a single elementary +substance, say hydrogen or what not, and that they will return to +it; but the explanation of unity as being the "unity of +multiplicity" puzzles; if there is any meaning it is too +recondite to be of service to us. + +What, again, is meant by saying that "the soul of the world is +the Divine energy which interpenetrates every portion of the +mass" ? The soul of the world is an expression which, to myself, +and, I should imagine, to most people, is without propriety. We +cannot think of the world except as earth, air, and water, in +this or that state, on and in which there grow plants and +animals. What is meant by saying that earth has a soul, and +lives? Does it move from place to place erratically? Does it +feed? Does it reproduce itself? Does it make such noises, or +commit such vagaries as shall make us say that it feels? Can it +achieve its ends, and fail of achieving them through mistake? If +it cannot, how has it a soul more than a dead man has a soul, out +of whom we say that the soul has departed, and whose body we +conceive of as returning to dead earth, inasmuch as it is now +soulless? Is there any unnatural violence which can be done to +our thoughts by which we can bring the ideas of a soul and of +water, or of a stone into combination, and keep them there for +long together? The ancients, indeed, said they believed their +rivers to be gods, and carved likenesses of them under the forms +of men ; but even supposing this to have been their real mind, +can it by any conceivable means become our own? Granted that a +stone is kept from falling to dust by an energy which compels its +particles to cohere, which energy can be taken out of it and +converted into some other form of energy; granted (which may or +may not be true) also, that the life of a living body is only the +energy which keeps the particles which compose it in a certain +disposition; and granted that the energy of the stone may be +convertible into the energy of a living form, and that thus, +after a long journey a tired idea may lag after the sound of such +words as "the soul of the world." Granted all the above, +nevertheless to speak of the world as having a soul is not +sufficiently in harmony with our common notions, nor does it go +sufficiently with the grain of our thoughts to render the +expression a meaning one, or one that can be now used with any +propriety or fitness, except by those who do not know their own +meaninglessness. Vigorous minds will harbour [sic] vigorous +thoughts only, or such as bid fair to become so; and vigorous +thoughts are always simple, definite, and in harmony with +everyday ideas. + +We can imagine a soul as living in the lowest slime that moves, +feeds, reproduces itself, remembers, and dies. The amoeba wants +things, knows it wants them, alters itself so as to try and alter +them, thus preparing for an intended modification of outside +matter by a preliminary modification of itself. It thrives if +the modification from within is followed by the desired +modification in the external object; it knows that it is well, +and breeds more freely in consequence. If it cannot get hold of +outside matter, or cannot proselytise [sic] that matter and +persuade it to see things through its own (the amoeba's) +spectacles-if it cannot convert that matter, if the matter +persists in disagreeing with it-its spirits droop, its +soul is disquieted within it, it becomes listless like a +withering flower-it languishes and dies. We cannot imagine a +thing to live at all and yet be soulless except in sleep for a +short time, and even so not quite soulless. The idea of a soul, +or of that unknown something for which the word "soul" is our +hieroglyphic, and the idea of living organism, unite so +spontaneously, and stick together so inseparably, that no matter +how often we sunder them they will elude our vigilance and come +together, like true lovers, in spite of us. Let us not attempt to +divorce ideas that have so long been wedded together. + +I submit, then, that Pantheism, even as explained by those who +had entered on the outskirts only of its great morass, +nevertheless holds out so little hope of leading to any +comfortable conclusion that it will be more reasonable to occupy +our minds with other matter than to follow Pantheism further. The +Pantheists speak of a person without meaning a person; they speak +of a" him" and a "he" without having in their minds the idea of a +living person with all its inevitable limitations. Pantheism is, +therefore, as is said by Mr. Blunt in another article, +"practically nothing else than Atheism; it has no belief in a +personal deity overruling the affairs of the world, as Divine +Providence, and is, therefore, Atheistic," and again, "Theism +believes in a spirit superior to matter, and so does Pantheism; +but the spirit of Theism is self-conscious, and therefore +personal and of individual existence-a nature per se, and +upholding all things by an active control; while Pantheism +believes in spirit that is of a higher nature than brute matter, +but is a mere unconscious principle of life, impersonal, +irrational as the brute matter that it quickens." + +If this verdict concerning Pantheism is true-and from all I can +gather it is as nearly true as anything can be said to be which +is predicated of an incoherent idea-the Pantheistic God is an +attempt to lay hold of a truth which has nevertheless eluded its +pursuers. + +In my next chapter I will consider the commonly received, +orthodox conception of God, and compare it with the Pantheistic. +I will show that it, too, is Atheistic, inasmuch as, in spite of +its professing to give us a conception of God, it raises no ideas +in our minds of a person or Living Being-and a God who is not +this is non-existent. + + + CHAPTER V + + ORTHODOX THEISM + +We have seen that Pantheism fails to satisfy, inasmuch as it +requires us to mean something different by the word "God" from +what we have been in the habit of meaning. I have already said-I +fear, too often-that no conception of God can have any value or +meaning for us which does not involve his existence as an +independent Living Person of ineffable wisdom and power, +vastness, and duration both in the past and for the future. If +such a Being as this can be found existing and made evident, +directly or indirectly, to human senses, there is a God. If +otherwise, there is no God, or none, at any rate, so far as we +can know, none with whom we need concern ourselves. No conscious +personality, no God. An impersonal God is as much a contradiction +in terms as an impersonal person. + +Unfortunately, when we question orthodox theology closely, we +find that it supposes God to be a person who has no material body +such as could come within the range of any human sense, and make +an impression upon it. He is supposed to be of a spiritual nature +only, except in so far as one part of his triune personality is, +according to the Athanasian Creed, "perfect man, of a reasonable +soul and human flesh subsisting." + +Here, then, we find ourselves in a dilemma. On the one hand, we +are involved in the same difficulty as in the case of Pantheism, +inasmuch as a person without flesh and blood, or something +analogous, is not a person; we are required, therefore, to +believe in a personal God, who has no true person; to believe, +that is to say, in an impersonal person. + +This, as we have seen already, is Atheism under another name, +being, as it is, destructive of all idea of God whatever; for +these words do not convey an idea of something which human +intelligence can understand up to a certain point, and which it +can watch going out of sight into regions beyond our view, but in +the same direction-as we may infer other stars in space beyond +the farthest that we know of; they convey utterly self- +destructive ideas, which can have no real meaning, and can only +be thought to have a meaning by ignorant and uncultivated people. +Otherwise such foundation as human reason rests upon-that is to +say, the current opinion of those whom the world appraises as +reasonable and agreeable, or capable of being agreed with for any +time-is sapped; the whole thing tumbles down, and we may have +square circles and round triangles, which may be declared to be +no longer absurdities and contradictions in terms, but mysteries +that go beyond our reason, without being contrary to it. Few will +maintain this, and those few may be neglected; an impersonal +person must therefore be admitted to be nonsense, and an +immaterial God to be Atheism in another shape. + +On the other hand, if God is "of a reasonable soul and human +flesh subsisting," and if he thus has the body without which he +is-as far as we are concerned-non-existent, this body must yet be +reasonably like other bodies, and must exist in some place and at +some time. Furthermore, it must do sufficiently nearly what all +other "human flesh" belonging to "perfect man" must do, or cease +to be human flesh. Our ideas are like our organisms; they have +some little elasticity and circumstance-suiting power, some +little margin on which, as I have elsewhere said, side-notes may +be written, and glosses on the original text; but this power is +very limited. As offspring will only, as a general rule, vary +very little from its immediate parents, and as it will fail +either immediately or in the second generation if the parents +differ too widely from one another, so we cannot get our idea of- +we will say a horse-to conjure up to our minds the idea of any +animal more unlike a horse than a pony is; nor can we get a well- +defined idea of a combination between a horse and any animal more +remote from it than an ass, zebra, or giraffe. We may, indeed, +make a statue of a flying horse, but the idea is one which cannot +be made plausible to any but ignorant people. So "human flesh" +may vary a little from "human flesh" without undue violence being +done to our reason and to the right use of language, but it +cannot differ from it so much as not to eat, drink, nor waste and +repair itself. "Human flesh," which is without these necessary +adjuncts, is human flesh only to those who can believe in flying +horses with feathered wings and bills like birds-that is to say, +to vulgar and superstitious persons. + +Lastly, not only must the "perfect man," who is the second person +of the Godhead according to the orthodox faith, and who subsists +of "human flesh" as well as of a "reasonable soul," not only must +this person exist, but he must exist in some place either on this +earth or outside it. If he exists on earth, he must be in Europe, +Asia, Africa, America, or on some island, and if he were met with +he must be capable of being seen and handled in the same way as +all other things that can be called perfect man are seen; +otherwise he is a perfect man who is not only not a perfect man, +but who does not in any considerable degree resemble one. It is +not, however, pretended by anyone that God, the "perfect man," is +to be looked for in any place upon the surface of the globe. + +If, on the other hand, the person of God exists in some sphere +outside the earth, his human flesh again proves to be of an +entirely different kind from all other human flesh, for we know +that such flesh cannot exist except on earth; if in space +unsupported, it must fall to the ground, or into some other +planet, or into a sun, or go on revolving round the earth or some +other heavenly body-or not be personal. None of those +whose opinions will carry weight will assign a position either in +some country on this earth, or yet again in space, to Jesus +Christ, but this involves the rendering meaningless of all +expressions which involve his personality. + +The Christian conception, therefore, of the Deity proves when +examined with any desire to understand our own meaning (and what +lawlessness so great as the attempt to impose words upon our +understandings which have no lawful settlement within them?) to +be no less a contradiction in terms than the Pantheistic +conception. It is Atheistic, as offering us a God which is not a +God, inasmuch as we can conceive of no such being, nor of +anything in the least like it. It is, like Pantheism, an +illusion, which can be believed only by those who repeat a +formula which they have learnt by heart in a foreign language of +which they understand nothing, and yet aver that they believe it. +There are doubtless many who will say that this is possible, but +the majority of my readers will hold that no proposition can be +believed or disbelieved until its nature is understood. + +It may perhaps be said that there is another conception of God +possible, and that we may see him as personal, without at the +same time believing that he has any actual tangible existence. +Thus we personify hope, truth, and justice, without intending to +convey to anyone the impression that these qualities are women, +with flesh and blood. Again, we do not think of Nature as an +actual woman, though we call her one; why may we not conceive of +God, then, as an expression whereby we personify, by a figure of +speech only; the thing that is intended being no person, but our +own highest ideal of power, wisdom, and duration. + +There would be no reason to complain of this if this manner of +using the word "God" were well understood. Many words have two +meanings, or even three, without any mischievous confusion of +thought following. There can not only be no objection to the use +of the word God as a manner of expressing the highest ideal of +which our minds can conceive, but on the contrary no better +expression can be found, and it is a pity the word is not thus +more generally used. + +Few, however, would be content with any such limitation of God as +that he should be an idea only, an expression for certain +qualities of human thought and action. Whence, it may be fairly +asked, did our deeply rooted belief in God as a Living Person +originate? The idea of him as of an inconceivably vast, ancient, +powerful, loving, and yet formidable Person is one which survives +all changes of detail in men's opinion. I believe there are a +few very savage tribes who are as absolutely without religious +sense as the beasts of the field, but the vast majority for a +long time past have been possessed with an idea that there is +somewhere a Living God who is the Spirit and the Life of all that +is, and who is a true Person with an individuality and self- +consciousness of his own. It is only natural that we should be +asked how such an idea has remained in the minds of so many - who +differ upon almost every other part of their philosophy-for so +long a time if it was without foundation, and a piece of dreamy +mysticism only. + +True, it has generally been declared that this God is an infinite +God, and an infinite God is a God without any bounds or +limitations; and a God without bounds or limitations is an +impersonal God; and an impersonal God is Atheism. But may not +this be the incoherency of prophecy which precedes the successful +mastering of an idea? May we not think of this illusory +expression as having arisen from inability to see the whereabouts +of a certain vast but tangible Person as to whose existence men +were nevertheless clear? If they felt that it existed, and yet +could not say where, nor wherein it was to be laid hands on, they +would be very likely to get out of the difficulty by saying that +it existed as an infinite Spirit, partly from a desire to magnify +what they felt must be so vast and powerful, and partly because +they had as yet only a vague conception of what they were aiming +at, and must, therefore, best express it vaguely. + +We must not be surprised that when an idea is still inchoate its +expression should be inconsistent and imperfect-ideas will almost +always during the earlier history of a thought be put together +experimentally so as to see whether or no they will cohere. +Partly out of indolence, partly out of the desire of those who +brought the ideas together to be declared right, and partly out +of joy that the truth should be supposed found, incoherent ideas +will be kept together longer than they should be; nevertheless +they will in the end detach themselves and go, if others present +themselves which fit into their place better. There is no +consistency which has not once been inconsistent, nor coherency +that has not been incoherent. The incoherency of our ideas +concerning God is due to the fact that we have not yet truly +found him, but it does not argue that he does not exist and +cannot be found anywhere after more diligent search; on the +contrary, the persistence of the main idea, in spite of the +incoherency of its details, points strongly in the direction of +believing that it rests upon a foundation in fact. + +But it must be remembered there can be no God who is not personal +and material: and if personal, then, though inconceivably vast in +comparison with man, still limited in space and time, and capable +of making mistakes concerning his own interests, though as a +general rule right in his estimates concerning them. Where, then, +is this Being? He must be on earth, or what folly can be greater +than speaking of him as a person? What are persons on any other +earth to us, or we to them? He must have existed and be going to +exist through all time, and he must have a tangible body. Where, +then, is the body of this God? And what is the mystery of his +Incarnation? + +It will be my business to show this in the following chapter. + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE TREE OF LIFE + +Atheism denies knowledge of a God of any kind. Pantheism and +Theism alike profess to give us a God, but they alike fail to +perform what they have promised. We can know nothing of the God +they offer us, for not even do they themselves profess that any +of our senses can be cognisant [sic] of him. They tell us that he +is a personal God, but that he has no material person. This is +disguised Atheism. What we want is a Personal God, the glory of +whose Presence can be made in part evident to our senses, though +what we can realise [sic] is less than nothing in comparison with +what we must leave for ever unimagined. + +And truly such a God is not far from every one of us; for if we +survey the broader and deeper currents of men's thoughts during +the last three thousand years, we may observe two great and +steady sets as having carried away with them the more eligible +races of mankind. The one is a tendency from Polytheism to +Monotheism; the other from Polytypism to Monotypism of the +earliest forms of life-all animal and vegetable forms having at +length come to be regarded as differentiations of a single +substance-to wit, protoplasm. + +No man does well so to kick against the pricks as to set himself +against tendencies of such depth, strength, and permanence as +this. If he is to be in harmony with the dominant opinion of his +own and of many past ages, he will see a single God-impregnate +substance as having been the parent from which all living forms +have sprung. One spirit, and one form capable of such +modification as its directing spirit shall think fit; one soul +and one body, one God and one Life. + +For the time has come when the two unities so painfully arrived +at must be joined together as body and soul, and be seen not as +two, but one. There is no living organism untenanted by the +Spirit of God, nor any Spirit of God perceivable by man apart +from organism embodying and expressing it. God and the Life of +the World are like a mountain, which will present different +aspects as we look at it from different sides, but which, when we +have gone all round it, proves to be one only. God is the animal +and vegetable world, and the animal and vegetable world is God. + +I have repeatedly said that we ought to see all animal and +vegetable life as uniting to form a single personality. I should +perhaps explain this more fully, for the idea of a compound +person is one which at first is not very easy to grasp, inasmuch +as we are not conscious of any but our more superficial aspects, +and have therefore until lately failed to understand that we are +ourselves compound persons. I may perhaps be allowed to quote +from an earlier work. + +"Each cell in the human body is now admitted by physiologists to +be a person with an intelligent soul, differing from our own more +complex soul in degree and not in kind, and, like ourselves, +being born, living, and dying. It would appear, then, as though +'we,' 'our souls,' or 'selves,' or 'personalities,' or by +whatever name we may prefer to be called, are but the +consensus and full- flowing stream of countless sensations +and impulses on the part of our tributary souls or 'selves,' who +probably no more know that we exist, and that they exist as a +part of us, than a microscopic insect knows the results of +spectrum analysis, or than an agricultural labourer [sic] knows +the working of the British Constitution; and of whom we know no +more than we do of the habits and feelings of some class widely +separated from our own."-("Life and Habit," p. 110.) + +After which it became natural to ask the following question :- +"Is it possible to avoid imagining that we may be ourselves +atoms, undesignedly combining to form some vaster being, though +we are utterly incapable of perceiving this being as a single +individual, or of realising [sic] the scheme and scope of our own +combination? And this, too, not a spiritual being, which, without +matter or what we think matter of some sort, is as complete +nonsense to us as though men bade us love and lean upon an +intelligent vacuum, but a being with what is virtually flesh and +blood and bones, with organs, senses, dimensions in some way +analogous to our own, into some other part of which being at the +time of our great change we must infallibly re-enter, starting +clean anew, with bygones bygones, and no more ache for ever from +age or antecedents. + +"'An organic being,' writes Mr. Darwin, 'is a microcosm, a little +universe, formed of a host of self-propagating organisms +inconceivably minute and numerous as the stars in Heaven.' As +these myriads of smaller organisms are parts and processes of us, +so are we parts and processes of life at large." + +A tree is composed of a multitude of subordinate trees, each bud +being a distinct individual. So coral polypes [sic] form a tree- +like growth of animal life, with branches from which spring +individual polypes [sic] that are connected by a common tissue +and supported by a common skeleton. We have no difficulty in +seeing a unity in multitude, and a multitude in unity here, +because we can observe the wood and the gelatinous tissue +connecting together all the individuals which compose either the +tree or the mass of polypes [sic]. Yet the skeleton, whether of +tree or of polype [sic], is inanimate; and the tissue, whether of +bark or gelatine [sic], is only the matted roots of the +individual buds; so that the outward and striking connection +between the individuals is more delusive than real. The true +connection is one which cannot be seen, and consists in the +animation of each bud by a like spirit-in the community of soul, +in "the voice of the Lord which maketh men to be of one mind in +an house"-"to dwell together in unity"-to take what are +practically identical views of things, and express themselves in +concert under all circumstances. Provided this-the true unifier +of organism-can be shown to exist, the absence of gross outward +and visible but inanimate common skeleton is no bar to oneness of +personality. + +Let us picture to our minds a tree of which all the woody fibre +[sic] shall be invisible, the buds and leaves seeming to stand in +mid-air unsupported and unconnected with one another, so that +there is nothing but a certain tree- like collocation of foliage +to suggest any common principle of growth uniting the leaves. + +Three or four leaves of different ages stand living together at +the place in the air where the end of each bough should be; of +these the youngest are still tender and in the bud, while the +older ones are turning yellow and on the point of falling. +Between these leaves a sort of twig-like growth can be detected +if they are looked at in certain lights, but it is hard to see, +except perhaps when a bud is on the point of coming out. Then +there does appear to be a connection which might be called +branch-like. + +The separate tufts are very different from one another, so that +oak leaves, ash leaves, horse-chestnut leaves, etc., are each +represented, but there is one species only at the end of each +bough. + +Though the trunk and all the inner boughs and leaves have +disappeared, yet there hang here and there fossil leaves, also in +mid-air; they appear to have been petrified, without method or +selection, by what we call the caprices of nature; they hang in +the path which the boughs and twigs would have taken, and they +seem to indicate that if the tree could have been seen a million +years earlier, before it had grown near its present size, the +leaves standing at the end of each bough would have been found +very different from what they are now. Let us suppose that all +the leaves at the end of all the invisible boughs, no matter how +different they now are from one another, were found in earliest +budhood to be absolutely indistinguishable, and afterwards to +develop towards each differentiation through stages which were +indicated by the fossil leaves. Lastly, let us suppose that +though the boughs which seem wanted to connect all the living +forms of leaves with the fossil leaves, and with countless forms +of which all trace has disappeared, and also with a single root- +have become invisible, yet that there is irrefragable evidence to +show that they once actually existed, and indeed are existing at +this moment, in a condition as real though as invisible to the +eye as air or electricity. Should we, I ask, under these +circumstances hesitate to call our imaginary plant or tree by a +single name, and to think of it as one person, merely upon the +score that the woody fibre [sic] was invisible? Should we not +esteem the common soul, memories and principles of growth which +are preserved between all the buds, no matter how widely they +differ in detail, as a more living bond of union than a framework +of wood would be, which, though it were visible to the eye, would +still be inanimate? + +The mistletoe appears as closely connected with the tree on which +it grows as any of the buds of the tree itself; it is fed upon +the same sap as the other buds are, which sap-however much it may +modify it at the last moment-it draws through the same fibres +[sic] as do its foster-brothers-why then do we at once feel that +the mistletoe is no part of the apple tree? Not from any want of +manifest continuity, but from the spiritual difference-from the +profoundly different views of life and things which are taken by +the parasite and the tree on which it grows-the two are +now different because they think differently-as long as +they thought alike they were alike-that is to say they were +protoplasm-they and we and all that lives meeting in this common +substance. + +We ought therefore to regard our supposed tufts of leaves as a +tree, that is to say, as a compound existence, each one of whose +component items is compounded of others which are also in their +turn compounded. But the tree above described is no imaginary +parallel to the condition of life upon the globe; it is perhaps +as accurate a description of the Tree of Life as can be put into +so small a compass. The most sure proof of a man's identity is +the power to remember that such and such things happened, which +none but he can know; the most sure proof of his remembering is +the power to react his part in the original drama, whatever it +may have been; if a man can repeat a performance with consummate +truth, and can stand any amount of cross-questioning about it, he +is the performer of the original performance, whatever it was. +The memories which all living forms prove by their actions that +they possess-the memories of their common identity with a single +person in whom they meet-this is incontestable proof of their +being animated by a common soul. It is certain, therefore, that +all living forms, whether animal or vegetable, are in reality one +animal; we and the mosses being part of the same vast person in +no figurative sense, but with as much bona fide literal +truth as when we say that a man's finger-nails and his eyes are +parts of the same man. + +It is in this Person that we may see the Body of God-and in the +evolution of this Person, the mystery of His Incarnation. + +[In "Unconscious Memory," Chapter V, Butler wrote: "In the +articles above alluded to ("God the Known and God the Unknown") I +separated the organic from the inorganic, but when I came to +rewrite them I found that this could not be done, and that I must +reconstruct what I had written." This reconstruction never having +been effected, it may be well to quote further from "Unconscious +Memory" (concluding chapter): "At parting, therefore, I would +recommend the reader to see every atom in the universe as living +and able to feel and remember, but in a humble way. He must have +life eternal as well as matter eternal; and the life and the +matter must be joined together inseparably as body and soul to +one another. Thus he will see God everywhere, not as those who +repeat phrases conventionally, but as people who would have their +words taken according to their most natural and legitimate +meaning; and he will feel that the main difference between him +and many of those who oppose him lies in the fact that whereas +both he and they use the same language, his opponents only half +mean what they say, while he means it entirely... We shall +endeavour [sic] to see the so-called inorganic as living, in +respect of the qualities it has in common with the organic, +rather than the organic as non- living in respect of the +qualities it has in common with the inorganic."] + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE LIKENESS OF GOD + +In my last chapter I endeavoured [sic] to show that each living +being, whether animal or plant, throughout the world is a +component item of a single personality, in the same way as each +individual citizen of a community is a member of one state, or as +each cell of our own bodies is a separate person, or each bud of +a tree a separate plant. We must therefore see the whole varied +congeries of living things as a single very ancient Being, +of inconceivable vastness, and animated by one Spirit. + +We call the octogenarian one person with the embryo of a few days +old from which he has developed. An oak or yew tree may be two +thousand years old, but we call it one plant with the seed from +which it has grown. Millions of individual buds have come and +gone, to the yearly wasting and repairing of its substance; but +the tree still lives and thrives, and the dead leaves have life +therein. So the Tree of Life still lives and thrives as a single +person, no matter how many new features it has acquired during +its development, nor, again, how many of its individual leaves +fall yellow to the ground daily. The spirit or soul of this +person is the Spirit of God, and its body-for we know of no soul +or spirit without a body, nor of any living body without a spirit +or soul, and if there is a God at all there must be a body of +God-is the many-membered outgrowth of protoplasm, the +ensemble of animal and vegetable life. + +To repeat. The Theologian of to-day tells us that there is a God, +but is horrified at the idea of that God having a body. We say +that we believe in God, but that our minds refuse to realise +[sic] an intelligent Being who has no bodily person. "Where +then," says the Theologian, " is the body of your God?" We have +answered, "In the living forms upon the earth, which, though they +look many, are, when we regard them by the light of their history +and of true analogies, one person only." The spiritual connection +between them is a more real bond of union than the visible +discontinuity of material parts is ground for separating them in +our thoughts. + +Let the reader look at a case of moths in the shop-window of a +naturalist, and note the unspeakable delicacy, beauty, and yet +serviceableness of their wings; or let him look at a case of +humming-birds, and remember how infinitely small a part of Nature +is the whole group of the animals he may be considering, and how +infinitely small a part of that group is the case that he is +looking at. Let him bear in mind that he is looking on the dead +husks only of what was inconceivably more marvellous [sic] when +the moths or humming-birds were alive. Let him think of the +vastness of the earth, and of the activity by day and night +through countless ages of such countless forms of animal and +vegetable life as that no human mind can form the faintest +approach to anything that can be called a conception of their +multitude, and let him remember that all these forms have touched +and touched and touched other living beings till they meet back +on a common substance in which they are rooted, and from which +they all branch forth so as to be one animal. Will he not in this +real and tangible existence find a God who is as much more worthy +of admiration than the God of the ordinary Theologian-as He is +also more easy of comprehension? + +For the Theologian dreams of a God sitting above the clouds among +the cherubim, who blow their loud uplifted angel trumpets before +Him, and humour [sic] Him as though He were some despot in an +Oriental tale; but we enthrone Him upon the wings of birds, on +the petals of flowers, on the faces of our friends, and upon +whatever we most delight in of all that lives upon the earth. We +then can not only love Him, but we can do that without which love +has neither power nor sweetness, but is a phantom only, an +impersonal person, a vain stretching forth of arms towards +something that can never fill them-we can express our love and +have it expressed to us in return. And this not in the uprearing +of stone temples-for the Lord dwelleth [sic] in temples made with +other organs than hands-nor yet in the cleansing of our hearts, +but in the caress bestowed upon horse and dog, and kisses upon +the lips of those we love. + +Wide, however, as is the difference between the orthodox +Theologian and ourselves, it is not more remarkable than the +number of the points on which we can agree with him, and on +which, moreover, we can make his meaning clearer to himself than +it can have ever hitherto been. He, for example, says that man +has been made in the image of God, but he cannot mean what he +says, unless his God has a material body; we, on the other hand, +do not indeed believe that the body of God-the incorporation of +all life-is like the body of a man, more than we believe each one +of our own cells or subordinate personalities to be like a man in +miniature; but we nevertheless hold that each of our tributary +selves is so far made after the likeness of the body corporate +that it possesses all our main and essential characteristics-that +is to say, that it can waste and repair itself; can feel, move, +and remember. To this extent, also, we-who stand in mean +proportional between our tributary personalities and God-are made +in the likeness of God; for we, and God, and our subordinate +cells alike possess the essential characteristics of life which +have been above recited. It is more true, therefore, for us to +say that we are made in the likeness of God than for the orthodox +Theologian to do so. + +Nor, again, do we find difficulty in adopting such an expression +as that "God has taken our nature upon Him." We hold this as +firmly, and much more so, than Christians can do, but we say that +this is no new thing for Him to do, for that He has taken flesh +and dwelt among us from the day that He first assumed our shape, +some millions of years ago, until now. God cannot become man more +especially than He can become other living forms, any more than +we can be our eyes more especially than any other of our +organs. We may develop larger eyes, so that our eyes may come to +occupy a still more important place in our economy than they do +at present; and in a similar way the human race may become a more +predominant part of God than it now is-but we cannot admit that +one living form is more like God than another; we must hold all +equally like Him, inasmuch as they "keep ever," as Buffon says, +"the same fundamental unity, in spite of differences of detail- +nutrition, development, reproduction" (and, I would add, +"memory") "being the common traits of all organic bodies." The +utmost we can admit is, that some embodiments of the Spirit of +Life may be more important than others to the welfare of Life as +a whole, in the same way as some of our organs are more important +than others to ourselves. + +But the above resemblances between the language which we can +adopt intelligently and that which Theologians use vaguely, seem +to reduce the differences of opinion between the two contending +parties to disputes about detail. For even those who believe +their ideas to be the most definite, and who picture to +themselves a God as anthropomorphic as He was represented by +Raffaelle, are yet not prepared to stand by their ideas if they +are hard pressed in the same way as we are by ours. Those who say +that God became man and took flesh upon Him, and that He is now +perfect God and perfect man of a reasonable soul and human flesh +subsisting, will yet not mean that Christ has a heart, blood, a +stomach, etc., like man's, which, if he has not, it is idle to +speak of him as "perfect man." I am persuaded that they do not +mean this, nor wish to mean it; but that they have been led into +saying it by a series of steps which it is very easy to +understand and sympathise [sic] with, if they are considered with +any diligence. + +For our forefathers, though they might and did feel the existence +of a Personal God in the world, yet could not demonstrate this +existence, and made mistakes in their endeavour [sic] to persuade +themselves that they understood thoroughly a truth which they had +as yet perceived only from a long distance. Hence all the +dogmatism and theology of many centuries. It was impossible for +them to form a clear or definite conception concerning God until +they had studied His works more deeply, so as to grasp the idea +of many animals of different kinds and with no apparent +connection between them, being yet truly parts of one and the +same animal which comprised them in the same way as a tree +comprises all its buds. They might speak of this by a figure of +speech, but they could not see it as a fact. Before this could be +intended literally, Evolution must be grasped, and not Evolution +as taught in what is now commonly called Darwinism, but the old +teleological Darwinism of eighty years ago. Nor is this again +sufficient, for it must be supplemented by a perception of the +oneness of personality between parents and offspring, the +persistence of memory through all generations, the latency of +this memory until rekindled by the recurrence of the associated +ideas, and the unconsciousness with which repeated acts come to +be performed. These are modern ideas which might be caught sight +of now and again by prophets in time past, but which are even now +mastered and held firmly only by the few. + +When once, however, these ideas have been accepted, the chief +difference between the orthodox God and the God who can be seen +of all men is, that the first is supposed to have existed from +all time, while the second has only lived for more millions of +years than our minds can reckon intelligently; the first is +omnipresent in all space, while the second is only present in the +living forms upon this earth-that is to say, is only more widely +present than our minds can intelligently embrace. The first is +omnipotent and all-wise; the second is only quasi-omnipotent and +quasi all-wise. It is true, then, that we deprive God of that +infinity which orthodox Theologians have ascribed to Him, but the +bounds we leave Him are of such incalculable extent that nothing +can be imagined more glorious or vaster; and in return for the +limitations we have assigned to Him, we render it possible for +men to believe in Him , and love Him, not with their lips only, +but with their hearts and lives. + +Which, I may now venture to ask my readers, is the true God-the +God of the Theologian, or He whom we may see around us, and in +whose presence we stand each hour and moment of our lives? + + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE LIFE EVERLASTING + +Let us now consider the life which we can look forward to with +certainty after death, and the moral government of the world here +on earth. + +If we could hear the leaves complaining to one another that they +must die, and commiserating the hardness of their lot in having +ever been induced to bud forth, we should, I imagine, despise +them for their peevishness more than we should pity them. We +should tell them that though we could not see reason for thinking +that they would ever hang again upon the same-or any at all +similar-bough as the same individual leaves, after they had once +faded and fallen off, yet that as they had been changing +personalities without feeling it during the whole of their +leafhood, so they would on death continue to do this selfsame +thing by entering into new phases of life. True, death will +deprive them of conscious memory concerning their now current +life; but, though they die as leaves, they live in the tree whom +they have helped to vivify, and whose growth and continued well- +being is due solely to this life and death of its component +personalities. + +We consider the cells which are born and die within us yearly to +have been sufficiently honoured [sic] in having contributed their +quotum to our life; why should we have such difficulty in seeing +that a healthy enjoyment and employment of our life will give us +a sufficient reward in that growth of God wherein we may live +more truly and effectually after death than we have lived when we +were conscious of existence? Is Handel dead when he influences +and sets in motion more human beings in three months now than +during the whole, probably, of the years in which he thought that +he was alive? What is being alive if the power to draw men for +many miles in order that they may put themselves en +rapport with him is not being so? True, Handel no longer +knows the power which he has over us, but this is a small matter; +he no longer animates six feet of flesh and blood, but he lives +in us as the dead leaf lives in the tree. He is with God, and God +knows him though he knows himself no more. + +This should suffice, and I observe in practice does suffice, for +all reasonable persons. It may be said that one day the tree +itself must die, and the leaves no longer live therein; and so, +also, that the very God or Life of the World will one day perish, +as all that is born must surely in the end die. But they who fret +upon such grounds as this must be in so much want of a grievance +that it were a cruelty to rob them of one: if a man who is fond +of music tortures himself on the ground that one day all possible +combinations and permutations of sounds will have been exhausted +so that there can be no more new tunes, the only thing we can do +with him is to pity him and leave him; nor is there any better +course than this to take with those idle people who worry them +selves and others on the score that they will one day be unable +to remember the small balance of their lives that they have not +already forgotten as unimportant to them-that they will one day +die to the balance of what they have not already died to. I never +knew a well-bred or amiable person who complained seriously of +the fact that he would have to die. Granted we must all some +times find ourselves feeling sorry that we cannot remain for ever +at our present age, and that we may die so much sooner than we +like; but these regrets are passing with well-disposed people, +and are a sine qua non for the existence of life at all. +For if people could live for ever so as to suffer from no such +regret, there would be no growth nor development in life; if, on +the other hand, there were no unwillingness to die, people would +commit suicide upon the smallest contradiction, and the race +would end in a twelvemonth. + +We then offer immortality, but we do not offer resurrection from +the dead; we say that those who die live in the Lord whether they +be just or unjust, and that the present growth of God is the +outcome of all past lives; but we believe that as they live in +God-in the effect they have produced upon the universal life-when +once their individual life is ended, so it is God who knows of +their life thenceforward and not themselves; and we urge that +this immortality, this entrance into the joy of the Lord, this +being ever with God, is true, and can be apprehended by all men, +and that the perception of it should and will tend to make them +lead happier, healthier lives; whereas the commonly received +opinion is true with a stage truth only, and has little permanent +effect upon those who are best worth considering. Nevertheless +the expressions in common use among the orthodox fit in so +perfectly with facts, which we must all acknowledge, that it is +impossible not to regard the expressions as founded upon a +prophetic perception of the facts. + +Two things stand out with sufficient clearness. The first is the +rarity of suicide even among those who rail at life most +bitterly. The other is the little eagerness with which those who +cry out most loudly for a resurrection desire to begin their new +life. When comforting a husband upon the loss of his wife we do +not tell him we hope he will soon join her; but we should +certainly do this if we could even pretend we thought the husband +would like it. I can never remember having felt or witnessed any +pain, bodily or mental, which would have made me or anyone else +receive a suggestion that we had better commit suicide without +indignantly asking how our adviser would like to commit suicide +himself. Yet there are so many and such easy ways of dying that +indignation at being advised to commit suicide arises more from +enjoyment of life than from fear of the mere physical pain of +dying. Granted that there is much deplorable pain in the world +from ill-health, loss of money, loss of reputation, misconduct of +those nearest to us, or what not, and granted that in some cases +these causes do drive men to actual self-destruction, yet +suffering such as this happens to a comparatively small number, +and occupies comparatively a small space in the lives of those to +whom it does happen. + +What, however, have we to say to those cases in which suffering +and injustice are inflicted upon defenceless [sic] people for +years and years, so that the iron enters into their souls, and +they have no avenger. Can we give any comfort to such sufferers? +and, if not, is our religion any better than a mockery-a filling +the rich with good things and sending the hungry empty away? Can +we tell them, when they are oppressed with burdens, yet that +their cry will come up to God and be heard? The question +suggests its own answer, for assuredly our God knows our +innermost secrets: there is not a word in our hearts but He +knoweth it altogether; He knoweth our down-sitting and our +uprising, He is about our path and about our bed, and spieth out +all our ways; He has fashioned us behind and before, and "we +cannot attain such knowledge," for, like all knowledge when it +has become perfect, "it is too excellent for us." + +"Whither then," says David, "shall I go from thy Spirit, or +whither shall I go, then, from thy presence? If I climb up into +heaven thou art there; if I go down into hell thou art there +also. If I take the wings of the morning and remain in the +uttermost parts of the sea; even there also shall thy hand lead +me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say peradventure the +darkness shall cover me, then shall my night be turned into day: +the darkness and light to thee are both alike. For my reins +are thine; thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. My bones +are not hid from thee: though I be made secretly and fashioned +beneath in the earth, thine eyes did see my substance yet being +unperfect; and in thy book were all my members written, which day +by day were fashioned when as yet there was none of them. Do I +not hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am I not grieved with +them that rise up against thee? Yea, I hate them right sore, as +though they were mine enemies." (Psalm CXXXIX.) There is not a +word of this which we cannot endorse with more significance, as +well as with greater heartiness than those can who look upon God +as He is commonly represented to them; whatever comfort, +therefore, those in distress have been in the habit of receiving +from these and kindred passages, we intensify rather than not. We +cannot, alas! make pain cease to be pain, nor injustice easy to +bear; but we can show that no pain is bootless, and that there is +a tendency in all injustice to right itself; suffering is not +inflicted wilfully, [sic] as it were by a magician who could have +averted it ; nor is it vain in its results, but unless we are cut +off from God by having dwelt in some place where none of our kind +can know of what has happened to us, it will move God's heart to +redress our grievance, and will tend to the happiness of those +who come after us, even if not to our own. + +The moral government of God over the world is exercised through +us, who are his ministers and persons, and a government of this +description is the only one which can be observed as practically +influencing men's conduct. God helps those who help themselves, +because in helping themselves they are helping Him. Again, Vox +Populi vox Dei. The current feeling of our peers is what we +instinctively turn to when we would know whether such and such a +course of conduct is right or wrong; and so Paul clenches his +list of things that the Philippians were to hold fast with the +words, "whatsoever things are of good fame"-that is to say, he +falls back upon an appeal to the educated conscience of his age. +Certainly the wicked do sometimes appear to escape punishment, +but it must be remembered there are punishments from within which +do not meet the eye. If these fall on a man, he is sufficiently +punished; if they do not fall on him, it is probable we have been +over hasty in assuming that he is wicked. + + + CHAPTER IX + + GOD THE UNKNOWN + +The reader will already have felt that the panzoistic conception +of God-the conception, that is to say, of God as comprising all +living units in His own single person-does not help us to +understand the origin of matter, nor yet that of the primordial +cell which has grown and unfolded itself into the present life of +the world. How was the world rendered fit for the habitation of +the first germ of Life? How came it to have air and water, +without which nothing that we know of as living can exist? Was +the world fashioned and furnished with aqueous and atmospheric +adjuncts with a view to the requirements of the infant monad, and +to his due development? If so, we have evidence of design, and +if so of a designer, and if so there must be Some far vaster +Person who looms out behind our God, and who stands in the same +relation to him as he to us. And behind this vaster and more +unknown God there may be yet another, and another, and another. + +It is certain that Life did not make the world with a view to its +own future requirements. For the world was at one time red hot, +and there can have been no living being upon it. Nor is it +conceivable that matter in which there was no life-inasmuch as it +was infinitely hotter than the hottest infusion which any living +germ can support-could gradually come to be alive without +impregnation from a living parent. All living things that we know +of have come from other living things with bodies and souls, +whose existence can be satisfactorily established in spite of +their being often too small for our detection. Since, then, the +world was once without life, and since no analogy points in the +direction of thinking that life can spring up spontaneously, we +are driven to suppose that it was introduced into this world from +some other source extraneous to it altogether, and if so we find +ourselves irresistibly drawn to the inquiry whether the source of +the life that is in the world-the impregnator of this earth-may +not also have prepared the earth for the reception of his +offspring, as a hen makes an egg-shell or a peach a stone for the +protection of the germ within it? Not only are we drawn to the +inquiry, but we are drawn also to the answer that the earth +was so prepared designedly by a Person with body and soul +who knew beforehand the kind of thing he required, and who took +the necessary steps to bring it about. + +If this is so we are members indeed of the God of this world, but +we are not his children; we are children of the Unknown and +Vaster God who called him into existence; and this in a far more +literal sense than we have been in the habit of realising [sic] +to ourselves. For it may be doubted whether the monads are not as +truly seminal in character as the procreative matter from which +all animals spring. + +It must be remembered that if there is any truth in the view put +forward in "Life and Habit," and in "Evolution Old and New" (and +I have met with no serious attempt to upset the line of argument +taken in either of these books), then no complex animal or plant +can reach its full development without having already gone +through the stages of that development on an infinite number of +past occasions. An egg makes itself into a hen because it knows +the way to do so, having already made itself into a hen millions +and millions of times over; the ease and unconsciousness with +which it grows being in themselves sufficient demonstration of +this fact. At each stage in its growth {he chicken is reminded, +by a return of the associated ideas, of the next step that it +should take, and it accordingly takes it. + +But if this is so, and if also the congeries of all the +living forms in the world must be regarded as a single person, +throughout their long growth from the primordial cell onwards to +the present day, then, by parity of reasoning, the person thus +compounded-that is to say, Life or God-should have already passed +through a growth analogous to that which we find he has taken +upon this earth on an infinite number of past occasions; and the +development of each class of life, with its culmination in the +vertebrate animals and in man, should be due to recollection +by God of his having passed through the same stages, or nearly +so, in worlds and universes, which we know of from personal +recollection, as evidenced in the growth and structure of our +bodies, but concerning which we have no other knowledge +whatsoever. + +So small a space remains to me that I cannot pursue further the +reflections which suggest themselves. A few concluding +considerations are here alone possible. + +We know of three great concentric phases of life, and we are not +without reason to suspect a fourth. If there are so many there +are very likely more, but we do not know whether there are or +not. The innermost sphere of life we know of is that of our own +cells. These people live in a world of their own, knowing nothing +of us, nor being known by ourselves until very recently. Yet they +can be seen under a microscope; they can be taken out of us, and +may then be watched going here and there in perturbation of mind, +endeavouring [sic] to find something in their new environment +that will suit them, and then dying on finding how hopelessly +different it is from any to which they have been accustomed. They +live in us, and make us up into the single person which we +conceive ourselves to form; we are to them a world comprising an +organic and an inorganic kingdom, of which they consider +themselves to be the organic, and whatever is not very like +themselves to be the inorganic. Whether they are composed of +subordinate personalities or not we do not know, but we have no +reason to think that they are, and if we touch ground, so to +speak, with life in the units of which our own bodies are +composed, it is likely that there is a limit also in an upward +direction, though we have nothing whatever to guide us as to +where it is, nor any certainty that there is a limit at all. + +We are ourselves the second concentric sphere of life, we being +the constituent cells which unite to form the body of God. Of the +third sphere we know a single member only-the God of this world; +but we see also the stars in heaven, and know their multitude. +Analogy points irresistibly in the direction of thinking that +these other worlds are like our own, begodded and full of life; +it also bids us believe that the God of their world is begotten +of one more or less like himself, and that his growth has +followed the same course as that of all other growths we know of. + +If so, he is one of the constituent units of an unknown and +vaster personality who is composed of Gods, as our God is +composed of all the living forms on earth, and as all those +living forms are composed of cells. This is the Unknown God. +Beyond this second God we cannot at present go, nor should we +wish to do so, if we are wise. It is no reproach to a system that +it does not profess to give an account of the origin of things; +the reproach rather should lie against a system which professed +to explain it, for we may be well assured that such a profession +would, for the present at any rate, be an empty boast. It is +enough if a system is true as far as it goes; if it throws new +light on old problems, and opens up vistas which reveal a hope of +further addition to our knowledge, and this I believe may be +fairly claimed for the theory of life put forward in "Life and +Habit" and "Evolution, Old and New," and for the corollary +insisted upon in these pages; a corollary which follows logically +and irresistibly if the position I have taken in the above-named +books is admitted. + +Let us imagine that one of the cells of which we are composed +could attain to a glimmering perception of the manner in which he +unites with other cells, of whom he knows very little, so as to +form a greater compound person of whom he has hitherto known +nothing at all. Would he not do well to content himself with the +mastering of this conception, at any rate for a considerable +time? Would it be any just ground of complaint against him on the +part of his brother cells, that he had failed to explain to them +who made the man (or, as he would call it, the omnipotent deity) +whose existence and relations to himself he had just caught sight +of? + +But if he were to argue further on the same lines as those on +which he had travelled hitherto, and were to arrive at the +conclusion that there might be other men in the world. besides +the one whom he had just learnt to apprehend, it would be still +no refutation or just ground of complaint against him that he had +failed to show the manner in which his supposed human race had +come into existence. + +Here our cell would probably stop. He could hardly be expected +to arrive at the existence of animals and plants differing from +the human race, and uniting with that race to form a single +Person or God, in the same way as he has himself united with +other cells to form man. The existence, and much more the +roundness of the earth itself, would be unknown to him, except by +way of inference and deduction. The only universe which he could +at all understand would be the body of the man of whom he was a +component part. + +How would not such a cell be astounded if all that we know +ourselves could be suddenly revealed to him, so that not only +should the vastness of this earth burst upon his dazzled view, +but that of the sun and of his planets also, and not only these, +but the countless other suns which we may see by night around us. +Yet it is probable that an actual being is hidden from us, which +no less transcends the wildest dream of our theologians than the +existence of the heavenly bodies transcends the perception of our +own constituent cells. + + THE END + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of God the Known and God the +Unknown, by Samuel Butler diff --git a/old/godku10.zip b/old/godku10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..45d34f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/godku10.zip |