Pantheism's destruction of boundaries - pagina 27

^Tcthodlst Review. ceptioii uf

I

vanishes away and wlit-n tlierc

life

no more

is

in any known tnirli, nor in law, which governs lit'ework and who makes God, who calls ns to ii

laitii

the will, nor

in

everytliinii; sub-

Underneath your feet the iountains and from above the rain ])our8 down to soak tlie rise higher, which was once well i^raveled and iirm, and turn it roadbed, into mud, where walkini^ becomes stumblin;^ and slidimrHence the cionplaint, which was never more general than in our days, about the dearth of character, (jf impressive personality, and oi:" men oi ii'on will. In sooth, we need be no "admirers of the pa<t" to stand aggrieved at the dullness of the faces about ns, at their weakness of expression and want of maidy power, in comparison with those porti'aye<l on Uembi-andt's canvases. jN'(., we do not look down with self-conceit upon agnosticism ; and when we hear Tyndall reverently say, "Standing before t!ii«i power which from the universe forces itself upon me, 1 dare not do other than speak poetically (»f a II im, a Spii-it, or even a (.'ause irs mystery overshadows me, but it remains a serve

aceoinpiishnient.

its

;

mystery," then this agnostic reverence touches us more deei)ly than

the

Kantian refrain of God,

and

innnortality.

human

consciousness

virtue,

Ihit forget not that the clearness of

our

the clearness of our thiid-cing becomes dimmed. England science is delined as the statistics of what is measBene docet qui distinqxr^V ured, weighed, and mimbci'ed. is

here at stake

;

In

'•'•

("

He

teaches well

cipline

escape;

who

(Jistinguislies well'')

from which our thinking, i)ut

here the rule

is

if it is

made

to

is

the rnl& of dis-

to be sound,

reaii,

"

/?r;?/'

may

omnia bene permiscet'''' ("He teachco well who mixes all well"). And, as mentioned above, Hegel had to invent logic for this

amalgamating process of thought.

not

docct qui

things a

new

Before this

cloudy manner of thinking the strength of conviction recedes. Everything clothes itself with the garb of modesty, which in re-

naught but hesitation and uncertainty, until in the end its "love glance" upon the notknowing, and Du Bois Reymond proclaims his "?y7ioraZ»/m ?«.?," which is followed by the agnostic axiom of Spencer. In this way it is not merely philosoi)hy that languishes and the horizon of science itself which becomes narrow, but in practical life skepticism takes jwssession again of the human heart and draws the clouds ever thicker across the clearness of our vision, until

ality

is

the thirst for knowledge turns

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