any "Divine design of a revelation," or that any "communication between the two worlds" was requisite, it is therefore clear that his argument consists merely of assumptions admitted to be antecedently incredible. It advances a supposition of that which is contrary to reason to justify supposed visible suspensions of the order of nature, which are also contrary to reason. Incredible assumptions cannot give probability to incredible evidence- Tertullian's audacious paradox: "Credo quia impossible," of which such reasoning is illustrative, is but the cry of enthusiastic credulity.
The whole theory of this abortive design of creation, with such impotent efforts to amend it, is emphatically contradicted by the glorious perfection and invariability of the order of nature. It is difficult to say whether the details of the scheme, or the circumstances which are supposed to have led to its adoption, are more shocking to reason or to moral sense. The imperfection ascribed to the Divine work is scarcely more derogatory to the power and wisdom of the Creator, than the supposed satisfaction of his justice in the death of himself incarnate, the innocent for the guilty, is degrading to the idea of his moral perfection. The supposed necessity for repeated interference to correct the imperfection of the original creation, the nature of the means employed, and the triumphant opposition of Satan, are anthropomorphic conceptions totally incompatible with the idea of an Infinitely Wise and Almighty Being. The constitution of nature, so far from favouring any hypothesis of original perfection and subsequent deterioration, bears everywhere the record of systematic upward progression. Not only is the assumption, that any revelation of the nature of ecclesiastical Christianity was necessary, excluded upon
philosophical grounds, but it is contradicted by the whole operation of natural laws, which contain in themselves inexorable penalties against natural retrogression, or even unprogressiveness, and furnish the only requisite stimulus to improvement.(1) The survival only of the fittest is the
1 We venture to add a passage from Mr. Herbert Spencer's
"Social Statics," which we have met with for the first time
since this work was published, in illustration of this
assertion. Mr. Spencer affirms "the evanescence of evil" and
the perfectibility of man, upon the ground that: "All evil
results from the non-adaptation of constitution to
conditions." After an elaborate demonstration of this, he
resumes as follows: "If there be any conclusiveness in the
foregoing arguments, such a faith is well founded. As
commonly supported by evidence drawn from history, it cannot
be considered indisputable. The inference that as
adyancement has been hitherto the rule, it will be the rule
henceforth, may be called a plausible speculation. But when
it is shown that this adyancement is due to the working of a
universal law; and that in virtue of that law it must
continue until the state we call perfection is reached, then
the advent of such a state is removed out of the region of
probability into that of certainty. If any one demurs to
this let him point out the error. Here are the several steps
of the argument. All imperfection is unfitness to the
conditions of existence.
This unfitness must consist either in having a faculty or
faculties in excess; or in having a faculty or faculties
deficient; or in both.
A faculty in excess is one which the conditions of existence
do not afford full exercise to; and a faculty that is
deficient is one from which the conditions of existence
demand more than it can perform.
But it is an essential principle of life that a faculty to
which circumstances do not allow full exercise diminishes;
and that a faculty on which circumstances make excessive
demands increases.
And so long as this excess and this deficiency continue,
there must continue decrease on the one hand, and growth on
the other.
Finally all excess and all deficiency must disappear, that
is, all unfitness must disappear; that is, all imperfection
must disappear.
Thus the ultimate development of the ideal man is logically
certain—as certain as any conclusion in which we place the
most implicit faith; for instance, that all men will die.
For why do we infer that all men will die P Simply because,
in an immense number of past experiences, death has
uniformly occurred. Similarly then as the experiences of all
people in all times—experiences that are embodied in maxims,
proverbs, and moral precepts, and that are illustrated in
biographies and histories, go to prove that organs,
faculties, powers, capacities, or whatever else we call them
grow by use and diminish from disuse, it is inferred that
they will continue to do so. And if this inference is
unquestionable,
then is the one above deduced from it—that humanity must in
the end become completely adapted to its conditions—
unquestionable also.
Progress, therefore, is not an accident, but a necessity.
Instead of civilization being artificial, it is a part of
nature; all of a piece with the development of the embryo or
the unfolding of a flower. The modifications mankind have
undergone, and are still undergoing, result from a law
underlying the whole organic creation; and provided the
human race continues, and the constitution of things remains
the same, those modifications must end in completeness. As
surely as the tree becomes bulky when it stands alone, and
slender if one of a group; as surely as the same creature
assumes the different forms of cart-horse and racehorse,
according as its habits demand strength or speed; as surely
as a blacksmith's arm grows large, and the skin of a
labourer's hand thick; as surely as the eye tends to become
long-sighted in the sailor, and shortsighted in the student;
as surely as the blind attain a more delicate sense of
touch; as surely as a clerk acquires rapidity in writing and
calculation; as surely as the musician learns to detect an
error of a semitone amidst what seems to others a very babel
of sounds; as surely as a passion grows by indulgence and
diminishes when restrained; as surely as a disregarded
conscience becomes inert, and one that is obeyed active; as
surely as there is any efficacy in educational culture, or
any meaning in such terms as habit, custom, practice; so
surely must the human faculties be moulded into complete
fitness for the social state; so surely must the things we
call evil and immorality disappear; so surely must man
become perfect." Social Statics, stereotyped ed. 1868, p.
78 f.
stern decree of nature. The invariable action of law of itself eliminates the unfit Progress is necessary to existence; extinction is the doom of retrogression. The highest effect contemplated by the supposed Revelation is to bring man into perfect harmony with law, and this is ensured by law itself acting upon intelligence. Only in obedience to law is there life and safety. Knowledge of law is imperatively demanded by nature. Ignorance of it is a capital offence. If we ignore the law of gravitation we are dashed to pieces at the foot of a precipice, or are crushed by a falling rock; if we neglect sanatory law, we are destroyed by a pestilence; if we disregard chemical laws, we are poisoned by a vapour. There is not, in reality, a gradation of breach of law that is not followed by an equivalent gradation of punishment. Civilization is nothing but the knowledge and observance of natural laws. The savage must learn them or be extinguished; the cultivated must observe them or die. The balance of moral and physical development cannot be deranged with impunity. In the spiritual as well as the physical sense only the fittest eventually can survive in the struggle for existence. There is, in fact, an absolute upward impulse to the whole human race supplied by the invariable operation of the laws of nature acting upon the common instinct of self-preservation. As, on the one hand, the highest human conception of infinite wisdom and power is derived from the universality and invariability of law, so that universality and invariability, on the other hand, exclude the idea of interruption or occasional suspension of law for any purpose whatever, and more especially for the correction of supposed original errors of design which cannot have existed, or for the attainment of objects already provided for in the order of nature.
Upon the first groundless assumption of a Divine design of such a revelation follows the hypothetical inference that, for the purpose of making the communication from the unseen world, a miracle or visible suspension of the order or nature is no irregularity, but part of the system of the universe. This, however, is a mere assertion, and no argument An avowed assumption which is contrary to reason is followed by another which is contrary to experience. It is simply absurd to speak of a visible suspension of the order of nature being part of the system of the universe. Such a statement has no meaning whatever within the range of human conception. Moreover, it must be remembered that miracles—or "visible suspensions of the order of nature"—are ascribed indifferently to Divine and to Satanic agency. If miracles are not an anomaly or irregularity on the supposition of the Divine design of a revelation, upon what supposition do Satanic miracles cease to be irregularities? Is the order of nature, which it is asserted is under the personal control of God, at the same time at the mercy of the Devil?