tled order and
inevitable development in the universe. But the materialist is not
allowed to admit into his spotless machine the slightest speck of
spiritualism or miracle. Poor Mr. McCabe is not allowed to retain even
the tiniest imp, though it might be hiding in a pimpernel. The Christian
admits that the universe is manifold and even miscellaneous, just as a
sane man knows that he is complex. The sane man knows that he has a
touch of the beast, a touch of the devil, a touch of the saint, a touch
of the citizen. Nay, the really sane man knows that he has a touch of
the madman. But the materialist's world is quite simple and solid, just
as the madman is quite sure he is sane. The materialist is sure that
history has been simply and solely a chain of causation, just as the
interesting person before mentioned is quite sure that he is simply and
solely a chicken. Materialists and madmen never have doubts.

Spiritual doctrines do not actually limit the mind as do materialistic
denials. Even if I believe in immortality I need not think about it. But
if I disbelieve in immortality I must not think about it. In the first
case the road is open and I can go as far as I like; in the second the
road is shut. But the case is even stronger, and the parallel with
madness is yet more strange. For it was our case against the exhaustive
and logical theory of the lunatic that, right or wrong, it gradually
destroyed his humanity. Now it is the charge against the main deductions
of the materialist that, right or wrong, they gradually destroy his
humanity; I do not mean only kindness, I mean hope, courage, poetry,
initiative, all that is human. For instance, when materialism leads men
to complete fatalism (as it generally does), it is quite idle to pretend
that it is in any sense a liberating force. It is absurd to say that you
are especially advancing freedom when you only use free thought to
destroy free will. The determinists come to bind, not to loose. They may
well call their law the "chain" of causation. It is the worst chain that
ever fettered a human being. You may use the language of liberty, if you
like, about materialistic teaching, but it is obvious that this is just
as inapplicable to it as a whole as the same language when applied to a
man locked up in a mad-house. You may say, if you like, that the man is
free to think himself a poached egg. But it is surely a more massive and
important fact that if he is a poached egg he is n