han his match in irrationality. For he has at least
before him a visible tangible block of wood, not the mere memory of one
that has long ago rotted, nor the dream of one that is yet to grow,
whereas that mental figment, Consecrated Humanity, is not even a real
shadow, but only a fancied one, a shadow cast by no substance. And it is
to Comtists of all people--intellectual salt of the earth as they
are--that this figment is recommended for adoration--yes, to those who,
pharisaically standing aloof from the common herd, thank their imaginary
substitute for God, or whatever else it is they deem thankworthy, that
they are not blind as other men are, and least of all as those dazed
metaphysicians who actually personify their own mental abstractions. No
wonder that such extreme provocation should try the patience of all but
the stanchest disciples. No wonder that Mr. Lewes himself should seem
half inclined to apostrophise his quondam master in words resembling
those once addressed to Robespierre, 'Avec ton Grand Etre, tu commences
a m'embeter.'

Here make we one more pause. This chapter's theme is, as was betimes
premised, not the strength of theism, but the weakness of atheism. I
have in it attempted to execute a design which, according to Boswell,
was conceived by Lord Hailes, and approved by Dr. Johnson, that of
writing an essay, _Sur la credulite des incredules_, and I think I have
succeeded so far as to show that, if any one who can swallow atheism
affects to strain at theism, it cannot, at any rate, be for want of a
sufficiently capacious gullet.

FOOTNOTES:

[36] The story was thus told by Diderot, to Sir Samuel Romilly, when a
young man:--'Je vous dirai un trait de lui, mais il vous sera un peu
scandaleux peut-etre, car vous autres Anglais, vous croyez _un peu_ en
Dieu; pour nous autres, nous n'y croyons gueres. Hume dina dans une
grande compagnie avec le baron D'Holbach. Il etait assis a cote du
baron; on parla de la religion naturelle. "Pour les athees," disait
Hume, "je ne crois pas qu'il en existe; je n'en ai jamais vu!" "Vous
avez ete un peu malheureux," repondit l'autre, "vous voici a table avec
dix-sept pour la premiere fois."'--_Edinburgh Review_ for January 1847.

[37] 'Studies in Animal Life,' chap. v.

[38] The reader who, having skipped some of the earlier chapters, may
find this language obscure, is requested to turn back to the essay on
'Huxleyism,' pp. 194-6.

[39] See again, pp. 194-6.

[40] '