im.
What such a man thinks on such a subject, is certain to be interesting;
and, whether we agree with it or not, is as certain to be suggestive. I
propose, therefore, first of all to consider what may be learnt about
the topic with which I am concerned, from this new book on "Natural
Religion," and I shall then proceed to deal with it in my own way.

The author of "Natural Religion" starts with the broad assumption that
"supernaturalism" is discredited by modern "science." I may perhaps, in
passing, venture to express my regret that in an inquiry demanding, from
its nature and importance, the utmost precision of which human speech is
capable, the author has in so few cases clearly and rigidly limited the
sense of the terms which he employs. "Supernaturalism," for example, is
a word which may bear many different meanings; which, as a matter of
fact, does bear, I think, for me a very different meaning from that
which it bears for the author of "Natural Religion." So, again,
"science" in this book, is tacitly assumed to denote physical science
only: and what an assumption, as though there were no other sciences
than the physical! This in passing. I shall have to touch again upon
these points hereafter. For the present let us regard the scope and aim
of this discourse of Natural Religion, as the author states it. He finds
that the supernatural portion of Christianity, as of all religions, is
widely considered to be discredited by physical science. "Two opposite
theories of the Universe" (p. 26) are before men. The one propounded by
Christianity "is summed up," as he deems, "in the three propositions,
that a Personal Will is the cause of the Universe, that that Will is
perfectly benevolent, that that Will has sometimes interfered by
miracles with the order of the Universe" (p. 13). The other he states as
follows:--"Science opposes to God Nature. When it denies God it denies
the existence of any power beyond or superior to Nature; and it may deny
at the same time anything like a _cause_ of Nature. It believes in
certain laws of co-existence and sequence in phenomena, and in denying
God it means to deny that anything further can be known" (p. 17). "For
what is God--so the argument runs--but a hypothesis, which religious men
have mistaken for a demonstrated reality? And is it not precisely
against such premature hypotheses that science most strenuously
protests? That a Personal Will is the cause of the Universe--this might
sta