ginality that men so strive after is not newness, as they vainly
think (there is nothing new) it is only genuineness."

Cardinal Newman, in writing to me a few weeks ago, suggests the pregnant
inquiry, "Which is the greater assumption? that we can do without
religion, or that we can find a substitute for Christianity?" I have
hitherto been surveying the substitute for Christianity which the author
of "Ecce Homo" has exhibited to the world in his new book. I shall now
briefly consider the question whether the need for such a substitute
does in truth exist. The book, as I have already more than once noted,
assumes that it does. It takes "the scientific view frankly at its
worst"[40] as throwing discredit upon the belief "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," which three propositions are considered by its author to
sum up the theological view of the universe. "If," he writes, "these
propositions exhaust [that view] and science throws discredit upon all
of them, evidently theology and science are irreconcilable, and the
contest between them must end in the destruction of one or the other"
(p. 13). I remark in passing, first, that no theologian--certainly no
Catholic theologian--would accept these three propositions as exhausting
the theological view of the universe; and secondly, that if we were
obliged to admit that physical science throws discredit upon that view,
it would by no means necessarily follow that physical science and
theology are irreconcilable, for ampler knowledge might remove the
discredit.

"What do we see? Each man a space,
Of some few yards before his face.
Can that the whole wide plan explain?
Ah no! Consider it again."

But is it true, as a matter of fact, that physical science throws
discredit upon these three propositions? Let us examine this question a
little. I must of necessity be brief in the limits to which I am here
confined, and I must use the plainest language, for I am writing not for
the school but for the general reader. Brevity and plainness of speech
do not, however, necessarily imply superficiality, which, in truth, is
not unfrequently veiled by a prolix parade of pompous technicalities.

First, then, as to causation. The shepherd in the play, when asked by
Touchstone, "Hast any philosophy in thee?" replies, "No more but that I
know t