Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885Various
General
Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, January 1885
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Literature -- Periodicals
Thus is it, too, with the paragraph in which Mr. Harrison seeks to
disprove my assertion that he had exactly transposed the doctrines
of Dean Mansel and myself, respecting our consciousness of that
which transcends perception. He quotes his original words, which
were “there is a gulf which separates even his all-negative _deity_
from Mr. Spencer’s impersonal, unconscious, unthinkable Energy.” And
he then goes on to say “I was speaking of Mansel’s Theology, not of
his Ontology. I said “_deity_,” not the Absolute.” Very well; now
let us see what this implies. Mansel, as I was perfectly well aware,
supplements his ontological nihilism with a theological realism. That
which in his ontological argument he represents as a mere “negation
of conceivability,” he subsequently re-asserts on grounds of faith,
and clothes with the ordinarily-ascribed divine attributes. Which of
these did I suppose Mr. Harrison meant by “all-negative deity”? I was
compelled to conclude he meant that which in the ontological argument
was said to be a “negation of conceivability.” How could I suppose that
by “all-negative deity” Mr. Harrison meant the deity which Dean Mansel
as a matter of “duty” rehabilitates and worships in his official
capacity as priest. It was a considerable stretch of courage on the
part of Mr. Harrison to call the deity of the established church an
“all-negative deity.” Yet in seeking to escape from the charge of
misrepresenting me he inevitably does this by implication.
In his second article Mr. Harrison does not simply ascribe to me ideas
which are wholly unlike those my words express, but he ascribes to me
ideas I have intentionally excluded. When justifying my use of the
word “proceed,” as the most colorless word I could find to indicate
the relation between the knowable manifestations present to perception
and the Unknowable Reality which transcends perception, I incidentally
mentioned, as showing that I wished to avoid those theological
implications which Mr. Harrison said were suggested, that the words
originally written were “created and sustained;” and that though in the
sense in which I used them the meanings of these words did not exceed
my thought, I had erased them because “the ideas” associated with these
words might mislead. Yet Mr. Harrison speaks of these erased words as
though I had finally adopted them, and saddles me with the ordinary
connotations. If Mr. Harrison defends himself by quoting my words to
the effect that the Inscrutable Existence manifested through phenomena
“stands towards our general conception of things in substantially the
same relation as does the Creative Power asserted by Theology;” then I
point to all my arguments as clearly meaning that when the attributes
and the mode of operation ordinarily ascribed to “that which lies
beyond the sphere of sense” cease to be ascribed, “that which lies
beyond the sphere of sense” will bear the same relation as before to
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