The two volumes, published by William Blackwood and Son, from which this definition has been collected, form the Baird Lectures in favor of Theism for the years 1876 and 1877. Professor Flint has a well-deserved reputation as a clear thinker and writer of excellent ability as a Theistic advocate. I trust, therefore, I am not acting unfairly in criticising his definition. My first objection is, that to me the definition is on the face of it so self-contradictory that a negative answer must be given to the question, Is there such a God? The association of the word “supreme” with the word “infinite” as descriptive of a “personal being” is utterly confusing. “Supreme” can only be used as expressing comparison between the being to whom it is applied, and some other being with whom that “supreme” being is assumed to have possible points of comparison and is then compared. But “the one infinite being” cannot be compared with any other infinite being, for the wording of the definition excludes the possibility of any other infinite being, nor could the infinite being—for the word “one” may be dispensed with, as two infinite beings are unthinkable—be compared with any finite being. “Supreme” is an adjective of relation and is totally inapplicable to “the infinite.” It can only be applied to one of two or more finites. “Supreme” with “omnipotent” is pleonastic. If it is said that the word “supreme” is now properly used to distinguish between the Creator and the created, the governor and that which is governed, then it is clear that the word “supreme” would have been an inapplicable word of description to “the one infinite being” prior to creation, and this would involve the declaration that the exact description of the unchangeable has been properly changed, which is an absurdity. The definition affirms “creation,” that is, affirms “God” existing prior to such creation—i.e., then the sole existence; but the word “supreme” could not then apply. An existence cannot be described as “highest” when there is none other; therefore, none less high. The word “supreme” as a word of description is absolutely contradictory of Monism. Yet Professor Flint himself says (“Anti-Theistic Theories,” p. 132), “that reason, when in quest of an ultimate explanation of things, imperatively demands unity, and that only a Monistic theory of the universe can deserve the name of a philosophy.” Professor Flint has given no explanation of the meaning he attaches to the word “self-existent.” Nor, indeed, has he given any explanation of any of his words of description. By self-existent I mean that to which you cannot conceive antecedent. By “infinite” I mean immeasurable, illimitable, indefinable; i.e., that of which I cannot predicate extension, or limitation of extension. By “eternal” I mean illimitable, indefinable, i.e., that of which I cannot predicate limitation of duration or progression of duration.