eed are absent, and the "faculties" of impartial thought must be
absent also, if this obvious truth cannot be seen--that "these questions"
only derive their "speculatively unanswerable" character from the rational
falsity of the manner by which it is sought to answer them. The "facts" of
our moral nature, so far as honest reason can perceive, belie the
hypothesis of Theism; and although the "faculties" of man may be forced by
prejudice into an acceptance of contradictory propositions, the truth is
obvious that only by the hypothesis of Evolution can that old-tied knot be
cut--the Origin of Evil. The form of Theism for which Dr. Flint is arguing
is the current form, viz., that there is a God who combines in himself the
attributes of _infinite_ power and _perfect_ goodness--a God at once
_omnipotent_ and _wholly_ moral. But, in view of the fact that moral evil
exists in man, the proposition that God is omnipotent and the proposition
that he is wholly moral become contradictory; and therefore the fact of
moral evil can only be met, either by abandoning one or other of these
propositions, or by altogether rejecting the hypothesis of Theism.

* * * * *

III.

THE SPECULATIVE STANDING OF MATERIALISM.

As a continuation of my criticism on Mr. Fiske's views, I think it is
desirable to add a few words concerning the speculative annihilation with
which he supposes Mr. Spencer's doctrines to have visited Materialism. Of
course it is a self-evident truism that the doctrine of Relativity is
destructive of Materialism, if by Materialism we mean a theory which
ignores that doctrine. In other words, the doctrine of Relativity, if
accepted, clearly excludes the doctrine that Matter, _as known
phenomenally_, is at all likely to be a true representative of whatever
_thing-in-itself_ it may be that constitutes Mind. But this position is
fully established by the doctrine of Relativity alone, and is therefore not
in the least affected, either by way of confirmation or otherwise, by Mr.
Spencer's extended doctrine of the Unknowable--it being only because the
latter doctrine presupposes the doctrine of Relativity that it is exclusive
of Materialism in the sense which has just been stated. So far, therefore,
Mr. Spencer's writings cannot be held to have any special bearing on the
doctrine of Materialism. Such a special bearing is only exerted by these
writings when they proceed to show that "it seems an imagin