hypothesis, namely, that _he knows_ all
that matter can do, and all that it cannot do. If he does not know that,
I wonder by what right he says so plainly that the wonders he observes
in Nature are not the work of Nature, but of some Being above Nature.
That which repels me from that aspect of the argument is its amazing
presumption, the amount of knowledge it implies."[270] Foster's argument
against Dogmatic Atheism seems to have made some impression on Mr.
Holyoake, since he makes the important admission that "the denial of a
God implies infinite knowledge as the ground of disproof," but it is
here retorted against Dogmatic Theism; and Unbelief, at other times so
arrogant in its pretensions, so confident in the powers of reason, and
so proud of the prerogatives of man, borrows the cloak of modesty from
the wardrobe of true science, and assumes an attitude of deep humility.
At other times Mr. Holyoake does not scruple to sit in judgment on what
God,--supposing such a Being to exist,--could or could not do; on what
He could or could not permit to be done;--He could not create a moral
and responsible agent, and leave him to fall; He could not require or
receive any satisfaction for sin; He could not hear or answer the
prayers of his people; He could not inflict penal suffering, or allow it
to be permanent. There is no presumption, it would seem, in determining
what God could or could not do; but "when we stand in the great presence
of Nature," her inspiration should be "that of modesty and humility."
But presumption does not consist in looking at what we can see, or
aiming to know what may be known; and it is a bastard humility, not the
true modesty of science, which would turn away from the contemplation of
any truth, however sublime, that is exhibited in the light of its
appropriate evidence. We are not concerned to deny that it is "a great
endowment" which enables men to discern in Nature a manifestation of
God; it is a great endowment, but not too great for the mind of man, if
he was made in "the image and likeness of God;" a small mirror may
reflect the sun. Is it presumptuous in the mind of man to scale the
heavens, and trace the planets in their course, and calculate their
distances, their orbits, and their motions in the illimitable fields of
space? And if the sublime truths of Astronomy are not interdicted to our
faculties, simply because there is a natural evidence in the light of
which they may be clearly disce