cannot, from its very nature, be limited within the range
of our present sensible experience. We are told, indeed, that "if we
look over the nature of our own impressions, we find we always shall
begin with things which lie below reason, with things plainer than
reason, with things which need no demonstration. Such is the nature of
the human mind, that we all begin in this sphere of equal knowledge, we
begin under the dominion of the senses, and whatever comes within that
wants no demonstration, wants no proof, wants no logic; it is the
constant, it is the most indubitable, it is the most indisputable of all
our knowledge. And if the question of the being of a God came within
that sphere, if it was found amongst those indisputable truths, if it
was found to be a matter of sense, then there would be no occasion for
us to reason at all about it: it could not be a matter of controversy,
because it never would be a matter of dispute."[274] Certain first
principles of reason are admitted, but only, it would seem, with
reference to matters of sense; but why, if there be such a principle of
reason as compels the Atheist himself to acknowledge a Self-existent and
Eternal Being? Is this a matter of sense? Is it not a conclusion of
reason,--founded, no doubt, on present sensible experience, but far
transcending it,--and yet self-evident and irresistible as intuition
itself? And if reason may thus rise from the contingent and variable to
the conception and belief of the self-existent and eternal, why may it
not be equally valid as a proof of a supreme, intelligent First Cause?

Speaking of Nature as self-existent and eternal, Mr. Holyoake ascribes
such attributes to it as might seem to imply a leaning towards
Pantheism, rather than the colder form of mere material Atheism. "It
seems to me," he says, "that Nature and God are one; in other words,
that the God whom we seek is the Nature whom we know." But he afterwards
states, with clearness and precision, in what respects Secularism
accords with, and differs from, Pantheism: "The term, God, seems to me
inapplicable to Nature. In the mouth of the Theist, God signifies an
entity, spiritual and percipient, distinct from matter. With Pantheists,
the term God signifies the aggregate of Nature,--but Nature as _a being,
intelligent and conscious_. It is my inability to subscribe to either of
these views which constitutes me an Atheist. I cannot rank myself with
the Theists, because I can co