lved an unrestricted use
of illegitimate symbolic conceptions; then it is no less open to an
atheist to object _a priori_ to the method whereby a directing Mind was
inferred from the datum of cosmic harmony, in that this method involved
the postulation of an unknowable cause,--and this of a character which
the whole history of human thought has proved the human mind to exhibit
an overweening tendency to postulate as the cause of natural phenomena.
On these grounds, therefore, I concluded that, so far as their
respective standing _a priori_ is concerned, both theories may be
regarded as about equally suspicious. And similarly with regard to their
standing _a posteriori_; for as both theories require to embody at least
one infinite term, they must each alike be pronounced absolutely
inconceivable. But, finally, if the question were put to me which of the
two theories I regarded as the more rational, I observed that this is a
question which no one man can answer for another. For as the test of
absolute inconceivability is equally destructive of both theories, if a
man wishes to choose between them, his choice can only be determined by
what I have designated relative inconceivability--i.e. in accordance
with the verdict given by his individual sense of probability as
determined by his previous habit of thought. And forasmuch as the test
of relative inconceivability may be held in this matter legitimately to
vary with the character of the mind which applies it, the strictly
rational probability of the question to which it is applied varies in
like manner. Or otherwise presented, the only alternative for any man in
this matter is either to discipline himself into an attitude of pure
scepticism, and thus to refuse in thought to entertain either a
probability or an improbability concerning the existence of a God; or
else to incline in thought towards an affirmation or a negation of God,
according as his previous habits of thought have rendered such an
inclination more facile in the one direction than in the other. And
although, under such circumstances, I should consider that man the more
rational who carefully suspended his judgement, I conclude that if this
course is departed from, neither the metaphysical teleologist nor the
scientific atheist has any perceptible advantage over the other in
respect of rationality. For as the formal conditions of a metaphysical
teleology are undoubtedly present on the one hand, and the formal