. Spencer would indignantly reject the imputation
of atheism; nevertheless, in the judgment of most men, the difference
between Antitheist and Atheist is a mere matter of orthography.

FOOTNOTES:

[3] _First Principles of a New System of Philosophy._ By Herbert
Spencer. Second edition. New York, 1869, p. 30.

[4] _Von den goettlichen Dingen_, _Werke_, III. pp. 422, 425. Leipzig,
1816.

_Hylozoic Theory._

This theory assumes the universe to be eternal. There is nothing extra,
or antemundane. There is but one substance, and that substance is
matter. Matter, however, has an active and passive principle. Life and
rationality are among its attributes or functions. The universe,
therefore, is a living whole pervaded by a principle not only of life
but of intelligence. This hylozoic doctrine, some modern scientific men,
as Professor Tyndall, seem inclined to adopt. They tell us that matter
is not the dead and degraded thing it is commonly regarded. It is active
and transcendental. What that means, we do not know. The word
transcendental is like a parabola, in that there is no knowing where its
meaning ends. To say that matter is transcendental, is saying there is
no telling what it is up to. This habit of using words which have no
definite meaning is very convenient to writers, but very much the
reverse for readers. Some of the ancient Stoics distinguished between
the active and passive principles in the world, calling the one mind,
the other, matter. These however were as intimately united as matter and
life in a plant or animal.

_Theism in Unscriptural Forms._

There are men who are constrained to admit the being of God, who depart
from the Scriptural doctrine as to his relation to the world. According
to some, God created matter and endowed it with certain properties, and
then left it to itself to work out, without any interference or control
on his part, all possible results. According to others, He created not
only matter, but life, or living germs, one or more, from which without
any divine intervention all living organisms have been developed.
Others, again, refer not only matter and life, but mind also to the act
of the Creator; but with creation his agency ceases. He has no more to
do with the world, than a ship-builder has with the ship he has
constructed, when it is launched and far off upon the ocean. According
to all these views a creator is a mere _Deus ex machina_, an assumption
to account for the