suffers from the asking of such
questions as these:--"What monkey ever wrote an epic poem, or composed a
tragedy or a comedy, or even a sonnet? What monkey professed his belief
in any thirty-nine articles, or well-compacted Calvinistic confession,
or gave in his adhesion to any Church, established or disestablished?"
If Mr. Darwin heard these questions he might answer with a good humored
smile, "My dear sir, you quite mistake my theories, and your questions
travesty them. I would further observe that while the composition of
poems would unquestionably be creditable to monkeys, I, who have some
regard for them as relatives, however distant, am heartily glad they
have never done any of the other things you mention, which I deem a
negative proof that their reason, though limited, is fortunately sane."

Professor Blackie's opening chapter on "Presumptions" fully justifies
its title. The general consent of mankind in favor of Theism is assumed
to have established its validity, and to have put Atheists altogether
out of court; and a long list of illustrious Theists, from Solomon to
Hegel, is contrasted with a meagre catalogue of Atheists, comprising
only the names of David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Mill. *
Confucius and Buddha are classed apart, as lying "outside of our Western
European Culture altogether," but with a promise that "in so far as they
seem to have taught a morality without religion, or a religion without
God, we shall say a word or two about them by-and-by." So far as Buddha
is concerned this promise is kept; but in relation to Confucius it is
broken. Probably the Chinese sage was found too tough and embarrassing
a subject, and so it was thought expedient to ignore him for the more
tractable prophet of India, whose doctrine of Transmigration might
with a little sophistry be made to resemble the Christian doctrine of
Immortality, and his Nirvana the Kingdom of Heaven.

* Professor Blackie is singularly silent as to James Mill,
the father of the celebrated Utilitarian philosopher, far
more robust in intellect and character than his son. He is
the dominant figure of Mill's "Autobiography," and has about
him a more august air than his son ever wore.

What does the general consent of mankind prove in regard to beliefs
like Theism? Simply nothing. Professor Blackie himself sees that on some
subjects it is worthless, particularly when special knowledge or special
faculty is requi