Reason and Faith [pp. 648-685]

Reason and Faith.
name for the absence of those conditions under which thought
is possible." P. 94.
It was surely a work of supererogation for the author to tell
us, on the next page, that consistency requires us to "refuse to
attribute consciousness to God," if we attempt any conception
of him, because consciousness implies "limitation and change;"
and still further, that we cannot conceive of God except under
some characteristics-i. e. distinction and limitation: and yet
that if we attempt to set aside or ignore these limiting modifications, "the apparent paradox of the German philosopher
becomes literally true; —pure being is pure nothing." A finite
being or nothing! 0 thou Most High God! is this the dread
position into which the minds thou hast given us are, in the
phrase of this author, "cramped by their own laws, and bewildered by their own forms!" that they should be compelled
to conceive of thee either as a limited being or as nothing!
Similar quiddities, shall we call them? are evolved by the
author, from the fact that consciousness involves relation, while
"the Absolute as such is independent of all relation"-therefore "we cannot conceive it as existing." Pp. 96, 97. Still
further, from the fact that consciousness in human experience
involves duration and succession, a tissue of like contradictions
is woven. Pp. 98, 99.
Consciousness, moreover, involves Personality. So also do
"the various mental attributes which we ascribe to GodBenevolence, Holiness, Justice, Wisdom, for example... But
Personality," says our author, "as we conceive it, is essentially
a limitation and a relation.... a relation between the conscious self and the various modes of his consciousness... Personality is also a limitation, for the thought and the thinker are
distinguished from and limit each other, and the several modes
. of thought are distinguished from each other by limitation likewise." Pp. 102, 103.
So the author strengthens, while he echoes, his great conclusion that the "Absolute and the Infinite are thus, like the
Inconceivable and Imperceptible, names indicating not an
object of thought or consciousness at all, but the mere absence
of the conditions under which consciousness is possible." P. 110.
"It follows, indeed, that the infinite is beyond the reach of
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