Reason and Redemption [pp. 409-437]

1875.] REASON AND REDEMPTION. 43~
We grant that he expresses himself very doubtfully on the last
point. The only sense in which Mill inclines in the least to
the rational tenability of the dogma that there is a God existing absolutely, is in the sense that there may be permanent
possibilities of Divine thoughts and feelings. He denies all
substratum, in the usual meaning of the term. His language
is, "supposing me to believe that the Divine mind is simply
the series of thoughts and feelings prolonged through eternity,
that would be, at any rate, believing God's existence to be as
real as my own.'`~ It will be observed that he does not commit himself so far as to admit a God, himself, even in this
shadowy or unsubstantial sense; and to the extent that he
does not, he is on this point clearly a positivist of the straitest
sect. But even if he were a nominal theist, it would be a Theism in name only, being but a subtle form of Nihilistic Atheism. In any view of the case, Mill's decided leanings were
toward a speculative Nihilism.t A permanent possibility has
nothing in common with a pen~anent reality. This eminent
man is generally understood as avowing Atheism in his autobiography. The only true worship he seems ever to have' engaged in, was that of his deceased wifb. In his posthumous essays, again, it would appear that (like Hume and Tyndall) Mill,
for the most part, confined religion to the region of mere sentiment, and gave to its great object a merely subjective being.
Unlike Mr. H. Spencer, he accepted the doctrine of relativity,
not only in its widest, but also in its most uizqziai?jficdsense, and
lived in Hume's world of dreams and phantasies, of" impressions and ideas." Mill's system, therefore, like Mr. Spencer's,
falls with the Kant ian and Hamiltonian doctrine of the Unconditioned; or, without that, on the concession of Sir William's saving clauses.~
The non-committalists (whether calling themselves positivists
or not) can vindicate their non-committalism, if at al~, only on
*Jbid, p. 239.
~For the connections between ~iii~s and previous and contesnpo~~ary opinions.
see Comte and Pos~(ivi~rn, pp. ~-8.
~For a thorough dissection of this whole theory, and of Mill's partic'~1ar system,
see Dr. McCosh's admirable DJ~ne of Fnn'7a'nenfal Tru~, and also his Christianity and Positi~'isrn.