The Collapse of the Faith [pp. 164-184]

THE PRINCE TON RE VIEW.
which it produces or fails to produce is another. We may not
judge of the strength or weakness of faith in a community or a
period solely by the logical strength or weakness of its accepted philosophy. In former times, says Coleridge, principles
were better than the men, nowadays the men are better than
their principles. This is as true of the actual as contrasted with
the theoretic faiths of men as it is of their characters as compared with their creeds. We find abundant reasons for believing that many scientists and philosophers are by no means so
atheistic or agnostic in their actual thinking as their speculative
avowals and reasonings would seem to imply. There is certainly
no lack in the confidence, if it be not sometimes the bravado or
effrontery, with which the agnostics of our time propound their
conclusions and their reasons for holding them. The coolness
with which they assert that the new doctrines solve all the mysteries of matter and spirit, of life and organization, and the confidence with which they dispose of creation and design are
equally refreshing. The bravery also with which they profess
their readiness to accept any martyrdom for their most hallowed
convictions to which they may be called by their loyalty to
science is also imposing, if it is not inspiring. We observe a difference, however, between the outspoken and plucky antagonism
of the old materialistic atheism and the half-reluctant consent
which many of our negative thinkers affect as they accept the
conclusions to which science compels them or the blushing
euphemisms with which they utter their half-extorted confessions of unbelief or blasphemy. The imaginative mysticism
with which the new atheism drapes the hideous idols of negation is another indication that the scientific unbelief of our day
is less hearty, less positive, and less self-satisfied than were the
coarser and rougher denials of other times. These phenomena
are not difficult to be reconciled with the more accurate knowledge and the higher cultivation of the times in which we live.
They are exactly what we ought to look for in a period distinguished by intense activity in limited spheres of observation
and sagacious and splendid generalizations within the wide
ranges of hypothesis and speculation. The habit of careful
observation engenders confidence as well as caution. The successful confirmation of a few happy conjectures may inflate to a
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