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CHAPTER I.
EXAMINATION OF ILLOGICAL ARGUMENTS IN FAVOUR OF THEISM.
Sec. 1. Few subjects have occupied so much attention among speculative
thinkers as that which relates to the being of God. Notwithstanding,
however, the great amount that has been written on this subject, I am not
aware that any one has successfully endeavoured to approach it, on all its
various sides, from the ground of pure reason alone, and thus to fix, as
nearly as possible, the exact position which, in pure reason, this subject
ought to occupy. Perhaps it will be thought that an exception to this
statement ought to be made in favour of John Stuart Mill's posthumous essay
on Theism; but from my great respect for this author, I should rather be
inclined to regard that essay as a criticism on illogical arguments, than
as a _careful_ or _matured_ attempt to formulate the strictly rational
_status_ of the question in all its bearings. Nevertheless, as this essay
is in some respects the most scientific, just, and cogent, which has yet
appeared on the subject of which it treats, and as anything which came from
the pen of that great and accurate thinker is deserving of the most serious
attention, I shall carefully consider his views throughout the course of
the following pages.
Seeing then that, with this partial exception, no competent writer has
hitherto endeavoured once for all to settle the long-standing question as
to the rational probability of Theism, I cannot but feel that any attempt,
however imperfect, to do this, will be welcome to thinkers of every
school--the more so in view of the fact that the prodigious rapidity which
of late years has marked the advance both of physical and of speculative
science, has afforded highly valuable data for assisting us towards a
reasonable and, I think, a final decision as to the strictly logical
standing of this important matter.
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