It seems useless to do
this, because such identification is clearly no part of the _essence_ of
Atheism, which, as just stated, I take to consist in the single dogma of
self-existence as itself sufficient to constitute a theory of things. And,
if so, it is a matter of scarcely any moment, as regards that theory,
whether we are _immediately_ cognisant of that which is self-existent, or
only become so through the world of phenomena--the vital point of the
theory being, that Self-existence, _wherever posited_, is itself the only
admissible explanation of phenomena. Or, in other words, it does not seem
that there is anything in the atheistic theory, as such, which is
incompatible with the doctrine of the Relativity of Knowledge; so that
whatever cogency there may be in the train of reasoning whereby a single
Causal Agent is deduced from that doctrine, it would seem that an atheist
has as much right to the benefit of this reasoning as a theist; and there
is thus no more apparent reason why this single Causal Agent should be
appropriated as the God of Theism, than that it should be appropriated as
the Self-existing X of Atheism. Indeed, there seems to be less reason. For
an atheist of to-day may very properly argue:--'So far from beholding
anything divine in this Single Being absolute to human consciousness, it is
just precisely the form of Being which my theory postulates as the
Self-existing All.
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