--1878.
[31] Herbert Spencer's Essays, vol. iii. pp. 246-249 (1874).
[32] This is the truly inconceivable element in the physical theory. As I
have shown in the pleading on the side of Atheism, the supposed
inconceivability of cosmic harmony being due to mindless forces, is not of
such a kind as wholly refuses to be surmounted by symbolic conceptions of a
sufficiently abstract character. But it is impossible, by the aid of any
symbols, to gain a conception of an eternal existence. And I may here point
out, that if Mind is said to be the cause of evolution, not only does the
statement involve the inconceivable proposition that such a Mind must be
infinite in respect to its powers of supervision, direction, &c.; but the
statement also involves a necessary alternative between two additional
inconceivable propositions--viz., either that such a Mind must have been
eternal, or that it must have come into existence without a cause. In this
respect, therefore, it would seem that the theory of Atheism has the
advantage over that of Theism; for while the former theory is under the
necessity of embodying only a single inconceivable term, the latter theory
is under the necessity of embodying two such terms.
[33] Mr. Herbert Spencer has treated of this subject in his memorable
controversy with Mill on the "Universal Postulate" (see _Psychology_, Sec.
427), and refuses to entertain the term "Inconceivable" as applicable to
any propositions other than those wherein "the terms cannot, by any effort,
be brought before consciousness in that relation which the proposition
asserts between them.
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