The Deprivation of Faith.

WHEN life is interpreted as matter it is the greatest of miracles. So great is the scale of such an interpretation of matter that, in truth, a transcendent attribute is taken upon its nature. The elements do not degrade life but life exalts the elements.

‘I had rather believe all the fables in the Legend, and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this universal frame is without a mind. And therefore, God never wrought miracle, to convince atheism, because his ordinary works convince it. It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity. Nay, even that school which is most accused of atheism doth most demonstrate religion; that is, the school of Leucippus and Democritus and Epicurus. For it is a thousand times more credible, that four mutable elements, and one immutable fifth essence, duly and eternally placed, need no God, than that an army of infinite small portions, or seeds unplaced, should have produced this order and beauty, without a divine marshal.’ BACON.

   Atheism is a deprivation alike to drought or starvation. It is not, as many attempt to pretend, a neutrality of thought but a subtraction of wealth. The dog is not an atheist, for he has never known theism in the first place, just as he has never known language. It is no punishment or torture to the dog to be unable to speak, for he has never even once known its joys, whereas to deprive a man of the power of speech would be as terrible a punishment as any could possibly inflict. Quite as the bat is not in mourning for the sight it never possessed, the dog is not at a loss for never knowing theism, but the same cannot be said of mankind to-day. Every society which at the present time is closing around a general tendency against theism is entering into a state of bereavement, for such a tendency constitutes a real deprivation of communal thought. Yet as the origin of all worship is in the simplest of realisations, that nature is extraordinary and not base, it will doubtless be no considerable time before societies at large are restored to the process; and then, as I trust, tradition will be incorporated with modern understanding and present sympathy, so that a foundational system of worship will justify the works of the past and enervate the ambition of the future.