The idea of God therefore cannot be established, as answering to a
reality, either by the way of experience or by the way of reasoning; it
is a mere hypothesis. We do not, however, it is added, in our view of
the matter, pretend (Heaven forbid!) to exclude the sentiment of the
Divine from the soul, nor the word _God_ from fine poetry. We accept
religious thoughts as dreams full of charm. But is it a question of
reality? then God is an hypothesis, and hypothesis has no admission into
the science of realities."

These ideas place those who accept them in a position which is not
without its advantages. When a man of practical mind says with a smile,
"Do you happen to believe in God?" one may reply to him, smiling in
turn, "Have I said that God is a real Being?" And if a religious man
asks, "Are you falling then into atheism?" one may assume an indignant
tone, and say: "We have never denied God: whoever says we have is a
slanderer!" So God remains, for the necessities of poetry and art. But
as we cannot know either what He is, or whether He is, real life goes on
in complete and entire independence of Him. The taking up of this
position with regard to religion may, in certain cases, be a literary
artifice. In other cases it is seriously done. There are certain natures
of extreme delicacy, which, touched by the breath of modern scepticism,
have lost all positive faith; but their better aspirations, and an
instinctive love of purity, guard and direct them, in the absence of all
belief, and they do not deny that which they believe no longer. Such a
mind is in an exceptional position. Is it yours? and would you preserve
it? Keep a solitary path, and do not seek to communicate your ideas to
others. Contact with the public, and such an unfolding even of your own
thoughts as would be required in carrying on a work of proselytism,
would place you under the empire of those laws which govern the human
mind in these matters. Now what are these laws? A poet has already