believes in a spirit superior to matter, and so does Pantheism;
but the spirit of Theism is self-conscious, and therefore
personal and of individual existence-a nature per se, and
upholding all things by an active control; while Pantheism
believes in spirit that is of a higher nature than brute matter,
but is a mere unconscious principle of life, impersonal,
irrational as the brute matter that it quickens."

If this verdict concerning Pantheism is true-and from all I can
gather it is as nearly true as anything can be said to be which
is predicated of an incoherent idea-the Pantheistic God is an
attempt to lay hold of a truth which has nevertheless eluded its
pursuers.

In my next chapter I will consider the commonly received,
orthodox conception of God, and compare it with the Pantheistic.
I will show that it, too, is Atheistic, inasmuch as, in spite of
its professing to give us a conception of God, it raises no ideas
in our minds of a person or Living Being-and a God who is not
this is non-existent.


CHAPTER V

ORTHODOX THEISM

We have seen that Pantheism fails to satisfy, inasmuch as it
requires us to mean something different by the word "God" from
what we have been in the habit of meaning. I have already said-I
fear, too often-that no conception of God can have any value or