the same direction-as we may infer other stars in space beyond
the farthest that we know of; they convey utterly self-
destructive ideas, which can have no real meaning, and can only
be thought to have a meaning by ignorant and uncultivated people.
Otherwise such foundation as human reason rests upon-that is to
say, the current opinion of those whom the world appraises as
reasonable and agreeable, or capable of being agreed with for any
time-is sapped; the whole thing tumbles down, and we may have
square circles and round triangles, which may be declared to be
no longer absurdities and contradictions in terms, but mysteries
that go beyond our reason, without being contrary to it. Few will
maintain this, and those few may be neglected; an impersonal
person must therefore be admitted to be nonsense, and an
immaterial God to be Atheism in another shape.

On the other hand, if God is "of a reasonable soul and human
flesh subsisting," and if he thus has the body without which he
is-as far as we are concerned-non-existent, this body must yet be
reasonably like other bodies, and must exist in some place and at
some time. Furthermore, it must do sufficiently nearly what all
other "human flesh" belonging to "perfect man" must do, or cease
to be human flesh. Our ideas are like our organisms; they have
some little elasticity and circumstance-suiting power, some
little margin on which, as I have elsewhere said, side-notes may
be written, and glosses on the original text; but this power is
very limited. As offspring will only, as a general rule, vary
very little from its immediate parents, and as it will fail
either immediately or in the second generation if the parents
differ too widely from one another, so we cannot get our idea of-
we will say a horse-to conjure up to our minds the idea of any