intelligible enough. They felt the futility of the whole question,
and were thankful to one who seemed to clench the matter with a cant
catchword, especially with a catchword in a foreign language; but how
one, who was so far gone as to recognise that he could not prove his
own existence, should be able to comfort himself with such a begging
of the question, would seem unintelligible except upon the ground of
sheer exhaustion.

At the risk of appearing to wander too far from the matter in hand, a
few further examples may perhaps be given of that irony of nature, by
which it comes about that we so often most know and are, what we
least think ourselves to know and be--and on the other hand hold most
strongly what we are least capable of demonstrating.

Take the existence of a Personal God,--one of the most profoundly-
received and widely-spread ideas that have ever prevailed among
mankind. Has there ever been a DEMONSTRATION of the existence of
such a God as has satisfied any considerable section of thinkers for
long together? Hardly has what has been conceived to be a
demonstration made its appearance and received a certain acceptance
as though it were actual proof, when it has been impugned with
sufficient success to show that, however true the fact itself, the
demonstration is naught. I do not say that this is an argument
against the personality of God; the drift, indeed, of the present
reasoning would be towards an opposite conclusion, inasmuch as it
insists upon the fact that what is most true and best known is often
least susceptible of demonstration owing to the very perfectness with
which it is known; nevertheless, the fact remains that many men in
many ages and countries--the subtlest thinkers over the whole world
for some fifteen hundred years--have hunted for a demonstration of