It is to be regretted that before writing on this matter Mr.Spencer did not more thoroughly acquaint himself with the ordinary doctrine on the subject.

It is always taught in the Church schools of divinity, that nothing, not even _existence_, is to be predicated _univocally_ of "God" and "creatures;" that after exhausting ingenuity to arrive at the loftiest possible conceptions, we must declare them to be _utterly inadequate_; that, after all, they are but accommodations to human infirmity; that they are in a sense objectively false (because of their inadequacy), though subjectively and very practically true.

But the difference between this mode of treatment and that adopted by Mr.Spencer is wide indeed; for the practical result of the mode inculcated by the Church is that each one may freely affirm and act upon the highest human conceptions he can attain of the{249} power, wisdom, and goodness of God, His watchful care, His loving providence for every man, at every moment and in every need; for the Christian knows that the falseness of his conceptions lies only in their _inadequacy_; he may therefore strengthen and refresh himself, may rejoice and revel in conceptions of the goodness of God, drawn from the tenderest human images of fatherly care and love, or he may chasten and abase himself by consideration of the awful holiness and unapproachable majesty of the Divinity derived from analogous sources, knowing that no thought of man can ever be _true enough_, can ever attain the incomprehensible reality, which nevertheless really _is_ all that can be conceived, _plus_ an inconceivable infinity beyond.
A good illustration of what is here meant, and of the difference between the theistic position and Mr.Spencer's, may be supplied by an example he has himself proposed.

Thus,[254] he imagines an intelligent watch speculating as to its maker, and conceiving of him in terms of watch-being, and figuring him as furnished with springs, escapements, cogged wheels, &c., his motions facilitated by oil--in a word, like himself.

It is assumed by Mr.Spencer that this necessary watch conception would be completely false, and the illustration is made use of to show "the presumption of theologians"-- the absurdity and unreasonableness of those men who figure the incomprehensible cause of all phenomena as a Being in some way comparable with man.