The Foundations of Belief: Being Notes Introductory to the Study of TheologyLongmans, Green, and Company, 1894 - 366 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
accepted ęsthetic antecedents argument argument from design artist authority beauty causation chapter character Christian conclusions consciousness consider course creed criticism difficulty Divine doctrine doubt effects elements emotions empiricism ence endeavour ethical evidence existence experience external fact feelings harmony historical human idealists ideals ideas important impossible inference intellectual judgments kind knowledge least less logical mankind material world matter mean ment merely metaphysical methods mind moral natural natural selection naturalistic hypothesis necessary non-rational object observations opinion ordinary ourselves Papal Infallibility particular perhaps persons phenomena philosophic philosophy of science possess possible practical pre-established harmony premises principle produced propositions question rational reader reality reason regard relation religion scheme scientific seems sensations sense sense-perception sentiments Sexual selection speculative suppose theism theology things thought tion Transcendental Idealism transcendental idealists true truth uncon uniformity uniformity of Nature universe whole wholly
Popular passages
Page 295 - what we are conscious of as properties of matter, even down to its weight and resistance, are but subjective affections produced by objective agencies which are unknown and unknowable.
Page 171 - The ground on which constant habit and inherited predispositions enable us to tread with a step so easy and so assured, is seen on examination to be not less hollow beneath our feet than the dim and unfamiliar regions which lie beyond. Certitude is found to be the child, not of Reason, but of Custom ; and if we are less perplexed about the beliefs on which we are hourly called upon to act than about those which do not touch so closely our obvious and immediate needs, it is not because the questions...
Page 31 - The energies of our system will decay, the glory of the sun will be dimmed, and the earth, tideless and inert, will no longer tolerate the race which has for a moment disturbed its solitude. Man will go down into the pit, and all his thoughts will perish. The uneasy consciousness which in this obscure corner has for a brief space broken the contented silence of the universe, will be at rest. Matter will know itself no longer. 'Imperishable monuments' and 'immortal deeds,' death itself, and love stronger...
Page 235 - ... learning. To Reason we are in some measure beholden, though not, perhaps, so much as we suppose, for hourly aid in managing so much of the trifling portion of our personal...
Page 30 - We survey the past, and see that its history is of blood and tears, of helpless blundering, of wild revolt, of stupid acquiescence, of empty aspirations. We sound the future, and learn that after a period, long compared with the individual life, but short indeed compared with the divisions of time open to our investigation, the energies of our system will decay, the glory of the sun will be dimmed, and the earth...
Page 18 - beauty of holiness ' to retain its lustre in the minds of those who know so much of its pedigree ? In despite of theories, mankind — even instructed mankind — may, indeed, long preserve uninjured sentiments which they have learned in their most impressionable years from those they love best ; but if, while they are being taught the supremacy of conscience and the austere majesty of duty, they are also to be taught that these sentiments and beliefs are merely samples of the complicated contrivances,...
Page 77 - If naturalism be true, or, rather, if it be the whole truth, then is morality but a bare catalogue of utilitarian precepts ; beauty but the chance occasion of a passing pleasure ; reason but the dim passage from one set of unthinking habits to another. All that gives dignity to life, all that gives value to effort, shrinks and fades under the pitiless glare of a creed like this...
Page 204 - ... grounds whereon rest every positive enactment and every moral precept which he has been accustomed to obey ; to dissect all the great loyalties which make social life possible, a-nd all the minor conventions which help to make it easy ; and to weigh out with scrupulous precision the exact degree of assent which in each particular case the results of this process might seem to justify. To say that such a community, if it acted upon the opinions thus arrived at, would stand but a poor chance in...
Page 31 - ... the energies of our system will decay, the glory of the sun will be dimmed, and the earth, tideless and inert, will no longer tolerate the race which has for a moment disturbed its solitude. Man will go down into the pit, and all his thoughts will perish. The uneasy consciousness, which in this obscure corner has for a brief space broken the contented 45 silence of the Universe, will be at rest. Matter will know itself no longer. Imperishable monuments and immortal deeds, death itself, and love...