Besides the moral ground, there are certain subordi- nate causes constantly operating, e. g. Speculative Phi- losophy (q. V.) ; corruptions of Christianity [see Chkis- TiANiTV ; RoMANisji] ; religious intolerance [see Tol- eration] ; and, more especially, tlie connection of
C'hurch and State. In our own country, on the other hand, the fact that religion is a matter of private opinion has brought upon us the charge, from the other side of the Atlantic, that in our corporate capacity we, by our Ijcculiar position on this point, permit the inference that we "distinctly aiiirni that no religion is true, but that all theological systems are human speculations upon a doubtful matter, more or less plausible in theinselves, and containing a greater or less amount of truth, but no one of which is so probable that we wUl act in a mat- ter so important and legislate upon the theory of its truth." It is held by sceptics that it is not possible to prove any other theoretical justification of toleration, or religious equality, or whatever else the system which treats religion as a matter of private opinion is called, than one which is foinided on the principle that religion is matter of opinion ; in other words, that the best of all religions is doubtfid. The mere non-acceptance of the Koran or of the Roman Catholic Creed, after notice of their contents, appears to them to amount to a denial of the truth of the claims of Mohammed and the pope respectively. They argue thus fn^m the position that a nation cannot remain on neutnil grounds in a matter in which it is theoretically, and jiractically too, impossible to be neutral, and that the 18th century theories of gov- ernment, which led the founders of our Constitution to think otherwise, are fundamentally wrong {T/te Aution, 1868, p. 345). See Church.
For further information, see the different articles re- ferred to above, and also the articles Evidences of Christianity; Parker; Posnivis:\i; rNr.i;i.iEF. See also Garbett, J/w/erH PMlv.^fojihicdl Jiiji,h /i/y ; Rogers, Reason and Faith ; Rogers, IJ/ijisr of I'nit/i ; Riddle, Natural History of Infidelity (I'.anipton Lect. for 1852, 8vo); Thomson, ^ic/«V(* Faith (Loud. 1861, 8vo); Mor- gan, Christianity and Modern Infidelity (London, 1854, rimo); Pearson, P/-«2e Essay on Infidelity (Lond. 1800, 21st edition) ; London Review, No. 5. ^rt. i ; Ch. of Eny- land Rerieir. Oct. 1854, art. iii ; AVhavton, Theism and the M„d, ni Sr,i,tlcal Theories (Phila. 1859, 12mo) ; Sainte.s, lli^lDiy if Uiitionalism (Lond. 1849, 8vo) ; Christian Re- view, iii, 184; North Britiah Rfvieii-. xv, 18; Princeton Review, xii, 81 ; Nelson. ( 'm/sr and ( 'iire of Infidelity (N. Y. 12mo) ; Godwin, Phil<i.«ijdiy if. I theism (Loud. I'SoS) ; Van Jlildert, Boyle Lectures on the Rise and Proyress of Infidelity (Lond.' 1820, 2 vols. 8vo) ; Hurst, ///.s/. of Ra- tionalism (2d ed. N. Y. 1866, 8vo) ; Hagenl)ach. (jerman Rationalism (N.York, 1865); Farrar, Crit. ll/.^/. of Free Thought (N. Y. 1863, 8vo) ; Evanyel (imui. /:, r. is.;:., p. 162 sq. ; Mercersb. Rev. July, 1869 ; Me/h. (luarl. Ri eiew, 1863, p. 687 sq. ; 1864, p. 682 sq.
Infinite. See Attributes ; God.
Infinity, without end or limit, the negation of finite : uTrtipov, " un-endlich."
I. The Indefinite.— Besides the definite consciousness of which logic formidates the laws, there is also an in- definite consciousness which cannot be formulated. Be- sides complete thoughts, and besides the thoughts which, though incomplete, admit of completion, there are thoughts which it is impossible to complete, and yet which are real, in the sense that they are normal affections of the intellect. Positive knowledge, how- ever extensive it may become, does not and never can fill the whole region of possible thoiight. ' At the utter- most reach of discovery there arises, and must ever arise, the question, What lies beyond? Regarding sci- ence as a gradually increasing sphere, we may say that every addition to its surface does but bring it into wider contact witli surrounding nescience. There is always something which forms alike the raw material of defi- nite thought, and remains after the defiiiiteness which thinking gave to it has been destroyed (H. Spencer, First Principles, p. 21 sq., 88, 90 sq.). This vague ele- ment in thought, which is ineradicable, Spencer consid- ers to be the gromidwork of the feeling of awe, and of natural religion. It is the infinite in this sense, the at- tempt to conceive which mvolves a contradiction in
INFINITY
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INFINITY
terms; which can only be believed to exist, but can never become an object to consciousness. "If all thought is limitation; if whatever we conceive is, bj' the very act of conception, regarded as finite, the infi- nite, from a human point of view, is merely a name for the absence of those conditions under which thought is possible" (Jlansell's Bampton Lectures, p. 48 ; comp. p. 30, 63, 80, 118 ; see esp. notes on p. 48 and 51, 4th ed.).
II. The Infinite us an Interminable Series. — Aristotle mentions five ways (Pfn/s. Ausc. 203, b. 15) in Avhich the notion of the u-rrtipov is attained : («) From the un- limited duration of time; {b) from the possibility of perpetually subdividing magnitudes; (c) from the con- tinuance of growth and decay in nature ; (d) from the fact that limitation is always relative, and never abso- lute ; and (e), '■ the strongest proof of all," from the ina- bility to conceive a limit to number, magnitude, and space. Any given moment of time is both preceded and succeecled by another, and that by another without end. Any magnitude admits of multiplication or divi- sion, and the multiples or parts are again capable of multiplication or division, respectively, v.ithout limit. An}' effect in nature is the result of a cause which, again, is the effect of another cause in an endless regress ; and, conversely, every effect is itself the cause of some other effect, and this, in its turn, is the cause of another effect, and so on in an interminable progress. Time, space, and causation thus exhibit infinity in the form of a straight line or series of terms without beginning or end. The characteristics of this mode of the infinite are : (1) that it is purely negative, i. e. is the mere process of passing beyond limitations; (2) that it pos- tulates the perpetual recurrence of limitations as its condition ; and (3) that, as an endless series, it is inca- pable of being thought out, it is always possible and never actual, it cannot be said to exist, but always to be in the act of coming into existence.