That theism remains, however. It is the lineal descendant, through
one stage of concession after another, of the dogmatic scholastic
theism still taught rigorously in the seminaries of the catholic
church. For a long time it used to be called among us the philosophy
of the Scottish school. It is what I meant by the philosophy that
has the air of fighting a slow retreat. Between the encroachments of
the hegelians and other philosophers of the 'Absolute,' on the one
hand, and those of the scientific evolutionists and agnostics, on
the other, the men that give us this kind of a philosophy, James
Martineau, Professor Bowne, Professor Ladd and others, must feel
themselves rather tightly squeezed. Fair-minded and candid as you
like, this philosophy is not radical in temper. It is eclectic, a
thing of compromises, that seeks a modus vivendi above all things.
It accepts the facts of darwinism, the facts of cerebral physiology,
but it does nothing active or enthusiastic with them. It lacks the
victorious and aggressive note. It lacks prestige in consequence;
whereas absolutism has a certain prestige due to the more radical
style of it.
These two systems are what you have to choose between if you turn to
the tender-minded school.
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