nature or of mind, we do not therefore renounce the use of them; but we
replace them in their old connexion, having first tested their meaning and
quality, and having corrected the error which is involved in them; or
rather always remembering to make allowance for the adulteration or alloy
which they contain. We cannot call a new metaphysical world into existence
any more than we can frame a new universal language; in thought as in
speech, we are dependent on the past. We know that the words 'cause' and
'effect' are very far from representing to us the continuity or the
complexity of nature or the different modes or degrees in which phenomena
are connected. Yet we accept them as the best expression which we have of
the correlation of forces or objects. We see that the term 'law' is a mere
abstraction, under which laws of matter and of mind, the law of nature and
the law of the land are included, and some of these uses of the word are
confusing, because they introduce into one sphere of thought associations
which belong to another; for example, order or sequence is apt to be
confounded with external compulsion and the internal workings of the mind
with their material antecedents. Yet none of them can be dispensed with;
we can only be on our guard against the error or confusion which arises out
of them. Thus in the use of the word 'substance' we are far from supposing
that there is any mysterious substratum apart from the objects which we
see, and we acknowledge that the negative notion is very likely to become a
positive one. Still we retain the word as a convenient generalization,
though not without a double sense, substance, and essence, derived from the
two-fold translation of the Greek ousia.

So the human mind makes the reflection that God is not a person like
ourselves--is not a cause like the material causes in nature, nor even an
intelligent cause like a human agent--nor an individual, for He is
universal; and that every possible conception which we can form of Him is
limited by the human faculties. We cannot by any effort of thought or