MODERNISM.
[To TIIR EDITOR OF TRH "SPICTATOR.n]
SrE,—In a pamphlet entitled " Modernism : What it is and
Why it was Condemned," which has received the imprimatur of the Roman Catholic Church, and is published by Sands and Co., the writer, "C. S. B.," has apparently fallen into an
error which is calculated seriously to mislead his readers. On p. 34 he writes that "Modernism, quite arbitrarily, shuts out, before really considering it at all, the possibility of what we
call the miraculous for a priori the miraculous (according to Modernism) is impossible." He also states
(p. 36) that "all scientific evidence -(according to Modernism) points to the fact that the laws of nature are invariable."
Now, inasmuch as he informs us (p. 27) that "Huxley, if we mistake not, is the doctrinal ancestor" of the "Modernists," we are led to infer that Huxley himself held the above views respecting the miraculous and the laws of Nature, whereas the actual fact is that he regarded miracles as improbable, but not impossible, and in his essay on "Possibilities and Impossibilities" he wrote as follows :— " I am anxious to bring about a clear understanding of the
difference between impossibilities 'and because mistakes on this point lay us open to the attacks of ecclesiastical apologists of the type of the late Cardinal Newman When it is rightly stated, the Agnostic view of 'miracles' is, in my judgment, unassailable. We are not justified in the a priori assertion that the order of Nature, as experience has revealed it to us, cannot change. In arguing about the miraculous, the assumption is illegitimate, because it involves the whole point in
dispute. Furthermore, it is an assumption which takes us beyond the range of our faculties. Obviously, no amount of past experi- ence can warrant us in anything more than a correspondingly strong expectation for the present and future. We find, practically, that expectations, based upon careful observations of past events, are, as a rule, trustworthy. We should be foolish indeed not to follow the only guide we have through life. But, for all that, our highest and surest generalisations remain on the level of justifiable expectations ; that is, very high probabilities."
In view of the importance of the above pamphlet on "Modernism," I trust you will see your way to publishing tilt.
facts I have set forth.—I am, Sir, &c., F. R. CAVE.
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