Rationalism was only a stage in the process. For the old
conception of a created Universe, with a fall of man, an
Atonement, and a Heaven and Hell, the form and substance
of the Imagination of Christendom, Rationalism had no sub-
stitute. Science was not ready; but how can poetry wait?
Science is synonymous with patience ; poetry is impatience
incarnate. If you take away the symbol of the Universe, in
which since the Christian era began, poetry and all great ait
lived and had their being, I for one decline to continue the
eviscerated Life in Death of Rationalism. I devour, digest,
and assimilate the Universe ; make for myself in my Testa-
ments and Tragedies a new form and substance of Imagina-
tion ; and by poetic power certify the semi-certitudes of science."

If this be not an appeal to faith of a sort, it would be hard
to know what is. Mr. Davidson's views are never disguised



REVELATION 175

and can be read at large in " The Triumph of Mammon," " The
Testament of John Davidson," besides the work from which
this quotation is derived. He stands as a reviewer stated not
long since for the newness and glory of life, the breach with
the past, the unconquerable audacities of the human spirit ;
while, on the other hand, his contempt for Christianity and
desire to shatter every relic of it, and to abolish every form of
culture, including wit and humour, are so loudly, not to say
blatantly, expressed, that they are likely to be innocuous.
(7.) G. Lowes Dickinson in the Hibbert Jov/rnal, April 1908.
(8.) G. Lowes Dickinson, " Religion : A Criticism and a
Forecast," p. 90.
