" We laugh, as I said awhile ago, at an inventor who should ask us to take his genius on trust, or without any evidence of its reality. And there can be no more offensive tribute to the divine name than to show him a deference we deny to the rankest charlatan. How infinitely unworthy of God it would be to exact or expect of the absolute and unintelligent creatures of his power av belief out of all proportion to their sensible knowl- 1 edge, or unbacked by anything but tradition!... I am free to confess for my own part that I have no belief in God's absolute or irrelative and un- j -^ conditional perfection. I have not the least sentiment of worship for his name, the least sentiment of awe or reverence towards him, considered as a perfect person sufficient unto himself. That, style of deity exerts no attraction either upon my | heart or understanding. Any mother who suckles her babe upon her own breast, any bitch in fact who litters her periodical brood of pups, presents to my imagination a vastly nearer and sweeter
Citable passage
Introduction to The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James
William James. Introduction to The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James. 1885. The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James, edited by William James (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1885), vii-119.
Citation
William James. Introduction to The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James. 1885. The Literary Remains of the Late Henry James, edited by William James (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1885), vii-119. Premodern Concordance passage passage-a24c4d3430bbc8f5d70e.