real differly at Nirish, wie stepcile the consciousness of personal obez ceaseless perminations of a zave mal vind

can we prove, or even woesine,

consciousness between two particles of mater

In our own ceny school of thought arising, perhaps men bigal ad zerra reverent than that of pure Materialism, which cognizes in the Unknowalle the sitimate bait of Science, but also the proper obeer of Religio Such a view, amil the turmill of Eisenssien, is the rather welcome to the Christian fellever; as he is himself ready to see and admit Religion to be the Revelation of the Unknowable or Unknown. It has, however, its dangers and its doubts; as to which it is well for the younger student of cur time to be on his guard. A system, in which the

“Jadis la raison humaine le vyant sujet au clangement, alla chercher l'éternel, l'immuable par delà Thorizon et dans les archetypes. Maintenant l'éternel, l'immuable, devenant notion positive, tots apparait sous la forme des lois immanentes qui gouvernent tout."-Littré, Frincipes, p. 57.

"He, this person, or self, must either be a substance, or the property of some substance. If he, if person, be a substance, then consciousness that he is the same person is consciousness that he is the same substance. If the person, or he, be the property of a substance, still consciousness that he is the same property is as certain a proof that his substance remains the same, as consciousness that he remains the same substance would be: since the same property cannot be transferred from one substance to another."-Bp. Butler, Dissert. I. on Persomal Identity.

Unknowable, as such, is made the essential objectmatter of Faith, excludes the possibility of the Unknowable becoming known and determined, whether mediately through Revelation, or ultimately in the history of things. In such a view a confusion seems for ever imminent between the physical Unknown in the realm of Nature, and the mentally Unknowable which constitutes the practical principle of Religion. Still more difficult is it to reconcile this doctrine of a Naturalistic Nescience with the aspect under which it is very frequently presented, as "the Power manifested in the Universe."

The argument pursued in Lecture II. (as binding in the sphere of physical philosophy 1), forth as it presumes Motion, as well as Form, to necessitate a First Cause, will be found in Aristotle's Physics, Lib. VIII. It must, as it seems to me, hold good till it can be shown that Motion is an original, primary quality of Matter, and so immanent in it. But, as far as appears, Inertia is as much a quality of Matter as Motion, and a body at rest must be acted on externally to be set in movement. The Wolfian supposition of a tendency to motion (in nisu) was demonstrated by Euler to be both unphilosophical

On the necessity or at least desirability of admitting a physical element into Philosophy, comp. Janet, La Crise Philosophique, p. 106, of whose able train of reasoning I have gladly availed myself in the following remarks.-Sec Le Matérialisme Contemporain, c. iv.

b

and contrary to experience. In point of fact, all movement is now regarded and computed as a resultant; and whereas the rate of velocity might at first sight appear to be in the body, it is found in effect to be otherwise. Attraction and Inertia are equally facts; but if the former be considered to be a relative property of two atoms of matter, which singly are indifferent to rest or motion, this is a property which has still to be accounted for. Nor can a universe, however immense,' have properties other than those of its integrant parts.

One fact, as it seems to me, must ever remain a stumbling-block in the path of infidel speculation. It is the existence, history, and standing of the Church of Christ.2 Active, influential, progressive; nurse of the brightest minds that shine in the galaxy of human story, of an Origen, an Augustine, a Dante, a Pascal, a Leibnitz, a Milton, a Newton; handmaid to the spirit of man in his moments of loftiest devotion; mother of modern art; queen of the realm of benevolence and humanity; her doctrines can never be held akin to

1 On the acknowledged immensity of the Universe, M. Littré finely observes: C'est un océan qui vient battre notre rive; et pour lequel nous n'avons ni barque ni voile; mais dont la claire vision est aussi salutaire que formidable."-A. Comte et la Phil. Pos., p. 529.

2 Thus it is admitted by Strauss (Nachwort, pp. 37, 38), “dass die von Jesus ausgegangene religiöse Bewegung noch mächtig in unsre Zeit hereinwirke, wird Niemand läugnen. . . . Christenthum mag in der Menschheit gewirkt haben was es will, und fortwirken wird es in jedem Fall: &c."

Pagan or Oriental superstitions, or be deemed unworthy of modern intelligence: neither can they be explained away, as the unripe fruit of human evolution, or as the outcome of times of unreasoning ignorance. If only we apply to Christianity, as a phenomenon of man's history in the world, the same standard of estimation which we use in other things, and judge of its future by the past, there is small reason either to fear as to its perpetuity, or to predict its fall.