Full text of "The philosophy of life, and philosophy of language, in a course of lectures"

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SCIILEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE,

AND

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE.

* ^o ->*^ ^"-v X

^4=*^

THE

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE,

AND

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE,

IN A

COUKSE OF LECTURES,

FREDERICK VON SCHLEGEL.

TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN ^^^/ 1 10

1<*

BY (

THE REV. A. J. W. MORRISON, M.A.

LONDON:

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, CO VENT GARDEN.

1847.

LONDON;

HUNTED TV/ T. R.

ST. MAiiTISr'S 1AXE.

CONTENTS.

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE,

LECTURE I. page

Of the thinking Soul as the Centre of Consciousness, and of the false
procedure of Reason 1

LECTURE II.

Of the loving Soul as the Centre of the moral Life ; and of Marriage 23

LECTURE III.
Of the Soul's share in Knowledge, and of Revelation 44

LECTURE IV.
Of the Soul in relation to Nature 67

LECTURE V.
Of the Soul of Man in relation to God 93

LECTURE VI.

Of the Wisdom of the divine Order of Things in Nature, and of the
relation of Nature to the other Life and to the Invisible World .... 114

LECTURE VII.

Of the divine Wisdom as manifested in the Realm of Truth, and of the
Conflict of the Age with Error 141

LECTURE VIII.

Of the divine Order in the History of the World and the Relation of
States 163

LECTURE IX.

Of the true Destination of Philosophy ; and of the apparent Schism
but essential Unity between a right Faith and highest Certainty, as
the Centre of Light and Life in the Consciousness 187

LECTURE X.

Of the twofold Spirit of Truth and Error in Science, of the Conflict of
Faith with Infidelity 209

VI CONTENTS.

LECTURE XI. page

Of the Relation of Truth and Science to Life, and of Mind in its
application to Reality 236

LECTURE XII.

Of the symbolical Nature and Constitution of Life with reference to
Art and the moral Relations of Man 261

LECTURE XIII.

Of the Spirit of Truth and Life in its application to Politics, or of
the Christian Constitution of the State and the Christian Idea of
Jurisprudence 282

LECTURE XIV,

Of the Division of Ranks, and of the reciprocal Relations of States,
according to the Christian Idea : of Science as a Power, of its
Constitution, and of the right Regulation of it 306

LECTURE XV.

Of the true Idea of a Theocracy; of the Might of Science, and of the
final Restoration and Perfection of the Human Consciousness 326

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE.

Preface of the German Editor 349

LECTURE 1 351

LECTURE II 373

LECTURE III 392

LECTURE IV 413

LECTURE V 435

LECTURE VI 456

LECTURE VII 482

LECTURE VIII 506

LECTURE IX 528

LECTURE X 552

PREFACE.

THESE fifteen Lectures on the Philosophy of Life are intended
to give, as far as is possible, a clear and succinct exposition
of the following subjects. The first five treat of the soul,
1, as the centre of consciousness : 2, as the centre of moral
life: 3, as co-operating with mind in the acquisition of
knowledge: 4, in its relation to nature: 5, in its relation
to God. The next three investigate the laws of Divine
Wisdom and Providence, as manifested in the system of
Nature, the World of Thought, and the evidences of History.
The subject-matter of the remaining seven is the unfolding of
the spirit [or spiritual nature] of man, in consciousness and
in science; in external life and its great social relations; in
its struggle with the age; and in its course of restoration
through the several grades of human development, until it
arrives at the end and aim of perfection.

PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE.

LECTURE L

OF THE THINKING SOUL AS THE CENTRE OF CON-
SCIOUSNESS, AND OF THE FALSE PROCEDURE OF
REASON.

" THERE are," says a poet as ingenious as profound,* " more
things in heaven and earth, than are dreamt of in our phi-
losophy." This sentiment, which Genius accidentally let
drop, is in the main applicable also to the philosophy of our
own day ; and, with a slight modification, I shall be ready to
adopt it as my own. The only change that is requisite to
make it available for my purpose would be the addition
" and also between heaven and earth are there many things
which are not dreamt of in our philosophy." And exactly be-
cause philosophy, for the most part, does nothing but dream
scientifically dream, it may be therefore is it ignorant, ay,
has no inkling even of much which, nevertheless, in all pro-
priety it ought to know. ' It loses sight of its true object,
it quits the firm ground where, standing secure, it might
pursue its own avocations without let or hindrance, when-
ever, abandoning its own proper region, it either soars up to
heaven to weave there its fine-spun webs of dialectics, and to
build its metaphysical castles in the air, or else, losing itself
on the earth, it violently interferes with external reality, and
determines to shape the world according to its own fancy,
and to reform it at will. Half-way between these two
devious courses lies the true road ; and the proper region

* Shakspeare. Hamlet, Act I. Scene V.

" There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Schlegel seems to have read our, which is the reading of the folio of
1263. Trans.

2 PLATO COSMOGONIES OF THE IONIAN SCHOOL.

of philosophy is even that spiritual inner life between heaven
and earth. ;

On both sides, many and manifold errors were committed,
even in the earlier and better days of enlightened antiquity.
Plato himself, the greatest of the great thinkers of Greece,
set up in his Republic the model of an ideal polity, which,
in this respect, cannot bear the test of examination. His
design indeed finds, in some measure, its apology in the dis-
orders and corruption which, even in his day, had infected
all the free states of Greece, whether great or small. His
work too, by the highly finished style of the whole, the vivid
perspicuity of its narrative, its rich profusion of pregnant
ideas and noble sentiments, stands out in dignified contrast
to the crude and ill-digested schemes of legislation so hastily
propounded in our own day. Still, it will ever remain the
weak point of this great man. One needs not to be a Plato
to see how absolutely unfeasible, not to say practically absurd,
are many of the propositions of this Platonic ideal. Accord-
ingly it has ever been the fruitful occasion, not only among
contemporaries, but also with posterity, of ridicule to the
ignorant and of censure to the wise. In this respect it cannot
but excite our regret that such great and noble powers of
mind should have been wasted in following a false direction,
and in pursuit of an unattainable end. The oldest philo-
sophers of Greece, on the other hand those first bold ad-
venturers on the wide ocean of thought, combined together
the elements of things, water, or air, or fire, or atoms, or
lastly the all-ruling Intellect* itself, into as many different
systems of the universe. If, however, each in his own way
thus set forth a peculiar creed of nature, we must ever bear
in mind that the popular religion, with its poetical imagery,
and the fabulous mythology of antiquity, as affording not only
no sufficient, but absolutely no answer to the inquiring mind,
as to the essence of things, and the first cause of all, could
not possibly satisfy these earlier thinkers. Consequently they
might well feel tempted to find, each for himself, a way to
honour nature, and to contemplate the supreme Being. Since
then, however, the world has grown older by nearly twenty-

* The vovs of Anaxagoras. A brief, but characteristic sketch of these
earlier philosophemes is given in Thirlwall's History of Greece, vol. ii. See
also Hitter's History of Philosophy, vol. i. Trans.

OBJECTS ^N'D LIMITS OF PHILOSOPHY. 3

five centuries, and much in the meanwhile has been accom-
plished by, or fallen to the share of, the human race. But
when philosophy would pretend to regard this long succession
of ages, and all its fruits, as suddenly erased from the records
of existence, and for the sake of change would start afresh,
so perilous an experiment can scarcely lead to any good
result, but in all probability, and to judge from past ex-
perience, will only give rise to numberless and interminable
disputes. Such an open space in thought cleared from all
the traces of an earlier existence (a smoothly polished marble
tablet, as it were, like the tabula rasa of a recent ephemeral
philosophy) would only serve as an arena for the useless
though daring ventures of unprofitable speculation, and could
never form a safe basis for solid thought, or for any permanent
manifestation of intellectual life.

In itself it is nothing surprising if young and inexperi-
enced minds, occupying themselves prematurely, or in a
perverted sense, with the grand ideas of God and Nature,
liberty and the march of thought, should be wholly over-
mastered and carried away with them. It has often hap-
pened before now, and it is no new thing if youthful and
ardent temperaments should either yield to the seductive
temptation to make, not to say create, a new religion of their
own ; or else feel a deceitful impulse to censure and to
change all that is already in existence, and, if possible, to
reform the whole world by their newly acquired ideas.

That this twofold aberration and misuse of philosophical
thought must prove universally injurious, and prejudicial
both to education and the whole world, is so evident that
it can scarcely be necessary to dwell upon it. Its effect has
been to cause men, especially those whose minds have been
formed in the great and comprehensive duties of practical
life, to view the thing altogether in an. evil light, although it
must be confessed there is much injustice in this sweeping
condemnation. In several of the great statesmen of Home
we may observe a similar contempt for Grecian philosophy as
useless and unprofitable. And yet, as is happily indicated by
its Greek name, this whole effort was assuredly based upon
a noble conception, and, when duly regulated, a salutary
principle. For in this beautiful word, according to its ori-
ginal acceptation, science is not regarded as already finished

4 FORM AND METHOD OF TRUE PHILOSOPHY.

and mature, but is rather set forth as an object of search of
a noble curiosity and of a pure enthusiasm for great and sub-
lime truths, while at the> same time it implies the wise use
of such knowledge. Merely, however, to check and to hinder
the aberrations of a false philosophy, is not by itself suffi-
cient. It is only by laying down and levelling the right
road of a philosophy of life, that a thorough remedy for the
evil is to be found. True philosophy, therefore, honouring
that which has been given from above and that which is
existent from without, must neither raise itself in hostility to
the one, nor attempt to interfere violently with the other.
For it is exactly when, keeping modestly within its proper
limits of the inner spiritual life, it makes itself the handmaid
neither of theology nor of politics, that it best asserts its true
dignity and maintains its independence on its own peculiar
domain. And thus, even while it abstains most scrupulously
from intermeddling with the positive and actual, will it operate
most powerfully on alien and remote branches of inquiry, and
by teaching them to consider objects in a freer and more
general light, indirectly it will exercise on them a salutary in-
fluence. Thus while it proceeds along its appointed path, it
will, as it were, without effort disperse many a mist which
spreads its dangerous delusion over the whole of human
existence, or remove perhaps many a Hone of stumbling, which
offends the age and divides the minds of men in strife and
discord. In this manner consequently will it most beauti-
fully attest its healing virtue, and at the same time best
fulfil its proper destination.

The object therefore of philosophy is the inner mental life
(geistige Leben\ not merely this or that individual facility
in any partial direction, but man's spiritual life with all its
rich and manifold energies. With respect to form and
method : the philosophy of life sets out from a single assump-
tion that of life, or in other words, of a consciousness to a
certain degree awakened and manifoldly developed by ex-

C'ence since it has for its object, and purposes to make
wn the entire consciousness and not merely a single
phase of it. Now, such an end would be hindered rather
than promoted by a highly elaborate or minutely exhaustive
form and a painfully artificial method; and it is herein that
the difference lies between a philosophy of life and the philo-

PHILOSOPHY OF THE SCHOOLS UNINTELLIGIBLE. 5

sophy of the school. If philosophy be regarded merely as one
part of a general scientific education, then is the instruction in
method (whether under the old traditionary name of Logic
or any other) the chief point to be regarded. For such a mere
elementary course, passing over, or at least postponing for a
while the consideration of the matter, as possessing as yet but
a very remote interest for the student, and, in the default of an
adequate internal experience of his own, incapable of being
understood by him, concerns itself rather with the practice
of methodical thought, both as necessary for the future, and as
applicable to all matters. But the preliminary exercise in
philosophical thinking is only the introduction to philosophy,
and not philosophy itself. This school-teaching of philosophy
might perhaps be rendered productive of the most excellent
consequences, if only it were directed to the history of the
human intellect. What could be more interesting than a
history which should enter into the spirit, and distinctly em-
body the various systems which the inventive subtlety of the
Greeks gave birth to, or which, taking a still wider range,
should embrace the science of the Egyptians, and some Asiatic
nations, and illustrate the no less wonderful nor less manifold
systems of the Hindoos those Greeks of the primeval world !
But this, perhaps, would be to encroach upon the peculiar
domain of erudition, and might, moreover, fail to furnish equal
interest for all ; and at any rate the history of philosophy is
not philosophy itself.

Now, the distinction between the philosophy of life and the
philosophy of the school will appear in very different lights
according to the peculiarity of view which predominates in the
several philosophical systems. That species of philosophy
which revolves in the dialectical orbit of abstract ideas, ac-
cording to its peculiar character presupposes and requires a
well-practised talent of abstraction, perpetually ascending
through higher grades to the very highest, and even then
boldly venturing a step beyond. In short, as may be easily
shown in the instance of modern German science, the being
unintelligible is set up as a kind of essential characteristic
of a true and truly scientific philosophy. I, for my part,
must confess, that I feel a great distrust of that philosophy
which dwells in inaccessible light, where the inventor in-
deed asserts of himself, that he finds himself in an unattain-

6 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE INTELLIGIBLE.

able certainty and clearness of insight, giving us all the
while to understand thereby, that he does see well enough
how of all other mortals scarcely any, or perhaps, strictly
speaking, no one, understands or is capable of understanding
him. In all such cases it is only the false light of some
internal ignis fatuus that produces this illusion of the unin-
telligible, or rather of nonsense. In this pursuit of wholly
abstract and unintelligible thought, the philosophy of the
school is naturally enough esteemed above every other, and
regarded as pre-eminently the true science i.e., the unin-
telligible.

In such a system a philosophy of life means nothing more
than a kind of translation of its abstruser mysteries into a
more popular form, and an adaptation of them to the capacity
of ordinary minds. But even such popular adaptations, though
evincing no common powers of language and illustration, in
spite of their apparent clearness, when closer examined, are
found as unintelligible as the recondite originals. For inas-
much as the subject-matter of these abstract speculations was,
from the very first, confused and unintelligible, it was conse-
quently incapable of being made clear even by the most
perspicuous of styles. But the true living philosophy has
no relation or sympathy with this continuous advance up to
the unintelligible heights of empty abstraction. Since the
objects it treats of are none other than those which every
man of a cultivated mind and in any degree accustomed to
observe his own consciousness, both has and recognizes within
himself, there is nothing to prevent its exposition being
throughout clear, easy, and forcible. Here the relation is
reversed. In such a system the philosophy of life is the chief
and paramount object of interest; while the philosophy of
the school, or the scientific teaching of it in the schools, how-
ever necessary and valuable in its place, is still, as compared
with the whole thing itself, only secondary and subordinate.
In the philosophy of life, moreover, the method adopted must
also be a living one. Consequently it is not, by any means, a
thing to be neglected. But still it need not to be applied
with equal rigour throughout, or to appear prominently in
every part, but on all occasions must be governed in these
respects by what the particular end in view may demand.

A few illustrations, drawn from daily experience, will per-

BIGHT USE OF PHILOSOPHICAL METHOD. 7

haps serve to explain my meaning. Generally speaking, the
most important arts and pursuits of life are ultimately based
on mathematics. This science furnishes them, as it were,
with the method they observe; but it is not practicable,
nor indeed has man the leisure, to revert on every occasion,
with methodical exactness, to these elements, but, assuming
the principles to be well known and admitted, he attends
rather to the results essential to the end he has in view.
The economical management of the smallest as well as of the
largest household, rests in the end on the elementary princi-
ples of arithmetic ; but what would come of it if, on every
occasion, we were to go back to the simple " one-times-one"
of the multiplication table, and reflected upon and sought for
the proofs that the principle is really valid and can con-
fidently be relied on in practice ? In the same way the art of
war is founded on geometry, but when the general arranges
his troops for battle does he consult his Euclid to satisfy
himself of the correctness and advantages of his position?
Lastly, even the astronomer, whose vocation is pre-eminently
dependent on accurate calculation, when he would make us
acquainted with the phenomena of the sidereal heavens, con-
fines himself almost entirely to them, without wearying those
whom he wishes to interest, with the complicated reckonings
which, however, in all probability, he was obliged himself to
go through. With all these arts and pursuits of practical life,
the intellectual business of thinking of such thinking at
least as is common to most men and of communicating
thought, has a sort of affinity and resemblance. For, unques-
tionably, it is one among the many problems of philosophy to
establish a wise economy and prudent stewardship of that
ever-shifting mass of incoming and outgoing thoughts which
make up our intellectual estate and property. And this is
the more necessary, the greater are the treasures of thought
possessed by our age. For, in the highly rapid interchange
of, and traffic in ideas, which is carrying on, the receipts and
disbursements are not always duly balanced. There is much
cause, therefore, to fear lest a thoughtless and lavish dissipa-
tion of the noblest mental endowments should become preva-
lent, or a false and baseless credit-system in thought spring up
amidst an absolute deficiency of a solid and permanent capital
safely invested in fundamental ideas and lasting truths. As for

8 MATHEMATICAL FORMULAE INAPPROPRIATE.

the second simile : I should, by all means, wish to gain a victory,
not indeed for you, but with you, over some of the many errors
and many semblances of thought, which are, however, but
cheats and counterfeits which distract the minds of the present
generation, disturb the harmony of life, and banish peace even
from the intellectual world. And as respects the third illus-
tration : I should indeed rejoice as having, in a great measure,
attained my object, if only I shall succeed in directing your
attention to some star in the higher region of intellect, which
hitherto was either totally unknown, or, at least, never before
fully observed.

But above all, I think it necessary to observe further, that
in the same way as philosophy loses sight of its true object
and appropriate matter, when either it passes into and merges
in theology, or meddles with external politics, so also does
it mar its proper form when it attempts to mimic the rigorous
method of mathematics. In the middle of the last century
scarcely was there to be found a German manual for any of
the sciences that did not ape the mathematical style, and
where every single position in the long array of interminable
paragraphs did not conclude with the solemn act of demon-
strative phraseology. But it is also well known that the
philosophy which was propounded in this inappropriate form,
and method was crammed full of, nay, rather, was hardly any-
thing more than a tissue of arbitrary, now forgotten, hypo-
theses, which have not brought the world at all nearer to the
truth, not at least to that truth which philosophy is in search
of, and which is something higher than a mere example of
accurate computation.

And even in the present day although, indeed, the appli-
cation is made in a very different way from formerly
German philosophy is anything but free from those algebraic
formularies, in which all things, even the most opposite, admit
of being comprised and blended together. But, be it as it
may, this elaborate structure of mechanical demonstration can
never produce a true, intrinsic, and full conviction. The
method which philosophy really requires is quite different,
being absolutely internal and intellectual fgeistigej. As in
a correct architectural structure it is necessary that all its
parts should be in unison, and such as the eye can take in
easily and agreeably; so in every philosophical communica-

UNITY OF PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 9

tion, the solid simple basis being laid, the arrangement of all
the parts and the careful rejection and exclusion of all foreign
matter, is the most essential point, both for internal correctness
and external perspicuity. But, in truth, the matter in hand
bears a far closer resemblance and affinity to natural objects
which live and grow, than to any lifeless edifice of stone ;
to a great tree, for instance, nobly and beautifully spreading
out on all sides in its many arms and branches. As such
a tree strikes the hasty and passing glance, it forms a some-
what irregular and not strictly finished whole ; there it stands,
just as the stem has shot up from the root, and has divided
itself into a certain number of branches and twigs and leaves,
which livingly move backwards and forwards in the free air.
But examine it more closely, and how perfect appears its
whole structure ! how wonderful the symmetry, how minutely
regular the organization of all its parts, even of each little leaf
and delicate fibre ! In the same way will the ever-growing
tree of human consciousness and life appear in philosophy,
whenever it is not torn from its roots and stripped of its
leaves by a pretended wisdom, but is vividly apprehended by
a true science, and exhibited and presented to the mind in
its life and its growth.

Not only, however, the arrangement of the whole, but also
the connexion of the several parts of a philosophical treatise
or development, is of a higher kind than any mere mechanical
joining, such, for instance, as that by which two pieces
of wood are nailed or glued together. If I must illustrate this
connexion by a simile from animated nature, the facts of
magnetism will best serve my purpose. Once magnetically
excited, the iron needle comes into invisible contact and con-
nexion with the whole globe and its opposite poles ; and this
magnetic clue has guided the bold circumnavigator into new
and unknown regions of the world. Now, the intrinsic vital
coherence of the several thoughts of philosophy resembles this
magnetic attraction ; and no such rude, mechanical, and in
fact mere external conjunction of thought, like that lately
alluded to, can satisfy the requirements of philosophical con-
nexion.

But the supreme intrinsic unity of philosophical thought, or
of a philosophical series of ideas, is quite different from every
thing hitherto mentioned. It belongs not to nature, but to

10 tJNITY OF PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT.

life ; it is not derived from the latter by way of figure or
illustration, but is a part and constituent of it, and goes
to the Tery root and soil of the moral life. What I mean is,
the unity of sentiment the fixed character, remaining ever
the same and true to itself the inner necessary sequence of
the thoughts which, in life no less than in the system and
philosophical theory, invariably makes a great and pro-
found impression on our minds, and commands our respect,
even when it does not carry along with it our convictions.
This, however, is dependent on no form, and no mere method
can attain to it. How often, for instance, in some famous
political harangue, which perhaps the speaker, like the rhap-
sodist of old, poured forth on the spur of the moment, do we
at once recognize and admire this character in the thoughts,
this consistency of sentiment ? How often, on the contrary,
in another composed with the most exquisite research and
strict method, and apparently a far more elaborate and finished
creation of the intellect, we have only to pierce through the
systematic exterior to find that it is nothing but an ill-connected
and chance-medley of conflicting assumptions and opinions
taken from all quarters, and the crude views of the author
himself, devoid of all solidity, and resting on no firm basis,
without character, and wholly destitute of true intrinsic unity ?

If now, in the present course of Lectures, I shall succeed in
laying before you my subject in that clearness and distinct-
ness which are necessary to enable you to comprehend the
whole, and while taking a survey of it, to judge of the agree-
ment of the several parts, you will find, I trust, no difficulty
in discovering the fundamental idea and sentiment. And
further, I would venture to entreat you not to judge hastily of
this sentiment from single expressions, and least of all at the
very outset, but, waiting for its progressive development, to
judge of it on the whole. Lastly, I would also indulge a hope,
that the views of an individual thinker, if perspicuously enun-
ciated, may, even where they fail of conviction, and though
points of difference still subsist, produce no revolting impres-
sion on your minds ; but, by exercising a healing influence on
many a rankling wound in thought and life, produce amongst
us some of the fairest fruits of true philosophy.

Hitherto we have been considering, first of all, the object
and proper sphere of the philosophy of life ; and secondly, its

MODERN PEENCH PHILOSOPHY CONDILLAC. 11

appropriate form of communication, as well as all other
methods which are alien and foreign to it. Of great and de-
cisive importance for the whole course and further develop-
ment of philosophical inquiry, is it to determine, in the next
place, the starting-point from which it ought to set out. It
will not do to believe that we have found this in any axiom
or postulate such as are usually placed at the head of a system.
For such a purpose we must rather investigate the inmost
foundation the root out of which springs the characteristic
feature of a philosophical view. Now, in the philosophy of
life the whole consciousness, with all its different phases and
faculties, must inevitably be taken for the foundation, the
soul being considered as the centre thereof. This simple
basis being once laid, it may be further developed in very
different ways. For it is, I might almost say, a matter of
indifference from what point in the circumference or peri-
phery we set out in order to arrive at the centre, with the
design of giving a further development to this as the foun-
dation of the whole. But in order to illustrate this simple
method of studying life from its true central point, which is
intermediate between the two wrong courses already indicated,
and in order to make by contrast my meaning the plainer, I
would here in a few words, characterize the false starting-
point from which the prevailing philosophy of a day whether
that of France in the eighteenth century or the more recent
systems of Germany has hitherto for the most part proceeded.
False do I call it, both on account of the results to which it
has led, and also of its own intrinsic nature. In one case as
well as in the other, the starting-point was invariably some
controverted point of the reason some opposition or other to
the legitimacy of the reason ; under which term, however, little
else generally was understood, than an opposition of the rea-
son itself to some other principle equally valid and extensive.
The principal, or rather only way which foreign philosophy
took in this pursuit, was to reduce every thing to sensation
as opposed to reason, and to derive every thing from it alone,
so as to make the reason itself merely a secondary faculty, no
original and independent power, and ultimately nothing else
than a sort of chemical precipitate and residuum from the
material impressions.* But however much may be con-

* Schlegel is here alluding to Condillac and his theory of transformed
sensations. Trans.

12 MODERN FRENCH PHILOSOPHY ATHEISM.

ceded to these, and to the external senses, and however great
a share they may justly claim in the whole inner property of
the thinking man, still it is evident, that the perception of
these sensuous impressions, the inner coherence in short,
the unity of the consciousness in which they are collected
can never, as indeed it has often been objected on the other side,
have come into the mind from without. This was not, how-
ever, the end which this doctrine had exclusively, or even princi-
pally, in view. The ultimate result to which they hoped to come
by the aid of this premise, was simply the negation of the supra-
sensible. Whatever in any degree transcends the material
impression, or sensuous experience, as well as all possible
knowledge of, and faith therein, not merely in respect to a
positive religion, but absolutely whatever is noble, beautiful,
and great, whatever can lead the mind to, or can be referred
to a something suprasensible and divine all this, wherever it
may be found, whether in life or thought, in history or in
nature aye, even in art itself, it was the ultimate object of
this foreign philosophy to decry, to involve in doubt, to attack
and to overthrow, and to bring down to the level of the
common and material, or to plunge it into the sceptical abyss
of absolute unbelief. The first step in this system was a
seeming subordination of reason to sensation, as a derivative
of it a mere slough which it throws off in its transformations.
Afterwards, however, the warfare against the suprasensible was
waged entirely with the arms of reason itself. The reason,
indeed, which supplied these weapons, was not one scientifically
cultivated and morally regulated, but thoroughly sophistical and
wholly perverted, which, however, put into requisition all the
weapons of a brilliant but sceptical wit, and moved in the
ever- varied turnings of a most ingenious and attractive style.
Here, where the question was no longer the abrogation of any
single dogma of positive religion, but where the opposition
to the divine had become the ruling tendency of philosophy,
it is not easy to. refrain from characterising it as atheistical
what indeed in its inmost spirit it really was, and also histo-
rically proved itself by its results.

The other course adopted by French philosophy, in the
times immediately preceding the Revolution, was to lay
aside the weapons of wit. and (.0 employ a burning eloquence
as more likely to attract and to carry away minds naturally

GERMAN PHILOSOPHY KANT. 13

noble. It had consequently, if possible, still more fatal results
than the former. The reason, as the peculiar character of
man in a civilised state so it was argued is like civilised
man himself, an artificial creation, and in its essence totally
unnatural ; and the savage state of nature is the only one
properly adapted to man. As the means of emancipation
from an artificial and corrupt civilisation, the well-known
theory of the social contract was advanced. Our whole age has
learned dearly enough the lesson, that this dogma, practically
applied on a large scale, may indeed lead to a despotism of
liberty, and to the lust of conquest, but can as little effect
the re-establishment of a true civilisation as it can bring
back the state of nature. It would be a work of superero-
gation to dwell upon the pernicious results or the intrinsic
hollowness of this system. It is, however, worth while to
remark, that, in this theory also, the beginning was made
with an opposition to reason. Starting with a depreciation
of it as an artificial state and a departure from nature, at the
last it threw itself, and the whole existing frame of society,
into the arms of reason, and thereby sought to gain for
the latter an unlimited authority over all laws, both human
and divine. A somewhat similar phenomenon may every-
where be observed, and the same course will invariably be
taken when philosophy allows itself to set out with some
question or impugning of the reason, and, in its exclusiveness,
makes this dialectical faculty the basis of its investigations.

Modern German philosophy, wholly different from the
French both in form and spirit, has, from its narrow metaphy-
sical sphere, been of far less extensive influence ; and, even if it
has occasionally led to anarchy, it has been simply an anarchy
of ideas. And yet, notwitstanding its different character, a
similar course of inversion is noticeable in it. Beginning with
a strict, not to say absolute, limitation of the reason, and
with an opposition to its assumptions, it also ended in its
investiture with supreme authority not to say in its deifica-
tion. The founder* of the modern philosophy of Germany
commenced his teaching with a lengthy demonstration that

* Kant. For a full and systematic view of modern German philosophy,
see Michelet's Geschichte d. letsten Systeme d. Phil, in Deutschland,
Berlin, 1837 8. Some able and ingenious essays on its errors and abuses
are to be found in Fred. Ancillon's Essais de Philosophic, de Politique,
et de Litterature. Trans.

14 GERMAN PHILOSOPHY JACOBI, FICHTE.

the reason is totally incapable of attaining to a knowledge
of the suprasensible, and that by attempting it, it does but
involve itself in endless disputes and difficulties. And then,
on this assumed incompetency of the reason for the supra-
sensible was based the doctrine of the need, the necessity
of faith nay, faith itself.* But this arbitrary faith appeared
to have but little reliance on itself; and, when closely \iewed,
turned out to be the old reason, which, after being solemnly
displaced from the front of the philosophical palace, was
now again, slightly altered and disguised, set up behind it as
a useful but humble postern. Dissatisfied with such a sys-
tem, the philosophical Me (Ich, Ego) chose another and a
new road, that of absolute science,! in which it might, from
the very first, do as it pleased might bluster and fluster at
will. But soon it became plain, that in this idealistic doc-
trine there was no room for any but a subjective reason-
god devoid of all objective reality. In it the absolute Ego
or Me of each individual, was substituted for and identified
with the divine. Against this certainty of the "Me," there-
fore, there arose first of all a suspicion, and lastly the
reproach of atheism. But, in truth, we ought to be ex-
tremely scrupulous in applying this term in all cases where
the question does not turn on a rude denial of the truth, but
rather on a highly erroneous confusion of ideas. At least, it
would be well if, in such a case, we were to distinguish the
imputed atheism by the epithet of scientific, in order to
indicate thereby that the censure and the name apply in
truth only to the error of the system, and not to the character
of the author. For with such a scientific atheism, the sternest
stoicism in the moral doctrine may, as indeed was actually
the case here, be easily ..combined. Quite weary, how-
ever, of the transcendent vacuity of this ideal reason and
mere dialectical reasoning, German philosophy now took a
different road. It turned more to the side of natui-e, J in
whose arms she threw herself in perfect admiration, thinking
to find there alone life and the fulness thereof. Now, al-
though this new philosophy of nature has borne many noble
fruits of science, still even it has been haunted by that

* Jacobi, in his Glauben's-Philosophie. Trans.
t Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre. Trans.
J Schelling's Natur- Philosophic. Trans.

GERMAN PHILOSOPHY SCHELLING, HEGEL. 15

delusive phantom of the Absolute, and it is not free from
liability to the reproach of a pantheistic deification of Nature.
But properly and accurately speaking, it was not nature it-
self that was set up as the supreme object of veneration, but
this same phantom of reason, which was taken as the basis
and fundamental principle of nature. It was, in short, no-
thing but the old metaphysical one-times-one* in a somewhat
novel application and more vivid form. Here, therefore,
also did the system commence with a seeming disgust at the
reason, and with a subordination of it to nature, in order to
conclude with the absolute principle of the reason.

Viewed, however, as a philosophical science of nature, it
has rather to answer for some occasional errors and perverse
extravagances, than for any thoroughly consequent and
systematic carrying out of the ingrafted error into all its
parts. Moreover, a broad distinction must undoubtedly be
drawn between its different advocates and promulgators. In
these last days German philosophy has, in a measure at least,
reverted again into the empty vacuum of the absolute idea.f
The latter, indeed, and the idol of absolute reason which is
enshrined therein, is no more a mere inward conception, but
is objectively understood and set up as the fundamental prin-
ciple of all entity. But still, when we consider how the
essence of mind is expressly made to consist in negation, and
how also the spirit of negation is predominant through the
whole system, a still worse substitution appears to have taken
place, inasmuch as, instead of the living God, this spirit 01
negation, so opposed to Him, is, in erroneous abstraction, set
up and made a god of. Here, therefore, as well as elsewhere,
a metaphysical lie assumes the place of a divine reality.

Thus, then, do we everywhere observe a strange internal
correspondence and affinity between the several aberrations of

* Schlegel is alluding to those systems which suppose a primary and
original essence, which, by its successive spontaneous developments, pro-
duces every thing else out of itself. This absolute original of all things
was by Schelling, after Spinosa, called natura naturans, while, by a
phraseology which happily indicates the identity of the self-developing
subject and its objective developments, the totality of the objects derived
from it are termed natura naturata. Trans.

t Hegel. For a view of his philosophy see the Article Hegel, in the
Penny Cyclopaedia, and Morel's Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the
Nineteenth Century, vol. ii. p. 131. Tram.

16 BYRON'S CAIN FRENCH PHYSICAL SCIENCE.

our age. Here the remotest mental extremes, which ex-
ternally seem to repel each other, suddenly converge at the
same point of delusive light, or rather of brilliant darkness.
Instances of this correspondence startle us where we least
expect to meet with them. An English poet,* perhaps the
greatest, certainly the most remarkable poet of our age, in
his tragic delineation of the oldest fratricide, has pourtrayed
the prime mover of this deed, the enemy of the human race,
and the king of the bottomless pit, as the bold censurer of
the divine order of things, and the head of all discontented
spirits, and leader of the opposition of the whole creation.
In this light he has painted him with unparalleled boldness,
and with such moving and astonishing truthfulness, that all
previous descriptions by the greatest poets seem but arbi-
trary and unreal phantoms wiien compared with this portrait,
which was evidently a favourite sketch, for the author's secret
partiality betrays itself in the skill and pains with which he
has lavished on this dark figure all the magic colours of his
fancy. Thus, then, in this poetic creation, the same hostile
principle the same absolute, i. e., evil spirit of negation and
contradiction that forms the consummation of the errors of
German philosophy, notwithstanding its abstract unintelligi-
bility is enthroned amidst the disordered system. And so,
by a strange law of " pre-established harmony," the anti-
christian poet and these anti- Christian thinkers unexpectedly
meet together at the point of a spurious sublimity. In any
case, however, this last instance forms the third stage of idea-
listic confusion, and certainly the last grade of scientific
atheism.

Now, briefly to recapitulate my own convictions and my view
of the relation subsisting between the philosophy of life which
I propose to set before you, and the prevalent philosophy and
science of the age, the following few remarks will suffice,
honour and admire the discoveries so pregnant with important
results which natural philosophy has made in our days, but
especially the gigantic strides which the study of nature in
France has taken; so far, at least, as they contain and have
established a real and solid advance of human science ; so far,
too, as I am acquainted with them, and in my sphere under-

* Schlegcl is speaking of Byron, and his Cain, a Mystery. Trans.

GERMAN PHISIOLOGY THE SOUL. 17

stand them. On the other hand, I cannot but take exception
to that admixture of materialism which has been infused into
them by the ruling philosophical system of a previous age,
which in France has still so many followers. I honour too
and love German science, with its diligent and comprehensive
research. Nay, I value the natural philosophy of Germany
even still more than that of France, since, while it adopts
the same great discoveries, it views them in a more spiritual
light. As for that idealistic jargon, however, which runs
parallel and is interwoven with it, on which, indeed, it was
originally based, and from which even now it is anything but
clear ; this I cannot regard in any other light than, what it
really is, an intellectual delusion of the most pernicious kind,
and one which will inevitably produce the most destructive
and fatal consequences on the human mind.

What has been now said will suffice for our notice of the
opposing systems of philosophy. Henceforward we shall have
no need to turn our looks to this side, but shall fee able to
give our attention solely and calmly to the development of
that which I have already announced, and have now to commu-
nicate to you. Previously, however, to entering upon this
subject, it seemed to me advisable, by contrasting the false
starting-point with the true centre of philosophy, to set the
latter before you in a clearer and distincter light.

The dialectical faculty of abstraction is naturally the pre-
dominant one, and the most completely evolved in the think-
ing mind. Accordingly, most thinkers have set it up as the
basis of their speculations, in order to arrive the more rapidly
at the desired end of an absolute science ; or, if the habit of
mind be more disposed that way, at an absolute not-knowing,
and the rejection of all certainty ; which, in the main, is quite
as false, and, in this respect, identical with the former. But
it is not sufficient to follow any such a partial course, and to
start from any one side merely of the human consciousness.
On the right and sure road of a complete and thorough in-
vestigation, our first duty is to study the human consciousness
in its fulness and living development, in all its faculties and
powers. And then, in the second place, when, by thus
assuming a position in the centre, man has enabled himseli
to take a complete survey of the whole, he may unquestionably
proceed to inquire what kind and what degree of knowledge,

18 MAX COMPARED WITH SPIRITUAL BEINGS.

with such a consciousness, he is capable of attaining, both
of the external world and of the suprasensible, and how far
the latter is conceivable and its existence possible. Now,
just as generally the soul is the principle of all life in nature,
so is the thinking soul the centre of the human consciousness.
But in the thinking soul is comprised the reason which dis-
tinguishes, combines, and infers, no less than the fancy which
devises, invents, and suggests. Standing in the centre be-
tween the two, the thinking soul embraces both faculties.
But it also forms the turning-point of transition between the
understanding and the will; and, as the connecting link, fills
up the gulf which otherwise would lie between and divide
the two. It comprises also all sorts and degrees of concep-
tions, from the absolutely necessary, precisely definite, and
permanently unchangeable, down to those which arise and
pass away half involuntarily from those in no degree clearly
developed up to those which have been advanced to the
highest clearness of the understanding those which are
witnessed with a calm indifference, and those also which
excite a gentle longing or kindle a burning resolve. The
thinking soul is the common storehouse where the whole of
these conceptions are successively lodged. Indeed, to describe
it in general terms, it is but the inner pulse of thought, cor-
responding to the pulsation of the blood in the living body.

This general description, it must be confessed, is very far
from being an adequate explanation of the matter, and at
best does but imperfectly convey our meaning. But perhaps
a different line of thought, however bold and hazardous it
may seem, may bring us far more simply to the point at
present in view a more accurate description, namely, of
the peculiar property of the human mind, and of the cha-
racteristic feature which distinguishes man from other beings
equally finite, but endowed in the same manner with conscious-
ness. That the rational soul, or the reason, distinguishes him
from the brutes, is a remark common and trite enough. But
this is only one aspect of the matter : and must we always
cast our looks downwards, and never upwards ? What I mean
is this: supposing that there are other created spirits and
finite intelligences besides men, might not the comparison
of their purely spiritual consciousness with man's serve,
perhaps in an eminent degree, to elucidate the distinctive

THE HIGHER SPIRITS INCORPOREAL. 19

properties of the human consciousness in that other aspect
which is too commonly neglected ? I am far from intending
to make this matter a subject of investigation in the present
place. I take it merely as an hypothesis, warranted indeed
by universal tradition, and solely as an aid to elucidate the
matter in hand. Universal, however, I may well call this
tradition, since, agreeing in the main with what Holy Writ
asserts, the oldest and most civilised nations of antiquity
(among whom I need only mention the Egyptians, and espe-
cially the Persians and the Hindoos) have admitted, as a
well-established fact, the existence of such finite intelligences
and created spirits, invisible indeed to man, but not altogether
alien to him. And as for the Greeks and Romans, if occa-
sionally they allude to the genius of Socrates as something
strange and singular, this was only because the wise Athenian
spoke of this subject in peculiar language, and referred to it
more habitually than was the wont of his countrymen and
contemporaries. Otherwise it was the general belief, both
of Greeks and Romans, that every man has his guardian
spirit or genius. Now this hypothesis being once admitted
to be possible, let us inquire in what light were these
ancients accustomed to regard, and what ought we to con-
ceive of the peculiar nature of these spiritual beings in con-
formity with the representation of so universal a tradition ?

Now, in the first place, they have always been thought of as
pure spiritual beings, having no such gross terrestrial body as
man has. At least if they were supposed to require and possess
a body as the organ and medium of their spiritual operations,
it was considered to be of a special kind ; an ethereal body of
light, but invisible to the human eye. But this incorporeity
is little more than a negative quality. A more positive and a
profounder distinction lies perhaps in this, that these pure
spiritual beings are wholly free from that weakness of cha-
racter, or frailty, which is so peculiar to man. That pervading
internal mutability, that midecided vacillation between doing
and letting alone, that reciprocation between effort and relaxa-
tion the wide gulf between volition and execution, the thought
and the carrying into effect nothing of all this admits of being
applied or transferred to these pure spiritual beings without
contradicting the very idea of their essence. It is thus only, or
not at all, that we can conceive of them. Coining and going

c 2

20 FANCY, MAN'S DISTINCTIVE PROPERTY.

like the lightning, and rapid as the light, they never grow
weary of their endless activity. They need no rest except the
spiritual contemplation which constitutes their essence. All
their thoughts are marked with unity and identity. With
them the conception is at the same time a deed, and the pur-
pose and the execution are simultaneous. Every thing, too,
in them has the stamp of eternity. This prerogative, how-
ever, has, it must be confessed, its disadvantages. When
once they have deviated from the true centre, they go on for
ever in their devious course.

But still all this is little more than a description of the
whole idea which I have allowed myself, merely with a view
of employing it as a passage to the point which is at present
in question. That purpose was, on the supposition of the ex-
istence of such superior beings, accurately to indicate which
of man's powers or faculties of mind and soul may rightly be
attributed to them. Now, to my mind, the distinction is very
strikingly suggested in the well-known sentiment of one of
our famous poets. Thus he addresses man : " Thy knowledge
thou sharest with superior beings ;" superior, for in the
clearness of their eternal science, they undoubtedly stand far
higher than men and then he continues, " But art thou hast
alone."* But, now, what else is art than fancy become visi-
ble, and assuming a bodily shape or word or sound ? It is,
therefore, this nimble-footed, many-shaped, ever-inventive
fancy, which forms the dangerous prerogative of man and
cannot be ascribed to these pure spiritual beings. And as
little justifiable would it be to ascribe to them that human,
reason, with its employment of means, and its slow processes
of deduction and comparison. Instead of this, they possess the
intuitive understanding, in which to see and to understand
are simultaneous and identical. If, then, in an accurate
sense of the terms, neither fancy nor reason belongs to them,
it would further be wrong to attribute them a soul as dis-
tinct from the mind or spirit, and as being rather a passive
faculty of inward productiveness and change and internal
growth. Briefly to recapitulate what has been said: The
existence of the brutes is simple, because in them the soul is

* " Dein Wissen theilest du mit vorgezogenen Geistern ;
Die Kunst, o Mensch, hast du allein."

SCHILLER'S Kunstlehre. Trans.

MAN'S TRIPLE NATURE BODY, SOUL, AND SPIRIT. 21

completely mixed up and merged in the organic body, and is
one with it ; on the destruction of the latter it reverts to
the elements, or is absorbed in the general soul of nature.
Twofold, however, is the nature of created spirits, who besides
this ethereal body of light are nothing but mind or spirit; but
threefold is the nature of man, as consisting of spirit, soul,
and body.* And this triple constitution and property, this
threefold life of man, is, indeed, not in itself that pre-eminence,
although it is closely connected with that superior excellence
which ennobles and distinguishes man from all other created
beings. I allude to that prerogative by which he alone of all
created beings is invested with the Divine image and likeness.
This threefold principle is the simple basis of all philosophy ;
and the philosophical system which is constructed on such a
foundation is the philosophy of life, which therefore has even
" words of life." It is no idle speculation, and no unintelli-
gible hypothesis. It is not more difficult, and needs not to
be more obscure, than any other discourse on spiritual sub-
jects ; but it can and may be as easy and as clear as the read-
ing of a writing, the observation of nature, and the study of
histoiy, For it is in truth nothing else than a simple theory
of spiritual life, drawn from life itself, and the simple under-
standing thereof. If, however, it becomes abstract and unin-
telligible, this is invariably a consequence, and for the most
part an infallible proof of its having fallen into error. When
in thought we place before us the whole composite human
individual, then, after spirit and soul, the organic body is the
third constituent, or the third element out of which, in com-
bination with the other two, the whole man consists and is
compounded. But the structure of the organic body, its
powers and laws, must be left to physical science to investi-
gate. Philosophy is the science of consciousness alone ; it has,

* That by geist, spirit, and not mind merely, is here meant, will be
doubted by no one who considers the scriptural basis of these Lectures.
Schlegel seems to have had in view 1 Thess. v. 23. In the German,
geist stands both for mind and spirit, which, however, in English are
equivalent neither in use nor meaning. Whenever, therefore, the trans-
lator is compelled by the English idiom to translate geist and its deriva-
tives by mind and its cognates, and it is essential to keep in view the
identity of the matter by the sameness of expression, he will indicate it by
adding the German original in a bracket.

22 MAN'S FOUR-FOLD CONSCIOUSNESS.

therefore, primarily to occupy itself with soul and spirit or mind,
and must carefully guard against transgressing its limits in
any respect. But the third constituent beside mind and soul,
in which these two jointly carry on their operations, needs not
always, as indeed the above instance proves, to be an organic
body. In other relations of life, this third, in which both are
united, or which they in unison produce, may be the word,
the deed, life itself, or the divine order on which both are de-
pendent. These, then, are the subjects which I have proposed
for consideration. But in order to complete this scale of life,
I will further observe : triple is the nature of man, but four-
fold is the human consciousness. For the spirit or mind, like
the soul, divides and falls asunder, or rather is split and
divided into two powers or halves the mind, namely, into
understanding and will, the soul into reason and fancy. These
are the four extreme points, or, if the expression be preferred,
the four quarters of the inner world of consciousness. All
other faculties of the soul, or powers of mind, are merely
subordinate ramifications of the four principal branches ; but
the living centre of the whole is the thinking soul.

END OF LECTURE I.

LECTURE II.

OF THE LOVING SOUL AS THE CENTRE OF THE MORAL
LIFE ; AND OF MARRIAGE.

THE development of the human consciousness according to the
triple principle of its existence, or of its nature as compounded
of spirit or mind, soul, and animated body, must begin with
the soul, and not with the spirit, even though the latter be
the most important and supreme. For the soul is the first
grade in the progress of development. In actual life, also,
it is the beginning and the permanent foundation, as well
as the primary root, of the collective consciousness. The
development of the spirit or mind of man is much later,
being first evolved in or out of, by occasion of, or with the
co-operation of the soul. But even when thus developed, the
mind (under which term we comprise the will, as well as the
understanding) is neither in all men, nor always in the same
individual, equally active. In this respect we may apply to
it what has been said of the wind, which imparts vital motion
and freshness to all the objects of outward nature : we " hear
the sound thereof, but we cannot tell whence it comes, nor
whither it goeth."* The thinking soul, on the contrary, is,
properly speaking, always, though silently, working ; and it
is highly probable that it is never without conceptions. Of
th se, indeed, it may either possess a clear or an almost totally
indist* ct consciousness, according to that principle of un-
conscious representations propounded as a fundamental axiom
of psychology by a great German philosopher! of earlier
times, with whose opinions I often find myself agreeing,
and with whom before all other men I would most gladly
concur.

Applied to the alternating states of sleeping and waking
in the outward organic life, this would merely mean that in sleep

* St. John iii. 8. Trans. f Leibnitz. Trans.

24 UNCONSCIOUS CONCEPTIONS KEASON AND FANCY.

we always dream, even at those times when our vision leaves no
traces on our memory. The great majority of dreams, even
those which in the moment of awakening we still remember,
are absolutely nothing but the conjoint impression of the
bodily tone and the ever- varying temperament of life and
health and of the disorderly repetition of such ideas as pre-
viously to sleeping had principally engaged the attention.
Now, since every opposite comes near to its correlative in one
or more points of contact, which, as they establish, also
serve to maintain the relationship between the two, so the
state of the soul in dreaming will serve strikingly to illus-
trate its waking action. Of the great multitude of dreams,
which are for the most part confused and unmeaning, some
occasionally stand out from the rest extremely clear and well-
connected, in which the feelings oftentimes discover a profound
significance, or which, at least, as significant images, interest
the fancy. And just in the same manner in the state of \vaking
there passes before the soul no inconsiderable number of
obscure and vague conceptions, which are not much if at all
clearer or more methodically disposed than the train of images
which in a dream succeed one another without the least intrinsic
order or connexion. Still we should greatly err were we to
assume, that like the latter they leave no trace behind them
on the soul. On the contrary, in these undeveloped beginnings
of thought there often lies the germ of very definite ideas,
and especially of the various peculiarities of mental character,
as also of the impulses and determination which, at first slowly
and spontaneously formed, eventuate in some definite suscepti-
bility or direction of the will. Now, as the external life of
man alternates between the waking activity and the state of
repose in sleep, so, too, the thinking soul is divided between
the abstracting and classifying Reason and the inventive
Fancy.* These two are, as it were, the halves, so to speak,
or the two poles of the thinking soul, of which the one may be
regarded as the positive, the other as the negative. In re-

* It is clear from what follows, that Schlegel used the term Fancy in a
wide and general sense, which embraces, first, its original use in ancient
philosophy,! as the faculty of conception (<airao-ia), which reproduces
the images of objects whether present or absent ; secondly, imagination,
which is essential to all authors ; and thirdly, fancy, in a narrow sense
or the poetic fancy. It is in this wide sense that the translator employs it

FANCY THE POSIT I YE, ftEASON THE NEGATIVE POLE. 25

spect to the inner fruitful cogitation itself to the origination
and production of thoughts the imagination, as the reproduc-
tive faculty, is the positive pole. As for the fancy, properly
so called the poetic fancy, or that which plays an important
part in the inclinations and passions it is only a particular
species and operation of this faculty, which in its general form
also manifests itself in many other directions and spheres of
human thought and action. To it belongs, for instance, that
talent of extensive combination which distinguishes all the
great discoverers in mathematics. Opposite to this pro-
ductive faculty of thought, tbe negative pole is formed by the
classifying faculty of reason, which further elaborates, closely
determines and limits the materials furnished to it by the
fancy. Thus, then, the place which the fancy with afi the
powers, emotions, and impressions which belong to it assumes
relatively to the external world, is subordinate and ministerial,
since it is only within certain prescribed limits that it can
duly make use of its rich productive energies, realize its inmost
ideas, and act upon the,m.

Here, therefore, the first place belongs to the ordering and
determining reason, and which here ought to hold the helm.
In this respect it may justly be called the regulative faculty.
And yet, since the reason is, so to speak, only one-half of the
soul, it must not pretend to exclusive authority ; while, on
the other hand, it is but little likely that that which we may
have set before our mind and imagination as the innermost
wish of our hearts, will simply on that account prove inva-
riably a real and lasting good.

I called the understanding and the will, the reason and the
fancy, the four principal branches of the human consciousness,

after Milton, who uses it, as more extensive than imagination, when he
says of fancy,

" Of all the external things

Which the five watchful senses represent,

She forms imaginations, aery shapes."

Par. Lost., Book V.

Indeed the whole of the speech of Raphael in this fifth book contains a
Striking affinity of thought and idea with Schlegel. We have there man's
triple constituents, body, soul, and spirit reason and fancy in the soul, of
which reason is the being or essence while discursive reason is appro-
priated to man, but intuitive reason is made the prerogative of the " purest
spirits" " the pure intelligential substances." Trans.

26 FANCY THE SENSES AND INSTINCTS.

of which all other mental powers or faculties of the soul,
usually ascribed to man, are but so many offshoots. These
other powers however cannot with perfect propriety be called
subordinate, since in another point of view they may per-
haps be entitled to assume a higher rank. Assigned* faculties
is, therefore, what I should prefer to term them. Now of
such faculties belonging to the domain of the combining and
distinguishing reason, the memory and the conscience are pre-
eminently to be mentioned. For the memory also in another
way is a combining just as the conscience is a distinguishing
faculty; the latter, however, being so not only in another
but even in a far higher sense. But we must postpone for
the present the further consideration of this matter, and con-
sider rather those faculties or functions which are under the
influence of, or at least immediately connected with, the fancy.
These are the senses, and the inclinations or instincts. With
regard, then, to the senses : in the first place, I would simply
call your attention to the fact, that the triple principle of human
existence according to which the latter consists of a spirit or
mind, of a soul, and of a living body or a bodily manifesta-
tion is repeated as it were in miniature in every smaller and
narrower sphere of man's consciousness. This is especially
the case with the external senses. Thus -viewing them, how-
ever, we should have to reckon but three senses instead of the
usual number of five. This can be managed easily enough
by taking the three lower and counting them as one, since
they constitute pre-eminently the corporeal sense, as contra-
distinguished from the other two, which are both higher and
more incorporeal. For to the three lower senses, not only
is a material contact indispensable, but also, as in the case
of smell, a sort of chemical assimilation with matter. No
doubt, in the act of seeing and hearing there is likewise a cer-
tain but imperceptible contact of the nerves of the eye and
ear with the waves of light and the undulations of the air ; but
still this contact is of a different kind from the former, and of
another and indeed of a higher nature, producing the relations
of tone, colour, and shape. Now, in this classification, the
eye is the mind or spirit's sense for beauty of form, and grace

* In the original zugetheilte, said of a matter assigned for investigation
to a particular judge, or of the judge appointed to examine and report
upon it. Trans.

INFLUENCE OP FANCY ON THE SENSE. 27

of motion. It is so in truth, not merely in those who are
endowed with a taste for the arts or the artistic eye, but
far more universally, being diffused in a greater or less degree
through the whole human family. Special gifts of it, or
rather higher though varying endowments, are to be found
in some highly-favoured individuals ; and in the same way
the ear for music is not imparted to all who possess the
general organ of hearing, which we very properly term the
soul's sense. The external senses man shares, indeed, in
common with the brutes, in some of whom they are found of
an exquisite and highly developed susceptibility. But these
higher endowments of eye and ear, and above all the natural
artistic feeling for beauty of form, and the musical talent, are
the prerogatives of man, conferred upon him by his peculiar
faculty of fancy. On this account they, like that faculty,
are distributed unequally among men, though they are not
on that account less real and undeniable.

The brutes, I said, do not possess them. No doubt there is
a certain melodious rhythm perceptible in the songs of birds.
Some also of the more eminently docile and sagacious of ter-
restrial animals do indeed evince peculiar signs of pleasure
in the music of man. Still I would call this but so many
single, unconnected echoes or reverberations of fancy, since
everything like free choice, further development, or intrinsic
coherence, is wanting to them all is broken, abrupt, and
incapable of being formed into a whole. In the same man-
ner the artistic instinct and skill of some animals exhibits no
doubt a certain likeness in its operations to the rational works
of man, but still it ever remains a resemblance at best, and
is for ever divided from reason by a wide and impassable
gulf. It is, as it were, the indistinct trace of a weather-worn
and nearly obliterated inscription the dying notes of some
far-off music. And hence the agreeable, but at the same
time melancholy impression which such things make upon
our feelings. A something human seems to be stirring in
them. They appear to revive a faint but nearly forgotten allu-
sion to an originally close and intrinsic relation between
animated nature in its highest developments and man as its
former master and as the divinely appointed lord of the
whole earthly creation. But if the influence and the opera-
tion of the fancy on the external senses be thus indistinct and

28 INFLUENCE OF FANCY ON THE PASSIONS.

difficult to be traced, it is far more apparent, as also far
greater and more decided, on the inclinations, instincts, and
passions, which form the second class of the faculties subordi-
nate to the fancy. It can easily be shown how even the sim-
plest instincts of self-preservation, and the gratification of the
most natural wants, are in man perceptibly affected by the
working of fancy, so as to be manifoldly diversified thereby.
But still more is this the case with the higher impulses and
instincts, as confirmed and strengthened by use and indul-
gence, especially when, in their most violent and intensest
development, they become passions. For in this shape, both
by this excess and by the false direction they give to the
mental powers, originally designed for nobler and more exalted
purposes, they form so many moral perversities and faults of
character. I would here, in the first place, call your attention
to the fact, that in all the passions, when by their intensity
they become immoral, the fancy exercises an essential and
co-operating influence. And in the second place, I would
remind you that in the same way as in the external senses
generally, so also in all the principal phases of ill-regulated
passion, the threefold principle of human existence manifests
itself once more, and is even repeated anew in all the several
forms and subdivisions of these special spheres.

Now the first of these false tendencies and moral infirmities
unbounded pride and haughtiness is essentially a mental
blindness and aberration; and vanity, with its delusions, is the
same disease in a lower and milder phase. And all will
admit that the source of this moral failing is an overweening
love of self. But in self-conceit the co-operating influence of
fancy is easily and distinctly traceable. As to the second of
those infirmities which distract and disturb life : I should
also be disposed to consider the sensual passionateness or
passionate sensuality as a disease indeed, but of a brutalising
tendency an inflammatory habit, a fever of the soul, which
either spends itself in acute and violent paroxysms, or with
slower but certain progress secretly undermines and subverts
all man's better qualities. In either case, the true source of the
evil the irresistible energy and the false magic of this
passion lies in an over-excited, deluded, or poisoned fancy.
The natural instinct itself, in so far as it is inborn and agree-
able to nature, is obnoxious to no reproach. The blame lies

PRIDE SENSUALITY AVARICE. 29

altogether in the want of principle, or that weakness of
character which half- voluntarily concedes to the mere instinct
an unlimited authority, or at least is incapable of exercising
over it a due control. The third false direction of man's
instincts which, after the two already noticed, involves human
society in the greatest disorder, and most fatally disturbs the
peace of individuals, is an unlimited love of gain, selfishness,
and avarice. No doubt, in a certain modified and lower sense,
the hope of advantage or profit is the motive that prompts
every enterprise ; at least, according to the judgment of the
world, nothing is undertaken or transacted without a view to
some object of a selfishness more or less refined. But when
we look to the worst and most violent cases of this disease
an insatiable avarice and a morbid love of gain, then we
at once see the baneful effects which the fancy, dwelling
exclusively on material property and chinking coin, has on
this moral disease, where, with the golden treasure, mind and
soul are shut up and buried, and both completely numbed and
petrified, in the same Way that, by certain organic diseases of
the body, the heart becomes ossified.

By these pernicious passions, the higher moral organ of
life is in different ways attacked and destroyed. In the
first case, that of the blinding of the mind by pride and vanity,
the moral judgment is perverted and falsified. In the second
case, where the soul is brutalised by a life of sensuality, the
moral sense is clouded, loses all its delicacy, and is at last
totally obliterated. In the third instance, that of a
thorough numbness of the inner life produced by selfishness
and avarice, the idea of moral duty is in the end totally lost,
dies away, and becomes extinct, while the dead Mammon is
regarded as the supreme good of life, and, being set up as
the sole object of human exertion, is substituted for the best
and noblest acquisition of mind and soul. The three passions
which we have already examined, are founded indeed on a
positive pursuit, however false may be the extent or per-
verted the direction in which it is carried out. We might
now proceed with our speculation, and progressively de-
veloping it from the same point of view, extend and apply
it to the aggressive passions, which are based on a merely
negative pursuit the attack, annihilation, and destruction of
their objects. I allude to the passion of hatred, in its three

30 INFLUENCE OF FANCY ON THE NOBLER FEELINGS.

different elements or species, viz.-, anger, malice, and revenge.
But to enter further upon such investigations would be inappro-
priate in the present place. Generally, indeed, in touching
upon matters so universally known, my object has been
merely to consider and exhibit them from their psychological
side, in order to show partly how the triple principle of
human existence, according to mind or spirit, and soul, and
the third element, wherein the former two conjointly operate,
finds its application, and is repeated, as it were, in miniature,
in the narrower sphere of the natural inclination, both good
and bad, and also in that of the external senses. At the same
time it was also my wish to call attention to the fact, that the
dominion of the fancy over its subordinate faculties, whether
of the external senses or the instincts, manifests itself like-
wise in the pernicious passions, as exercising over them a
very baneful influence, and, indeed, as being the principal
source of the prevailing aberrations.

These three passions and leading defects of character, which
destroy the inward peace of individuals, and disturb the
order of society, may be regarded as so many Stygian floods,
so many dark subterranean streams of lava and fire, which,
bursting from the crater of a burning fancy, pour down
upon the region of the will, there again to break out in law-
less deeds and violent catastrophes, or perhaps, what is far
worse, to lie smouldering in a life frittered away in worth-
less pursuits, without object or meaning, or in the frivolous
routine of an ordinary existence.

Having thus fully set forth the injurious influence of a
disordered fancy on the deadly and pernicious passions of
man, we shall be more at liberty to consider the other and
better aspect of this mental faculty. For fancy, which, as
his peculiar prerogative, distinguishes man from all other
intellectual beings, is a living and fruitful source of good no
less than of evil. Accordingly, in the higher aims of his
good instincts, noble inclinations, and true enthusiasms, fancy
gives life and stability to his exertions, and arouses and calls
to his aid all the energies of mind and intellect.

But here I must make the preliminary remark, that in the
ethical domain generally, and in all moral matters and re-
lations, nothing but a very fine line divides righj from wrong.
The fault lies not unfrequently in the undue exaggeration or

HONOUR INDUSTRY LOVE. 31

false application of a right principle. Pride and vanity, for
instance, are the commonest subjects of the world's censure ;
but who would banish from existence a true sense of honour,
and a noble thirst of fame. And how would society lose all its
tone and its true ring, if we were to withdraw from it all
those precious metals ! Avarice and the love of gain are, no
doubt, fruitful sources of evil, and bring into society a thou-
sand nay, we may rather say, without exaggeration, ten
thousand times ten thousand woes. They are the occasion of
countless feuds and endless litigation ; so that the prevention
and settlement of these numberless commercial quarrels and
disputes about property, occupy the chief part of the atten-
tion, and absorb the best energies of domestic government.
But a gainful industry, directed to utility and even to private
utility labour and assiduity which have no other end in
view than a lawful gain and a fair profit, which not merely
does not violate the rights of others, but even pays a due
regard to their interests, will be universally recognised as an
essential part of the frame of society. It forms, indeed, the
alimentary sap of life, which, as it ascends through its differ-
ent vessels, diffuses everywhere both health and strength.

Lastly, we will now consider that other instinct of our
nature, which, even as the strongest, most requires moral regu-
lation and treatment. By all noble natures among civilised
nations in their best and purest times, this instinct has, by
means of various moral relations, been spontaneously asso-
ciated with a higher element. And indeed, taken simply as
inclination, it possesses some degree of affinity therewith.
Such a strong inclination and hearty love, elevated to the
bond of fidelity, receives thereby a solemn consecration, and
is even, according to the divine dispensation, regarded as a
sanctuary. And it is in truth the moral sanctuary of earthly
existence, on which God's first and earliest blessing still rests.
It is, moreover, the foundation on which is built the hap-
piness and the moral welfare of races and nations. This soul-
connecting link of love, which constitutes the family union,
is the source from which emanate the strong and beautiful
ties of a mother's love, of filial duty, and of fraternal affection
between brethren and kindred, which together make up the
invisible soul, and, as it were, the inner vital fluid of the
nerves of human society. And here, too, the great family

32 INFLUENCE OF PAXCY LOVE, MARRIAGE.

problem of education must be taken into account and by
education, I mean the whole moral training of the rising
generation. For, however numerous and excellent may be
the institutions founded by the state or conducted by private
individuals, for special branches and objects, or for particular
classes and ages, still, on the whole, education must be re-
garded as pre-eminently the business and duty of the family.
For it is in the family that education commences, and there
also it terminates and concludes at the moment when the young
man, mature of mind and years, and the grown-up maiden,
leave the paternal roof to found a new family of their own.
In seasons of danger, and of wide-spread and stalking cor-
ruption, men are wont to feel but often, alas! too late
how entirely the whole frame both of human and political
society rests on this foundation of the family union. Not
merely by the phenomena of our own times, but by the
examples of the most civilised nations of antiquity, may this
truth be historically proved ; and numerous passages can be
adduced from their great historians in confirmation of it.
In all times and in all places a moral revolution within the
domestic circle has preceded the public outbreaks of general
anarchy, which have thrown whole nations into confusion, and
undermined the best ordered and wisely constituted states.
When all the principal joists of a building have started, and
all its stays and fastenings, from the roof to the foundation,
have become loose, then will the first storm of accident easily
demolish the whole structure, or the first spark set the dry
and rotten edifice in flames.

Next in order and dignity to this soul-binding tie of a noble
and virtuous love, which promotes and preserves the intimate
union of all the parts of social life, another species or form of
a lofty, a good, and a beautiful nay, even of a sublime endea-
vour shows itself in what we call enthusiasm. The latter
has for its positive object a thought which the soul having
once intellectually embraced, is ever after filled and possessed
with. But the mere inward idea does not suffice here, how-
ever it may in the case of the simple conception or admira-
tion of a noble thought. The distinctive characteristic of en-
thusiasm is rather the 'untiring energy with which, even at
great personal sacrifice, it labours to realize or to preserve in
realisation the idea which has once fully possessed the soul.

INFLUENCE OF FANCY ENTHUSIASM, PATKIOTISM. 33

The commonest form or species of this enthusiasm is patriot-
ism or the love of country, which best and most plainly
manifests itself in seasons of national danger or calamity.
As the daily life of the individual alternates between labour
and rest, and the refreshing sleep of the night renews the
strength which has been exhausted by the toils of the day,
so is it on a larger scale with the public life of the state in,
its alternations between peace and war. For although peace
is justly prized and desired as the greatest of public blessings,
still it is some comfort and compensation for its unavoidable
absence, to know that the presence of war, and the struggle
with its dangers and hardships, first awaken and call into
being many of man's best energies and noblest virtues, which
in uninterrupted peace and tranquillity must have remained
for ever dormant. But, as is everywhere the case throughout
the moral domain, a spurious enthusiasm stands close alongside
of the true and genuine species, and requires to be carefully
distinguished from it. Forced to speak of the love of country,
and to paint its genuine traits, I rejoice that I am standing on
one of its chosen and most familiar scenes, where my hearers
will understand me at the first sound, when I declare that the
true enthusiasm of patriotism reveals itself most plainly in
misfortune in the midst of deep and lasting calamities.
Another characteristic is, that it does not arbitrarily set up its
object, or capriciously make its own occasion, but at the first
call of its hereditary sovereign rushes to the post of danger.
The second mark, therefore, of a true patriotism is obedience,
but an obedience associated with the forward energies of a
fixed and prepared resolve, which far outruns the exact requi-
sitions of duty, and gives rise to a true and real equality the
equality of self-sacrifice, wherein the high and noble vie with
the poor and lowly in the magnanimous oblation to their
country of their best and dearest possessions.

Another generally known and admitted species of enthu-
siasm, viz., a taste for the arts, has not so universal a founda-
tion in the constitution of the human mind as the feeling
of patriotism, but implies a particular mental disposition
and certain natural endowments, and consequently the sphere
of its operation is far narrower. But here also, as in the
former case, enthusiasm manifests itself as a property or state
of the soul which is far from being contented with a calm

34 LONGING FOR THE ETEENAL AND DIVINE.

philosophical contemplation or admiration of its inward
thought, but which, longing eagerly to realize and exhibit
externally the idea with which it is possessed, knows no rest
nor peace till it has accomplished its cherished object. And
such an ideal enthusiasm is not confined to the sphere of art
alone, but even in the calmer regions of science is its influ-
ence felt. It is, in short, the animating impulse of all great
inventions, creations, and discoveries. Without it Columbus
would never have been able to overcome all the dangers and
obstacles which beset the first design and the final consum-
mation of his bold conception. But in the latter instances the
object of enthusiasm is no longer a pure ideal, like that which
animates the artist, but something great or new in the region
of useful science or of practical life. In every case, however,
enthusiasm has for its object a something positive and real,
which, even if it be not one which captivates the soul with
its transcendent beauty and excellence, yet, at least, by its
exalted nature fills it with w r onder and admiration. Quite
otherwise is it with a longing an indefinite feeling of pro-
found desire, which is satisfied with no earthly object, whether
real or ideal, but is ever directed to the eternal and the divine.
And although it presupposes, as the condition of its existence,
no special genius or peculiar talents, but proceeds imme-
diately out of the pure source of the divinely created and
immortal soul out of the everlasting feelings of the loving
soul still, from causes which are easily conceivable, a pure
development of this species is far rarer than even of the en-
thusiasm for art. No doubt, in certain happy temperaments,
under circumstances favourable to their free expansion, this
vague longing is peculiar to the age of youth, and is often
enough observed there. Indeed, it is in that soft melancholy,
which is always joined with the half-unconscious but pleasant
feeling of the blooming fulness of life, that lies the charm
which the reminiscence of the days of youth possesses for
the calm and quiet contemplations of old age. Here, too, the
distinctive mark between the genuine and the spurious mani-
festation of this feeling is both simple enough, and easily
found. For as this longing mav in general be explained as
an inchoate state a love yet to be developed the question
reduces itself consequently to the simple one of determining
the nature of this love. If upon the first development and

INFLUENCE OF FANCY ON ALL MAN ? S EMOTIONS. 35

gratification of the passions, this love immediately passes over
to and loses itself in the ordinary realities of life, then is it
no genuine manifestation of the heavenly feeling, but a mere
earthly and sensual longing. But when it survives the youth-
ful ebullition of the feelings, when it does but become deeper
and more intense by time, when it is satisfied with no joys,
and stifled by no sorrows of earth when, from the midst of
the struggles of life, and the pressure of the world, it turns,
like a light-seeing eye upon the storm-tossed waves of the
ocean of time, to the heaven of heavens, watching to discover
there some star of eternal hope then is it that true and ge-
nuine longing, which, directing itself to the divine, is itself also
of a celestial origin. Out of this root springs almost everything
that is intellectually beautiful and great even the love of
scientific certainty itself, and of a profound knowledge of life
and nature. Philosophy, indeed, has no other source, and
we might in this respect call it, with much propriety, the
doctrine or the science of longing. But even that youthful
longing, already noticed, is oftentimes a genuine, or, at least,
the first foundation of the higher and truer species, although,
unlike the latter, it is as yet neither purely evolved nor re-
fined by the course of time.

One general remark remains to be added. This beautiful
longing of youth, a fruitful fancy, and a loving soul, are the
best and most precious gifts of benignant nature, that dis-
penses with so liberal a hand, or rather, not of nature, but of
that wonderful Intelligence that presides in and over it. They
form, as it were, a fair garden of hidden life within man. But
as the first man was placed in the garden of Eden, not merely
for his idle enjoyment, but, as it is expressly stated, " to dress
it and to keep it," so here also, when this law of duty is
neglected, the inmost heart of the most eminent characters
and of the most richly endowed natures becomes, as it were,
a Paradise run wild and waste.

In the consideration of these three forms of man's higher
effort viz., longing, true love, and genuine enthusiasm I
have throughout silently implied, what no one can possibly
deny, the co-operating influence of fancy. As in the evil
passions it exercises an injurious, inflammatory, and de-
structive effect, so also it co-operates beneficially with the
longing which is directed to the good and the divine, and
D2

36 THE POETICAL FANCY.

imparts to it its animating ardour, and its highest energy.
In the pure longing, indeed, the inventive fancy is dissolved
in what has ceased to be an earthly feeling, and has become
completely identified with the loving soul. But in the love
and enthusiasm which are directed to some actual object, it is
the sustaining flame of life, and of all loftier aspirations which,
as they spring from the source of fancy, attest its co-operation.
It may be that the pure spirits are filled and pervaded with
that loving veneration of the Deity which makes up their
blissful existence, simply by means of the intuitive under-
standing and the pure will, without even any admixture of
fancy. A human love or enthusiasm, however, which should
be totally devoid of fancy, and free from its influence, will
very rarely, if ever, be met with, and is but barely conceivable.
This, however, does not involve any reproach or censure
against man's love and enthusiasm, as though they were un-
real and founded on an untruth. For nothing can be more
erroneous than to suppose that the fancy must invariably be
untrue and deceiving, or at least self-deceived. Such a sup-
position is derived merely from one species of it the poetical
fancy. And yet even this, in its genuine manifestations, con-
tains beneath its privileged and permitted garb of external
untruth, a rich store and living source of great and profound
verities, of a peculiar kind, and belonging to an internal truth
of nature. Or, perhaps, this misconception of fancy in general
may have its origin in that abortion or corruption of it which
operates so powerfully in the evil passions, which is undoubt-
edly in the highest degree deceptive and delusive. In and
by itself, and taken in its widest signification, this faculty of
fancy is, generally speaking, the living productive thought-
the faculty of internal fertility and which also with its out-
ward organs, both of an earthly and a higher sense, apprehends
the whole external world. It enters, therefore, with a living
interest into every good as well as base pursuit of man, and
giving new shapes of its own to all that it has once appre-
hended, labours to invest it with a living form, to apply and
to realize it. In itself, therefore, and in its pure and uncor-
rupt state, far from clashing with the divine truth (which,
however, is not in every case identical with the ordinary
reality), fancy, as we shall show more fully in another place,
admits of being easily reconciled with it. But of human

10YE AND MARRIAGE. 37

things we must always judge by a human standard, and with
due allowance. Even supposing that in the case of a true
love and a genuine enthusiasm a passing thought may be de-
tected, a momentary excitement or manifestation which goes
beyond the exact line of the actual truth ; even in such a case
this love and this enthusiasm would not therefore be less real
and genuine still would not all be exaggeration that might
seem so to the unsympathising and unenthusiastic intellect.
At all events, it must ever remain undeniable, that emergencies
occur in human life which are not met by the rigorous and
mathematical formularies of ethical science, and where by
nothing but a noble sacrifice of love far transcending all the
common and general requisitions of the practical reason by
nothing but a lofty energy and resolute enthusiasm can a
man extricate himself from his perplexities and arrive at a
happy result. At least, it will not do to overlook or misre-
present this element of human life, even though it must be
admitted that it is not exempt from those traces of human
infirmity which are also but too apparent in the other aspect of
it, the one, viz., in which the formal reason decides every
thing, and is supreme.

As, therefore, the thinking soul is the living centre of the
human consciousness, so, on the other hand, the loving soul
is the middle point and the foundation of all moral life as it
shows itself in that soul-bond of love, which, while it consti-
tutes marriage, is tied and completed therein. On this union,
then, which, as historically represented, appears to be the
true commencement of civilised life, it will be necessary to
say a few words. And the present seems the most appropriate
place for them. Now, both in philosophy and in all general
speculation, there are many reasoners who would derive every
thing from material sensations, and seek to degrade all that
is regarded as high and noble by mankind. So here, also, in
the world's mode of judging of this union which, however,
all publicly acknowledged principles regard as holy it, and
all that belongs to it, is accounted for by some evanescent
passion, some sensual impression, or some interested view or
other, while the existence of anything like true and genuine
love is absolutely denied. But in the first place, in the case
of an union w^hich embraces the entire man his sensuous as
well as his rational, or, as I should prefer to say, his earthly

38 GENUINE AND SPUBIOTJS LOVE.

no less than his spiritual nature and temperament it cannot
fairly be urged in objection to it, that both the elements of
his mixed constitution are present in it. On the contrary,
it is obviously most unjust, in our estimate of it, violently to
separate what, even in the least corrupted disposition and
purest characters, are most closely interwoven, or rather fused
together, and to subject them to an invidious and destructive
analysis. This is not the way to determine the characteristics
of a true and of a false love. The distinction between them
must rather be sought by a simpler method, similar to that
which we followed in the case of longing and enthusiasm
by considering merely the total result. A feeling of this
kind may appear at the beginning never so violent ; it may
even amuse itself with a thorough mental hallucination, which
betrays itself in its very outward aspect, with the profoundest
veneration, nay, deification of its admired object ; but in
married life this intense admiration soon gives place to satiety
or indifference, and embittered by mutual distrust and mis-
understanding, it terminates in incurable discord. In such
a case the feeling, even in its ardent beginnings, was no true
love, but simply passion. But in those happy unions, where
the first passionate ardour of youth yields only to an ever-
growing and still purer development of mutual good-will and
confidence while self-sacrifice and patient endurance, both
in good and evil fortune, do but cherish the same deep affec-
tion and calm friendship here, from the very first, it was
true and genuine love. For, however much the outward
appearances of human life may seem to contradict it, there is
not in nature, and even in the higher region, any love without
a return. And as all true love is reciprocal, so also is true
love lasting and indestructible; or, to "speak as a man, : '
even because it is the very inmost life of humanity, it is,
therefore, true unto death.

Moreover, in the case of an union which extends to the
whole of life, it is quite consistent that a due regard should
be paid to the other circumstances and relations of existence.
Only no general rule can be laid down in this respect. This
is a matter which has been left to the discretion of individuals,
even by the divine laws, those sacred guardians of wedlock,
which, however, rigorously insist on the absence of all com-
pulsion, inasmuch as the free consent of all parties is an

THE THREE CONDITIONS OF WEDLOCK. 39

essential condition of this union. And as we should be justi-
fied in taking for granted that this reciprocal act of free will
must not be any inconsiderate or extorted assent, or one
induced by other interested feeling or consideration ; o is
this expressly asserted by the fact that, according to the spirit
of these holy laws of matrimony, this union must be founded
on mutual affection, and regarded as an indissoluble bond of
souls, and not as a mere civil contract or deed of sale and
transfer of rank and property. The latter, as well as all else,
are mere subordinate matters. Three things, according to
God's moral government of the world, are indispensable to
and required by the essence and spirit of these holy laws.
In the first place, there must be a mutual consent of the will
a reciprocal fondness and liking, to which the will, when-
ever it is left free and unshackled, gives an appropriate utter-
ance and expression. In the second place, these laws require
that unison of temper which is indispensable to its permanence ;
while, thirdly and lastly, they provide that this union, so
sacred in the sight 6f all civilised nations, should be indis-
soluble. In perfect harmony with this last condition is mono-
gamy the fundamental law of Christian wedlock. And even
among the 'heathen nations of antiquity, though without the
sanction of law, yet, nevertheless, under the influence of an
instinctive sense of what is morally right and noble, mono-
gamy had practically become the almost universal rule.
Highly important to the welfare of the human race is the in-
violable maintenance of this sacred law of marriage. So
incalculable are the disasters which follow from its violation,
that I can safely venture to assert, without fear of exaggeration,
that a religion which would venture to desecrate or pull down
the venerable sanctuary of wedlock, and consequently to ex-
pose the weaker sex to degradation and oppression, would
even thereby bespeak its own falsity, and renounce all pre-
tensions to a divine origin. Wherever, on the contrary, this
noble institution and woman's dignity are acknowledged and
respected, there this union of souls in consecrated love operates,
by the means of lasting personal intercourse, a reciprocal
mental influence of the most diversified, salutary, arid beauti-
ful kind. And this influence tends to promote the develop-
ment not only of the soul and character, but also of the mind
or spirit. Accordingly in this, the first and the most inti-

40 MARRIAGE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE.

mate of all unions, all the three principles of human existence,
body, soul, and spirit, or mind, alike meet together, and par-
take of a common evolution. And the result of this mutual
influence relatively to the different characters of the mental
capacities and consciousness of the two sexes, and the de-
velopment of each produced thereby, forms, merely in its
psychological aspect, a remarkable and pregnant phenomenon.
Consistently, therefore, with the law I have proposed myself
in every case, to set out in my investigations from life itself,
and from the very centre thereof, I cannot well avoid, while
treating of the several grades of the development of man's
consciousness, to give some, though it must be but a partial
consideration to this interesting topic.

Congeniality of mind and temper forms, it is confessed, the
sole basis of domestic peace and contentment, and of a happy,
i. e., of a well-assorted marriage. But to determine on what
this depends, in each individual case, is a problem w r hich,
considering the extremely great and infinite varieties of human
dispositions, admits not of a precise or particular solution. On
this point the closest observers are not unfrequently deceived
in their predictions. How often do those agree very well
of whom previously it would not have been supposed possible ?
On the contrary, those frequently live most unhappily together
of whose blissful union the judgment of society and the ordi-
nary estimate of human character had led to the most favour-
able anticipations. Nevertheless, for the latter fact a general
reason may be given. It is not so much the similarity of tastes
and pursuits, as rather the want in one of some mental quality
possessed by the other, that forms the strongest source of
attraction between the two sexes, so that the inner life or
consciousness of the one finds its complement in that of the
other, or, at least, receives from it a further development and
elevation. For in the same way that a certain community of
goods and property, even though not complete nor enforced
by law, yet still, in some measure and by daily use, does
practically take place in wedlock so, also, by the constant
interchange of every thought and feeling, a sort of com-
munity of consciousness is produced, which derives its charm
and value from the very difference in the mental character
of the two sexes. When I would attempt to give a more
precise determination of this difference, I feel how difficult

MAN AND MIND WOMAN AND SOUL. 41

and incomplete must be every attempt generally to define
the varieties of mental character. And this is especially
the case when men take in hand to paint the characters
of whole ages and nations, and by contrasts endeavour dis-
tinctly to limit and sharply to define them. Thus, for in-
stance, the predominant element in the mental character of
the Greeks is usually said to be intellect -comprising under
this term every form and manifestation of it, the scientific
as well as the artistic, profundity not less than acuteness,
and vivid perspicuity, together with critical analysis while
energy of will, strength of mind, and greatness of soul, are
assigned to the Romans as their distinguishing peculiarity.
No doubt these descriptions are not in general untrue. How
many nicer limitations, however, and modifications must they
undergo, if we are not to rest contented with this historical an-
tithesis and summary which no doubt are correct enough, as
far as they go but desire rather to form in idea and to set down
in words, a full and complete image of these two nations in
their whole intellectual life. So, too, as a general description
of the middle ages, it might be said, with tolerable truth, that
in them fancy was predominant ; while in modern times
reason has been gradually becoming more and more para-
mount. But how many particulars must be added in the
latter case, if the truth of life is not to be swallowed up in a
general notion. But in a still higher degree does this obser-
vation apply, when we come to speak not merely of nations
and eras, but of the mental differences of the two sexes.
Such mere outlines must be given and taken for nothing more
than what they really are, mere sketchy thoughts. However,
they may often lead us farther, giving rise occasionally to
useful applications, or at least serving, not seldom, to exclude
a false and delusive semblance of a thought. To attempt,
therefore, something of the kind, I would make the following
remark, in which most voices will, I think, concur. Of the
several faculties or aspects of human consciousness previously
described, soul appears to be most pre-eminent in the mental
constitution of women; so that the prophet who said that
women have no soul, proved himself thereby a false prophet.
For it is even this rich fulness of soul which manifests itself
in all their thoughts, and words, and deeds, that constitutes the
great charm of the social intercourse of civilised nations, as

42 MARRIAGE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE.

well as the winning attractiveness of their more familiar con-
versation, and in part also the harmonising influence which
they produce on the mind in the more intimate union of wedded
life. Nevertheless, I think we should altogether miss the truth,
if, from any love of antithesis, we should go on to append the
remark, that in like manner, mind (geist] generally predomi-
nates among men, and is commonly to be found in a higher
degree among them than among women. For, in the first
place, the measure both of natural capacity and also of
acquired culture, not only in themselves, but also in the
manifold spheres and modes of their application, are so ex-
ceedingly different in different individuals, that it is not
easy to form therefrom any general and characteristic esti-
mate of the whole sex. And just as it would be a most
false exaggeration to deny to man altogether the possession
of a soul with its rich fulness of feeling, since it is only of its
preponderance among the other sex that it is allowable to
speak, so can we with as little justice refuse absolutely to
attribute mind to woman, or at best ascribe it to her only in a
very limited degree. For even if the subtler abstractions of
scientific reasoning are very rare among, and little suited to
them, still sound reason and judgment are only the more
common. The understanding which women possess, is not so
much dry, observant, cool, and calculating, as it is vivid, and
intuitively penetrating. And it is exactly this vividness of
intellect that, when speaking of individuals, we call mind or
spirit.

Another line of thought will perhaps lead us more directly
and nearer to the end we have in view. The external influ-
ence of women on the whole human community is for the
most part (for here, too, there are great and memorable excep-
tions) confined to a narrow sphere of the immediate duties
of the affections, or to similar relations in the wider social
circle. So, too, is it inwardly as regards the consciousness.
All the faculties of woman and their several manifestations lie,
if I may so express myself, close together, and, as it were, in a
friendly circle around the loving soul, as their common centre.
With regard, then, to the comparison of the two sexes and their
mental differences, I would venture to observe, that on the one
side it seems to me that a certain harmonious fulness of the
consciousness is the preponderating character; and, on the

MARRIAGE RECIPROCAL INFLUENCE. 43

other, its eccentric evolution. Not that I mean that in the
sex which is pre-eminently called to outward activity, the mind
loses its grand centre in the inner life, or, comet-like, delights
to wander in vast, irregular orbits, as is indeed commonly
enough asserted. My meaning is simply that the masculine
mind will ever dare, as indeed it ought, to move in wider
circles than the feminine. The extremes of the consciousness,
if the expression be allowable the farthest poles both of
reason and fancy are, so to speak, the property of the more
active sex, while the harmonious union and contact of both
in the soul belong to the more sensitive. All such general
and characteristic sketches, however, must always be most
imperfect. Still I believe it may be safely and truly said,
that, with highly favoured dispositions and noble natures
(and these must be always supposed and taken for the
foundation of such general remarks), the gain to be derived
from this intellectual community and influence, in which one
individual consciousness completes the other, must be sought
in the one sex in a greater development of mind and eleva-
tion of soul, and in the other, in a more harmonious adjust-
ment and softening of the mental powers, and in a far more
sensitive excitement of the soul's susceptibilities. But in this
most intimate of unions, when regarded as divinely blessed,
and when in reality it appears to be so, then on either side
both mind and soul are, as it were, twice combined and joined
together in closest association, and, if we may so say, even
married and wedded together. Consequently, while external
life derives from marriage its moral foundation and origin,
the internal life of man is, as it were, mentally renewed by
it, or fructified afresh and redoubled.

END OF LECTURE II.

LECTURE III.

OF THE SOUL'S SHARE IN KNOWLEDGE, AND OF REVE-
LATION.

IN tke first Lecture our attention was directed to the think-
ing soul as the centre of the whole human consciousness ;
while in the second, I attempted fully to set before you, and
to delineate, the loving soul as the true middle point of the
moral life. The object of our present disquisition will be to
ascertain the part which the soul takes in the knowledge to
which man is able to attain. The general element, indeed,
which the soul furnishes as its contribution to human know-
ledge, is not indeed very difficult to determine ; but when we
come to details, there is much that requires to be well weighed
and pondered.

Now, the soul furnishes the cognitive mind with lan-
guage for the expression of its cognitions; and it is even the
distinctive character of human knowledge, that it depends on
language, which not only forms an essential constituent of it,
but is also its indispensable organ. Language, however,
the discursive, but at the same time also the vividly figura-
tive language of man, is entirely the product of the soul,
which in its production first of all, and pre-eminently, mani-
fests its fruitful and creative energy. In this wonderful crea-
tion the two constituent faculties of the soul fancy and
reason play an equal and co-ordinate part. From the fancy
it derives the whole of its figurative and ornamental portion,
and also its melodious rhythm and animated tone. And
moreover, its inmost fundamental web and the primary
natural roots belong also to man's original deep feeling of
sympathy with outward nature, and therefore to fancy,
unless perhaps some would prefer to ascribe them at once to
the soul itself, as still more profoundly and intimately akin to
nature. To the reason, on the other hand, language owes its
logical order, and its grammatical forms and laws of construe-

LANGUAGE HOW PRODUCED. 45

tion. Which part is the more important, or more highly to
be esteemed, is a question whose solution will vary according
to the point of view which in any case may be adopted as
fundamental, or to the different relations under which the
whole shall be considered. Both elements, however, are
equally essential and indispensable. In all the instances
already considered of the reciprocal relation of reason and
fancy we found almost invariably a decided preponderance of
one or the other ; but neither there nor elsewhere will reason
and fancy be found combining in such harmonious propor-
tions, or working so thoroughly together, or contributing so
equally to the common product, as in the wonderful pro-
duction of language, and in language itself. And this is the
case, not only with language in general, but also with all
its species and noblest applications. Now this dependence
of the cognitive mind on its organ of language, discursive
indeed, but yet almost always figurative this close and
intimate connexion between man's knowledge and his speech
is even the characteristic mark of human intelligence. But
the fault of most of the mere speculative thinkers lies even
in this, that they abandon the standard of humanity, by seeking
to wrest, and to conquer an unhuman, if we may so say, i. e., a
wholly independent and absolute knowledge, which, however,
it is not in their power to attain to, and in pursuit of which
they lose the certainty which lies within their reach, and so
at last grasp nothing but an absolute not-knowing, or an
endless controversy. If, as we cannot but suppose, a com-
munication does take place among those spiritual beings,
who in intelligence are preferred to man, then must the
immediate speech of these spirits be very different from our
half-sensuous half-rational, half-earthly half-heavenly lan-
guao-e of nature and humanity. For, even as spiritual, it
cannot but be immediate never employing figure and those
grammatical forms which human language first analyses, to
form again out of them new and fresh compounds. According
to the two properties which constitute the essence of mind
fgeist), it can only be a communication, a transmission, an
awakening or immission of thought some wholly definite
thought by the will, or else the communicating, exciting, and
producing by the thought of some equally definite volition.
It may be that something of this, or at least something not

LANGUAGE THE ESSENCE OF REASON.

absolutely dissimilar, occurs in human operations. It is pos-
sible that this immediate language of mind, as a secret and
invisible principle of life as a rare and superior element is
contained also in human language, and, as it were, veiled in
the outer body, which, however, becomes visible only in the
effects of a luminous and lofty eloquence, in which is displayed
the magic force of language and of a ruling and commanding
thought. Taken on the whole, however, human speech is nS
such immediate and magically working language of mind or
spirit. It is rather a figurative language of nature, in which
its great permanent hieroglyphics are mirrored aain in
miniature, and in rapid succession. And it retains this
natural and figurative character even in the ordinary form
of rational dialogue, which must observe so many varieties
and details of grammar, of which superior intelligences have
no need for their immediate intercommunion, but in which
as in all other human things, many greater or less gram-
I matical oversights creep in and give rise to important conse-
quences in science and thought, and also in life itself. But
in the next place, language is intimately connected and co-
ordinate with tradition, whether sacred or profane, with all
the recorded fruits of human speculation and inquiry And
as the word is the root out of which the whole stem of man's
transmitted knowledge, or tradition, has grownup, with aU its
branches and offshoots ; so, too, in the eloquent speech, in the
elegant composition, and even in all lofty internal meditation
which form, as it were, the leaves, flowers, and fruits of this
goodly tree of living tradition it is again the word by which
the whole is carried on and ultimately perfected.

But now, in order to develope still more completely and
more accurately to ascertain the part which the soul, as the
creator of language, contributes to human cognition and
knowledge, it will be necessary to examine nicely the essence
of reason, and especially in relation to its collateral and
closely connected, but subordinate faculties. Above all, it
will be advisable to determine as accurately and carefully' as
possible, the difference between reason and understanding
*or otherwise its proper share in this common fruit and joint
product of human knowledge cannot be ascribed to each power
of mind and to each faculty of the soul, nor their proper places
and due limits in the whole be severally assigned.

REASON MEMORY AND CONSCIENCE. 47

The faculties, then, of the soul which stand in the same close
relationship to the reason that the senses and the instincts
or passions do to the fancy, are memory and conscience.
Now, memory may be considered either as a gift, according
to its greater or less power of comprehension and retention,
or as an art to strengthen and facilitate its operations by
artificial means of every kind, or as a problem to determine
how far the exercise of it constitutes an essential part of
man's intellectual culture and development. But it is not in
any of these points of view that we have here to consider
it, but simply in its essential conjunction with the reason
and rationality, which appear to be dependent on this
union.

In other words, we have to regard the memory principally
as the inward clue of recollection and of association in the
consciousness, in the ever-flowing stream of thought and inter-
change of ideas. We may, or, I might rather say, w r e must,
forget infinitely many things. But this connecting thread of
memory being once broken, or destroyed, or lost, the reason
invariably sniffers with it, and is injured, or its exercise limited,
or lastly, is rendered totally confused and extinct. "Whenever,
in the extreme decrepitude of old age, memory fails, reason
ceases in an equal degree to be active and energetic, and is
supplanted by more or less of a foolish doting. In sleep, no
doubt, consciousness is regularly interrupted, but still it is
immediately restored again on awaking. If the contrary
were to take place, if, as is the foundation of many an inge-
nious story among the poets, when suddenly awakened we
could not recall our former memory and our knowledge, then
should we be continually falling into mistakes about ourselves
and lose all identity of consciousness. Some such violent
interruption or rent in the inward memory of self-conscious-
ness is invariably to be found in madness, and is a leading
symptom of it. And here I would merely call upon you to
observe a further illustration of what has been already more
than once pointed out. The triple principle of body, soul, and
spirit is again repented and manifested even in this sad state
of mental alienation, and in all its different forms and species.
In true lunacy or monomania which is generally harmless
and quiet a radically false but fixed idea is often associated
and is not inconsistent with an extraordinary shrewdness on

48 MEMOBY ESSENTIAL TO KATIONAIJTY.

all other points. Nevertheless, this fixed erroneous idea,
being made the centre of all other thoughts and of the
whole consciousness, produces that confusion and that disor-
ganisation of the mind which characterises this form of a
disordered intellect. But in true madness, or frenzy, the
seat of the disease is in the soul, which, having broken loose
from all the ties and restraints of reason and rational habit,
appears to have fallen a prey to some hostile, wild, and
raging force of nature. In idiotcy, lastly, especially where it
is inborn and conjoined with the perfection of the external
organs of sense, we must assume the existence of some faulty
organisation, some defect in the brain, or whatever else is the
unknown but higher organ both of thought and life. The
source of the last is altogether physical and corporeal, whereas
moral causes often co-operate in the highest degree to
the production of the former two. The deaf and dumb, if
left wholly to themselves, would, in all probability, belong
always to the third class, since, with the loss of speech, they
are simultaneously deprived of a leading condition of ration-
ality. And, accordingly, the first object with those who
undertake the difficult task of training these unfortunate beings,
is to furnish them with another language by means of signs,
instead of the ordinary audible speech of which the accident
of birth has deprived them. This instance, therefore, is only
a further confirmation of what I have already advanced, that
the intellectual character is, in every respect, most intimately
dependent on the faculty of speech. A more minute exami-
nation of these matters belongs to physical science. Never-
theless, our passing remark on the triple character of this
psychological evil, or misfortune, will not, I hope, be found in-
appropriate here, as affording, even in this narrow and special
sphere of a disordered intellect, a further illustration of the
general principle of our theory of the human consciousness.

Now, the outer and especially the higher senses may, by
reason of the supremacy of the fancy to which they are sub-
ordinate, be termed, with propriety, so many applied faculties
of imagination. In the same way we might give the same
designation to the inclinations and impulses the good as well
as the evil if, perhaps, it would not be more accurate to name
them an imagination passed into life. In a similar way the
memory may be considered as an applied reason which in the

MEMORY -BEASON -CONSCIENCE. 49

application has become quite mechanical and habitual; for
unquestionably the logical arrangement is the chief quality in
memory. From this it derives both its value and scientific
utility On the other hand, there are certain acquired mental
aptitudes which, though originally they cannot be formed
without the voluntary exercise of memory, become at last a
completely unconscious and mechanical operation the faci-
lity for instance, of learning by heart, or the acquisition of
foreign languages, or catching up of musical tunes. In all
these the reason has become an instinct, just as the instinct oi
animals, their artistic impulse and skill, may be designated an
unconscious analogy of reason.

In this subordinate faculty of the memory, the reason
aoreeablv to its specific character, exhibits itself as an useful
and ministering agent. In conscience, on the contrary, as its
highest function, it assumes a somewhat negative character.
But in both relations, whether as a ministerial or negative
faculty of thought, the reason, in its place, is of the highest
value. If occasionally we have seemed to detract from and
to limit its importance, such remarks have been called forth
by the undue and overweening authority which the present
age would claim for the reason. This is the sole end and
meanm- o f our opposition, which is directed exclusively
against" that spurious reason which claims to be supreme,
and arrogates to itself a productive power; whereas, in truth,
it ought not to be the one, and can never be the other. Die
thought which distinguishes, divides, and analyses, and that
also which combines, infers, and concludes which, as such,
make up the faculty of reason may be so carried on in
indefinite and infinite process, as ultimately to get entirely
rid of its object-matter. It is this endless thinking, without
a correspondent object, that is the source of scientific error,
which, as in all cases it arises solely out of this vacuum in
thinking, can only lead to a thinking of nothing a cogita-
tion absolutely null and false. Far different is the case where
a memory, stored with the rich materials of intellectual ex-
perience, forms the useful basis of man's studies and pursuits,
or where, as is the case with the apperception of the con-
science, the object, even while it is less extensive and manifold,
is the more highly and more intensely important. Now, as
the reason generally is not only a combining and connecting,

50 MEMORY REASON CONSCIENCE.

but also a distinguishing faculty of thought, so likewise the
conscience is a similar power of drawing distinctions in the
thought and in the internal consciousness, though in a higher
and special degree, and also in a different form from that
which, in all other instances, is discursive reason. For it is
by a simple feeling and immediate perception that the con-
science, in obedience to the voice within man, draws between
right and wrong, or good and evil, the greatest of all dis-
tinctions. This voice of conscience, while it makes itself
heard among all nations, nevertheless, under the ever and
widely varying influence of ruling ideas of the age, and of
education, and of custom, speaks in different times and places,
in differing tones and dialects. But these differences extend
only to subordinate matters. The primary and essential point
remains unchanged and never to be mistaken ; the same
dominant tone and key-note sounds through all these vari-
ations the common tongue and language of human nature
and of an untaught and innate fear of God. This fact has led
many to regard the conscience as the principal source of all
higher and divine truth; with whom I can readily concur, so
long as they do not mean thereby, that it is the only source, to
the exclusion of every other. ,

Now it is surely significant that in German and all
languages furnish numerous instances of such significant
allusions the word and the name of reason* is derived from
that internal perception of the conscience which constitutes its
highest function. What, then, it may be asked, is perceived
by this wonderful perception, that before it the will inwardly
retires and withdraws even its earlier and most cherished
wishes? The warning voice it is called, in every age and
nation. It is, as it were, one who within us, warns and re-
monstrates. It is not, therefore, our own Me, but as it were
another, and, as a vague feeling would suggest, of a higher
and a different nature. And now by its light that earlier and
retiring will appears in like manner as another self a lower
false and seducing Ego an alien power which would hurry
away ourselves and our proper Me. But between the two
this higher warning voice on the one hand, and this con-
straining, compelling force on the other there stands a
power which is free to decide between them. And this, as
* Vernunft, from Vernehmen.

DISTINCTION BETWEEN KEASON AND UNDERSTANDING. 51

soon as the decomposing process is finished, which in the as
yet undecided will, or its mixed states, separates and dis-
tinguishes between the good voice and the evil inclination
remains to us as our own Ego and our proper self. This inward
voice, and the immediate perception of it, is an anchor on
which the vessel of man's existence rides safely on the stormy
sea of life, and the ebb and the flow of the will. In other
words, it is a divine focus, or a sacred stay of truth. But
further, it must be observed, that the understanding of this
inner perception, as I have just painted it, does not belong to
the reason, to which alone the perceiving can itself be ascribed.
The true intelligence thereof its higher interpretation, and
explanation, which adds to it, or recognises in it a reference
to\he divine must, even because it is an intellectual act, be
ascribed to the understanding.

The present, therefore, is the place for a close and accurate
investigation of the difference between reason and under-
standing a question of the highest importance for the whole
theory of the consciousness, and its true philosophical inter-
pretation, as well as absolutely for every branch of science.
For this purpose I shall foUow a line of thought somewhat
unusual, perhaps, but which on that account is even the more
likely to carry us quickly to the desired end, and to place the
distinction in a full and clear light. I lately employed
the somewhat hypothetical comparison between man and a
superior order of intelligences, as a means of illustrating the
faculty of the fancy as the peculiar property of the human
consciousness. And now I would go a step higher, and from
the acknowledged characteristics of the^ divine intelligence,
derive the means of determining the different functions of
the human consciousness, and of settling the relations they
stand in, not only to one another, but also to a superior intel-
lect. In this course, however, I shall take nothing for granted
but what is well known and generally intelligible. That God
is a Spirit, is the concurrent voice of all men, wherever a

belief in the one God is professed, or the idea of a Divine
Being is diffused. God is a Spirit, and therefore an omniscient
intellect and an almighty will are unanimously attributed
to Him. This axiom, with which a child even of the most
ordinary intelligence can associate some kind of meaning, is
at the same time the fundamental principle which is involved

52 FIGUKATXVE LANGUAGE AS APPLIED TO GOD.

in all that the deepest thinker can know of God. The same
faculties, therefore, that make up the essence and the two
functions of created spirits understanding and will -may,
without hesitation, be attributed to the uncreated Spirit ; and
although this attribution must be understood according to the
exalted standard of the infinite distance between the creature
and the Creator, still it is made properly and not merely by
way of figure.

But now, in Holy Writ, and in the language of pious adora-
tion and prayer, among other nations as well as the Jewish,
a multitude of properties, faculties, and senses are ascribed
to the Deity in perfectly anthropomorphic descriptions and
imagery. Thus mention is even made of His eye, His ear, His
guiding hand, His mighty arm, and the omnipotent breath of
His mouth. In so far as these are admitted to be mere images-
there can be no objection to them, and it is not easy to see
how they can lead to any abuse. And this is equally the-
case even with such expressions as it is plain can only be
applicable to the Deity in a figurative sense for instance,
when human passions are ascribed to Him since, if employed
properly and literally, they all involve more or less of imper-
fection. And in the same way, where no forgetfulness is,
possible or conceivable, it can only be in a figurative sense
that it is allowable to speak of memory. And with still less
propriety can the faculty of conscience, in its human sense,
be ascribed to God. His balance of justice His regulative
thought is something very different from our mere sense of
fight. To ascribe conscience to the Deity would be to con-
round the judge on the bench with the criminal at the bar.
Even the first man, as long as he was yet innocent, knew not
conscience. For the sense of guilt, and the faculty of per-
ceiving it, must at the very earliest have come simultaneously
with the transgression itself, if it was not, rather, consequent
upon it. In the application to the Deity of such figurative
language, great licence is of course allowable. The question,,
however, which concerns us in a philosophical point of view is
whether, in the same proper sense as understanding and will,
so also the other faculties which are so peculiarly distinctive of
man reason and fancy, or the soul can be attributed to the
Divine Being. Now it is at once evident that, far beyond all
other figurative expressions, it would be perfectly unsuitable

THE DITINE NATURE. 53

to ascribe fancy to God. We feel clearly enough that by so
doSTwe should be leaving the safe ground of truth for the
Serous domain of mythology. That rnner mine of in-
tellectual riches which man in his weak measure finds in the
facuUy of W, in the case of the Divine Being furnished
once aldfor all by His omnipotent will ; which of itself creates
and produces its object, and unlike created beings is not con-
fined to any limited data or to a choice between them .ere,
L the Almighty will itself is the fall fatherly heart em-
Sacmo. notShlng! and sustaining all creatures-or even the
S maternal wSmb of eternal generation, and requires no
neTLd special faculty for this end. In the next place, as to
S^Tsoul: the expression of the soul of God does indeed
occur in some of the less known Christian writers of the fust
centuries of the church, but it soon feU into disuse-from <,
, of its leading to a confusion of idea, and berng

the spirit of love, in which both understanding and will unite
and are one. And if this third property be added to
axiomatic definition of the Deity already alluded to then in the
proposition : God is a spirit of love, the double predicate m it
LLial import involves all that man m general, and even the
profoundest thinker, can properly know of God. All besides
is a mere expansion or elucidation of this primary and funda-
mental thought. Moreover, if it is not allowable to ascribe
ncv or a sovd to God, so neither can He be spoken of as
possessing reason as an essential faculty in the same proper
as understanding and will are attributed to Hun. God
is indeed theauthor of reason;and the sound reason, seven that
which adheres to the centre of truth, as He, in creating it,
designed and ordered. But from this it does not by any means
follow that He is himself the reason which He has created or
that He is even one with it. Were it so then the advocates of
absolute science, the rationalists, would be m the right; in
such a case, the knowledge of God were in ti-uth a science of
reason, inasmuch as like can only be known by like.

54 UNDERSTANDING AS COGNIZANT OF THE DIVINE.

But now, if it be not reason, but rather understanding,
that, with the co-operation of all the other faculties both of
soul and spirit, is the proper organ for acquiring a knowledge
of the divine, and the only means by which man can arrive
at a right apprehension thereof; then is the knowledge of
God simply and entirely a science of experience, although of
a high and peculiar kind, by reason of the finitencss and
frailty of man as compared with such an object. As the
fancy is the apprehension or seizing of an object, the reason
a combination or distinction, so the understanding is the
faculty which penetrates and, in its highest degree, clearly
sees through its object. We understand a phenomenon, a
sensation, an object, when we have discerned its inmost
meaning, its peculiar character and proper significance. And
the same is the case even when this object be a speech and
communication addressed to us a word or discourse given
us to extract its meaning. If we have discerned the design
which is involved in such a communication, its real meaning
and purpose, then may we be said to have understood it, even
though some minutiae in the expression may still remain un-
intelligible, which, as not belonging essentially to the whole,
we put aside and leave unconsidered. There are, therefore,
many steps and degrees in understanding very different
phases and species of it. A familiar instance will, perhaps, elu-
cidate this matter. We will suppose the case of an extremely
rare and remarkable, or perhaps hitherto wholly unknown,
plant, brought to our country from a foreign clime. The natu-
ralist, having examined its structure and organs, assigns it
to a particular class of the higher botanical genera, where
it either belongs to some lower species or forms an exception.
The chemist, again, when the plant is brought before his
notice, conjectures, from certain other characters, that it is
formed of such or such elementary parts ; while the physician,
on other grounds, concludes that in certain diseases it will
probably serve as a remedy, equally if not more efficacious
than other herbs or roots previously employed for that pur-
pose. Now, if the two last have judged correctly, if their
conjectures be confirmed by trial and experiment, then will all
the three have understood the plant, and each in his own de-
partment have learned and discerned its intrinsic character.
Again : how slowly, step by step and gradually, do men

SLOW PROGRESS OF ALL TRUE KNOWLEDGE. 55

attain to the understanding of some ancient, foreign, and
difficult language. It commences, perhaps, with the long and
difficult deciphering of a manuscript or inscription, with an
alphabet incomplete or 'imperfectly known, and after much
painful labour the final discovery of its true meaning is made
perhaps by some fortunate accident which all at once throws
a full light upon it. A remarkable instance in our own days,
will both elucidate the matter, and serve at the same time to
prove how a higher Providence regulates even the progress
of science. For more than a millennium and a half had the
hieroglyphics of an ancient race remained unintelligible to and
undeciphered by a posterity of aliens, when at last, amid the
recent commotions and tempests of the political world, a happy
accident brought the secret to light. Who can forget the
brilliant and dazzling expectations which hailed the departure
of the French expedition for Egypt? How w T as all Europe
electrified at the bold project of planting at the foot of the
Pyramids a colony of European art and civilisation. The
enterprise itself failed, and was soon forgotten amid still
more important events and greater revolutions ; and the
humble monument with its triple inscription, which was
carried away from Egypt, is all, if we may so speak, that
remains of it. But that has unquestionably founded a great
epoch in the peaceful empire of science.* For a whole genera-
tion the learned laboured to decipher it with but slow and very
imperfect success, when at last a happy coincidence presents
itself, and suddenly the key is found. And although of the
seven hundred secret symbols, scarcely more than one hundred
are as yet made out, still even these have opened a wide vista
into the spacious domain of the dark origines of man's history.
And this was effected at a time when man had just learnt to put
together a few characters of the great alphabet of nature, and
here and there to decipher a word or two of its hieroglyphical
language, while at the same time streams of historical know-
ledge began to flow down from the remotest antiquity of the
human race, confirming and setting in the clearest fight the
best of all that we had before possessed, and exciting a hope
that we might, perhaps, be also able to understand the obscure

* The Rosetta stone, which led to the hieroglyphical discoveries of Young
and of Champoliion. Trans.

56 RAPID GROWTH OF ERROR THE ABSOLUTE.

hieroglyphics of our own age, and the fearful war of minds
which is commencing in it.

Such is the course of things, or rather, the higher Pro-
vidence that rules therein ; and it was to this, chiefly, that I
wished to call your attention by this digression. Thus slow
and gradual, but permanent, are the progressive steps in the
growth and development of true human science, which is
founded on experience -the internal as well as external, the
higher as well as the lower and on tradition, language, and
revelation. But on the contrary, that false, or, as I termed it at
the outset t that unhuman and absolute knowledge, as it pre-
tends to embrace all at once, and by one step to place us in full
possession of the whole sum of human knowledge, so, ever
fluctuating between being and non-being, it soon dissolves into
thin air, and leaves nothing behind but a baseless void of absolute
non-knowing. Ill would it fare with the knowledge of God
and of divine things, if they were left to be discovered, and,
as it w r ere, first established by human reason. Even though,
in such a case, the intellectual edifice were never so well built
and compact, still as it had originally issued out of man's
thoughts, it would be ever shaking before the doubt whether
it were anything better than an idea, or had any reality out of
the human mind.

For this doubt is the foundation of all idealism, to which,
often recurring under differing forms of error, it does but give
a fresh creation and n ew shape. Even from this side, conse-
quently, it is apparent that no living certainty and complete
reality is attainable b y it. Easy in truth were it from this
position, to evolve the ideas of the illimitable, and the infinite,
and the absolute and of such developments there is no lack.
But they are at best but pure negations, which do not serve
in the least to explain that which is most necessary for us
to understand. Curious indee d should I be to see the process
by which, out of this pet m etaphysical idea of the absolute,
any one positive notion of God His patience, for example,
and long-suffering is to be deduced. Strange, too, must be
the way in which alone it could carry out the proof that the ab-
solute Deity, or as man prefers, it seems, to say, the Absolute^
cannot dispense with the possession of this attribute of patience,
on which, however, before all others, it is important for man to
insist. Moreover, this character of a bsoluteness is applied to

DIVINE JUSTICE AND MERCY LIMITED. 57

the Deity in a manner which is altogether false and erroneous.
That God, in the mode of His existence, is unlimited that
the First Cause is not dependent on, and cannot be qualified
by any other being, is self-evident, and is nothing but a mere
identical proposition. But this character does not admit of
being applied to His inner essence, or His essential attributes
in relation to man and the whole creation. Woe to all men,
nay, we might rather say, woe to all created beings, if God
were really absolute if, for instance, His justice, which,
however, is the first and principal of all His attributes, were
not manifoldly modified, limited, and conditioned by His
goodness, His mercy, and His patience. Before such a
justice of God, if it were at once to make such an uncon-
ditional manifestation of itself, the whole world in terror
would sink in dust and ashes. But it is not so : man does
hope he must believe ay, we may go on and add, man
does know, that the divine justice is not unconditional, but is
in an eminent degree limited by His fatherly love and good-
ness.

No doubt, too, it must not on the other hand be forgotten,
that the divine love and grace are also conditioned by the
attribute of justice, what, however, in a certain effeminate
theology of a recent day, seems to have been totally over-
looked. However, this grave error of a too sentimental view
of divine things is now pretty generally recognised as such,
and for the most part abandoned. Moreover, it does not
properly lie within the scope of our present disquisition.
Now, the position that the justice and the grace of God mutually
limit each other, involves nothing unintelligible, or, in this
sense, inconceivable, as, however, is the case with the base-
less phantom of the absolute, where the empty phrase becomes
only the more unintelligible the more frequently it is re-
peated. How much more correct in this respect, were the
definitions and distinctions of the great philosophers of
antiquity, especially the Pythagoreans. With them the
limitless and the indeterminate were even the imperfect and
the evil, and the former they regarded as the characteristic
marks of the latter, while the fixedly definite and positive,
which forms the very heart and core of personality, was with
them identical with the good. And unquestionably, God's
personality the fundamental notion, the proper and universal

58 POWER TO UNDERSTAND REVELATION GOD'S GIFT.

dogma of every religion that acknowledges the one true God
is the true centre around which the whole inquiry revolves.
For the question is, whether philosophy, while it allows this
idea to stand indeed externally, and apparently for even in
Germany one only has been found bold enough to deny it
expressly and without reserve intends all the while to put
it quietly aside, and secretly to entomb it by refusing to see in
it anything more than an illusion of the natural feelings.
The point at issue is whether, by so teaching, philosophy is
to come into direct collision with one of man's most universal
and deeply-rooted feelings, and to produce an eternal schism
an irreconcilable discord not only between science and faith,
but even between science and life. For to unsettle life, is
even the necessary result of rationalism.

But let us now turn from the " Absolute" of reason to the
personal God of the believers among all peoples and times.
If now, the knowledge of God be not a discovery of the
reason, whose proper office is to analyse and investigate ; if on
the contrary, we are only able to understand of Him so
much as is given and imparted to us, then the matter as-
sumes quite another aspect. If God has conferred a know-
ledge of Himself upon man if He has spoken to him, has
revealed Himself to him as is the common tradition of all
ancient nations, the more unanimously corroborated the
older they are then is the power to understand this divine
communication given together and at the same time with it,
even though we should be forced to allow that this intellec-
tual capacity be limited by human frailty and extremely
imperfect. To take our estimate of it as low as possible,
we will conceive it to be something like the degree of intelli-
gence with which a child eighteen months old understands its
mother. Much it does not understand at all, other things it
mistakes, or perhaps does not fully attend to, and its answers
too are not much to the purpose but something, never-
theless, it does understand this we see clearly enough. On
this point we should not be likely to be led astray, even though
the theorist should wish to raise a doubt on the matter, by
attempting to prove that the child could not properly under-
stand its mother, since for that purpose it would be necessary
for it to have previously learned thoroughly and methodically
the elements of grammar. We believe, however, what indeed

KNOWLEDGE OF GOD A SCIENCE OF EXPERIENCE. 59

we see, that man's power of understanding divine things is
really very imperfect. For the relation between the child
a year and a half old and its mother completely represents
that of man to God, with the more than half imperfect organs
that are given him for this purpose with his so manifoldly
limited mind or spirit, which is a spark of heavenly light,
indeed, but still only a spark a drop out of the ocean of
the infinite whole and, moreover, with his half-soul. For
half-soul we may and must call it in this respect, since with
the one half it is turned to the earth, and still wholly
fraternises with the sensible world, while with the other it
is directed to, and is percipient of the divine. But such a
childlike and humble docility will not satisfy the proud
reason, and so it is ever turning again to the other absolute
road of a false, imaginary, and unhuman knowledge. Funda-
mentally, however, those two words,* which alone man can be
certain of with respect to God, would, since God invariably
imparts to every creature its due measure, be quite enough,
if only man would always rightly apply and faithfully pre-
serve them.

Now, to this first hypothesis we might append the further
question : supposing that God has imparted a knowledge of
Himself to mankind has spoken to them, and revealed Him-
self to them is it not highly probable that He has ordained
some institution for the further propagation and diffusion of
revealed truth, and also for the maintenance as well of its
original integrity as also of the right interpretation of it ? But
I must content myself with merely advancing this question.
I cannot attempt to prosecute it in the present place, for its
further consideration would carry us out of the established
limits of philosophy into the domain of history, and it involves
moreover the positive articles of faith.

But the previous question, whether the knowledge of God,
which we either possess or are capable of possessing, be a
science of absolute reason, or rather an understanding of
given data, and consequently a science of experience, and
resting, ultimately, on revelation this certainly falls within
the scope of philosophical investigation. Indeed, it forms the
chiefest and most essential problem of philosophy, inasmuch

* " God is a loving Spirit," page 53. Trans.

f>0 REASON NOT PROPERLY ATTRIBUTABLE TO GOD.

as it is properly the very question of being and non-being -of
a true and human, or of an empty and imaginary science
that is here to be decided. On this account, a precise and
correct phraseology is of the utmost importance towards a
right solution of this leading topic of philosophical inquiry.
Now, it is a fact deserving of remark, and well calculated to
arrest our attention, that nowhere in Holy Writ, nowhere in
all antiquity, or in any of the great teachers and philosophers
of olden time, is there any mention made of God's reason
t)ut universally it is intelligence or understanding, an om-
niscient intelligence, that is ascribed to Him. The wrongful
interchange of the two w r ords was reserved exclusively for -our
modern times, and for the epoch of the absolute rule of rea-
son, and of the worse than Babylonish confusion of scientific
terms which has arisen out of it. The only exceptions from
the previous remark, which may be found in antiquity, are
confined to one or two of the Stoics. But when we reflect
how greatly their whole chapter on the Deity labours under the
evil influence of that doctrine of an inevitable necessity and
blind fate, which forms the reproach of the whole Stoical
theory, this apparent exception serves to confirm the general
rule, that a wrong use pf language invariably has its source
in a rationalistic basis of speculation, or perhaps is itself the
spring and occasion of that erroneous point of view. God is
unquestionably the author of reason. If therefore any one be
disposed to call the divine order of things (which, however,
is not the Deity himself), a divine reason, this is a mere matter
of indifference. Only in such a case the question to be agi-
tated would not involve the mere expression, but rather the
meaning which is associated with it. But for my part, I
should prefer to avoid a mode of speaking which might give
rise to great misconception. And this is the more desirable
the more needful it is at all times carefully to distinguish
between the true and sound reason and its contrary. God is
the author of the sound reason, i.e., of the reason which fol-
lows and is obedient to the divine order. But the other, the
rebellious reason, has for its source that spirit of negation
which everywhere opposes God, and has drawn so great a part
of creation after him in his fall. For, having lost his true
centre, and finding none in himself, that evil spirit, with
indescribable desire and raging passionateness, seeks to find

REVELATION FOUR-FOLD. 61

one in the disordered world of sense, and in its noblest
ornament even in the soul of man, the very jewel of crea-
tion. And this is even the origin of the rebellious reason.
And it is rebellious even because having wandered from its
centre in the loving soul, which again has its centre in God,
it has thrown off the obedience of love, that holy bond which
retains the soul in subjection to the divine order. How far
in the present day, amid the fermenting rationalistic medley
which constitutes the spirit of the age, that sound reason
which willingly follows and observes the divine order, or
that rebellious reason which is absolute in itself, has the
upper hand, and forms the predominant element, is a question
easy of solution. It is one which I am content to leave to
the decision of all who are in any degree acquainted with the
prevailing tone of science and of life.

The philosophy which I have here undertaken to develope,
setting out from the soul as the beginning and first subject of
its speculations, contemplates the mind or spirit as its highest
and supreme object. Accordingly, in its doctrine of the Deity,
directly opposing every rationalistic tendency, it conceives of
Him and represents Him as a living spirit, a personal God,
and not merely as an absolute reason, or a rational order. If,
therefore, for the sake of distinction, it requires some peculiar
and characteristic designation, it might, in contrast with those
errors of Materialism and Idealism which I have described
and condemned, be very aptly termed Spiritualism. But
our doctrine is not any such system of reason as the others
pretend to be. It is an inward experimental science of a
higher order. Such a designation, consequently, bespeaking
as it does a pretension of system, is not very appropriate, and
is, at all events, superfluous. It is best indicated by a simple
name, such as we have given it in calling it a philosophy of
life.

Moreover, the revelation by which God makes himself
known to man, does not admit of being limited exclusively to-
the written word. Nature itself is a book written on both
sides, both within and without, in every line of which the
finger of God is discernible. It is, as it were, a Holy Writ
in visible form and bodily shape a song of praise on the
Creator's omnipotence composed in living imagery. But
besides Scripture and nature those two great witnesses to

KEVELATION WKITTEIST AND TTNWEITTEX.

the greatness and majesty of Godthere is in the voice of
conscience nothing less than a divine revelation within man.
This is the first awakening call to the two other louder and
fuller proclamations of revealed truth. And, lastly, in uni-
versal history we have set before us a real and manifold appli-
cation and progressive development of revelation. Here the
luminous threads of a divine and higher guidance glimmer
through the remarkable events of history. For, not only in
the career of whole ages and nations, but also in the lives of
individuals, the ruling and benignant hand of Providence is
everywhere visible.

Fourfold, consequently, is the source of revelation, from
which man derives his knowledge of the Deity, learns his
will, and understands his operation and power conscience,
nature, Holy Writ, and universal history. The teaching of
the latter is often of that earnest and awful kind, to which we
may, in a large sense, apply the adage, "Who will not learn
must feel." How often does it show us some mighty edifice
of fortune, which, having no firm basis in the deep soil of
truth and the divine order, owed its rapid growth and false
splendour to some evil influence, falling suddenly in ruins, as
if stricken by the invisible breath of a superior power. On
such occasions the public feeling recognises the hand which
sets a limit to every temerity in the history of the world to
every extravagance of a false confidence and appoints it its
ultimate term. And the olden notion (which, with men of
the day, had become little more than an antiquated legend,)
of God's retributive justice, resumes its place among the
actuating sentiments of life, with new and intense signi-
ficance. The sublime truth, however, is only too soon forgot-
ten, and the temporary alarm subsides but too quickly into
the habitual calm of a false security that old and hereditary
feeling of human nature.

The volume of Holy Writ, as it is transmitted to us, and
was first commenced about three-and-thirty centuries ago,
does not exclude the possibility of an earlier sacred tradition
in the twenty-four centuries which preceded it. So far,
indeed, is the supposition of such an original revelation from
being inconsistent with Scripture, that, on the contrary, it
contains explicit allusions to the fact, that such a manifold
enlightenment was imparted to the first man, as well as to

HOLY WHIT ANTE-MOSAIC KEVELATION. 63

that patriarch who, after the destruction of the primeval
world of giants, was the second progenitor of mankind. But
as this divine knowledge, derived immediately from the primary
source of all illumination, flowed down in free and imconfmed
channels to succeeding generations, and to the different
nations which branched off from the parent stock, the original
sacred traditions were soon disfigured and overloaded with
fictions and fables. In these, however, a rich abundance
of icmarkable vestiges and precious germs of divine truth
were mixed up with Bacchanalian rites and immoral mys-
teries. And thus, amid a multitude of sensuous and stimulating
images, the pure and simple truth was buried, as in a second
chaos, under a mass of contradictory symbols. Hence arose
that Babylonish confusion of languages, emblems, and legends,
which is universally to be met with among ancient, and even
the most primitive nations. In the great work, therefore, of
purification, and of a restoration of true religion (which we
may call a second revelation, or at least, as a second stage
thereof.) a rigid exclusion of this heathenish admixture of
fable and immorality was the first and most essential requisite.
But those older revelations, imparted to the first man and
the second progenitor of mankind, are expressly laid down as
the groundwork of that evangel of the creation, which forms
the introduction to the whole volume of Scripture, and fur-
nishes us thereby with a key to understand the history and
religion of the primitive world or to speak absolutely, the
true Genesis of the existing world, its history and its science.
This double principle, expressly recognising on the one hand,
an original revelation and divine illumination of the first pro-
genitors of the human race, of which the olden and less cor-
rupted monuments of heathendom still retain many a trace,
and on the other, strictly rejecting the additions of a corrupt
and degenerated heathenism, with all its tissue of fables and
false godless mysteries, must be kept steadily in view in exam-
ining the earliest portions of the sacred Scriptures. For the
neglect, or imperfect consideration of it, has already led, and
is ever likely to give rise to many complicated doubts and
perverted views, which imperil not only the simple under-
standing of the whole body of revealed Scripture, but even the
right conception of revelation.

It would seem, then, that not only philosophical, but abso-

64 SOUL THE RECEPTIVE ORGAN OF REVELATION.

lutely every higher species of knowledge is an internal science
of experience. For the formal science of mathematics is not
a positive science for the cognition of a real object, so much
as an organon and aid for other sciences, which, however, as
such, is both excellent in itself, and admits of many useful
applications. We may therefore on this hypothesis consider
each of these four faculties of man, which I have called the
principal poles or leading branches of human consciousness,
as a peculiar sense for a particular domain of truth. For
all experience and all science thereof rests on some cognitive
sense as the organ of its immediate perceptions. Now the
reason, which, in its form of conscience, announces itself as
an internal sense of right and wrong, is, as the faculty for the
development and communication of thought, usually named
the common sense. It constitutes the bond of connexion
between men and their thoughts, which is dependent on and
conditioned by language and its organ, and may be called the
sense for all that is distinctively human. In this respect it
forms the foundation and first grade of all other senses for, and
immediate organs of, a higher knowledge. Fancy, again, being
itself but a reflection of life and of the living powers of the natu-
ral world, is the inward sense for nature, which, as will hereafter
be more fully shown, first lends and assures to natural science
its due import and true living significance. And inasmuch as
the perfect intellection of a single object results from the
totality alone the significance and spirit of the whole there-
fore the understanding is the sense for that mind (geist)
which manifests itself in the sensible world, whether this be
a human or natural, or the supreme Divine intelligence.

Now, if we may venture to consider the fourfold revelation
of God in conscience, in nature, in Holy Writ, and the
world's history, as so many living springs or fertilising streams
of a higher truth, we must suppose the existence of a good
soil to receive the water of life and the good seed of divine
knowledge. For without an organ of susceptibility for good
to receive the divine gift from above; no amount of revelation
would benefit man. Now the soul, so susceptible of good on
all sides, both from within and from without, is even this
organ for the reception of revelation. And this function of
the soul, together with its creation of language as the outer
form of human knowledge, constitutes its contribution to

DIALOGUE THE NATURAL FORM OF PHILOSOPHY. 65

science and especially to intemal science. And even with
the understanding, as the sense which discerns the meaning
and purport of revelation, the soul is co-operative since no-
thing divine can be understood merely in the idea, and of and
by itself alone, but in every case a feeling for it must have
preceded, or at least contributed towards its complete under-
standing. The soul, consequently, which is thus susceptible
of the divine, is ever in forming itself about, or co-operating
in the acquisition of a knowledge of the Godlike. And this,
the soul's love and pursuit of divine truth, when, unfolding
itself in thought, it comes forth in an investiture of words, is
even philosophy not indeed the dead sophistic of the schools,
but one which, as it is a philosophy of life, can be nothing
less than living. And the soul, thus ardently yearning for the
divine, and both receiving and faithfully maintaining the re-
vealed Word, is the common centre towards which all the four
springs of life and streams of truth converge. In free medi-
tation it reconciles and combines them.

On this account the oldest and most natural form of phi-
losophy was that of dialogue, which did not, however, exclude
the occasional introduction of a simple narrative, or the con-
tinuous explanation of higher and abstruser questions. Phi-
losophy, accordingly, might not inappropriately be defined as
a dialogue of the soul in its free meditation on divine things.
And this was the very form it actually possessed among the
earliest and noblest of the philosophers of antiquity first of
all really and orally, as with Pythagoras and Socrates, and
lastly in its written exposition, of which style Plato was the
great and consummate master. But it was only to the noblest
and best of all ranks, though without distinction of age or sex,
that these the greatest men of antiquity communicated their
treasures of philosophical wisdom. In this course Pythagoras
first set the example, which, on the whole, was followed also
by Socrates and Plato. For, in general, the latter confined
their philosophical teaching to a select circle, and imparted
it, as it were, under the seal of friendship, to such only as in
the social intercourse of life they admitted to close and familiar
intimacy. Occasional exceptions were perhaps furnished by
their disputes with the sophists, in the course of which they
were constrained to adopt, not only the weapons, but also the
method of their adversaries a licence of which Plato, per-

66 PHILOSOPHY IMPKOPERLY CONFINED TO A SCHOOL.

haps, has too often availed himself, even if he has not some-
times abused it. For about this time the sophists introduced
a practice as erroneous as their doctrine was false. Publish-
ing their pliilosophemes to the whole people, they treated it
and quarrelled about it in the market-place as a common
party matter. Such a procedure was in every sense per-
nicious, and one which must have brought even truth itself
into contempt. Lastly, Aristotle comprised in his manuals
the collective results of all earlier philosophical speculation,
and entrusted this treasury of mature knowledge and well-
sifted and newly arranged thoughts to the keeping of a
school. Now, we should be far from justified were we to
make this a reproach against this master of subtilty and pro-
fouiidest of thinkers ; for at this time all true intellectual life
had, together with public spirit, become extinct among the
Greeks, amidst the disorders of democracy, or under the press-
ure of the armed supremacy of Macedonia. Still it must ever
remain a matter of profound regret. For philosophy, as stand-
ing in the centre between the guiding spirit of the divine
education of man and the external force of civil right and
material power, ought to be the true mundane soul ( Weltseele)
which animates and directs the development of ages and of
the whole human race. Deeply, therefore, is it to be deplored
whenever science, and especially philosophy, are withdrawn
from this wide sphere of universal operation, and from human
life itself, to remain banished and cooped up in the narrow
limits of a school.

END OF LECTURE III.

LECTURE IV.

OF THE SOUL IN RELATION TO NATURE.

" WE know in part," exclaimed with burning zeal the
honest man of God in Holy Scripture, " We know in part
and we prophesy in part." How true the first member of
this sentence is even in the case of that knowledge of God
which alone deserves the name of knowledge, or repays the
trouble of its acquisition, the previous Lecture must in many
ways have served to convince us. The second member, which
will chiefly occupy our attention in the present discussion, is
in an eminent degree applicable to physical science. For
what, in fact, is all our knowledge of nature, considered as a
whole and in its inmost essence, but a mere speculation, con-
jecture, and guess upon guess? What is it but an endless
series of tentative experiments, by which we are continually
hoping to succeed in unveiling the secret of life, to seize the
wonderful Proteus, and to hold him fast in the chains of
science ? Or is it not, perhaps, one ever renewed attempt to
decipher more completely than hitherto the sibylline inscrip-
tions on the piled-up rows and layers of tombs, which as
nature grows older convert its great body into one vast cata-
comb, and so perchance to find therein the key to unlock and
bring to light the far greater nay, the greatest of all riddles
the riddle of death ? Now there are undoubtedly even in
nature itself, occasional indications of, scattered hints and
remote allusions to, a final crisis, when even in nature and in
this sensible and elementary world, life shall be entirely
separated from death, and when death itself shall be no
more. Gravely to be pondered and in nowise to be neg-
lected are these hints, although without the aid of a higher
illumination they must for ever remain unintelligible to man.
Thus considered, however, the universe itself appears replete
with dumb echoes and terrestrial resounds of divine revela-

i-2

68 NO PHYSICAL SYSTEM IN THE BIBLE.

tion. It is not therefore without reason and significance,
if in this beautiful hymn the ancient prophetess of nature
lends her concurrent testimony to the promises of the holy
seer of a last day of creation, which nature shall celebrate as
the great day of her renovation and towards which she yearns
with an indescribable longing which is nowhere so inimitably
depicted, so strongly and so vividly expressed, as in Holy Writ
itself. Holy Scripture could not and cannot contain a system
of science, whether as a philosophy of reason or a science of
nature. Nay in this form of a manual and methodical com-
pendium of divine knowledge, it could not inspire us with
confidence either as revelation or as science. Condescending
altogether to the wants of man both in form and language, it
consists of a collection of occasional and wholly practical
compositions derived immediately from and expressly de-
signed for life, in a certain sence it consists of nothing but
the registers and social statutes either of the prophetic people
or of the apostolical community. Accordingly its contents
are of a mixed nature : historical, legal, instructive, hortatory,
consolatory, and prophetical, together with a rich abundance
of minute and special allusions, while it enters everywhere
into, and with watchful love adapts itself to, individual wants
and local peculiarities. And the form of these writings, at once
so singular in its kind and in such marvellous wise, but yet
so eminently human is so far from being inconsistent with
the divine character, that the very condescension of the
Deity constitutes a new and additional but most charac-
teristic proof of genuine revelation. Only the first founda-
tion-stone and the key and comer-stone form an exception.
Embracing within their spacious limits the beginning o*
nature and the end of the world, they form, as it were, the
corner-rings and the bearing-staves of the ark of the covenant
of revelation. And whilst on the one side as well as on the
other, in the opening no less than in the closing book, which
contain almost as many mysteries as words, the seven-
branched candlestick of secret signification is set up, still all
else that is inclosed within the holy ark, receives there-
from sufficient light for its perfect elucidation. In all other
respects the style is that of a plain narrative couched in very
appropriate and simple words, and if the masters of criticism
m classical antiquity have quoted a few passages from the

NO PHYSICAL SYSTEM IN THE BIBLE. 69

beginning of Genesis as the most exalted instances of the
sublime, still it was in the very simplicity and extreme
plainness of the language that they recognised this character
of sublimity. From these two ends moreover from this first
root as well as from the last crown of the book, there pro-
ceed many threads and veins, which running through the
tissue bind it together still more closely into a living unity, on
which account, although consisting of so many and such divers
books, it is justly considered as one, being called simply the
" Book," (Bible). Consequently it would, as already said, be
foolish to look for a system of science in the divine book for
men. Nevertheless we do meet here and there with single
words about nature and her secrets hints occasionally dropped
and seemingly accidental expressions which giving a clear
and full information as to much that is hidden therein, fur-
nish science consequently with so many keys for unlocking
nature. These, indeed, are not scattered throughout in equal
measure, but here perhaps more thinly, and there again more
thickly. In all these passages, and especially those of the
Old Testament, which not only depict the external beauties
and visible glory of nature, but also touch upon its hidden
powers and inmost secrets of life, we may observe a kind
of intentional, I might perhaps say, cautious reserve and
heedful circumspection, amounting at times almost to an
indisposition to speak out fully and clearly, lest the abuse
or probable misconception of what should be said, might
give encouragement to the heathenish and wide-spread deifi-
cation of nature.

In the New Testament (if we may venture to speak of these
things in the same natural and human fashion that Scripture
itself employs) the Holy Spirit uses language far more pre-
cise and clear. On the whole, the relation in which Holy
Writ and divine revelation stand to nature itself and the
science thereof is a peculiar one. It is eminently tender and
wonderful, but not indeed intelligible at the first glance, or
broadly definable according to any rigorous and established
notion. It is one, however, capable of being made clearer
by means of a simile borrowed from Scripture itself. Those
guileless men whom the Redeemer chose as His instruments
for carrying out His great work of the redemption of the
world, were endued with miraculous powers, which it was and

70 KNOWLEDGE OP DIVINE THINGS ILLIMITABLE.

ffif w "'ow oTCfi S w 7!, not of their own Stren ^' but f

118. .NOW ol the first of these apostles it is narrated tint a
healing power and as it were an invisible stream of life pro

wlhoutT ' m ' T U S eD S C0nsci us <* <"
without his regarding it, which healed the sick who were

S*C! Y P t'r d Whhin the ra " e f his sha ^ "he
rewlatio > ^ manner thc fier y wain of divine

revelation as it passes on its way scatters in single words and

Zd e oVr7 a t b ;'ff ht ^ The "^t sgad <- of the

word of God as it falls is sufficient to kindle and throw a new

ight over the whole domain of nature, bv means of which

the true science thereof may be firmly established, its i

all

attent!on

Bethodwh, o e

Tn rl / ^ P hllos P hers of ^ason without exception
puisue. In different ways according to the special obiects thei
L7' th t e >l al l alike P-sumf toset ce P rtain abtlu e anl
impassable limits to human reason (which, however, by some
slight turn or other they soon dexterously contrive to trarfs!
gress) in order to bring within their system of absolute science
-d "h t b f bUt " deadsem Wanee-all that itwifl hold!
aade>en what it eaunot contain. Quite different, however is it
with the truth and with that living science which we take for

soul oT T ^i^T- For fr - ^ it appears that the
Jo 'man, however liable it may be to manifold error, is
nevertheless capable of receiving the divine communications.

of kno l'l" maU C / D P T eSS aS man y f these hi her branch es
knowledge, and can learn as much of divine things as it
is given to him to know, and since at the same time it is God
leZe fl '^primary source from which all man's know-

rip flows and his guide to tmth,-who shall determine the
measure and fix the limits-who shall dare to say how much
of know edge and of science God will vouchsafe to man>_
who sha ; l venture to prescribe the limits bevond which His
Jhnnmation cannot pass? This, it is evident, is illimitable
may go on to an extent, which at the begmnin<" man

' ha l K CH ? - 6d t0 bS P Ssible ' In a ' d ' ^ough
, and by his own unassisted reason, man is inca-

PHYSICAL SCIENCE IMPERFECT.

pable of knowing anything, yet through God, if ^e His
will he may attain to the knowledge of aU things. And I yet -it
I tr\,e, though in a very different sensefrom that intended by
ihese philosophers of reason, that man's knowledge is m
reality limited. No absolute limit, indeed is set to it. Yet
because it is a mixed knowledge, composed of outward t
tion and inward experience, and is founded on the perceptions
of the external and internal senses, therefore ,s it made up of
individual instances, extremely slow in its growth, and m n
respect perfect and complete, and scarcely ever free from
Llts and deficiencies. Consequently when considered in
rts totality and as pretending to be a whole, it is invariably
tapafecfc But this character of imperfection belongs in fact
to all real science, as derived from the experience of the
senses Seldom indeed is the first impression free from the
admixture of error; numberless repeated observations com-
parisons, essays, experiments, and corrections, which must
often be carried on through many centuries, not to say
mTy tens of centuries, are necessary before a pure and stable
result can be attained to. In this way aU truly human
Sedge is imperfect, and " in part;" and although on th
Sitrary? the false conceited wisdom may parade itself from
Seven- first as fully ripe and complete, yet in a very brief
space indeed will its imperfection and rottenness appear

And, indeed, the character of imperfection shows itself, as
in all other human things, so also in the science of nature^
From its birth among the earliest naturalists of Greece to r!
boasted maturity amongst ourselves, it counts an age ot two
millenniums and a half of unbroken cultivation. But now it
looking bevond the explanation of single isolated facts, we
consider rather our knowledge of nature in J^"^
tern and internal constitution, can we say that physica saence
s during the time, made more than, perhaps, two steps and
a half of progress? And this slow and toilsome advance wluch
m a certain "sense, never arrives at more than knowing m
part," is the law of every department of human science. Con-
Lquently it may be justly said of the development of man s
stLce, that wiih God a thousand years are as a day and one
day as a thousand years* All knowledge drawn from the

2 Peter iii. 8.

72 FANCY AS A FACULTY OF SUGGESTION.

senses and experience is bound by this condition. It may, no
doubt, apply immediately and principally to external expe-
rience, which is dependent 011 the lower and ordinary senses,
whether we reckon them according to the number of their
separate organs as five, or as three in compliance with a more
scientific classification. But it also holds equally good of
those which we pointed out and described in the last Lecture
as being the four superior scientific senses, the organs of a
knowledge founded on a higher and internal experience, the
sense, viz., of reason, the sense of understanding, the sense
for nature or fancy, and the proper sense for God, which lies
in the inmost free will of man. Not merely as the faculty of
suggestion (Ahndungsvermogen'}, is fancy to be regarded as
the higher and internal sense for nature, or because it is from
this side that the affinity of man and of man's soul with
nature is most distinctly revealed, but it also exhibits itself
as such in the scientific apprehension of natural phenomena.
That dynamical play of the inner life, that law r of a living
force which constitutes the essence of every phenomenon of
nature, is a something so fleeting and evanescent that it can
only be seized and fixed by the fancy alone, since, as is now
pretty generally allowed by all profound observers of nature,
in the abstract notion life eludes the grasp, and nothing
remains but a dead formula.

The apprehension of a living object in thought, so as to
seize and fix it in its mobile vitality and its fluctuating and
fleeting states, is an act of the imagination, which, however, is
naturally of a peculiar kind and entirely distinct from artistic
or poetical fancy. It is, in this respect, worthy of remark,
that all the most characteristic and felicitous terms which are
employed to designate the great discoveries in modern times
of the profouiider secrets of nature are, for the greater part,
boldly figurative and often even symbolical. Here therefore
also we have a manifestation of that affinity which subsists
between nature and the faculty of fancy, by which alone its
ever-stirring vitality is scientifically apprehended.

I formerly observed that, in the outer senses, as faculties of
the soul subordinate to the fancy, a higher intellectual
endowment, as a special gift of nature, is occasionally found
to exist, namely, the sense of art, or the eye for beautiful
forms, and the ear for musical sounds. But even the lower

PHYSIOLOGY OF MAN. 73

sense, the more purely organic feeling, is often evolved to
higher degrees of susceptibility, which, however, do not fall
within the sphere of the feeling for art, but form, as it were,
a peculiar and special sense of nature. To this class belong
those indescribable feelings of sympathy and inward attrac-
tion the many vivid presentiments of a strange foreboding
traces of which may be observed among many other animals
besides man, just as, in the case of musical tones and emo-
tions, a light note of remote affinity seems to bring the soul
of man in unison with a correspondent nature soul in the
higher members of the brute creation. Numberless are the
instances of such forebodings (among which we must reckon
also the significant vision or dream) recorded of all times,
countries, and spheres of life. No doubt, from their strange
nature, and from the manifold difficulties with which man's
mode of observing and narrating these phenomena perplexes
the consideration of them, it is anything but easy, in any
individual case, to arrive at a pure result, and to pass a final
and decisive sentence. Still, on the whole, the fact cannot
well be denied, as, indeed, it is not even attempted, by any un-
prejudiced and profound observer of nature in the present day.
But now, if such an immediate feeling of invisible light and life
does freely develope and clearly manifest itself as an indubita-
ble faculty and a perfectly distinct state of the consciousness,
then assuredly we have herein a new organ of perception and
a new natural sense. Though not, indeed, more infallible than,
any other of the senses, it may nevertheless be the source of
very remarkable phenomena, which, perhaps, above all others
require investigation, in order that their distinctive character
may be precisely and accurately determined. It is however
necessary to remember that the latter is not to be determined
by any side blow of caprice, any more than the electric phe-
nomena of nature and the atmosphere, when they are actually
lowering there, are to be got rid of by any such expedient.

It is only just and right, and not inconsistent with true-
human knowledge, if physical science should commence with
the study of man. Still, if we would contemplate man from
the side of nature, it seems the safer course to endeavour,
first of all, to obtain a clear and leading idea of the whole of
his constitution in this respect, rather than to lose ourselves
in the contemplation of the special phenomena of a particular

74 JETHER, OF THE NERVES THE SPIRITUAL BODY.

sphere. Now with regard to the whole of man's organisation,
the organic body as the third constituent of human existence,
I will merely remark that, just as the triple principle of body,
soul, and spirit is repeated in the special and narrower spheres
of the senses, the instincts, and the passions, and even in the
different forms in which a disordered intellect usually mani-
fests itself, so also it admits of a further application to the
organic body in general. That most wonderful organisation
the marvellous structure of bones and muscles, the outward
organic frame, is, as it were, the body in a narrower sense,
the pre-eminently material constituent of living bodies. The
soul of man here consequently the organic soul is in the
blood and in the five or six organs whose functions are first
of all to elaborate the blood and afterwards to provide for its
circulation or perhaps by maintaining a perpetual inter-
change of the breath and the external air, to keep the vital
flame constantly burning on the hearth of life within. A third
element and, indeed, the principal one of the three, though
only noticeable in its effects on the brain exists within the
higher senses and functions in short, in the whole nervous
tissue. But it lies not in the nervous filaments themselves :
anatomy cannot detect it, for it is not visible to the eye. . On
this account some have called it the aether of the nerves to
indicate its incorporeal nature incorporeal, i. e., relatively to,
and in comparison with, the other two constituents of man,
the blood- soul, and the external frame as being the spirit
of life in the organic body. Strictly and sharply enough does
Holy Writ distinguish this spiritual body (as it calls it) of
man from the body of the soul, or the organic blood-soul,
considering the former, as it were, the seed of the resurrection,
even because at the moment of death this ethereal body- of- light
leaves its terrestrial veil to be in due time re-united to it after
a more glorious fashion. And death, itself is even nothing
else than its total departure and painful emancipation from
the organic body, on which the features, one might almost
say, the physiognomy of corruption stamps itself, imme-
diately that the immortal Psyche, the invisible seed of light
and eternity, has put off the tabernacle of this body.

This internal, invisible bod v-of- light (JLiditkorper} is also
the organ and the centre of aH the higher and spiritual powers
of the human organisation. For it is easily conceivable that

MEDICINE A BASIS OF THE SCIENCE OF NATUKE. 75

a partial projection of this life of light which is latent in the
sound organic body should produce such phenomena, while its
complete projection, or rather total separation, would have
death for its result, or rather would itself be death. A truly
scientific view of nature can easily enter into or allow the
legitimacy of this idea. The true rule, however, and stand-
ard for the right decision of phenomena of this kind can only
be found in a higher region, even because they themselves
lie on the extreme limits of nature and life, and in part also
pass beyond them.

We therefore prefer to follow the more slow but sure course
of development pursued by physical science itself, as com-
menced nearly twenty-five centuries ago by the Greeks. On the
whole it began even there with the cognition of man of his
diseases and their cure. The naturalists indeed of the present
day are in general disposed to laugh at the ideas of nature
which were advanced by the first philosophers of Greece, and
to despise the hypotheses of water, or air, or fire, as being the
essence of all things, which nevertheless, as the first beginnings
of a clearer contemplation and of a higher view of nature
greatly recommend themselves by their extreme simplicity.
But however modern observers of nature may be ready to
hand these systems over to fancy as so many purely poetical
cosmogonies, yet, on the other hand, the present masters
of medicine, with greater gratitude and fuller acknowledg-
ment of his merits, reverence Hippocrates as the founder of
their art. For, indeed, as such and not properly as a science,
or at any rate as an art far more than as a science, was
medicine regarded by its founder and the great masters
who caine after him. They looked upon it as the art of the
diagnosis and treatment of disease, in which the unerring tact
of a practised and happy judgment is of primary importance,
and where the rapid and searching glance of genius into the
secret laboratories of life or into the hidden sources of disease
is, and ever will be, the principal and most essential point.
The mere historical acquaintance with the different forms of
diseases and their remedies, with botany, and the anatomy of
the human body, with the number and structure of its organs,
forms merely the materials, the external sphere of medical prac-
tice ; while the essential qualification is even this penetrating
glance which searches out the inmost secrets of the bodily
temperament But now those who have been most richly

76 INNATE IDEAS.

gifted with this peculiar gift have ever been the last to believe
themselves possessed of a perfect science. And yet, inas-
much as that physical knowledge which by attaining to a com-
plete understanding of life shall be able to comprehend and
explain the mystery of death would alone deserve the name of
the science of nature ; inasmuch also as the searching glance
of the true physician arrives the nearest to such a point,
penetrating, as it does, deep into the manifold fluctuation and
struggle between the two, and into the secrets of their con-
flict, this, therefore, is perhaps to be considered as the first
germ of life for a future science of nature, which, however as
yet undeveloped, has for more than twenty centuries been
slumbering on, hidden, as it were, in embryo, in the womb of
medical art and lore. The physical, geographical and astro-
nomical observations of this whole period of gestation, form it
is true a rich treasury of valuable materials, but they do not
give us that profound knowledge, of which alone the physician's
penetrating glance into life and its constitution furnishes the
first commencement and essay, however weak.

With respect to natural science in general, and the possibility
of our attaining to it, the case stands thus. If nature be a
living force if the life which reigns within it be in a certain
though still very remote degree akin to the life of man and
the human soul then is a knowledge of nature easily con-
ceivable, and right well possible (for nothing but the like, 01
at least the similar and cognate, can be known by the like)
even though this cognition may still be extremely defective,
and at best can never be more than partial. But if nature be
a dead stony mass, as many seem to suppose, then would it be
wholly inconceivable how this foreign mass of petrifaction
could penetrate into our inmost Ego ; then at least would there
seem to be good grounds for the idealistic doubt whether
ultimately this external world be any thing but a mere phanton,
having no existence save in our own thoughts the outward re-
flection of ourselves the pure creation of our own Me.

The question of innate ideas has been often mooted in phi-
losophy. As, however, the essential functions and different
acts of thought, together with its several notions, are, properly
speaking, nothing but the natural division of man's cogitative
faculty, it is not on their account necessary to suppose such a
preliminary intercalation of general ideas into the human mind.
And as little necessary is it, in order to explain the universal

AN INNATE IDEA OF DEATH. 77

belief in the existence of a Deity, to suppose that there is in
the minds of all men an implanted idea of God ; for this would
lead to the purely arbitrary hypothesis, of that which is so
difficult to conceive the pre-existence of the spirit or soul of
man. And as no created beings can have an idea of God, but
those to whom He vouchsafes to communicate it, and to
accord a knowledge of His existence, so can He bestow this
privilege the very instant He pleases, without the intervention
of any innate idea expressly for that end. And yet I am
disposed, and not, I think, without reason, to assume that
man, as at present constituted, does possess one, though only
one, species of inborn ideas : viz., an innate idea of death.
This, as a false root of life, and a true mental contagion, pro-
duces a dead cogitation, and is the origin of all dead and
dead-born notions. For this idea of death, whether here-
ditary or inoculated in the soul, is, as its peculiar but funda-
mental error, transferred by the mind of man to every object
with which it comes in contact. And thus, in man's dead
cogitation, the surrounding world and all nature appears to
him a similar lifeless and inert mass, so long as sitting be-
neath this shadow of spiritual death, his mind fgeistj has not
sufficient strength to work its way out of its dark prison-house
into the light. For not at all without higher aid, and even
with it only slowly and tardily, does man discover that all
that is really and naturally dead is within himself, or learn to
recognize it for what it truly is, a something eminently null
and naught. Another species of this false and dead concep-
tion of nature presents itself under the form of multiplicity.
In this -view nature is represented as forming something like
a vast sand-hill, where, apart from the pile they thus form
together and their aggregation in it, the several grains are
supposed to have no connection with each other ; while, how-
ever, they are so diligently counted, as if everything depended
on their right enumeration. But through the sieve of such an
atomistic, which would break up the universe into a number
of separate and absolute individualities, the sand will ever run,
however often and painsfully man may strive to reckon or to
measure the infinity of these grains of nature. Mathematical
calculation and measuring hold the same place in physical
science that is held in every living language by conjugating
and declining and other grammatical rules, which, in truth,

78 NATURE'S TEUE MATHEMATICS.

are but a species of mathematical formulas. In learning a
foreign and especially a dead language, these are indispensable
and necessary aids, which greatly promote and facilitate its ac-
quisition; so also mathematics furnish indispensable helps and
a most valuable organon for the cognition of nature. But with
them alone, man wiU never learn to understand even a word,
not to talk of a whole proposition, out of nature's strangely-
sounding and most difficult hieroglyphics.

Somewhat different is it, when man seeks to understand the
true living geometry in nature herself: i. e., attempts to discover
the place which the circle and the ellipse, (passing from these
up to the spheres in their sidereal orbits,) or which the triangle,
the square, the hexagon, and so forth, assume in the scale ofits
creations or when, in a similar spirit, he investigates and
ascertains the reaUy dominant rule in the arithmetic of life;
those numbers which the physician observes in the periodic
developments of life, and which, in the fluctuating states of
an abating and heightening malady, enable him, under certain
conditions, to predict the moment of its crisis. Of a still
higher kind is that spiritual, we might almost call it divine
chronology, which, in universal history, marks out definite
epochs of the mental development of the human race, and
traces therein the influence of certain grades of life, or' ages
of the world, and the alternating phases of disease in whole
communities, and those decisive moments and great critical
emergencies in which God Himself appears as the healing
Physician and Restorer of life, It was, in all probability, in
reference to such an arithmetic, or in some similar sense, "that
Pythagoras taught that numbers are, or contain, the essence
of things. For such an arithmetic of life and geometry of
nature do afford a positive cognition and a real knowledge.
As commonly understood, however, mathematics are nothing
more than a formal science in other words, they are simply a
scientific organon, rather than a science. But now, if nature

be not regarded as dead, but living, who can doubt that it

or, as we are now speaking of man's nearest neighbour that
the earth is akin to man r Was he not formed out of the
dust of the earth, and is he not therefore the son, nay. in truth,
the first-born of the earth : does he not receive from it food
and nourishment ? and when the irrevocable summons goes
forth from above, does he not give back again to its bosom the

MAN'S AFFINITY TO -THE EAETH. 79

earthly tabernacle of his flesh ? Do not chemists tell us that
the principal constituent of the purest wheat- corn has a great
affinity to the substance of man's blood ? and does not the
blood, moreover, derive one of its ingredients from iron the
principal among the metals of the earth ? And are not gold
and other metallic substances either wholesome medicines or
deadly poisons ? And is there not also an inexhaustible store
of both in the wonderful varieties of herbs and plants ? Do
not invigorating and healing springs burst from numberless
rocks and fissures of the earth ? Is not to speak only of the
heavenly bodies nearest to and immediately connected with
our globe is not the sun's heat so specifically different from
every other kind of warmth, the quickener of all that lives and
moves, and for man under a milder clime, as it were, a soft
renovating bath ? And is not the other and lesser light
earth's mighty satellite and companion, the moon the cause
of all those changes in the weather and atmosphere, which
from the earliest times have been acknowledged to be most
serviceable and highly beneficial to agriculture ? Is not the
great pulse of the ocean, in its ebb and flow, measured by it,
as well as many periods of the development of life ? And is
it not, when its operation is too powerful or violently exciting,
the cause of a peculiar disease among men ? As, therefore,
the musical unisons in the melodious songs of birds, both find
and wake a concordant echo in the heart of man, so too in a
larger scale, the blood-soul of man, with its living pulsation
and organic sensibility , is most nearly akin to and sympathises
with the earth and the whole earthly frame. And is not, in
all probability, this sympathetic influence between the earth
and man reciprocal ? Must not, for instance, the respiration of
nine hundred millions of human beings have affected the atmo-
sphere ? Has not the very air degenerated with the human race,
and like it become corrupt and deteriorated ? Are not cer-
tain pestilential diseases propagated by the air alone, being
carried in fixed telluric directions, without material contact or
pollution ? And if, in answer to the inference which we would
draw from these facts, any one should sit down to calculate
the number of cubic miles in the atmospheric belt, and argue
that the bveath and evaporation from ever so many myriads
of human beings would be insufficient to hu^e any effect
thereon, we might easily retort upon him the equally vast

80 MAGNETISM INVENTION OF THE COMPASS.

reckoning of the millions of seconds which make up a hundred
and more generations, and by which these respirations must
be counted. But, however this may be, it does appear that
the air must, in primitive times, have been far more pure and
balsamic, and more vital and more nutritive, than at present.
For before the flood men required neither flesh nor wine to
recruit their strength, and yet, in duration of life and bodily
vigour, and above all in energy of will and powers of mind,
they far surpassed the sons of a later age ; and it was even
by the misuse of these great gifts and endowments that they
brought down the divine vengeance on their sinful genera-
tion. And, lastly, if the earth were wholly without life, how
could it, at the creation of the animals of this planetary world,
have yielded obedience to the behest of the Creator, as it went
forth on the sixth day, " Let the earth bring forth the living
creature after its kind"? Highly important, moreover, as re-
gards the true estimate of the whole realm of nature as con-
templated by the Divine mind, and deeply significant, is the
wide interval which, in the Mosaic history of the creation,
separates the bringing forth of the beasts by the earth at the
command of the Almighty, from the making of man, whereof
it is written, " Let us make man in our own image."

Physical science having thus sluggishly advanced through
a definite period and number of centuries having lived
through almost two millenniums in little better than an
embryo state, made at last the few steps of progress that it
has as yet taken. By a more rapid march of time, it hastened
to suit itself to the riper age of man, and to come forth itself,
as it were, mature, although, in many respects, this is even
yet very far from being the case. The principal of these ad-
vances of physical science, is the invention of the compass.
For, in the first place, the phenomenon of magnetism pre-
sents a remarkable manifestation of the universal life of the
world, which eludes all mathematical calculations of magni-
tude, while the little piece of this wonderful iron balances
by its living agency the whole globe itself. And in the
second place, the results to which it has led have been no
less important and marvellous. The magnetic index pointed
the way to the discovery of the New World, and to a more
perfect acquaintance with the figure of the earth, and thus,
through an enlarged observation of geographical and astro-

LEGEND OF ATLANTIS MODERN ASTRONOMY. 81

nomical facts, opened out a grander and more extensive view
of the whole planetary system. Of the new world in the
other hemisphere, a trace unquestionably is to be found in
antiquity in the legend of the island of Atlantis. The gene-
ral description of this island, as equal in extent to both
Asia and Africa together, agrees remarkably with the size
of America. But the fable contains the additional circum-
stance, that having existed in the Western Ocean in very
ancient times, it was subsequently swallowed up by the
waves. From this circumstance I am led to infer, that the
legend did not, as is generally supposed, owe its origin to
Phoenician navigators, who, even if it be true that they did
succeed in sailing round Africa, most assuredly never ven-
tured so far westward. Like so much besides that is equally
great and grand, and indeed far grander, the main fact of the
legend seems to be derived from an original tradition from
the primeval times, when unquestionably man was far better
acquainted with his whole habitation of this earth than in the
days of the infant and imperfect science of Greece, or even of
the more advanced and enlightened antiquity. A vague tra-
ditionary notion of its existence lived on from generation to
generation. But afterwards, when even the Phoenician sailors,
however far they penetrated into the wide ocean, were unable
to give any precise information about, or adduce any proof of,
the fact, the hypothesis was advanced, and finally added to the
tradition, that the island had been swallowed up by the sea.

Modern astronomy, at its first rise, was extremely revolting
to man's feelings, which had become, as it were, habituated
to the olden theory of the world's shape. The system of
Ptolemy indeed, with its narrow egoistic conceit of making
man the centre of the sidereal universe, was as unsatisfactory
as it was absurd, and little was lost when it was exploded.
But, on the other hand, it was startling, and still has a stag-
gering effect on our minds, to be told, that when measured by
the mathematical standard of the vast distances and periodic
tunes of the planetary system, the earth, for which the Al-
mighty has done such incalculably great things, and on which
He has bestowed such high and precious gifts, is, as it were,
but a little and insignificant splinter in the vast regions of
infinite space. A true and profound science of nature, how-
ever, does not allow of the validity of mathematical magnitude

82 SEYEX THE TRADITIONARY NUMBER OF THE PLANETS.

as an exclusive standard of the value of things. Whether
m a greater or less sphere of existence, it sees and discovers
in far other properties the true centre of life. If, even in our
globe, the living magnetic pole does not coincide with the
true mathematical north pole, but lies a considerable distance
on one side of it, may it not, without prejudice to modern
astronomy, be also the case with the whole planetary system?
The first conceptions of nature are rarely, if ever, free from
mistakes, and oftentimes, together with great truths, contain
also great errors. And while the first fresh impression the living
intuition, ever recommends itself to the general feeling of man-
kind, and takes deep root therein ; the notions, on the other hand,
which new discoveries of nature introduce, not unfrequently do
violence to the prevalent views as to the shape and form of the
old world. Often, indeed, the former run directly counter to
what we might call the old family feelings of mankind, which,
transmitted through generations from father to son, have be-
come, as it were, a custom of life, a holy habit. Afterwards,
however, as the new scientific discovery is more perfectly
developed, it gradually conciliates the old hereditary and
customary feeling of nature. The two at last fall into friendly
relations with each other.

Now, in the article of the stars, the cherished creed of
nature, professed by all ancient peoples, insisted perhaps on
no one dogma so earnestly as that there are seven planets
That this deeply rooted and habitual feeling of men was not
uninfluenced by the general consideration of the number seven
is only natural to suppose. For not only does it comprise the
three dimensions of time, together with the four cardinal
points of space, but it is also found entering, iinder a variety
of combinations, into the life, the thought, and history of men.
And in the new astronomy, though the sun and moon have
been ejected from the number of the planets, yet the earth has
entered into the list, and the deficient member of the system
having been discovered, we have again seven planets, as in
the olden belief. For it is, to say the least, highly impro-
bable that any new planetary body wiU ever be discovered
beyond Uranus,* and as for the small bodies which are situate

* These words were uttered scarcely twenty years ago, and now beyond
Uranus another planet, whose vibrations have been Ions felt upon
paper, is added to the heavenly choir. On the other hand, if Sir Wm

PYTHAGOREAN SYSTEM OF ASTRONOMY.

between Mars and Jupiter, it is pretty generally acknowledged
that they are not properly to be counted as planets, from which
they are even distinguished by their very names by some
astronomers.

And as little ground is there to take exception or offence
at modern astronomy, even on that side of it where difficulties
were originally most felt and mooted. For Holy Writ was
neither written exclusively nor designed pre-eminently for
astronomers. In these matters, therefore, as in all others,
it speaks the ordinary language which men employ among
themselves in the business of daily life. ^

Now we know that in the pulse of the organic body its
renlar beating is occasionally interrupted by a hurried cir-
culation or a momentary stoppage. Is it not in the same
way possible that the pulsatory revolutions of the great
planetary world do not observe, like a piece of dead clock-
work, a mechanical uniformity, but are liable to many de-
viations and irregularities? If, then, a similar stoppage to
that which sometimes occurs in the pulse of man, be here
also supposable, as produced by a superior power and ex-
ternal influence, then in the case of such an extraordinary
interruption, it is a matter of indifference whether it be said
of this wonderful moment that the sun stood still, or (as seems
to be the fact), that the earth was held in check and rested in
its orbit. And, in like manner, for the changing phenomena
of the astronomical day, the common expressions are equally
true with the scientific, and equally significant. The sun's
rise, the morning dawn, is, for all men, a figure, or rather a
fact of pregnant meaning, while the setting sun fills all hearts
with a melancholy feeling of separation. Equally true, how-
ever, is it, and in a symbolical sense it conveys perhaps a still
more serious meaning, when we say in scientific language,
" The earth must go down before the sun can rise ; " or " When
the earth goes up, then is it night, and darkness diffuses itself
over all " Or if, perhaps, in the new and quickening spring,
instead of the old phraseology, " The sun has returned, has

Hamilton'* hopes are realized, will not the discovery of the centre around
which the solar system revolves, establish another point of resemblance
between modem astronomy and the Pythagorean system with its central
fire ; and also, as Schlegel subsequently implies, that the former has yet
further advances to make ^-Trans.

84 PYTHAGOREAN SYSTEM OF ASTRONOMY.

come near to us again," we were to say, " The earth, or at
least our side of it, is again brought nearer to the sun,"
would it not be as beautiful and significant a description?
And happy, indeed, are those periods of the world, wherein, to
speak in a figurative but moral sense, that earth-soul which
rules in the changes of time the so-called public opinion, has
declined towards, and approached more nearly to, its sun.

It is a remarkable, not to say wonderful, fact, that in ancient
times, the Pythagoreans held the same system of the universe
which modern astronomy teaches, though, perhaps, they were
not acquainted with the mathematic calculations of its dis-
tances. But still more surprising is it, that while they were
thus perfectly acquainted with the number of the planets, and
even arranged them in the same order that they are placed by
modern astronomers, they admitted into their system two
stars which we have not. One of these, as the sun of the
gods (Geister-sonne)* they placed high above the visible
sun. The latter, which they named the "counter-earth,"
(avTixfav) was placed directly opposite to the real earth. It
would seem, therefore, that they regarded these two bodies as
the invisible centres of the whole sidereal universe, and, as it
were, the choir-leaders or choragi of the apparently orderless
and scattered host of heaven. Are these two stars now ex-
tinct ? or is their light too pure and ethereal to penetrate our
dense and thickened atmosphere ? or, like so much besides, was
it little else than a still surviving tradition from the primitive
world? This, however, must ever remain conjectural. As for
the fact itself: that the Pythagoreans did so teach, and under-
stood by these names, not merely figurative symbols, but real
stars, has been placed beyond doubt by modern investigations
into the Pythagorean doctrines. At any rate, their knowledge
of these stars must have been acquired by some other means

* Or the central fire, according to Boeckh, around which the whole
planetary heavens revolve, and which is also the source of light, which
being collected hy the visible sun, is transmitted to the earth. By the
avTL^6(av or counter-earth, whose revolution is parallel and concentric
with that of the earth, Boeckh understands that half of the terrestrial
globe which, as turned away from the sun, is in darkness. See August.
Boeckh " de Platonico systemate coelestium globorum, et de vera indole
astronomise Philolaicse," orhis " Philolaus," pp. 114 136, and Ideler
" Ueber d. Verhaltniss d. Copernicus zum Alterthum," in the Museum d.
Alterthumswissenschaft. Bd. ii. St. ii. 405, &c. Trans.

RESULTS OP AIODEBN CHEMICAL ANALYSIS. 85

than the telescope of modern astronomy, with which, in fact,
they were not acquainted, and nothing but some new obser-
vation or phenomenon in the sidereal heavens can ever throw
light on this matter. And who shall say that even our pre-
sent astronomical science shall not advance still further, and
that it has not closed too soon, and been in all too great a
haste to sum up its doubtless most elaborate and complicated
calculations ?

Thus did the mind of man advance the first step towards
the maturity of physical science, by attaining to a more
comprehensive survey of the mundane system, and a more
accurate knowledge of his own habitation, of this earthly
planet. The next step in this sluggish progress was made by
the chemical discoveries of modern times, and especially of
the French chemists. In a merely negative point of view,
these have been important, as establishing the fact, that the
old elements, water, for instance, and air, which had long been
regarded as simple, are themselves decomposable into other
constituents and aeriform parts. And, indeed, that such great
powers of nature as these are, and must ever remain so
long as the present constitution of the world shall last,
could only subsist in the reciprocal dynamical relation of
several conflicting forces, a profounder glance at nature
would of itself have conjectured and presupposed. But in a
positive sense, this second step has carried us very far towards
the understanding of the hieroglyphics of nature. Those
primary elements of things discovered and numbered by that
chemical analysis which has subjected to its experiments
almost every form and species of matter, constitute, as it
were, the permanent material letters and consonants of the
natural world around us. On the other hand, the vowels of
human language are represented by the fundamental facts of the
magnetism of the earth, together with the phenomena of elec-
tricity, the decomposition of light, and the chemical chain of the
galvanic pile, in which the inner life of the terrestrial force, and
of the eternally moving atmosphere, as well as the soul whose
pulse beats therein, finds an utterance, like a voice out of the
lowest deep. And thus, by means of an alphabet of nature,
which, however, is still most imperfect, we may hope to make
a beginning, at least, and to decipher one or two entire words.
But modern chemistry has made a more important advance

NATURE A SYSTEM OF LIVING FORCES.

towards a right understanding of nature as a whole. By
analysing and decomposing all solid bodies, as well as water
itself, into different forms of a gaseous element, it has thereby
destroyed for ever, that appearance of rigidity and petrifac-
tion which the corporeal mass of visible and external nature
presents to our observation. Everywhere we now meet with
living elemental forces, hidden and shut up beneath this rigid
exterior. The proportion of aqueous particles in the air isso
great, that if suddenly condensed, they would suffice for more
than one flood. And a similar deluge of light would ensue, if
all the luminous sparks which are latent in the darkness were
simultaneously set free ; and the whole globe itself would end
in flame, were all the fiery elements that are at present dis-
persed throughout the world to be at once disengaged and
kindled. The investigation of the salutary bonds which hold
together these elementary forces in due equilibrium, controlling
one by the other, and confining each within its prescribed limits,
does not fall within the scope of our present inquiries, as
neither does the question, whether these bonds be not of a
higher kind than naturalists commonly suppose? More
immediately connected with, as also more important for our
general subject, is the result which chemical analysis has so
indubitably established, that in the natural world every object
consists of living forces, and that properly nothing is ri^id
and dead, but all replete with hidden life. This colossal
mountain range of petrified mummies which forms nature on
the wholethis pyramid of graves, piled one over the other,

is therefore, it is true, a historical monument of the past of

all the bygone ages of the world in the advancing develop-
ment of death; but nevertheless, there is therein a latent
vitality. Beneath the vast tombstone of the visible world
there slumbers a soul, not wholly alien, but more than half
akin to our own. This planetary and sensible world, and
the earth-soul imprisoned therein, is only apparently dead.
Nature does but sleep, and will, perhaps, ere long awake
again. Sleep generally is, if not the essence, yet, at least,
an essential signature and characteristic of nature. Everv
natural object partakes of it more or less. Not the animals
only, but the very plants sleep ; while in the vicissitudes of the
seasons, and of their influences on the productive surface of
the earth, and, in truth, on the whole planet, a perpetual

SLEEP AN ESSENTIAL LAW OF NATURE. 87

alternation is perceptible between an awakening of life and a
state of slumbering repose. Whatever consequently partakes
in, and requires the refreshment of sleep, belongs, even on
that account, to nature. Painters, indeed, have given us
pictures of sleeping angels or genii ; but the pure spirits
sleep not, and stand, in truth, in no need of such rest, and
their activity is not subject to this necessity of alternate
repose.

The comparison of a sentence in the Mosaic history of the
creation, with a passage in the Hindoo cosmogony, somewhat
similar in kind, but most different in the application, will
serve, perhaps, to place this fact in the clearest light. In the
former it is said, " God rested on the seventh day." Now, in
this expression there is nothing to startle us. In explaining it,
there is no need to have recourse to a figurative interpretation.
It does not allude to God's inmost nature (which admits not
of such alternation of states or need of rest), but simply to His
external operations. For in every case where an operation of
the Deity takes place, whether in history or nature, an alter-
nation between the first divine impulse, and a subsequent period
of repose, is not only conceivable but actually noticeable. For
the divine impulse or hand is, as it were, withdrawn, in order
that this first impulse of the Creator may fully expand itself,
and that the creature adopting it, may carry it out and deve-
lope his own energies in accordance therewith. But instead of
this correct statement, we have in the Hindoo cosmogony, that
" Brahma sleeps." While he thus slumbers the whole creation,
with its worlds and mundane developments, is said to collapse
into nought. Here, then, a single word hurries us from the
sure ground of truth and divine revelation into the shifting
domain of mythology. Of Him indeed, who is higher than
the angels and created spirits, it is no doubt assumed through-
out the New Testament that, while on earth, He slept like other
men. Once, too, it is expressly stated, that during a great
storm, while His disciples were filled with alarm, He was asleep
in the hinder part of the ship ; but that when He awoke the
winds ceased. But here also, the case is different. While
implying many a great object and instructive lesson beside, this
passage, like several others, seems designed to prove that our
Lord's body was no mere phantom ; but that He took upon Him
a real human form, and was, in truth, a man who stood in need

88 NATURE INTELLIGIBLE TO THE SPIRITUAL ONLY.

of sleep. And from this we may infer, that sleep is so indis-
pensable a condition of natural existence, that even God Him-
self, as soon as He condescended to enter its limits by taking
upon Him a human body, became subject to nature's essential
law of sleep.

The important part which sleep plays not only in nature,
but also in man, her first-born son, appears from the earliest
event that is recorded of his history, even in Paradise. God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and out of his opened
side took of his vital substance to invest it with a bodily veil
and shape, and to present it before him on his awaking as the
gentle helpmeet of his existence. Extremely significant also
is the difference in the accounts of man's and of woman's
material formation. Man is formed of the dust of the earth,
and therefore shortly after invested with the dominion of the
whole earthly globe as the deputy and vicegerent of Him from
whom cometh all lordship and authority. But woman is
taken and created out of the bosom or heart of man. Would
human wit have ever invented, or even conceived the possibility
of this great marvel of creative ommipotence.

This was in Paradise but with the loss of it man was de-
prived in a great manner of those higher powers of life and
those secrets of nature which he had previously possessed and
understood. For even in the body of his earthly tabernacle
which had fallen a prey to death, he had become deteriorated,
and his organic constitution, as is expressly intimated, fell con-
siderably lower in the scale of sensible existence, and sunk nearer
to the level of the brute creation. On this account the cherubic
sentinels, with the flaming sword, were placed at the gate of
Paradise, that man might not stretch forth his hand to seize

r'n the rights and privileges which he had formerly enjoyed,
now they would only have led to more mischievous abuse
and deeper corruption. But since then, many great days of
creation have come and gone. Again has the great relation
between God and man been restored, and that also between man
and the sensible world with the spirits and forces that rule
therein, has changed and become new. And now that the be-
ginning is made, and the foundation laid for the Redemption
of the world, no man, no one at least who will loyally join the
banner of the Redeemer, is forbidden, but every one has freely
offered to him the divine, flaming, two-edged sword of the Spirit

NATURE INTELLIGIBLE TO THE SPIRITUAL ONLY. 89

or of the Word, and of the thoughts of the heart united to
Him, enlightened by Him, and emanating from Him. This fact
of itself furnishes at once the answer to the question concerning
the secrets of nature, whether, since they are no longer to be
kept close from man, impure and wicked hands may drag them
to the light, or whether it be not better that they should
be touched by the holy and conscientious alone, and faithfully
guarded with a pious reserve and religious delicacy.

And here the very context suggests naturally the considera-
tion of the last of the three steps which, following the course
marked out for it by God, the human mind has at last made
in very modern times towards a true physical science, and a
right understanding of the most inmost secrets of nature. ^ It
consists in a closer observation and a commencing recognition
of a sacred thread of ensouled life of an internal soul-like
link which holds together the whole frame of nature. The
thing and force itself are as old as the world and every sphere
of existence aU the leaves of tradition and history are full
of its manifestations and effects. But the methodical obser-
vation and treatment of these phenomena (in which alone the
true scientific character consists) dates its commencement
within little more than half a century ago. To speak, there-
fore, agreeably to the measure of time in the slow development
of science, it is of yesterday or the day before. And it is
even on this account also that I have been constrained to count
this third and last advance towards a higher science of nature,
as nothing more than a half-step. For it is only a beginning
which as yet has gained no firm footing in the minds of men,
and, moreover, besides the right and direct road, it has
already opened many bye-paths of possible error. This only
direct road, that higher standard of correct judgment which
at the very commencement we alluded to as the guiding rule
in these matters, must be sought by philosophy in that divine
sword of the Spirit which pierces even to the marrow of life,
dividing soul and spirit, and which also is a discerner of spirits.
But if another standard and a higher tribunal is to be set up,
then I must leave it to others who perhaps know more about
the matter than I do, and are better qualified to decide upon
it. This spiritual warfare at any rate cannot be much longer
eluded or avoided. Oh that men would take therein Holy
Writ exclusively for their guide. For it indeed regards .the

PHYSICAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE FALL.

whole of life and every important moment of it as a conflict
with invisible powers, as also it tacitly implies or expressly
intimates that the whole sensible world is to be looked
upon as nothing else than an almost transparent, and at all
events, a very perishable veil of the spiritual world. To the
leader of the rebel spirits the Bible ascribes so great an in-
fluence m creation, that it calls him the prince, nay, even the
god of this world-the ruler of its principalities and powers.
And in order that this might not be taken in a mere figura-
tive sense, and be understood only of a race of men morally
corrupt and depraved, these spiritual potentates are in other
places expressly called the elementary powers of nature-
powers of the air, which in this dark planetary world of
ours is compounded of light and darkness, and ever struo-.
glmg between life and death. The true key and explanL
S i - le may ' however > lie in the simple sentence

-Death came into the world by sin." As, then, by the death
o the first man, who was not created for, nor originally de-
signed for death, death has passed upon the whole human race -
so by the earlier fell of him, who had been the first and most
glorious of created spirits, death passed upon the universe
that eternal death whose fire is unquenchable. Hence it is
written: "Darkness was on the face of the deep, and the
earth as the mere grave of that eternal death" was without
iorm and void ;" but the spirit of God moved on the face of
3 waters and therein lay the first germ of life for the new
creation. W* here see the difference between all heathen
systems of natural philosophy and a divine knowledge of
nature . e one acquired in and by God, and also the key for
a right understanding of the latter.

^ If now the dynamic play of the living forces of -nature, which
is unquestionably a living entity, and has a life in itself
though not indeed of and from itself if this dynamical alter-
nation between life and death be regarded as a simple fact
and man is content to rest there, without seeking to explai^
it by a higher principle, then will he have ever the self-same
Une an all-producing, all-absorbing, ruminating monster
whether we express it poetically, as in mythology, or in the
scientific formularies of physiology. Quite different is it
bowever, if this great pyramid has been built upon the foun-
dation of eternal death. Then is the whole creature of this

EMANCIPATION OF NATURE FROM DEATH. 91

earthly planet and sensible world merely a commencing life
which, so long as the pyramid is still unfinished and incom-
plete, is, in parts, perpetually relapsing into death into
actual death, or at least into diseases and fractures of various
kinds, which are only so many principia or germs of death.
Then is nature itself nothing less than the ladder of resurrec-
tion, which, step by step, leads upwards, or rather is carried
from the abyss of eternal death up to the apex of light in the
heavenly illumination. For, understanding it in this sense, it
is impossible to think of nature without remembering at the
same time the divine hand which has built this pyramid, and
which, along this ladder, brings life out of death. This view,
moreover, accounts for the fact, that a state of slumber is
essential to nature and furnishes an explanation why that
perpetually-recurring collapse into sleep, which to us appears so
near akin to death, should be nature's proper character. And
just as the consuming fire of death appears in the more highly
organised beings to be somewhat subdued and restrained-
mitigated or exalted into the quickening warmth of life, so
also sleep is only the more than half enlightened brother of
death. And indeed as such, and the lovely messenger of hope
to immortal spirits, was he ever regarded and described by
the ancients ; but that which for them was little more than
a beautiful image of poetry, is for us the profoundest of
truths.

An exalted view and understanding of nature consists, then,
in its being contemplated not merely as a dynamical play of
reciprocal forces, but historically in its course of development,
as a commencing life, perpetually relapsing into death, ever
disposed to sleep, and only painfully raising itself, or rather
raised and lovingly guided through all the intermediate
grades into the light. But beneath the huge tombstone of
outward nature there sleeps a soul, not wholly alien, but half
akin to ourselves which is distracted between the troubled
and painful reminiscence of eternal death, out of which it
issued, and the flowers of light which are scattered here and
there on this dark earth, as so many lovely suggesters of a
heavenly hope. For this earthly nature, as Holy Writ testi-
fies,* is, indeed, subject to nullity, yet, without its will, and
* Romans viii. 20.

92 FINAL EMANCIPATION OF NATUEE FROM DEATH.

without its fault : and consequently in hope of Him who has so
subjected it, it looks forward in the expectation that it shall one
day be free, and have a part in the general resurrection and
consummate revelation of God's glory, before which both
nature and death shall stand amazed and for this last day of a
new creation it sighs anxiously, and yearns with the pro-
foundest longing.

END OF LECTURE IV.

LECTURE V.
OF THE SOUL OF MAN IN RELATION TO GOD.

A DIVINE science of nature one, *'. e., which is ever looking
to and has its root in God unlike the old heathen physio-
logies sees something more in nature than a mere endless
play of living forces and the alternations of dynamical action.
Contemplating it rather as a whole, and in the connexion of
its several parts, it traces it from the first foundation on which
it was originally raised, up to the final consummation which
the Almighty has designed it to attain. Now, to such a mode
of studying it, nature appears to be in its beginning, as it were,
a bridge thrown across the abyss of eternal death and eternal
nothingness. And in perfect agreement with this origin
or foundation, it exhibits itself at the outset as a house of
corruption, a character which, to a certain degree, it subse-
quently and long afterwards retains. After a while, however,
this house of corruption is transformed, by the omnipotence
of the good Creator, into a laboratory of new life, and finally
is raised into a ladder of resurrection, ascending, or rather is
made to conduct, step by step, to the highest pitch of earthly
glorification, in which nature too has a promise that she shall
partake. This was the subject of the preceding Lecture, and
it naturally enough suggests the further question, whether a
similar scale of gradual exaltation exists for the human soul,
which, even while it is in many respects akin to mother earth
and to nature generally, is, nevertheless, far more excellent,
and by its innate dignity claims to be regarded as the very
head and crown of this earthly creation. The inquiry then,
^whether the soul of man, gradually rising out of the depths of
this perishable existence and the bondage of corruption, up to
God, can approach nearer to, and finally be totally identified
with Him ; or at least, whether it is capable of being united in
a perfect and lasting harmony with the superior powers of a

INTRINSIC DISCORD OF THE MIND.

higher and a diviner region^this will form the theme of our
present disquisition. In discussing it, however, our atten-
tion will be directed principally to its psychological aspect
its relation, t. *., to the theory of consciousness. For the
moral examination of this subject, even if it be not allowable
to assume that it, at aU events, is weU known, belongs to
another department of inquiry.

Now, on this head, the following remark immediately and
naturally suggests itself to the reflecting mind. Unless the soul
be at unity with itself it cannot hope ever to be one with, or to
attain to an harmonic relation with that Being, who, as he is the
one source and principle of all and on whom all depends, is in
himself a pure harmony. But so far is this condition from
being fulfilled in the actual state of the human consciousness,
that the latter appears rather to consist of pure and endless
discord. Fourfold, I said, is man's consciousness; and I
called its four conflicting forces, viz., understanding and will,
reason and fancy, its four poles, or chief branches, or even
the four quarters of the internal world of thought. How
seldom, however, do the understanding and will agree together.
Does not each of them prefer to follow an independent course
of its own ? How seldom do men really and perseveringly
will and desire what they clearly see and acknowledge and
perfectly understand to be the best ! And how often, on the
other hand, do we understand little or nothing of that, which
yet in the inmost recesses of our hearts, we most desire and
wish, and most ardently and determinedly resolve upon!
Keason and fancy too, both in the inner thought and in out-
ward life also, are, on the whole, in hostile conflict with each
other. Reason would wish to suppress or at least to dispense
altogether with fancy, while fancy, caring, for the most part, but
little or nothing for the reason, goes its own way. The will,
moreover, unceasingly distracted, is never even at peace with
itself, while the reason, standing alone in the endless evolution
of its own thought, entangles itself at last in a labyrinth of
.irreconcileable contradictions. The understanding, again, has
so many grades and species, and divides itself among so many
spheres and functions, that in this respect we might be justi-
fied in saying: This one understanding understands not
the other, even though it be equally correct both in itself and
in its mode of operation. And thus, too, in the individual :

INTRINSIC DISCORD OF THE MIND. 95

his understanding, the sum, i. e., of all that he understands,
consists, for the most part, but of rags and fragments of
truth, which often enough do not match very well, and
seldom, if ever, admit of being made to blend harmoniously
together. And so, too, is it in all that belongs to, and is under
the influence of fancy. The subjective views, for instance, and
conceits of man the delusions of his senses, the rapidly
changing meteors and unsubstantial phantoms of human
passion, are things only too well known, self-evident, and
universally acknowledged.

So profound then, even in a psychological point of view, and
apart from the multiplied phases which the moral aspect pre-
sents, appears the discord which reigns in our whole mind as
at present constituted! Dissension seems to be interwoven
into its fundamental fabric. Instead, therefore, of saying the
human consciousness is fourfold, with equal if not with greater
correctness we might and ought to say, it is divided or rather
split into four or more pieces. It is common enough to speak
of facts of consciousness. And yet how seldom among philoso-
phers is anything more meant by this expression than the mere
thinking of thoughts, in the eternal repetition of the same
empty process in which the thinking Ego thinks itself, and by
means of which the Me is as it were seized in the very act,
and then, as the first beginning, the imaginary Creator and
Demiurge of the ideal world, this Me is hung out like a gilded
pennon from the top of the \vhole artificial system.* The only
fact of the consciousness that really deserves to be so named
is its internal dissension. And this discord not only reveals
itself in thought between the Me and Not Me, but pervades the
whole and all its branches, or parts and forms, its species and
spheres, in mind and soul, understanding and will, reason and
fancy, which everywhere manifests itself, and of which the
thousandfold material discords of man's outer life is only the
reflection its natural cons quence and further development.
From this fact of the manifold and ever- varying dissension of
the human consciousness an exposition of philosophy might
not inappropriately set out. in order from this point to seek the
solution of its peculiar problem and the rigth road for the attain-

* Schlegel is alluding to such principles as the " Cogito ergo sum" of
Des Cartes, and especially to the cognate axiom of Fichte : " Das ich setzt
sich. selbst." " The Me posits or affirms itself." Trans.

96 THIS DISCORD A CONSEQUENCE OF THE FALL.

ment of its end. For the problem of philosophy as contem-
plated from this side would consist in the restoration of that
original, natural, and true state of the consciousness in which
it was at unity and in harmony with itself. It is a leading
error of philosophy that it views the present state of the
human consciousness as even its right one, which requires
only to be raised to a higher power in order to be cleansed
from the taint of commonness of the ordinary way of thinking
which clings to it among the ignorant and unphilosophical,
and thereupon to be comprised in strangely artificial and
seemingly most .profound formulae. But by such an involu-
tion to a higher power the error is not got rid of, but rather
the evil itself is aggravated, since it is contained in the root
itself, and is to be found in the inmost structure of the con-
sciousness. Besides it cannot have been the original consti-
tution of man's mind to be thus a prey to manifold dissension
and split as it were into pieces and quartered. This discord
is undoubtedly in the true meaning of the word a fact, the
only one which every individual can without hesitation vouch
for on the immediate and independent testimony of his own
experience. For the cause of this well-authenticated fact we
have only to look to that event which revelation has made
known, of which each man must perceive the sad traces within
his own heart. It began with that eclipse of the soul which
preceded and commenced the present state of man, and was
occasioned by the intervention of a foreign body between it and
the sun which gave it light. But if the soul, the thinking as
well as the loving soul, be the centre of consciousness, then in
this great and general darkening of the centre, the entire sphere
in its whole essence and structure must have been altered.
And consequently in its philosophical aspect, and apart from
all special moral depravity in the independent actions, evil
habits and passions of individuals, the soul is no longer what
it was originally, as created and designed by the Almighty.

Thus, then, the whole human consciousness is filled with un-
mitigated discord and division, not merely in its mixed rational
and sensuous or terrestrial and spiritual nature, but thought
itself is at issue with life. And moreover while in the thought
the internal and the external, faith and science, are involved in
a hostile contrariety, disturbing and destroying each other, so
is it also in life with the finite and the infinite, the transitory

RESTORATION OF UNITY IN THE MIND. 97

and the imperishable. In such a state of things, therefore, and
from this point of view, the problem of philosophy, as already
remarked, cannot well be any other than the restoration of the
consciousness to its primary and true unity, so far as this is
humanly possible. Now that this true and permanent unity,
if it be at all attainable, must be looked for in God, is at all
events an allowable hypothesis. For it will not be disputed,
except by one who holds both this unity itself and its restitu-
tion to be absolutely impossible. But this is a point on which
much may be advanced on both sides, and which therefore,
since mere disputing can avail nothing either one way or the
other, can only be decided by the fact the issue of the attempt.
On this hypothesis then, even philosophy must in every case
take God for the basis of its speculations set out from Him,
and draw in every instance from this divine source. But then,
considered from this point of view and pursuing this route,
it is no idle speculation and simple contemplation of the
inner existence and thought alone no dead science but a
vital effort and an effectual working of the thought for the re-
storation of a corrupt and degraded consciousness to its natural
simplicity and original unity. And this is the way which we
have marked out for the course of our speculations, or rather
the end which we must strive, however imperfectly, yet at least
to the best of our abilities, to attain to. And accordingly each
of the four preceding Lectures, although in free sketchy out-
line, contains an attempt to put an end to and reconcile some
particular schism among those which are the most marked
and predominant in the consciousness, and which in essential
points most disturb the whole of life. How far in these four
introductory essays this problem has been satisfactorily or
completely solved and happily settled, is a question which
will be best and most fairly tested by the idea of philosophy,
as having its true end and aim in the restoration of this cor-
rupt consciousness to its sound state to its original unity
and full energy of life.

The discord between philosophy itself and life was the first
that I attempted to get rid of. But now, if in the place of
abstract thought and the dialectical reason, we are entitled to
look to the thinldng and loving soul for the true centre of
man's consciousness, then the imaginary partition- wall be-
tween science and life at once crumbles away. Our second

98 [RESTORATION- OF UNITY IN THE MIND.

Lecture was occupied with the discord which subsists between
the finite and the infinite the eternal and the perishable ;
and, because this involved a problem which can only be solved
by life and reality, I therefore confined myself to pointing out
the way in which we may hope to discover their unity and
equation. With this view, I attempted to establish a vivid con-
viction that there is a true enthusiasm wherein the illimitable
feeling manifests itself as actual, and that even the earthly
passion of love assumes, in the holy union of fidelity and
wedlock, the stamp of the indissoluble and eternal, and be-
comes the source of many divine blessings, and of many moral
ties, which are stronger, and furnish a firmer moral basis to
society, than any general maxims, or than any ethical theory
which is built upon such notional abstractions, far more than
upon the pregnant results of the experience of life. And
lastly, in pure longing, I pointed out an effort of man's con-
sciousness directing itself to an infinite, eternal, and divine
object. But, as this longing can only evince its reality by the
fruits it brings forth, I reserved, to a future opportunity, the
more precise determination of this question. The theme of
our third Lecture was the existence and the reconciliation of
that schism which, both in thought and life, divides the internal
and the external worlds. If all knowing be a mere process
of the reason, then must this discord between the inner and
the outer be for ever irreconcilable, and w r e should be utterly
at a loss to conceive how a foreign and alien body could ever
have found entrance from without into our Me, and become
an object of its cognition. But if every species of knowing
be positive, if, also, the cognition of the spiritual and divine
be nothing else than an internal and higher science of expe-
rience, then the idea of revelation furnishes at once the key
to explain, w T hile it establishes the possibility of a knowledge of
the divine. And this remark admits, also, of application to
nature itself, when we consider it in its totality and internal
constitution, and speak of a knowledge of these things of
the vital force which rules in it, or its animating soul ; for this,
Indeed, eludes our grasp, but yet speaks plainly to us to him,
at least, who is wise to understand nature's language. For if,
in attempting to understand nature, we isolate her, as it were,
and exclude all reference to Him who gave her being, and
has assigned, also, her limits and her end, if, in short, we

SECTS AND PARTIES IN SCIENCE AND LETTERS. 99

disturb the two poles of a right understanding of nature,
then, most assuredly, will the effort be fruitless, and all our
labour unprofitable. Man, however, has gone still further, and
by transferring the innate discord of his internal conscious-
ness to outward objects, has forcibly rent asunder God and
Nature, he has thus divorced the sensible world and its
Maker, and set them in hostile array against each other, and
thereby brought physical science in collision with the know-
ledge of divine things and with revelation. Our fourth Lecture,
therefore, was consecrated to an attempt to effect here, also, a
reconciliation, or, at least, to lay the first stone, and to mark
out the road by which alone we could hope to arrive at so
desirable a result : and this is a problem which is even the
more important the truer it is, that this discord is not
confined to science and the scientific domain, but extends,
also, to real life, where these discrepant views and modes oi
thinking are arrayed against each other in so many hostile
and conflicting parties. And although, as differing merely as
to the form and direction of thought, they do not come for-
ward in so distinct a shape, or under such characteristic names,,
as the parties in religion and politics, still this dissension is
not, therefore, less real and universal, or its effects and influ-
ence less noticeable. Of these parties the first, and by far
the most numerous, is the sect of the rationalists, who doubt
indiscriminately of all things, and test every matter by the
standard of their own scepticism. The second class is formed
of the exclusive worshippers of nature, and has many mem-
bers among scientific men ; while, lastly, the third con-
sists of those who derive, from the positive source of a divine
decision, the law of their thinking and the standard of their
judgment. Now, this last party, if it would only go a few
steps further, and draw still deeper from, this source, would
be able to assign its appropriate place and value to every
potencc and truth in the other species of thought and know-
ledge, and even thereby might qualify itself to dissolve and
reconcile the all-pervading discord. Hut inasmuch as they
do not adopt this conciliatory attitude towards natural, his-
torical, and even artistic knowledge, so far as they are true,
but, on the contrary, in a spirit of animosity, attempt to cir-
cumscribe and set negative limits to them, if not absolutely to
reject them as worthless and profane, then, when they least

H 2

100 MAN'S MIND ORIGINALLY SIMPLER.

wish it, they really sink into a party no less than the other
two. And thus, while they might occupy a far higher position,
they fall to the level of the rest, and contribute, on their part,
an element to the intellectual strife, and tend to promote
and perpetuate it. The three parties, then, which by their
ruling ideas divide life and the age, are the rational thinkers,
the worshippers of nature, and those who, in all controverted
questions, appeal absolutely to a higher and divine authority ;
for inasmuch as the sentence of the latter is only of a nega-
tive import, it is therefore insufficient to meet all the requi-
sitions of life.

Thus, then, have I led your consideration to four different
points, in order to seize and exhibit, in as many different
forms and spheres, this great fact of the dissension in man's
consciousness, as it exists at present. In a similar manner,
too, a fourfold attempt has been made to remedy its hereditary
disease, which has been inherent in it since the original darken-
ing of the soul at the Fall, and, by appeasing the discord which,
as it is all-pervading and universal, assumes manifold shapes
and forms, to make the first step of return and approxima-
tion towards the original harmonic unity. Having considered
the matter in these four special points of view, it will not, I
hope, appear premature if I now propose the question in a
more general point of view, which will embrace the whole
human consciousness itself, but, at the same time, limit our
consideration of it exclusively to its psychological aspect.

Now it is in nowise difficult to conceive of the human soul
as much simpler than it is, and apart from that division of it
into several faculties, which is at most, and properly, but an
accident of its existence. One of the first among the modern
philosophers of Germany, says somewhere of the soul, that
the supposition of its existence is superfluous, and that it is a
pure fiction.* But this statement was the result of his having
abandoned in his system the true centre of life and conscious-
ness ; whoever, on the contrary, adheres steadily thereto, will
never concur in a position which simply, as contradicting the
general feeling of human nature, requires no elaborate refuta-
tion. But as regards the two parts into which the soul is
divided, viz., Reason and Fancy these, at any rate, are no
fiction, but exist really and truly within the consciousness,
* Schelling.

MAN'S MIND ORIGINALLY SIMPLER. 101

where, as in life itself, they often stand confronting each other
in hostile array. This division cannot well be called super-
fluous, but yet it does not admit of being considered absolutely
necessary, and belonging to the soul's original essence. If all
thinking were a living cogitation if the thinking and the
loving soul had remained at unity in their true centre, then the
external methodical thought and the internal productive think-
ing, meditating, and invention, would not be separate and
divorced at least they would not come into hostile conflict
with each other, but would rather be harmoniously com-
bined in the living cogitation of the loving soul. The several
forms, too, of a higher love and a higher endeavour, aye, every
lawful earthly inclination, would be blended in this harmony
of the soul, and no longer stand out as a separate and isolated
faculty, occasionally conflicting with all the others. Even the
conscience would no longer appear as a special act or func-
tion of the judgment, of a distinct and peculiar kind, but would
be absorbed in the whole as a delicate internal sensibility and
the pulse of the moral life.

As for sensation and memoiy, they are in any case but
ministering faculties, which only appear distinct and inde-
pendent under the influence of the prevailing tendency to
separation and disunion, but on the supposition of a simpler
and more harmonious consciousness, would be counted merely
as bodily organs. If, then, the soul had not suffered an
eclipse if it had remained undisturbed in the clear light of
God then would man's consciousness also have been much
simpler than it now is, with all those several faculties which
we at present find and distinguish in it. In such a case, it
would consist only of understanding, soul, and will. For if,
according to the three directions of its activity, any one should
still be disposed to divide it into the thinking, the feeling, and
the loving soul, still this would not be founded on any intrinsic
strife or discord, but they would all combine harmoniously
together, and in this harmonious combination be at unity
among themselves. As for the distinction between under-
standing and will, that would still remain, since it is essential
to mind or spirit, and may, in a certain sense, be ascribed
even to the uncreated spirits. But in this garden of the soul
of inward illumination on this fruitful soil of harmonised
thought and feeling they would walk amicably together, and

102 THE ESSENCE OP MIND IN IKE P TO E SPtEns.

work in common, and would not, as hostUe beings, turn aside
.r .opposite dzrections, or as is mostly the case in actual life!

Thus nearly, or somewhat similarly, must we conceive of,
and attempt to represent to ourselves, the human mind i,
ongma state, before it was darkened, rent asunder, and eon!

but was as

And now as regards understanding and will, as a division of
powers essential to the mind or spirit, which, however, as such, is
)t necessarily inharmonious : the expression already touched
upon of another of our modern German philosophers, will serve
as a transition to and commencing point for my remarks
According to this memorable assertion with regard to the mind
(gent) and which will serve as an appropriate pendant to
that last quoted about the soul, the essence of mind or spirit
m general consists in the negation of the opposite * Now I
cannot stop at present to inquire what sense this would R ive
it applied to the uncreated spirit, and the Creator of all other
spiritual beings. But as concerns created spirits ; their essence
contrariwise, consists principally in an eternal affirmation!
But this, however, they have not of and from themselves, but it
is the affirmation of the one to which God has exclusively
desuned them But it is not of themselves, but of God and
lis energy, of whom these created spirits are, as it were but
a ray a spark of His light therefore in this ray, not 'only
sight and understanding, but also thought and deed will and
execution, are simultaneous and identical. And it is in this
respect that they are so totally different from men. Now this
SLf ^ ^Paf 1 ** 1 to them fi God, is nothing less than
the thought of their destination of the purpose of their being
--in a word, their mission, if we may speak after a human
tnon, and in the prevailing phraseology. And, indeed, in
ancient languages, the pure created intelligences have these
names from that mission which constitutes their essence for their
essence is even perfectly identical with this divine mission or
inborn eternal affirmation. To the fallen spirits, on the other
ttd, the maxim above quoted applies truly enough: their

Hegel.

FOUR SOURCES OF HUMAN ERROR. 103

essence consists, not in the divine affirmation, or the mission
which they have abandoned, but rather in the eternal, though
bootless, denial of their opposite, which is even nothing less
than the divine order. For to their ambitious intellect and
perverse wills, the latter, in all probability, appeared far too
loving, and therefore unintelligible ; while, to their censorious
judgment, it seemed deficient in rigour of consequence, and
not unconditional and absolute enough.

All that has hitherto been said, reduces itself to the follow-
ing result. As by the first obscuration and eclipse of the
human soul, the very body of man was deteriorated, and
having been originally created with a capacity of immortality,
fell a prey to death, and received the germs, or became liable
to many diseases, as roots of death which is not guilt itself,
but the natural result of guilt, so in his consciousness there
was then implanted, and has ever since been propagated, a
germ of intellectual death and manifold seeds of error, which,
however, are not a new sin, but merely the natural conse-
quences of the first sin and the original corruption of the soul.
In four different forms, according to the four cardinal points
and fundamental faculties of the human consciousness, does
this inborn error and fruitful germ of erroneous and false
thinking show and develope itself. We have already spoken
of this futile idea of the deadness of all external life, which has
taken such deep root in the centre of all human thought in
the dead abstract notion and the empty formula, and which
clinging as an original taint to the human mind as at present
constituted, renders it so difficult for all those who, not con-
tent with merely observing nature, wish really to understand
it in its living operation, and moreover, to imitate in thought
its dynamical law, and the inner pulse of its vital forces. For
in the abstract notion all this evaporates, and when confined
within such dead formularies, the true life of nature quickly
becomes extinct. This, therefore, is the primary source of
error the leading species of barren and futile thinking in the
abstract understanding. But now this dead and lifeless cogi-
tation of abstract ideas, with its processes of combining and
inferring, or of analysing and drawing distinctions, may be
carried on into infinity, as being that wherein the essence or
function of reason consists, and also as giving rise to inter-
minable disputes and contradictions. Consequently this form

104

POCK SOUKCES OF HUMAN EnBOB.

of the reason, which is ever pursuing dialectical disputations
or else sceptically renouncing its own authority, even because
it never allows itself to proceed in what alone is its legitima o
course, becomes thereby a second source of error and fake
thinking among men. And, indeed, this erroneous procedure
of the dialectical reason, which is incessantly working out or
analysing its abstract notions, is the effect of the present coii-

iust ce b P W I 11 ", mmd; S that no indiTidual c< '
justice be blamed on its account, nor can its perverted con

elusions and corrupting results be fairly imputed! uLrior
views and principles of an immoral character

In considering the imagination as a source of error we
have no need to select the instance of a fancy satanLuy
inflamed to passion, or satanically deluded, or even one of
a purely materialistic bias and leaning. For fancy even fn
is greatest exaltation and purest form? is at best but a subjec*
trve view and mode of cogitative apprehension, and conse-
quently as such is ever a fruitful parent of delusion How
very rarely an imagination is to be found which is not predomi-
nant y subjective, is shown precisely in the very highest grade
of its development_in the creations of imitative art Of
the exalted geniuses who in single ages and nations have
distinguished themselves from the great mass, and attained to
that rare emmence-the reputation of the tree artist :-out of
this short list of great names, how few can be selected of whose
productions it can be truly said and boasted :-Here iiT his
picture we have something more than a mere general view or
Ae peculiar iantasy of an individual ; here, life fnd nature stand
before us m their full truth and objective reality, and speak
to us in that umversalanguage, which is intelligible to men
of all countries and all times ! And the same remark applies
to the whole domain of scientific thought in general -I
especially to physical and historical science

inr i m ?v ner> in ^\ sphere of the wil1 ' h is not mere 'y

immoral volitions, which, as such, must ever be false and
The J.V fl exelusivel y the scums of erroneous thought,
iiie spring of those errors which we are at present consider

"ar "enM" 7 . orra f , the wm ;tseif ' <>* ^^

Be feca'vTo^- 7 s \ S bjeCt and Cnd be ' in themselves,
peikctly legitimate and unexceptionable. That this absolute
willingor to speak more humanly, and in ordinary Ian-

FOUR SOURCES OF HUMAN ERROR. 105

guage, self-will and obstinacy is a fundamental and hereditary
failing of the human character, as at present constituted,
which shows itself in the very youngest children, with the first
dawn of reason, and requires to be most watchfully checked, is
but too well known to every teacher and every mother. But not
in infancy only, but also in the most important and compre-
hensive relations of life nay, even in the history of the
W0 rld this same absolute willing proves the most pernicious
of all the sources of error and corruption in the soul and life
of man, even when its object is not unmitigatedly bad, or
when, perhaps, it may even deserve to be called great and
noble. It is through this absolute willing that the sove-
reign with unlimited authority, even though he be gifted
with a strong and comprehensive intellect, and possessed of
many estimable qualities and moral virtues, becomes, never-
theless, the oppressor of his people and the merciless tyrant.
Through it also, in states which are not monarchical, but
where the supreme authority is divided among several estates,
views and principles which, calmly considered and duly
limited by opposing principles, are true and beneficial, by
being advanced absolutely, and without qualification, are
converted into so many violent factions, which, distracting
the minds of men and inflaming their passions, produce a
wide- spread and fearful anarchy.

The dead abstract notions of the intellect, the dialectical
disputes of the reason, the purely subjective and one-sided
apprehension of objects by a deluded fancy, and the absolute
will, are the four sources of human error. Considered apart
from the aberrations of passion, special faults of character, and
prejudices of education, as well as the false notions and wrong
judgments to which the latter give rise these four are the
springs from which flows all the error of the soul which
makes itself the centre of the terrestrial reality, and which,
springing out of this soil, is nourished and propagated by it.
To what then are we to look to dispel these manifold delusions
but to a closer and more intimate union of the soul with
God as the source of life and truth ?

What, let us therefore ask, is the organ by which such closer
union with and immediate cognition of God is to be effected ?
Plainly not the understanding, even though as the cognitive
sense of a revelation of spirit, and of the spirit of revelation,

106 CONDESCENSION" OF THE DIVINE ESSENCE.

it carries us through the first steps towards a right
understanding of ourselves and the Creator. For so long as
we confine ourselves to the understanding, which, at most, is
but a preparatory and auxiliary faculty, we -shall only make an
approximation. It is only when the divine idea, passing
beyond the understanding the mere surface, as it were, of
our consciousnesspenetrates into the very centre of our
being, and strikes root there, that it is possible, with a view
to this end, to draw immediately from the primary source of
all life. Now, the organ which essentially co-operates in this
work is the will, which, in such co-operation however, divests
itself entirely of its absoluteness. On this, account I called
the will the sense for God, or the sense which is appropriated
to the perception of Deity.

But before I proceed in my attempt to define and elucidate
the nature of this reciprocal action, and show how it is
possible or generally conceivable, it will be necessary to
premise one essential remark. I have already attempted to
discover and to establish a special and characteristic mark
for every sphere of life, and its highest and lowest grades.
Thus, the proper and distinctive signature of nature, and all
that belongs to it, is a state of slumber or sleep ; the charac-
teristic property of man, which distinguishes him from all
other intellectual beings, is fancy; whSe the essential pro-
perty of the pure created spirits is the stamp of eternity
which is impressed on all their operations, by means of which
they perform, with untiring energies, their allotted duties,
without the alternation of repose or the necessity of sleep, and
by reason of which they remain for ever what they once begin
to be. Applying the same line of thought to a higher
region, I would now attempt to discover there some cha-
racteristic sign, by observing which man may perhaps be able
to find his true position. Proceeding then in this line of
thought, and preserving a due regard to the weakness of
the human capacity, I would observe as follows. The
characteristic not indeed of the divine essence, for that is
too great for man's powers of apprehension but of the
divine operations and His influence on the creation and all
created beings, consists in His incredible condescension to-
wards these His creatures, and especially towards man.
Incredible, however, it may, nay, must and ought to be called,

CONCURRENCE OF MATTS WILL IN FAITH. 107

inasmuch as it transcends every notion, nay, all belief, even
the most confiding and childlike, and the more it is contem-
plated, appears the more inconceivable and amazing. Only
it admits of question, whether the expression be sufficiently
simple and appropriate, and, consequently, well-chosen; for
the fact itself of this divine condescension is affirmed in every
line and word of revelation. And by revelation I mean, not
merely the written revelation, but every manifestation more
or less distinct of God, and His divine operations and provi-
dence history, nature, and life. Now on no one point are
the voices of all, who on such a matter can be regarded as
authorities, so perfectly concordant and unanimous, as on this
wonderful attribute of the Godhead, which, on the suppo-
sition that the belief in one living God is universal, may be
considered as placed beyond doubt or question.

In order to demonstrate how essential is the co-operation
of the will to that living intercommunion with God, which is
something more than a mere understanding, we advance the
following assumptions.^ Supposing that in the incredible
condescension of His love, God has made Himself known to a
man, just as in the first books of our Holy Scripture He is
described as conversing with Moses, and as familiarly as one
friend talks to another ; supposing also that He revealed to
him all the secret things of heaven and earth without reserve ;
that He at the same time laid open to him His will and hidden
counsels, and that not summarily and in a general way, but
definitely and in details ; expressly making known to him His
gracious purposes, both in what He at present requires of him
and designs for him hereafter ; that He has also pointed out
to man the means which will enable him to accomplish His
will, and moreover has added the highest possible promises
for his encouragement ; supposing all this, is it not evident
that it nevertheless could not help or profit man unless he
consented to receive it ? The whole divine communication
would be in vain if man obstinately continued in his old Ego-
ism, mixed and compounded of evil habits, fears, and sensual
desires, and, unable to tear himself away, still clung close to
the narrow limits of self and his own Me.

Now it is nothing but this intrinsic consent and concur-
rence in the will of God, this calm affirmation of it, that can
help man, who is now left to his own free determination even

108 SELF-DENIAL AS BRINGING TJS NEAR TO GOD.

as regards the Deity, and that can lead him to God. On this
account I called the \vill, rather than the understanding, man's
sense for the divine. But all that is here required is the
internal assent, and not the power of actual performance ; for
that varies even according to the standard of nature, or rather
of that which is imparted to him from above, since of himself
man has no capacity for that which is higher and more excel-
lent, nothing being man's own but his will. Now this internal
assent and submission of man's own will to the divine is
clearly inconceivable where it has not, to a certain degree,
withdrawn from the sensible world which surrounds him with
so many ties and allurements, and where it has not loosened
and set itself free from the narrow domain of self to which
his Ego so closely clings.

Here then naturally arises the question, how far a renuncia-
tion of the \vorld and self-sacrifice, on which even the Platonic
philosophy so greatly insisted, is necessary, if we would ad-
vance one degree or at least one step nearer to God, as the
supreme good and all-perfect Being, and what are its true and
proper limits ? In obedience to this idea of the renunciation
of the world as indispensable to communion with God, the
Hindoo fakir will sit for thirty years in one spot, with his
eyes fixed immutably in the same direction, so that he not
only surpasses all the limits of human nature, but also erases
and extinguishes all traces of it in himself. Or perhaps, in
spite of the simple principle and rule of sound reason, that
man, as he is not the author of his own being, has no right to
terminate it, he follows a false idea of self-sacrifice, and mounts
the flaming pile in order to be the sooner united to the Deity.
In the fundamental idea of these extravagances there is
doubtless a germ of beauty and of truth, though in the per-
verse application and gigantic scale of exaggeration that we
meet with it among the primeval nations of Asia, it is distorted
into monstrous falsehood. A simple illustration, taken from
the different ages of man's life, will perhaps serve to set in a
clear light the point on which everything turns in this matter
of the assent of the human to the "divine will, and to deter-
mine the sense and the degree in which man ought not to
give himself up entirely to the world, or to revolve closely
round the centre of self, "if he would yield a sincere and hearty
submission to a higher voice and that guiding hand which

SELF-DENIAL HOW PAR NECESSARY. 109

conducts the education of the whole human race, and watches
with equal care the development of individuals and of ages.
The child may and must play, for such exercise is wholesome
and even necessary for the free expansion of its bodily powers;
but at its mother's call, for to the child hers is the higher
voice, it ought to leave its play. Youth, again, ought to be
merry and enjoy the verdant spring ; but when honour and
duty summon to earnest action, then must he be ready to lay
aside all light-hearted amusement for sterner avocations ; or
to take another view of the youthful temperament, should its
jovousness touch too rudely, not to say overstep, the bounds of
morality, then at the first hint of warning it must abandon its
treacherous pleasures. The full-grown man, too, having to
make his way in the world and to fight with fortune in the hard
struggle of life, has little leisure for idle feelings and medi-
tations ; only he must not renounce all higher and nobler sen-
timents, nor dismiss from his mind the thought of the Godhead
and the divine (which indeed for its mere preservation requires
no outward ordinance or loss of time), as belonging to the boy,
and suitable only for the unripe years of youth. Or to regard
life under its passive aspect, let us think of the happy wife by
the side of a husband she loves, and living only in her chil-
dren, and possessing of worldly good as much as she wishes
or requires : suddenly, by one of those changes and chances
which prevail in this transitory life, she is bereaved of all the
partner of her joys and cares, the children of her bosom, and
perhaps, too, of her rank and consideration, while beneath the
repeated strokes of affliction her very health sinks. Who
would check her tears or blame her natural sorrow if she feels
and tells her woes ? No one : for holier eyes than man's look
upon her with compassion. One thing, however, may fairly
and reasonably be expected of her, that she do not give way
entirely to despair, nor murmur against Providence. More,
therefore, than man requires of man in the ordinary relations
of life, God requires not of the human will ; and on that alone
does He make any requisition, in respect to that free assent
and internal concurrence which alone can bind us in personal
union with the Godhead, and bring us near to Him; a consum-
mation which no mere intellectual apprehension of all possible
revelations, whether written on the pages of inspiration, or on
the open tablets of nature, or engraven on the imperishable
annals of history, is suihcient to bring about.

110

MAN S FAITH NOT SUFFICIENTLY CHILDLIKE.

So much and nothing more is required for this essential
concurrence of the human will with the divine, in the general
relations of life. But, in the case of any special vocation and
profession if, for instance, a man feels himself disposed to
become a minister of the revealed Word, an instrument and
messenger of the divine communications then, no doubt
higher and sterner requisitions must come into consideration'
io men of native courage, what vocation can be more uni-
versal than that of a soldier and defender of his country- but
does not it require, besides undaunted courage and contempt
of death, the patient and enduring fortitude which bears up
under countless hardships and privations ? What vocation
again can be simpler and more fully founded in nature, than
that of the softer sex to become a mother? but how many
sufferings, and fears, and dangers, compass it about, and how
infinite are the great and little anxieties to which a mothers
love that purest and truest of all earthly affections is ex-
posed? And it is even herein that human love most betrays
its weakness ; it may suffice for some one determinate direc-
tion, some transitory period of life, for some single effort of
magnanimity or self-sacrifice, but it rarely survives the changes
of time and fortune, and its faith and ardour too often are
extinguished amid the petty trials of every-day life, and its
numberless cares and anxieties.

^ And as with the love, so also is it with the faith of men
it enters not sufficiently into munutiae ; it is not personal
enough, nor sufficiently childlike and confiding; it is not
made to refer enough to ourselves. Most men, indeed, have
only too high an opinion of their own worth an over-ween-
ing confidence in their own powers; at least, the opposite
fault of extreme diffidence is a rare exception But yet
t is true, men generally take far too low an estimate of their
true vocation and proper destiny ; they believe not in its hio-h
dignity ; and as viewed in its place among the vast universe,
they hold it and themselves as comparatively insignificant,
iut this a total misconception. Every man is an individual
tity an inner world of his own, full of life a true micro-
cosm (as has been already said in a different sense) in the
eye of God and in the scheme of creation: every man has
a vocation of his own, and an appropriate destinv Could
men s eyes be but once opened to see it, how would they be

MAN'S LONGING AFTEK THE ETERNAL AND DIVIXE. Ill

amazed at the infinity which they have neglected, and might
have attained to, and which generally in the world remains
neglected and unattained. But of the many thousands whom
this remark concerns, how very few ever attain to a clear
cognition of their real destination ! And the reason of this
is simply the fact, that the faith of men is all too weak, and,
above all, that it is too vaguely general, too superficial, too
little searching or profound not sufficiently personal and
childlike.

A childlike faith, and a love that endureth unto the end,,
these are the true bonds to hold the soul of man in intimate
union with God. But it is in hope, such as is at present
found among men, that the chief defect lies ; for hope ought
to be strong and heroic, otherwise it is not that which the
name expresses. Few men, perhaps, are entirely devoid of
faith and love, only they are not sufficiently carried into the
details and trifles of life, as human wants require ; for it
is exactly to these that all that is divine in men's thoughts
and deeds ought to be directed. In hope, on the contrary,
the inner man must raise himself and ascend up to God : it
must therefore be strong and energetic, if it is to be effi-
cacious. On this account we might well expect it to be far
more rare, comparatively, than faith and love, considered
according to the human scale of reasoning; on the other
hand, probably, there are many men who, internally, are
almost totally destitute of hope.

The longing after the eternal and divine, which has been
already described, is the seeking of God ; but this calm in-
ward assent of the will, whenever, with a childlike faith and
enduring love and in steadfast hope, it is carried through and
maintained with unwavering fidelity throughout life, is the
actual finding of Him within us, and a constant adherence to
Him when once we have found Him. As the root and prin-
ciple of all that is best and noblest in man, this divine long-
ing cannot be too highly estimated, and nowhere is it so
inimitably described, and its excellence so fully acknowledged,
as in Holy Writ itself. A remarkable instance of it is the
fact that a prophet who was set apart and called by God
Himself to his office, and was for that purpose endued with
miraculous gifts, is expressly called in Holy Writ the man of

112 FAITH ALONE CAN RESTORE UNITY TO THE MIND.

longings. * And yet this longing is nothing but the source,
the first root, from which springs that triple flower in the
lovely symbol of faith, hope, and charity, which afterwards,
spreading over every grade and sphere of moral and intel-
lectual existence, expands into the richest and most manifold
fruits.

Now it is very possible in some serious and intellectual
work to feel a pleasure in this triple union of holy thoughts
and sentiments, as with any deeply significant picture in gene-
ral, without duly entering the while into its precise requisi-
tions and profound meaning. But from one particular end of
a philosophy of life, i. e., of a thorough knowledge of the
human consciousness, the psychological aspect of the subject
assumes a peculiar importance, and essentially demands our
attention. With this view, I venture to assert tha$|.the
human consciousness, which otherwise and in itself is entirely
a prey to discord, and split into irreconcilable contraries, is
by faith, hope, and love, redeemed from this dissension is
raised from its innate law, of an erring and dead thought, and
of an absolute will, which is no less dead and null, being
restored gradually to a perfect state of unison and harmony.
Under the influence of faith and by this term I understand,
not the cold and heartless repetition of a customary formulary,
but a living and personal faith in a living and personal God
and Saviour, under the influence of such a faith, the living
spirit of truth steps into that place of the consciousness
which before was usurped by the mere abstract thinking of a
degraded understanding. ^ And whenever, on the other hand,
a refined goodness and Idve have in patient endurance become
the soul of existence, there is no room for the stormy ob-
stinacy or passionate wildness of an absolute will. Even
in the will itself all is now life ; discord is banished from it,
and all the threatening elements of strife are for ever ap-
peased. And in that trusting confidence with which the
loving soul leans upon God in the strong god-like hope
which takes its stand upon the Eternal, the reason, with its
ordering, regulating, and methodical processes, and the fancy,

* Daniel ix. 23. In our authorised translation it stands " greatly
"beloved," but in the Hebrew it is as given in the margin, " a man of de-
sires ;" in the Septuagint, avrjp 7ri6vfJ.i(iW' Trans.

HOPE THE YITAL FLAME OF FAITH AND LOVE. 113

with its dreams of the infinite, are again completely recon-
ciled, and thereby the harmony of the human consciousness
restored. Fancy, I remarked 'formerly, is the characteristic
property of man, as distinguished by it from other spiritual
intelligences ; for reason, as a mere faculty of negation, affords
only a negative distinction of his nature as compared with
irrational creatures.^) But now, in a more comprehensive
view, and, at the tfame time, with profounder significance
and greater truth of description, AVC may say of man, in the
same sense and in the same relation, hope forms his charac-
teristic property and his inmost essence.

Here, then, in this holy hope, is longing, that marvellous
flower of the soul, expanded into its perfect and noblest fruit.
If, in judging of the three, man looks to the end to which he
is to attain, if, in thought, he places himself at this point
of view, then assuredly will love appear the highest and the
best ; for hope ceases when fulfilment comes in, and sight
enters into the place of faith, but love abideth for ever.*
As long, however, as man has not yet attained unto that
which is perfect, and is still in pursuit of it, hope must be
regarded as the greatest, for it is even the true vital flame of
faith, as well as of love, and of all higher existence.

This divine hope is even the fruit-bearing principle and the
fructification of the immortal soul by the Holy Spirit of
Eternal Truth the luminous centre and focus of grace, where
the dark and discordant soul is illuminated and restored to
unison with itself and with God.

* 1 Cor. xiii. 13.

KND OF LECTUBE V.

114

LECTURE VI.

OF THE WISDOM OF THE DIVINE ORDER OF THINGS IN
NATURE, AND OF THE RELATION OF NATURE TO THE
OTHER LIFE AND TO THE INVISIBLE WORLD.

THE highest and loftiest language would fail us were it our
purpose to speak of the inmost essence of the Godhead, since
He is that which no thought or conception can comprehend, and
which no words are sufficient completely to describe or ade-
quately to express. On the other hand, when we reflect on
God's work in creation, and of His superintending providence
which rules the course of this earthly world, our thoughts
cannot be simple enough nor, to judge by that principle of the
divine condescension which formed the nucleus of our remarks
in the last Lecture, too familiar or affectionate. In a general
way this is commonly enough admitted, but practically it is
neglected. Men do not clearly present to their minds all that
is involved in it, and the remote consequences to which it
leads. And so, in spite of their better convictions, they insen-
sibly adopt a high-sounding and solemn strain, when the tone
of a childlike reverence is alone the suitable and appropriate
style for expressing the relation between the benignant Crea-
tor and His creatures, and man especially, as simply and as
naturally as it is in reality.

I said as naturally, because it is implied in the veiy nature
of things that if God did originally create free beings like
men, He would give them all things needful, keep them con-
stantly in His regard, and everywhere lend them a helping and
directing hand. But from time to time He might, it is not
inconsistent to suppose, withdraw as it were His guidance ; for
otherwise they would cease to be free beings. In this respect
the divine Providence may be likened to a mother teaching her
child to walk. Having chosen a clear spot, free from all
things likely to hurt the infant in its fall, she places it firmly
on its feet. For a little while she holds and supports it, and

NATURE A LIVING REPRODUCTIVE POWER. 115

then cooing back a few steps, she waits for its love to sets its
little limbs in motion and to follow her. But how watchful is
her eye, how outstretched her arms to catch her babe the in-
stant "it begins to totter ! Such nearly, and equally simple, is
the relation of God to man ; and not to individuals only, but
also to the whole human race. For in the divine education and
higher guidance of mankind we may trace the same degrees
and natural gradation of developments as form the basis of
the education of individuals, and may also be observed in all
the processes of nature.

Now we take it for granted that God has willed the creation
not only of free and pure spirits, but also of the natural world ;
for that He has so willed is a fact that as it were stares us in
the face. If, then, along with the free spirits He has also created
a nature, i. e., a living reproductive po^yer capable of and de-
signed to develope and propagate itself, it is plain that we can-
not and ought not to think of such a nature as independent
and self-subsisting. For first of all it had not its beginning in
itself. Moreover, it would move as a blind force, and as such
manifest itself only in destruction and desolation, if its Maker
had not originally fixed and assigned to it the end towards
which all its efforts were ultimately to be directed. Nature
indeed is not free like man ; but still it is not a piece of dead
clock-work, which, when it is once wound up, works on me-
chanically till it has run itself down again. There is life in it.
And if a few abstract but superficial thinkers have failed to
discern or even ventured expressly to deny this truth, the
general feeling of mankind on the other hand bears witness to
it. Yes, man feels that there is life rustling in the tree, as with
its man} arms and branches, its leaves and flowers, it moves
backwards and forwards in the free air ; and that as compared
with the clock, with all its ingenious but dead mechanism, it is
even a living thing. And what the common feeling of man-
kind thus instinctively assumes is confirmed by the profounder
investigations of physical science. Thus we- know that even
plants sleep, and that they too, as much as animals, though
after a different sort, have a true impregnation and propaga-
tion. And is not nature on the whole a life-tree as it were,
whose leaves and flowers are perpetually expanding themselves
and seeking nourishment from the balsamic air of heaven,
while, as the sap rises from the deep-hidden root into the

116 GOD THE AUTHOR AND PRESERVER OP NATURES LAWS.

mighty stem, the branches stir and move, and invisible forces
sweep to and fro in its waving crown. Most shallow and super-
ficial in truth is that physical science which would consider the
system of nature, with all the marvels of beauty and majesty
wherewith its Maker has adorned it, as nothing more than a
piece of lifeless clock-work. In such a system the almighty
Creator must appear at best but a great mechanical artist who
has at his command infinite resources ; or, if we may be allowed
so absurd an expression, as the fittest to expose the absurdity of
those who would regard the divine work both in its whole and
in its parts as dead, an omnipotent clock-maker. If, however,
to meet the needs of men's limited capacity, we must, when
speaking of the Creator, employ such trifling and childish
similes, then of all human avocations and pursuits that of the
gardener wiU serve best to illustrate the divine operations in
nature. Almighty and omniscient, however, He has Himself
created the trees and flowers that He cultivates, has Himself
made the good soil in which they grow, and brings down from
heaven the balmy spring, the dews and rain, and the sunshine'
that quicken and mature them into life and beauty.

If, then, there be life in nature, as indeed observation
teaches, and the general feeling of man avouches, it must
also possess a vital development, which in its movements ob-
serves an uniform course and intrinsic law. In truth the
Creator has not reserved to Himself the beginning and the
end alone, and left the rest to follow its own course ; but in
the middle, and at every point also, of its progress, the
Omnipotent WiU can intervene at pleasure. If He pleases
He can instantaneously stop this vital development, and sud-
denly make the course of nature stand still ; or, in a moment,
give life and movement to what before stood motionless and
inanimate. Generally speaking, it is in the divine power to
suspend the laws of nature, to interfere directly with them
and as it were, to intercalate among them some higher and
immediate operation of His power, as an exception to their
uniform development. For as in the social frame of civil hie,
the author and giver of the laws may occasionally set them
aside, or, in their administration, allow certain special cases
of exception, even so is it, also, with nature's Lawgiver.

Now," this immediate operation, and occasional interference
of SuDreme Power with the order of nature, is exactly what

MIRACLES THE DELUGE.

117

constitutes the idea of miracle. The general possibility of
miracles is a principle which man's sound and unsophisticated
reason has never allowed him to deny. But, on the other
hand, it is evidently essential to their very idea that they
should be thought of simply as deviations from the usual
course of nature's operations ; if they were not exceptions
to the laws of nature, then were they no miracles. Such
miraculous exceptions, however, it may be observed, need not
invariably to be contrary to the course of nature, though above
nature, and far transcending its ordinary standard, they always
are. Exceptions, therefore, they are ; but such, at the same
time, as do not permanently disturb the natural course arid
flow of the vital development, which, on the whole, continues
unchanged. For it is only agreeable with Creative wisdom to
maintain the world so long as the present state of things sub-
sists, and the final consummation has not yet arrived, in tne
order originally prescribed to it by His omnipotence.

To this an objection might be made in the opposite sense.
Taken then in their principle, the laws of nature, no less than
those exceptions to them which are usually called miracles,
are one and the same ; they are alike from the Creator of all
-rand the laws themselves, therefore, are equally miraculous.
This remark is quite true ; but it only teaches us that we ought
not to be too ready to see a miracle in every extraordinary
event. But still, there will ever remain an essential difference
between an immediate operation of omnipotence and the Crea-
tor's original production of a living force, implanting in this
creature an inner law, and thereupon leaving to it the further
evolution of its powers in the course marked out for and
assigned to it.

Now, if such a creature, like this terrestrial nature, be ot a
mixed constitution, composed of a principle of destruction as
well as of a principle of productive development and pro-
gression, if its life be a constant struggle with death, then
it is manifest that only by the same hand which first formed
it, gave it laws and prescribed its order, can its wise and
divine economy be preserved, and the permanence of the
organic evolution of its whole system be secured, and the
outbursts of elementary dissolution, which are perpetually
menacing it, held in check and averted. If this restraint be
once relaxed, if the destructive energy of the wild element >

118 NATURE NO BLIND NECESSARY FORCE.

be once let loose, and free scope given to their fury and this
globe presents the manifest traces of one such catastrophe at
least then this too must be regarded as an exception, and
is only explicable by the higher principle of divine per-
mission. Viewed, however, as the retribution of divine jus-
tice on a guilty world, it forms an exception and a miracle of
a peculiar kind, and must be distinguished from those other
extraordinary operations properly called miracles, wherein,
with some saving or quickening purpose, the Almighty, as it
were, raises nature above herself, and takes her out of her
usual course.

In this way then we ought unquestionably to refer every-
thing in the world to its author and preserver, whether it be
conformable to the usual course and order of nature, or, as an
extraordinary phenomenon, bespeak a higher and more imme-
diate operation of divinity. But, at the same time, we must
never forget that nature itself is a living force endowed with
a capacity of self-development. Nature, indeed, is not free
in the same sense that man is, possessed and conscious of a
power of self-determination and choice ; but as all life contains
in itself the germ of a free movement and expansion, and while
it expands itself a hidden and slumbering consciousness begins
to stir and awake, so also in nature, an initiatory or preparatory
grade of it, if not fully out-spoken, is at least indicated. In
this respect it may be regarded as the vestibule of that tem-
ple of freedom which in man, the crowning work of this
earthly creation, and made after the divine image and like-
ness, stands forth in its full dimensions and proportions.
Considered from another point of view, the sensible world
may be looked upon as a veil thrown over the spiritual world
the light-flowing and almost transparent robe, and, as it
were, in all its parts the significant costume of the invisible
powers. But in no point of view can we rightly consider
nature as properly self- subsisting or independent of its Crea-
tor, and therefore in no case as isolated by itself and apart
from all reference to a superior being. Rather is it a living'
force, and one, too, doubly significant, both from within and
from without ; to w'hich property an allusion is contained in
the simile already employed, of a book written both on the
inside and the outside. These two ideas, then, of the free will
of man and of the living development of nature, must be taken

THEODICEE ITS PEKPLEXITIES. 119

as the basis, and serve as the fixed point of every attempt to
ascertain the divine order in nature. On this account we have
placed them in the foreground of the present Lecture, which
will, in the main, be consecrated to such an investigation.

If, now, this demonstration of a divine order in nature seem
to contain nothing less than a kind of Theodicee* (so far as
man can establish a justification of God's ways), I, for my
part, must confess that I would much rather have before my
eyes a Theodicee for the feelings, conceived in the very spirit
of love, than any purely rational theory. For such theories,
founded in general on far-fetched hypotheses, subtilly introduce
into nature numberless divine purposes and designs, of which,
however, we are able neither clearly to understand, much less
to prove that they were intended by the everlasting counsels^
or even that such vestiges of a divine purpose are really dis-
cernible in the universe. In this province of speculation we
must not be too rigorous in our determinations, and especially
we must guard against systematising. But, above all, we can-
not be too watchful against the fault which so many reasoners
fall into, of transferring into the realm of nature, or of God, that
logical necessary connexion which is a part of and connatural
with our rational constitution, and an indispensable aid to our
limited intellectual powers. Such a way of thinking would
inevitably lead us to that most mistaken notion of a blind
fate the phantom of destiny.

On the other hand, how many are the questioning feelings
and perplexities which arise in the human heart at the sight
of certain natural objects. And these even, because they are
far from amounting to doubts and objections, or at least
from assuming a definite expression or a scientific dignity,
seem, on that account, only the more loudly to demand aii

* Theodicee, or justification of the ways of God in the world. The
word originated with Leibnitz, who, in his " Essai de Theodicee sur ia
bonte de Dieu, la liberte de 1'homme et 1'origine du mal," published in
1710, maintained that the existence of moral evil has its origin in the free
will of the creature, while metaphysical evil is nothing but the limitation
which is involved in the essence of finite beings, and that out of this both
physical and moral evil naturally flow. But these finite beings are designed
to attain to the utmost felicity they are capable of enjoying, which each, as
a part, contributes to the perfection of the whole, which of the many worlds
that were possible, is the very best. On this account it has been called the
theory of Optimism. Trans.

120 THE SOUL OF ANIMALS.

answer. The mournful cry of some helpless and innocent
animal when killed by man or in a different category the
hissing of the venomous serpent; the loathsome mass of
maggots in the putrid corpse : all these are but so many
dumb exclamations which, as it were, do but keep back the
question : Are, then, these the productions of the all-perfect
being of the supreme intelligence ?

The sufferings of animals are indeed a theme for man to
reflect upon ; and I, for my part, cannot concur with him who
would regard this as a topic unworthy of his thoughts, and
expel from the human bosom all sympathy with the animal
creation. The consideration, however, of this subject, natu-
rally enough gives rise to the question as to the soul of
animals. Now, it certainly would do no discredit to phi-
losophy, if it should succeed in giving a satisfactory* answer
to this question, and enable us to follow a middle course ;
as remote from the exaggerated assumptions of ancient
nations with regard to animal existence, on the one hand, as
on the other, from the unfeeling conclusions of modern science,
which refuses to regard or to sympathise with any pains,
and absolutely is unable to conceive the sufferings of any
being which does not possess the character of rationality
exactly in the same manner and degree as man. As greatly
on the other side does the Hindoo theology err. Its dogma
of the metempsychosis not only ascribes an immortal soul to
animals, but it also further teaches that human souls are
imprisoned in animal bodies, as the penalty of a guilt incurred
in a previous state of existence. Beautiful, however, as is the
compassionate sympathy with the sufferings of the brute
creation, which this theory has occasioned, and confirmed by
the sanction of a religious duty, still the assumption on
which it is founded is wholly arbitrary, and the extension of
the immortality of the soul to these creatures of our globe, is
an unwarrantable exaggeration, and has no foundation in
observed phenomena. Moreover, the hypothesis of such a
migratory state of departed souls is inconsistent with every
notion of the divine government of the world ; inasmuch as
such a temporary punishment can produce no salutary effect,
either of purification or of preparation, and consequently
would be wholly motiveless and absurd.

Very questionable moreover does it seem, whether, with

CREATURES OF SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. 121

propriety, an individual soul can be attributed to animals.
With those that are most closely domesticated with man,
there does undoubtedly arise, as it were, by a sort of mental
contagion, the appearance of individuality and difference of
character, just as the artistic structures of certain species
form a kind of analogy to human reason, and as the melo-
dious intonations and feelings of some others seemed to me
entitled, in a similar sense, to be termed reverberations of
fancy. In all those kinds, however, which remain undis-
turbed in their natural state, the whole species possesses the
same character, and have, consequently, the same common
soul.* The species itself is only an individual; and conse-
quently, the several species must be considered as so many
living forms of the general organic force of animated nature,
since an immortality of individual souls can, in the case of
animals, neither be assumed nor allowed to be assumable.

Among those perplexities, or, as I termed them, questioning
feelings about nature and its animating principle, I turn now
to the consideration of the last instance, that of the maggots
of putrefaction. Is 'not this one of the clearest possible
proofs that all nature is animated rf So much so, and so

* Does not this appearance of a common character among brutes of
the same species, arise rather from the imperfection of our observation ?
Is not every sheep an individual to the shepheru ? Trans.

f Schlegel appears to have believed in the theory of equivocal generation.
But microscopic research and experiments forbid us any longer to believe
that fermentative or putrefactive matter spontaneously gives birth to living
creatures. Such matters do but furnish the necessary circumstances for
hatching the germs or ova which are present in such immense numbers
in the atmosphere. The doctrine of equivocal or spontaneous generation
seems conclusively refuted by the experiment of Schulze, detailed in vo-
lume 23 of Jameson's Journal. " I filled a glass flask half-full with dis-
tilled water, in which 1 had mixed various vegetable and animal substances.
I then closed it with a good cork, through which I passed two glass tubes,
bent at right angles, the whole being air-tight. It was next placed in a
sand-bath and heated until the water boiled violently, and thus all parts
had reached a temperature of 212 Fahrenheit. While the watery vapour
was escaping by the glass tubes, I fastened at each end an apparatus
whfch chemists employ for collecting carbonic acid ; that to the left was
filled with sulphuric acid, and the other with a solution of potash. By
means of the boiling heat, everything living and all the germs in the
flask or in the tubes were destroyed, and all access was cut off by the
sulphuric acid on the one side, and by the potash on the other. I placed
this easily moved apparatus before my window, where it was exposed to the

SPONTANEOUS GENERATION.

eminently is this the case, that even in death and corruption
in foulness and disease, it stiU livingly operates and produces
Me the lowest grade, undoubtedly, of life or if any so
prefers to call it, a false lifebut still a life. Now, can such
morbid productions of nature, the worms, e. g., fentozoaj
which in certain diseases are engendered in the bowels be re'
garded as real creatures ? Nought are they but the dissolving
and crumbling matter of Life, which even in dissolution is still
living.* And this fact is not confined merely to organic
corruption and disease. Even the element the fresh water
from the spring is fall of life, and it is the more so the clearer
and the better it is and the purer from the microscopic animal-
cule, which swarm in it more and more the longer it stagnates
and becomes foul, until, at last, as frequently happens when it

action of light, and also, as I performed my experiments in the summer, to
that of heat. At the same time I placed near it an open vessel with the
same substances that had been introduced into the flask, and also after
having subjected them to a boiling temperature. In order now to
renew the air constantly within the flask, I sucked with my mouth, several
times a day, the open end of the apparatus filled with solution of
potash; by which process, the air entered my mouth from the flask,
through the caustic liquid, and the atmospheric "air from without entered
the flask through the sulphuric acid. The air was of course not altered
in its composition by passing through the sulphuric acid into the flask -
but if sufficient time was allowed for the passage, all the portions of
living matter, or of matter capable of becoming animated, were taken up by
the sulphuric acid and destroyed. From the 28th of May until the
early part of 'August, I continued uninterruptedly the renewal of the
air in the flask, without being able, by the aid of a microscope, to perceive
any living animal or vegetable substance, although, during the whole of
the time, I made my observations almost daily on the edge of the liquid ;
and when at last I separated the different parts of the apparatus, I could
not find in the whole liquid, the slightest trace of Infusoria, Conferva;, or
of Mould. But all the three presented themselves in a few days after I left
the flask open. And the open vessel too, which I placed near the appa-
ratus, contained on the following day, Vibriones and Monades, to which'
were soon added larger Polygastric Infusoria, and afterwards, Rotatoria "
Trans.

* Although, in the case of the entozoa, the induction is not very large
still, of some of them it is an established fact that they are generated
from ova, and it is therefore a fair presumption that such i is the general
law, and that these parasitical beings are, in every case, hatched from
ova, which are everywhere present, but remain undeveloped until they
meet with the necessary nutriment and heat for their development
Trans.

INFLUENCE OF THE EVIL SPIRITS ON NATUEE. 123

has been kept long 011 shipboard, with the growing foulness of
the water they increase in size, and swim about as worms of
\isible magnitude. Many other instances might be adduced
in proof of this origination of worms and vermin out of
corruption, and testifying to it as a general principle of
nature. And are not those swarms of locusts which in
Asiatic countries are a general plague of the lands over
which they sweep with their thick and dark migratory hordes,
a sickly proof that the atmosphere, that has engendered them,
is passing, or has already fallen into corruption beneath the
influence of some other contagious element ?

That the air and atmosphere of our globe is in the highest
decree full of life, I may, I think, take here for granted and
generally admitted. It is, however, of a mixed kind and
quality, combining the refreshing and balsamic breath of
spring with the parching simoons of the desert, and where
the healthy odours fluctuate in chaotic struggle with the
most deadly vapours. What else, in general, is the wide
spread and spreading pestilence, but a living propagation of
foulness, corruption, 'and death? Are not many poisons,
especially animal poisons, in a true sense, living forces ?

Now, "may we not give a further extension to this mode
of view, and apply the fact of a diseased propagation of
a false life, as in the worms of putrefaction, to other unsightly
productions of nature. May we not, for instance, consider
serpents and snakes as the entozoa or intestinal worms 01
the earth? That the evil spirits are not without some influ-
ence on our terrestrial habitation, and that in many places
their malignant influence is distinctly traceable is, at all
events, undeniable. And accordingly, some have supposed
the monkey tribe not to be an original creation of the Deity,
but a satanic device and malicious parody upon man, as the
envied favourite of God. That the " Prince of this world"
*which expression, in its latter half, is surely not to be under-
stood exclusively of man's fallen, race, but very evidently
and expressively alludes to the existing fabric of nature and
the corrupted world of sense that the Prince of this world
can exercise a certain degree of pernicious influence on the
productive energies of the natural system in its present
corrupt and vitiated condition, and that also, there is in nature
itself a power to produce evil, are facts which do not admit

124 DOCTRINE OF FINAL CAUSE.

of denial, and are noways inconsistent with revelation. Only
we must not suppose that this baneful influence is not con-
fined within certain limits. He to whom the Prince of this
world, no less than the world itself, is subject, has, in His
infinite wisdom, set a definite limit both of quantity and
duration to this pernicious influence, as in general He does to
every permission of evil.

At all events we must not for one moment suppose that in tho
book of nature we have a pure and imcorrupt text of God, and
such as it originally came from the hands of its Author. It is
of the highest consequence, for a due and right appreciation of
the divine economy in nature, that we give full consideration to
this fact. On this account it is important to keep in mind the
distinction implied in that expression already quoted from the
Mosaic history, " Let the earth bring forth." For according
to this it does not seem indispensably necessary to ascribe imme-
diately to the good and wise Creator everything that the earth
brought forth ; no, nor everything that is produced by a nature
now so imperfect so diseased, too, in many parts and visibly
constrained to submit to hostile and foreign influences.

Many writers who, with the best intentions, undertake the
task of indicating the divine wisdom in the existing order of
things, and of defending the ways of Providence against the
objections of human presumption and conceit, generally err
by taking too narrow a view of their subject, and rigorously
insisting on some one general principle, which, by means of
very hazardous assertions, they succeed in finding in the whole
and every part of the system of the universe. They leave out
of sight altogether that Mosaic distinction already alluded to,
which in appearance indeed is trifling enough, but yet in
reality most essentially important. Consequently, the good
work which they take in hand, instead of producing that
general concurrence and conviction that it otherwise might,
gives rise rather to fresh doubts and objections. The bestl
solution of all such doubts the most satisfactory answer to
all such or similar questions or questioning feelings lies in
. the final cause of the present constitution of things, considered
as a whole and in general, and judged of from a regard to its
triple character and triple destination. Now, according to this
triple principle, we have, as already shown, to regard the pre-
sent system of nature as being primarily a toinb-stone raised

THE PREADAMITE WORLD A PARADISE FOB ANGELS. 125

bv Almio-hty benevolence a bridge of safety thrown across
the gulf of eternal death a bridge, however, which we must
not think of as quite so simple, broad, and straight as a
bridge made by human hands, but an animated and ensouled
bridge of life, and multiform, with many arms and branches, am
presenting in some parts nothing more than a narrow footing,
where the first false step precipitates into the abyss beneath
But secondarily, according to this view, nature is grounded
on and devoted to progress ; a wonderful laboratory of mani-
fold, diversified, and universal reproduction; and lastly, a
glorious scale of resurrection, ascending up to the last and
highest summit of terrestrial transfiguration. Tsow this labo-
ratory lies in the hidden womb of nature, while in the noble
outward structure of its organic formations this gradational
scale manifests itself with a warning, a prognostication ot 1
heio-ht of excellence to which it eventually leads. But now,
if nature-as, judging from its original design, we may and
must assume were a Paradise for the blessed spirits of the
previous creation, for the first-born sons of light, then most as-
suredly has it not continued so, any more than the first man
has remained in the garden of Eden. No doubt, over a few
favoured spots of the existing globe, a rich fulness of ravishing
beauty still hovers, awakening in the heart, as it were, the
fleeting images of Paradisaical innocence dying strains ot a
primal harmony mournful reminiscences of the happy infancy
of creation. For the powers of darkness and hostile spirits
broke in upon the fair beauty of primeval nature, and laid it
waste and wild. The garden of the earth in which the first
man was placed, "to dress it and to keep it," is no doubt
called Paradise; and assuredly it was infinitely more beautilul,
more wonderful, purer, and fuller of life, than the loveliest
scenery which meets the eye in the fairest spots of the earth
and seems to be of an almost celestial beauty. But this is said
only of the immediate enclosure, the immediate habitation ot
our first parent; the spot chosen and blessed by kod--th.
o-arden watered and surrounded by the four streams. All the
rest of nature, the whole of the world beside, must have ceased
at that time to be a Paradise ; for, otherwise, whence could the
serpent have come? So that even according to the simple
sense of the expression, " that old serpent," he was already
there, in the midst of the natural world. And was it not

126 MYSTERIES IN TSTATUIIE.

probably a part of the destination of man at least, in its
natural .aspect that, setting out from this divine starting-
point of a Paradise prepared for and given to him, he was to
go forth and convert the rest of the world into a similar Eden ?

But this destination he did not, however, fulfil, and conse-
quently lost even this beginning and model of the first Para-
dise. The names of the four streams which watered it are
indeed still preserved in those regions of Asia, which even to
this day are the richest and most fruitful, and, according to
history, were the earliest inhabited. 'But the one source out
of which they all took their rise has disappeared, and no ves-
tige of it remains. With the loss of Paradise all is changed,
not only in man himself, but in the earth as his place of
abode.

The way of return out of this bewildered nature, or, if men
prefer so to speak, out of this sunk and degraded, not to say
unsound and sickly, state of the earthly and sensible world
(and this way of return is even the way of obedience to the
course of the divine order in nature), is indicated even by
these three grades of its inmost character, its tendency and
ultimate destination. And in these, and in the final cause of
the whole constitution of things, is contained its true key and
interpretation, as well as the answer to so many questions
about nature which engage not merely the curious intellect of
man, but also attract the sympathies of his soul, sweeping
across it either with dark doubts and fears or with bright inti-
mations of life and glorious anticipation.

I spoke deliberately when I said to many of these question-
ing feelings and perplexities of the human mind, and not all
of them. For to expect a satisfactory answer to them all in the
present state of science, or generally in this terrestrial life,
brief as it is, and limited on all sides and short-sighted, would
be agreeable neither with the course nor whole constitution
of human affairs. A thoroughly complete and perfectly sys-
tematic demonstration of the wisdom in the divine order of
nature, which should meet and explain every difficulty, would,
even on account of such a pretension, command little respect
and be of slight influence. Much is there in nature which is
to remain long hidden from man ; much too \vhich we shall
see first of all in the other world, when death shall have opened
our eyes and made us clear-sighted in one direction or another.

FIXAL CAUSE OF CREATION INTELLIGIBLE. 127

But the beginning and the end are even here and now placed
clearly and intelligibly before us, if only we are ready and
willing to walk by the light that is so graciously given us, and
here as elsewhere invariably to refer the first cause and the
final consummation to the Creator and to God. Without such a
reference, without thus as it were placing its two poles in God,
the right understanding of nature is absolutely impossible, and
every scientific attempt to attain it apart from and indepen-
dently of God, must simply as such prove vain and involve
itself in absurdities. Hence it is, however paradoxical it may
sound, that we can recognise more distinctly and better under-
stand the end of nature, its meaning and significance as a
whole, than we can the final cause of many a single object in
it, which, however, as contrasted with the whole, appears in-
considerable and trifling. For the clear perception that we
have of the final cause of nature conies immediately from the
divine illumination, which therefore we can, so far as it is
given to us, see and understand. But in the darker levels, in
Qie subterranean shaft of the obscure sensible world, the pro-
phetic candle of an antlike burrowing science, even though it
be originally kindled at that higher light, cannot reach to
every quarter, cannot illuminate every object in this mine of
darkness.

But this final cause of creation, such as it is given to us
clearly and intelligibly, will be rendered most clear by a com-
parison aiid contrast with the conceptions of the end of nature
which Iranian reason has put forth. If the proposition already
quoted from one of the latest of German philosophers, that
the essence of mind consists in the negation of the opposite,
be now applied (which was the application I then had in my
mind) to the Creator of the world and uncreated Intelligence,
then the following must be the meaning involved in it.
That which is the opposite of God or the Creator is nothing ;
and so far the proposition is quite true, since man cannot but
admit that the Almighty has created the world out of nothing,
For if, with some of the ancient philosophers, we were to
suppose a matter existing from all eternity, out of which God
did not so much create as form the world, then in this case
we should have two Gods, and both imperfect and finite, in-
stead of the one all-perfect and self-sufficient Being. But if,
on the other hand, the Deity be regarded as merely a not-

128 MAN'S FREEDOM.

nothing ; if the final cause of creation be simply the negation
of nought, then would such a view ascribe a sort of imaginary
reality to the nothing, and it would seem that the world was
created solely in order to get rid of the nothing, which comes
pretty much to the same as saying if we may allow ourselves
so Lessing-like a boldness of expression the Infinite made
the world out of ennui. Thus, in every case do the sceptical
views and empty negations of idealism lead to a contradictory
nothing.

But, in reality and truth, it was out of love that God made
the worlds ; and indeed out of a superabundant love. This we
may well venture to assert, and even to call it a fact ; and
that the divine love is also the final cause, as well as the be-
ginning of creation. A superabundance of love in God we
must, however, call the final cause ground of creation, inas-
much as He stood in no need of it ; no need of the love of the
creature, nor absolutely of the world itself, or created things.
For in His inmost essence, where one depth of eternal love
responds fully and eternally to the other, He was perfectly
sufficient for himself. And yet it is even so : there is in God
this superabundance of love, for He has created the worlds,
and it is the divine will to be loved by His creatures. For
this end and purpose has He created them ; and because He
would have their love, He has created them free, and given
both to the pure spirits and to men a free will. The whole
secret in the relation subsisting between the creature, and man
especially, and the Creator, lies even in this great fact, that He
has created them out of love, and requires in return the ser-
vice of their love. There is perhaps something awful in this
requisition, and in the relation thus found to subsist between
a weak and imperfect creature and the infinite and omnipotent
Being. But it is even so : we are really free, and are really
required by God to give him our love. But now a finite and
created being can only be free so far as God leaves him free :
and this is only conceivable in the light I have already set it
in by the simile of a fond mother teaching her babe to walk,
and in order to tempt it to make the first essay with its little
limbs, stepping back from it a few steps and leaving it a
moment to itself. No creature could be free did not God in
a similar way leave it to itself, and, after the first impulse of
creation, withhold from it His controlling energy. But if He

THE DIYINE NATURE NOT SUBJECT TO NECESSITY. 129

did not do so were He, on the contrary, to act upon His
creatures without reserve and with the whole infinite extent
of His might then the liberty of the latter, overwhelmed in
His omnipotence, must be destroyed, as being only possible
through the spontaneous limitation of the divine power, which
results from the superabundance of creative love.

Now we can, it is true, distinguish in the essence or energy
of God, between His intelligence and His will His omni
science and His omnipotence ; but they cannot be absolutely
separated from and opposed to each other, for in Him and in
His operations, they, as indeed all else in Him, are one.
It would therefore be nothing but a foolish and unmeaning
subtlety to demand, " Why, then, has the Omniscient created
rational beings, of whom He must assuredly have known
beforehand that they would fall and perish ?" For it is but
a logical illusion, when we transfer from the human to the
divine mind a form of thought fluctuating between the con-
ceivably possible and the apparently necessary. Man's free-
dom undoubtedly consists in the choice between one pos-
sibility and another, or in that indefinite possibility which
subsists half-way between one necessity and another. But
God's freedom is not as man's : in Him there is neither con-
tingent possibility nor unconditional necessity. All in Him is
truly actual, Irving, and positive. His freedom lies even in
the superabundance of His essence the fact, viz., that He is
not bound by any law of necessity to remain contented with
this His own internal fulness. For otherwise He were a Fate
rather than a free God, and to that conclusion the doctrine of
the Stoics consistently enough arrived at last. Extremely
difficult must it ever be, in such a system and with such a
conception of an intrinsically necessary God, and one bound
by this necessity, consistently to account for the creation of
the world, which, in appearance, is so irreconcilable with the
idea of the self-sufficiency of the divine Being. On this
account some of the similarly rationalising systems of ancient
times had recourse to the ingenious device of ascribing the
work of creation to a spirtual being of an inferior order, and
degrading this secondary deity far below the infinite perfections
of the supreme and nil-sufficient God. But by this expedient
men did but fall, as is, alas ! but too commonly the case, from
one error into another still greater and even more monstrous,

130 MOKAL EVIL A BESTTLT OF MANS FREEDOM.

It is, in short, nothing but a mere logical delusion and an
illegitimate transference from our limited faculty of thought
to the divine intelligence, which gives rise to these pernicious
doctrines of an absolute and unconditional predestination,
which fundamentally amount and bring us back to a blind and
heathenish fatalism.

Thus much, as connected with our subject, will be suffi-
cient on the difficult subject, both of the freedom of the
pure created spirits, and also of man's will, as regarded solely
from its philosophical aspect, and without any reference to
the moral theory, and solely in relation to the system of the
universe. Difficult, however, is this subject, merely on one
account. The logical illusion, from which springs all error,
strife, and confusion, and which we are too apt to transfer to
the divine mind, is so far innate in the very form of man's
finite intellect, than even when we have recognised it for what
it really is ; yet, so long as we confine ourselves to mere logical
reasoning, and are seduced by its seeming rigor of consequence,
we are ever ready to fall anew into this dangerous error 1
without even remarking it.

In the same way, now, that the existence of free beings
follows naturally from the love of God, as the final cause of
creation, so, on the other hand, the permission of moral evil is
a mere result of that freedom in and through which these cre-
ated beings have to run their appointed time. For this free-
dom, as considered with a reference to God and futurity, or
to the immortality of the soul, is nothing else than the time
of trial and the state of probation itself. But, perhaps it will
be asked, "Why, then, does not God, by one nod of retributive
justice, by one breath of His omnipotence, annihilate for ever,
as He so easily might, the whole company of evil and re-
bellious spirits, together with their leader, the Prince of this
world, and so purify the whole visible creation, and release
external nature from their desolating influence ?" To this
the answer is simple and at hand. Man is placed in this world
on his trial and. for a struggle with evil, and this warfare is
not yet ended. But by such an annihilation of evil, the living
development of nature would be precipitated in that course
which God originally designed it to advance through, and cut
short before the appointed time of final purification, when,
according to His promise, He will, as Holy Writ expresses it,

PHYSICAL EVIL A MEANS OF PURIFICATION. 131

create new heavens and a new earth, and make perfect the
whole creation.*

Man is free, but utterly unripe as yet; and thoroughly in-
complete also is nature, or the sensible world, and material
creation ; consequently, the immortality of the soul is the
corner-stone and key for understanding the whole. For the
mere beginning of creation is perfectly unintelligible so lono-
as we do not take into consideration the other extreme or end
its final completion and ultimate consummation. Just as
the half of human life on this side the grave cannot be under-
stood unless we contemplate at the same time with it its second
naif on the other side of the tomb, as its complement, and
as a necessary element towards the elucidation of the whole
As then the permission of evil finds a satisfactory ex-
planation in man's probationary state, and in God's love as
the final cause of the creation, so also the physical evils and
sufferings to which the free being is liable, are fully accounted
for on that principle. This is the key of the enigma of their
existence. None of the sufferings of the free being on
either side of the grave, are unprofitable and without a mo-
tive. They all serve, either in this preparatory state of earthly
existence, for probation, for discipline, or for confirmation or
else after it for the perfect healing of the soul, and its purifi-
cation from all the remaining dross and taints of earth f
Scarcely ever can the diseased matter be got rid of and
expelled from the organic body without a struggle and very
seldom without pain. Gold is purified by the fire, and pain
the fiery purification of the body. This belief is one which
ought least of all to have been called into question, inasmuch
is only consonant to the simple feelings of human nature.
For otherwise, how narrowly must the hopes of the future be
confined, if nothing that is unclean shall enter into heaven.

* Isaiah Ixv 17,

f In this and the following paragraph it is necessary to bear in mind
ischlegel, as a member of the Roman Catholic Church, held the doc-
trine of a purgatory, which the catechism of the Council of Trent describes
as a fire, " in which the souls of the pious are tortured for a certain time,
and expiated, that they may be qualified to enter that eternal country into
which nothing enters that is unclean." Purgatorius ignis, quo piorum
ammae ad definitum tempus cruciatse expiantur, ut eis in sternam patriam

ingressus patere possit, in quam nihil coinquinatum injjreditur " Cat

Cone. Trid., pars i. art. v. c. 5. Trans.

132 ETERNAL PUNISHMENTS.

the Holy of Holies the immediate presence of the pure and
holy God !

It is not, however, my intention to make this consolatory
and blessed hope of a loving and longing heart, the topic of
dispute, especially since it lies altogether beyond my present
limits. I will only allude to the words of the Saviour, " In
my Father's house are many mansions." By the " Father's
house" we must, it is clear, understand the future world.
On the other side therefore of the grave, as well as on this,
many divisions, many degrees, and many different states, and
also manifold transitions, are not merely conceivable and
possible, but must of necessity be assumed as actually existent,
even though we cannot be too cautious in avoiding all hasty
decisions as to what is going on in this hidden world. Only
we must ever remember that any absolute line of demarcation
which on one side has nothing but white, while all that lies
on the other is black, is very rarely the line of truth. And
this principle holds good, it is plain, in every relation and
every possible application. For such a trenchant line of sharp
and unmitigated contrast between black and white, is even
one of those intellectual deceptions connatural to man, which
disposes him too hastily to transfer to all without him the
limited form of his own finite intellect. All the pains, there-
fore, and all the sufferings of the creature, whether on this or
the other side of the grave, serve either to exercise and
strengthen, or to heal and purify, the yet imperfect being, with
the single exception of that bitterest of all agonies, the pain
of being left eternally to ourselves. But even here, although
there is no hope of a salutary effect, a species of converse
propriety seems to hold.

It is, we remarked, the problem of philosophy, leaving to
physics the whole development of life that lies intermediate
between the beginning and end, to explain the two extremes
of nature. As, therefore, we have examined one of these
extremes, and have discovered in the whole terrestrial crea-
tion a Paradise as the blessed state of the still innocent infancy
of nature, before the revolt of the rebellious spirits and the
fall of the first man, the present seems the- place for a few
words touching the opposite extreme the regions of outer
darkness. We can safely admit that the figurative represen-
tations, not merely of painters and poets, but occasionally

THE UNQUENCHABLE FIRE. 133

also of the preacher, are so horrible, and heaped together with
so little consistency, the dark colours laid on so thick, that
the whole assumes to the feelings an appearance of impro-
bability, and on this account makes, for the most part, no very
deep impression. But the spiritual significance of these suffer-
ings, and the sort of propriety and design which holds, even in
this unnatural state, on the utmost borders of creation, may,
perhaps, be made clear by a very simple illustration. Most
reluctantly, and with a heavy heart assuredly, would an
earthly parent resolve to turn out of his house and formally
to disinherit his first-born and beloved son, even though he
should have proved himself utterly worthless and hopelessly
depraved. But even if an earthly parent might be too hasty in
his anger, and actually be harsh and unjust, still we may
boldly assume that the love of our Heavenly Father in patience
and gentleness far transcends the truest parental love that
is to be found on earth. But when it actually comes to
this point of offended mercy and justice, then the disinherited,
cast out into the regions of darkness, joins the band of rob-
bers who in the night lurk about his father's house, seeking
where they may break into it. No other choice is left him
than to become a robber, and, whether he will or no, he must
obey the leader of the band. But better taught and as yet
softer of heart than the rest, he must go through many hard-
ships and sufferings ere he becomes quite like the others, as
hard-hearted as the "murderers from the beginning," who
the while look down upon him with scorn and contempt.

What I would say is this : many degrees, and undoubtedly
extreme degrees, of pain and torment, are necessary before
the man cast out from the presence of God can be Avholly
and completely transformed into an evil spirit. And this is
perhaps the proper meaning and essential character under
which we are to think of these endless torments of spiritual
death and ruin. If, moreover, this eternal death is often
described as an unquenchable fire, then unquestionably there
lies in this figure, even physically considered, a certain truth,
inasmuch as even in this world and in visible nature, fire,
when left to itself and to its true essential character, is the
proper element of destruction. In the sun's genial influence,
indeed, and in the blood of the living soul it is constrained

134 CHEATED SPIRITS WITHOUT FREEDOM.

and moderated into the wholesome warmth of life; but in
itself, and working in its elementary state, it is destructive and
opposed to all the other elements. To the light all that has
life turns instinctively, and in the air it breathes and pulsates,
and from water it draws a part at least of its nourishment. It
is only incidentally that the air and Avater become destructive,
but the fire is so in its proper nature. A perfectly organised
animal that lived in fire, would in a greater or less degree fill
every mind with horror and alarm, as having no part in and
wholly alien from that nature which is known to and friendly
to man. On this account, many even of the ancient philoso-
phers taught that the end of the present visible and the
external and sensible world, would be brought about by a
general conflagration.

The permission of evil is an immediate consequence of the
creation of free beings. But although it may be regarded as
a fact, that God has created free both the spirits and man, still
we must be on our guard how we introduce into this matter
any notion of necessity, and suppose that God must have made
them free, and could not have created any other. For man is
only too prone to transfer his own imaginary conceit of neces-
sity to the Deity himself, and to feign to see it in Him. This,
however, were a most grievous error ; and yet it is one into which
men almost inevitably fall when they adopt either a rigorously
systematic or purely logical yiew of the matter. Could not
God in his omnipotence have created powers and dominions
which, even though they were living energies and ensouled
principalities, should nevertheless be without the property of
self-determination and a true liberty, and which would conse-
quently require some other nature, but similar to themselves,
to rule and direct them ? In this sense we read of the spirits
of nature, ensouled elementary powers and living forces,
which are described as being seized and taken possession of
by the power of evil, but as hereafter to be set free by the
efficacy of redeeming love, and again subjected to and united
to God. Now, as connected with this subject, it is deserving
of consideration, that in all the declarations and allusions of
the Eternal Truth this present earthly nature is spoken of as
the battle-place of invisible powers, the debatable ground on
which the two armies of good and evil spirits and elements,

IMMORTAL SPIRITS WITH ANIMAL FORMS. 135

are posted in hostile array against each other, and perpetually
coming into collision.*

Could not God, had such been His pleasure, have created
other beings, and by the fiat of His almighty will have raised
them at once above all the dangers of liberty, and enduing
them with perfect holiness, and exempt from all liability to
fall, have drawn them to Himself in eternal love ?

I have hitherto, wherever it has been my object to give a
clearer and sharper characterisation of the human conscious-
ness by means of a comparison with the faculties of intellect
and will possessed by superior but created spirits, confined
myself to the idea of the pure spirits, genii or angels. But
if it should have been the divine pleasure to create other
spiritual beings with an organic body one, perhaps, not like
the human, but still of a very noble though animal form, endued
of course with an immortal soul and with a knowledge of God
who is there in such a case to set limits to the omnipotent
will ? Now if, as already supposed, they were created in per-
fect holiness, and exempt from the liability to fall, it is easily-
conceivable how in this respect they would be higher than frail
and imperfect man, and must be regarded as a part of the
spiritual world, rather than as belonging to the human race or
to the existing system of nature.

All these are not so much inappropriate and impertinent
conjectures and idle fancies, as calmly mooted questions for
explanation, which arise out of and are suggested by certain
traditions and points of revelation.

Lastly, if the Almighty had resolved to create a perfect
being, so far above and before all the other creatures of ^ His
will, as to stand next to Himself and be, as it were, the mirror
and reflection of His own infinite perfections and many a
word in Holy Writ seems to allude to something of the kind
then it is not difficult to see how the already quoted expres-
sion of a soul of God would receive a better sense. This
being, so superior to all other created spirits, must in any case
be regarded as a soul, and for the most part of a passive
essence, for otherwise it would stand too close and near to
Deity itself. And it is manifest, that even here the ever im-
measurable interval which separates the Creator from the most

* Eph. vi. 12 ; Col. ii. 15, &c.

136 THE NEUTRAL ANGELS.

perfect of creatures must be most carefully kept in view. And
at all events this expression must in no case be applied to the
second or third persons of the Godhead, nor be confounded
therewith, otherwise this designation would not only be false,
but altogether an abomination.

Revelation contains an inexhaustible mine of verities, and
I have only wished, by the way, to call attention to these as
yet unexplored treasures. But it is above all important, for
the philosophical point of view, steadily to insist upon and
enforce the truth, that in no respect can we form a notion
adequately grand and lofty, or rich and manifold enough, of
the Creation. The compactly closed and orderly arranged
system is almost always the death of truth. So also is that
line which, however, seems to be a connatural fault in the
very form of man's faculty of judgment that straight line
between black and white, for even if it be not radically wrong,
it yet leaves much on both sides unconsidered and ill under-
stood.

With this impression, I shall allow myself to notice an
opinion but little known, which, morever, if I had not met
with it in writers who, in this province of inquiry, are of the
highest authority, I should scarcely have ventured to adduce.
In this department of spiritual knowledge, a man would much
rather confine himself to the simple primary truth than call
attention to mere opinions. The opinion I allude to is to be
found in St. Jerome, i.e., in that very Father who, for theolo-
gical judgment, is acknowledged by all to be the first and the
greatest. It was held also by St. Francis de Sales, that holy
saint of spiritual love, and who, even on that account, is so
superior to the many hundreds of the schoolmen before him,
as also to so many ideologists after him. Lastly, it occurred
to Leibnitz, who of all philosophers was most possessed of a
true and fine intellectual tact to perceive and discover all the
most secret, delicate traits of a great system, even though most
remote in character from his own. But still, with this array
of great authorities, it remains nothing more than a wholly
problematical opinion, on which, as an article of positive faith,
nothing is or ever can be decided. Now this opinion is, that
in the revolt of the rebellious spirits, while those who re-
mained in their state of innocence and in their allegiance
rallied only the closer round their Creator, a considerable num-

DOCTRINE OF MAN'S PUB-EXISTENCE. 137

ber, fearful and undecided, vacillated between good and evil,
and as we might justly say, with the weakness of the human
character, remained neutral in the conflict, and thereby lost
their original place in the hierarchy of the heavenly host, with-
out, however, being counted among the utterly lost. As a
fourth authority for this opinion, I might adduce Dante. He
is indeed a poet, but still a theological poet, and deeply versed
in theology, who would never have arbitrarily devised or in-
vented, or even adopted such a notion, had he not found it
existing among others before him, and had he not been able
to adduce a good and valid authority for it. As a good Ghi-
belline, he was, moreover, no friend of neutral spirits, either
in this world or the other; and he passes the most severe
sentence upon those beings whom, as he says, heaven has cast
out, and hell would not receive.*

But what if we may propound the question with some-
thing more of philosophical indifference than the poet what,
according to the analogy of the divine economy and merciful
justice, as elsewhere displayed, are we to suppose the doom of
these undecided and wavering spirits ? In the first place, we
may well suppose that they would be submitted to a new pro-
bation : just as a general gives another opportunity to the
troops who in some evil moment have shown a want of spirit,
to retrieve their honour. Now if it be allowable to assume that
this, or some similar idea, or some tradition of the kind, had
an influence on and gave rise to the doctrine of the pre-
existence of men, which is so generally diffused among the

* Dell' Inferno, Canto III.

" quel cattivo coro

Degli angeli che non furon rebelli,
Ne fur fedeli a Dio, ma per se foro.
Cacciarli i Ciel, per non esser men belli ;
Ne lo profundo Inferno gli riceve,
Ch' alcuna gloria i rei avrebber d' elli."

Thus rendered by Carey :

" with that ill-band

Of angels mixed, who nor rebellious proved
Nor yet were true to God, but for themselves
Were only. From his bounds Heaven drove theto,
Not to impair his lustre ; nor the depth
Of Hell receives them, lest th' accursed tribe
Should glory thence with exultation vain." Trans.

138 MIGRATION OF THE SOTTL AMONG THE STARS.

Hindoos, and which was also held by the Platonists, and even
Christian Platonists, of the first centuries, we can then con-
ceive how this otherwise so arbitrary assumption and ground-
less hypothesis could have arisen. Groundless, however, it
may well be named, not only because no cause or explanation
of it is adduced, but as being agreeable neither to the nature
of the soul nor to the constitution of things ; so that, regarded
even in this light, it must be looked upon as a singular instance,
and consequently as an exception from the laws of nature and
as a miraculous intervention of divine power. But a mere
pre-existence of spirits would, however, be no true pre-exist-
enee in the sense of the Hindoo theology, or of the Platonists,
since, by its union with and by the accession of a soul, it
becomes a wholly different and quite a new being. Moreover,
in this hypothesis, as it is further worked out in the Hindoo
and Platonic systems, the whole character and true destination
of human life is entirely misunderstood, inasmuch as it is
represented as a place and period of punishment ; whereas,
rightly conceived, and even philosophically contemplated, it
appeai-s rather as a battle-place, and the time of discipline and
preparation for eternity.

It is the problem and vocation of philosophy not merely to
set forth the truth clearly and simply, but also, whenever it
can be done incidentally and easily, to account for and explain
great and remarkable errors, especially such as were prevalent
among the earliest nations and ages. Now among those errors
which are most remarkable in ancient history, this of the
Hindoos and Platonists holds in my eyes a very prominent
place. But philosophically to explain an error, means not to
reject it at once as absurd and undeserving of notice, but
requires rather that we should first of all really understand
it, i. e., that we should study it, and, to a certain degree, enter
into its spirit, and seek to discover its best significance, or in
other words, that interpretation which is nearest to the truth,
and then in conclusion accurately to determine the point where
error begins and truth is violated.

All this however may now be left to its own merits. In
touching upon it, my only object has been to call attention to
the wonderful variety of God's creative power, even in the
copious theme of the immortality of the soul. And in this view
it appeared to me not unprofitable to notice even the most

NATURE CONSIDERED RELATIVELY TO MAN. 139

discrepant theories on the subject, as being nevertheless well
calculated to throw a clear and steady light on the simple truth.
In the last age, since the Hindoo metempsychosis, as it is now
accurately and authentically known, appeared too serious and
sad a doctrine to meet with the welcome and concurrence
of the existent generation, a brighter and more fanciful theory
was propounded. In it this life has been astronomically
depicted in the brightest and most attractive colours as a walk
among the stars, continually ascending from one sidereal
existence to another. In the limited range of human know-
ledge, it is alike impossible to deny or to prove the possibility
of such a migration among the stars. But it is evidently a
wiser course, and one far more agreeable to the nature and
limits of man's powers of understanding, for him to confine
his views to his own immediate home the earth, investigating,
sifting, and divining its mysteries, than to lose himself in airy
dreams amid the whole starry universe. For, perhaps, that
which man is seeking so far off, he may find much closer to
his own doors than he suspects. For it is not improbable
that this planet of our earth contains in its interior many
subterranean courses and secret chambers of death, together
with the seeds of light which are to spring up into the future
resurrection.

But this may be reserved for consideration in another place.
Here I will only add, in conclusion, that opposite to that
gradational scale, already so often mentioned, which the vast
pyramid of nature forms in relation to God and its own living
development, stands another scale for man, adapted to his
needs and suited to his narrow position and limited intel-
ligence. In this scale, nature, i. e., in this sense, the nature
which most immediately surrounds and environs man, this
planet of our earth which bears and nourishes the human race,
is first of all man's habitation, teeming indeed with life, and
even itself a living thing, in which, however, he is ever meet-
ing here and there with something that tells him it is not his
proper home. In the second step of this view of nature, which
contemplates it principally in its relation to man and man's
wants, the natural world in its present form appears as the
battle-place and debatable ground of the still undecided, or
rather not as yet terminated, struggle between the good and
evil powers, and the fiercer the strife again begins to be, the

140 NATURE BEST DESCRIBED BY SYMBOLS.

more necessary is it not to overlook this aspect of the matter.
The third gradation in this view of nature, considered relatively
to the mind or spirit of man in his finite existence, is that
which teaches him to look upon it as the visible veil QJ. the
invisible world, covered all over and richly ornamented with
significant symbols and hieroglyphics. And even because
nature itself is even a symbolical being, therefore, when we
speak of its inmost life and its spirit, or its meaning as a
whole, i. e., when we attempt to study and to understand it, not
physically only, but even philosophically, we can only hope to
convey our meaning symbolically, by employing scientific
illustrations and living symbols

END OF LECTURE VI.

141

LECTURE VII.

OF THE DIVINE WISDOM AS MANIFESTED IN THE REALM
OF TRUTH, AND OF THE CONFLICT OF THE AGE WITH
ERROR.

GOD is a spirit of truth ; and in the realm of truth, therefore,
the divine order, and the law of wisdom which reigns therein,
shines forth with an especial clearness with a higher degree
of evidence or greater perspicuity than even in the region of
nature, which for us is for the most part half-dark, or at the
very best but a chiaro-oscuro a mixture of light and dark-
ness. But man, formed out of the dust of the earth, placed,
as it were, in the very centre of nature, as its first-born son
or its earthly lord, is in this respect himself a natural being.
Even in his susceptibility for higher and divine truth, man is
tied to and is dependent on a similar and collateral grade of
development in the life of nature, which can in no case bo
violently broken, nor a step in it arbitrarily overleaped, without
involving the most disastrous consequences as the penalty of so
unnatural a course. Even in education there reigns a similar
law of gradual development according to the natural progres-
sion of the different ages of life. With the boy of good and
natural abilities, who shows an aptness and willingness to
learn when knowledge is presented to his mind, and implanted
in a true and living form, the teacher's first care is to improve
this disposition, and to strengthen and to foster it, and by fur-
nishing it with the due measure and the right quality of intel-
lectual culture, gradually to develope its powers. At this age
the moral part of education will wisely confine itself to laying
a foundation of good habits, to the careful exclusion of all evil
communication and the deadly contagion of wicked example.
In the soft and yielding character of the child there can
scarcely be as yet any question about principles or sentiments.
But the case is very different with youth. If at this time of
life the moral character be not carefully formed simultaneously

142 GKADTJAiL DEVELOPMENT OP MANKIND.

with its scientific cultivation, then is the good season irrepar-
ably lost, and rarely, if ever, can the deficiency be after-
wards supplied. For when this stage of intellectual and moral
culture is once passed, when the mind has begun at last to
move with greater freedom and to mature itself, the young
man is at once admitted to the full light of science, or enters
into the busy course of active life, to be there brought to the
touchstone of experience.

And a similar series of gradation may be observed on a
larger scale in the historical succession and development of
the ages of the world. For such is, in every case, the gradual
expansion of man's consciousness, as he is at present consti-
tuted. His senses must be first excited and expanded ; then,
and then only, with any good result, can the soul be led to
the good and divine, which, however, not content to dismiss
them after the first look of wonder and amazement, it must
rather dwell upon with the full and deep feelings of admiration
and reverence ; until at last, being wholly filled with them, it
derives from their inspiration a new stimulus and excitement,
and thereby is for ever and permanently directed to the true
end and aim of existence. And now at last can the free spirit
apprehend aright the divine truth, and, in the spirit of this
knowledge, act with vital energy, conformably to that position
in God's great world which has been assigned and allotted to
him.

And this order cannot be transgressed with impunity. Xone
of its intermediate steps can be overleaped without involving
the most fearful consequences. If the senses be not first of
all excited and expanded, then will it be lost labour to attempt
to win and fortify the heart, or to turn the soul towards the
never-setting sun of divine truth. And accordingly, how
many attempts, both on a large and a small scale, at the
moral regeneration of mankind have totally failed even for
want of the first step of a forerunning light and previous illu-
mination, by which the observation should have been roused,
the senses stimulated, and the eye opened. But when, on the
contrary, the full light is imparted to or gained by the mind,
while the soul still remains enveloped in darkness and fast
wedded to its evil habits, without attaining to a higher exal-
tation, then, indeed, the result is equally grievous, though
different from that which follows from the mistake of over-

FIRST STEP OF REVELATION PREPARATORY. 143

leaping the first step. It has an effect ; it does not remain
without an influence. So long as the moral part of man is
wholly neglected, and is either left rude and barbarous or
suffered to become degenerate, then science works indeed, but
only as a destroying element. In so bad a soil the true know-
ledge is ever transformed into false, and the more profoundly
it is apprehended the more vividly and vigorously it is pur-
sued the more fatally, perniciously, and destructively does it
work. The examples and the proofs of the injurious conse-
quences of too rapid and premature development of scientific
enlightenment amidst a general prevalence of moral depravity,
and the subversion of those principles which are the founda-
tion of national existence and prosperity, might easily be found
at no great distance from our own age. And they admit also
of being demonstrated as clearly and convincingly by earlier
instances from the history of the Greeks and Romans. The
production of these proofs, however, would carry us beyond
our present limits, and the truth they would establish, is not,
moreover, the end to which our present disquisitions are
directed. The theme of this Lecture is the course observed
by eternal wisdom, or the divine order in the realm of truth.
My object is to call your attention to the care with which
Providence observes a gradual progression in its mental de-
velopment of the human race, lovingly suiting and adapting
itself to the weakness and finiteness of humanity, and to the
imperfection of earthly creatures, according to that principle
of divine condescension, so often mentioned already, which,
throughout the divine operations in the world, and His influ-
ence on man, is distinctly visible.

Thus, then, in the knowledge immediately imparted to man
by a higher providence we may discern a preliminary period
a previous illumination, in order to re-open the eye of man,
which heathenism had blinded to the truth, that it might be
able to see and discern God. This first step of revelation was
little more than a preparation for the future ; but the second
was, or has been, an illumination of the soul a vital renewal
of it a total conversion of it from the state of darkness to
the Everlasting Light and the Sun of Righteousness. But in
this living development of the highest life, which is even the
divine light of the Spirit, the third and last step (which indeed
commences in and is involved in the second, even as it also

144 MAN'S GENERAL SENSE TOE, TRUTH.

had its germ in the first) is the full enlightenment of the spirit
or mind. And accordingly this full revelation is in Scripture
itself, as being the close and completion of the whole, expressly
described, and named the last time.

Before attempting, however, to point out the divine order in
the education of the human race, by the gradual revelation of
truth, two general and preliminary remarks seem called for.
I observe then, first of all, that when we speak of sense, soul,
and spirit, as the successive terms in the growing capacity of
the human consciousness for a higher knowledge and heavenly
training, and for truth in general, but more especially for
divine truth, then the general sense of truth, which such an
hypothesis supposes, and which indeed is its essential founda-
tion, must be understood as comprising all those other par-
ticular species, branches, or departments which we have
already enumerated. I mean the common sense of sound
reason. For that susceptibility for the impressions of nature,
and the understanding, which, as I said before, constitute the
sense for the revelation of spirit, or the spirit of revelation-
whether written or historical are alike comprised in that
one and common sense for truth. Or perhaps we may rather
say, that by their joint operations they form it ; while, how-
ever, in its special application, now this now that constituent
preponderates or perhaps that this one and universal sense
for truth is called into action, and made to co-operate now in
this direction and now in that. Moreover, that internal con-
currence and assent of the will, which I have endeavoured to
show is the proper sense in man for God and for divine
things, belongs also, as an essential and element of its consti-
tution, to this general sense for truth. For that the opposite
fault of self-will and obstinacy, is in the highest degree a
hindrance of good, even in the acquisition of knowledge
and the recognition of truth, is found by experience in the
earliest essays of education. But not only in the elemen-
tary principles of learning, but even in the most highly
finished and elaborate systems of metaphysical ideas, con-
structed by the profoundest thinkers and philosphers, does
this spirit of negation and contradiction show itself, and
prove the greatest obstacle to truth and the most fruitful
source of error.

The second remark which we have to make before enter-

REVELATION GRADUAL. 145

ing upon the immediate subject of our Lecture, refers to the
natural progression of the living development of the human
consciousness. This gradation, we would observe, holds good,
and is applicable, not merely to the moral education of man,
but also to the intellectual improvement of man's capacity, as at
present constituted, for all higher and divine verities. But,
however true this may be, where the general sense for truth
is not from the first open and full of light, where the soul is
not already perfectly free and pure; yet on the other hand
there is nothing against on the contrary, everything favours
the supposition, that the earliest revelation imparted to man-
kind the illumination which was given to the first man, and
bestowed upon him as his heavenly inheritance on earth, was
a full and perfect enlightenment of his mind (geist). For his
senses were open and clear, his soul as yet incorrupt, pure,
and free. Both were directed to God, and being one with and
at unison with nature, were keenly alive to and deeply im-
pressed by every token of God's glory and majesty in creation.
It is quite an error to assume, or rather to fancy, that this state
of purity and innocence was a state of ignorance like that of
the child or of the wild man. The tree of life was given to
him entirely and without reserve, as also dominion over the
earth, whose first made living creatures the Lord subjected to
his dominion, bringing them before him to call and to name
them. The knowledge of death was indeed designedly with-
held from him, as also the existence of the evil spirits, even
because it was exactly therein that his trial and probation
were to consist. And so both are perfectly reconcilable : that
height of knowledge in the clearest light of nature, which the
sacred traditions of all primitive nations so positively and
unanimously assign to the first man, is in nowise inconsistent
with that ignorance of death which is no less expressly
ascribed to him. Moreover, had man but preserved and
Kept alive in his heart this feeling of God, he would imme-
diately have recognised his enemy, and even thereby have
triumphed over him, and become the redeemer of nature,
instead of requiring, now that he has foiled in that his high des-
tination, a Redeemer for his own fallen race. This first reve-
lation therefore was, we may well assume, in the beginning as
it will also be in the end, a full enlightenment of the spirit of
man, but which however was soon darkened by his dis-

14G THE JEWS THE PROPHETIC PEOPLE.

obedience and fall. This, too, is the shape which the matter
assumes in the legendary history of all the primeval nations
of antiquity, and these are the threads of light which in the
labyrinthine confusion of legends, symbols, and tongues of
earliest heathendom, carry us safely out of its mazes and back
to the clear starting-point of the pure and undefiled revelation
of God. It were not difficult to show how through the first two
millenniums and a half, or five-and-twenty centuries, a higher
providence and divine guidance was ever quietly carrying on
these luminous threads of original truth, and from time ^ to
time renewing them. But this history of the human mind
in the primeval world, however highly attractive, would take
ns out of our proper limits. Upon the eclipse of man's soul,
when spiritual darkness universally prevailed, the senses origi-
nally open to a higher light were closed against it. His
better perceptions were overwhelmed or buried beneath a
chaos of true and false or half-true images and symbols.
Then it was that the natural law of spiritual development
commenced in its full force. It followed the progression
already described. In the first term the numbed and deadened
sense had to be awakened and quickened again, and in its
second the soul renewed, purified, and converted, before either
could become susceptible of the Ml and perfect illumination of
the Spirit. To trace this natural law in the human conscious-
ness and in the divine education of mankind, and to ascertain
the progressive steps in the divine revelations, expressly given
and designed to effect that gradual development, is the object
of the present Lecture.

The first step or term thereof was the selection of a
single people to be the schoolmaster of the whole human race.*
When the heathenish mass of legends or myths and symbols
had reached the height of confusion, and the evil had become
otherwise incurable, one nation was chosen and set apart by
God as His instrument in opening the eyes of men to the abyss
of error in which the whole world was plunged, and to direct
their looks exclusively to the future. Many prophets were
sent to the chosen people, and it was at first guided and ruled
by none but prophets. And, perhaps, we cannot form a more
correct notion of the character and history of this people, so
peculiarly distinguished from all the other nations of the
* Gal. iii. 24.

REVELATION OF CHRISTIANITY. 147

ancient world, than by thinking of it absolutely and in its
destination as the prophetic people exclusively intended to
point to a distant future, and whose leading ideas and inmost
feelings were to be attached to, and to look far into, a remote
futurity. Three strokes or words, at most, comprise the highly
simple revelation of the first stage the first ray of light
at the beginning in which, however, lies contained the
hidden key and solution for the chaos of legends, and
all the enigmas of the primitive world and of primeval
history. But this brief and simple revelation was accom-
panied with a strict line of demarcation between the Gentiles
and the chosen people, who were separated from all the
heathen nations by customs and laws, while a long ray of
hope reached far into the distant future. This point of light
at the beginning was, however, but little considered and
ill-understood; the line of demarcation too was often trans-
gressed upon the slightest pretext and most ordinary tempta-
tions. And when at last it was more strictly kept, it was
observed, not in its spirit, but in the letter ; and, in consequence,
even that high and lofty hope which- irradiated it was totally
misunderstood, being interpreted, in a narrow spirit of national
exclusiveness, of a temporal Redeemer, and a political redemp-
tion from the yoke of the Roman oppressor. This delusion, and
the extreme ingratitude with which consequently the Light that
came into the world was, on the whole, received by those
to whom It was in the first place communicated, has been
often painted in the darkest colours of indignant censure by V
the stern pen of history. The stiffneckedness of the Jews has '
been a fruitful theme for virtuous indignation. But, for my
part, I hardly know whether, in this respect, a different and
more favourable sentence can be passed on the generations
winch have witnessed the subsequent steps of divine revelation
in its further development. Full time was allowed to the pro-
phetic people to develope itself; and, after the lapse of twenty-
five centuries, which make up the first age of the world, a
millennium and a half was allowed to this initiatory step 'of
revelation. And now, at length, after forty centuries of pre-
paration and hope, when the long, dark winter of the olden
olatry was over, the historical development of the human
race reached its culminating point, and with the vernal
solstice (Fruhlings-Solstitium) of this new manifestation

148 PIBST EIGHT CHBISTIAN CENTTTBIES.

commenced the second term in this series of reflation or of
thedivine education of the human race. Even from its very
first owning everything characterises this second term of
^velop P m"nt g as notlntended for a complete and final revelation
of spirit and knowledge. Promising, and reserving to the
futoe that final manifestation, it forms,, in this respec a
marked contrast to the highly-cultivated.science of the Greeks,
which, however, in spite of its high pretensions, did

continually more and more sensuous in its character.
edWe ob/ect of this second enlightenment of tlrcwhote

> ne'w but heaven-descended sentiment had to engage
with the opposing spirit of the old world. j. .,,,;* is

But men soon relapsed into their former discord; and rt is
now our painful task to point out the rise and growth of to

and to its close and conclusion. - of - QT1 u v thU

In the first three or four centuries of Christianity, this

spirit of opposition showed itself in two different forms. In

geone ?he newand simple faith was fi^st of all perverted

into a chaos of philosophical ^^^.^Sf^Si
ter * In the other, a secret and half infidelity hid itseJ
behind a ^l of woks,! against which the fai th must defend
itself behind an outwork of words also ; and in this period (
httor? a^ubde and refined logomachy first of aU attained
to a great and lasting importance for mankind ^"
pute, the simple foundation of the faith was in de ^ main-
Lined and defended, in its puriiy and mtegnty, agaii

* The Gnostics and the Manichees. Trans. -N^hi* Paul of

+ The Arians, with all the other rationalisuig sects of Noetus, Pi
Saraosata, Sabellius, and the like. Trans.

THE MIDDLE AGES. 149

hostile attacks; but the first-love lost much of its fresh-
ness and ardour. Consequently the new life, which sprang
up with the new faith, was unable to fulfil the hopes which at
its first rise men had reasonably entertained of it, and by re-
forming the corrupt civilisation of the old Roman world, to
renew it entirely in God. Accordingly an alien and purely
physical element had to be associated with it. The northern
nations were called in to infuse fresh energy into the worn-
out races of Europe.

In this work of physical regeneration three centuries were
again spent. But at the close of this first period, it was seen
on a sudden how little the olden spirit of dissension had been
really conquered, or even mollified. The faith, it was said,
may in all essential points be perfectly identical, but a division
may be and still subsists notwithstanding. But what does
that mean but that the God and Saviour of the world wor-
shipped by the East, is different from Him whom the West
acknowledges ? And thus the one God and the one faith was
in the life of man again divided into two ; and this singular
schism, without any adequate cause, still subsists to the pre-
sent day.* In the following great period a fresh life blossomed
in rich and manifold expansion out of that revelation of love
which, properly speaking, now first of all put forth its full vital
energies, giving a new shape to all the institutions of human
society, and impressing on art, as well as on moral and political
science, a new character, totally different from that which
they possessed among the most enlightened nations of anti-
quity. Viewed in its loving aspect, *. e., in its chivalry, there
is much in this period to attract and engage our enthusiasm
and sympathies, but for the fearful discord which broke out
within it, and set one half of the world in hostile array against
the other. The two powers which ought to work together
for one divine end the two swords of which the Lord had
said, " It is enough,' 'f the spiritual sword of the kingdom
of faith and truth and the civil sword of earthly justice, were
drawn and held in threatening attitude against each other, by
which, however, the minds of men were torn and distracted by

* The schism of the East and West of the Greek and Roman Churches
produced by the illegal interference of the Bishops of Rome in the
diocese of the Patriarch of Constantinople. Trans.

t Luke xxii. 38.

150 ERA OF THE RESTORATION OP LETTERS.

the inward struggle of conflicting duties in a far greater degree
than the external peace of society was disturbed. But it was
not merely in such a collision that the strife alone showed itself;
but it extended even to the confusion of the two domains, and
a forgetfulness of their proper duties and respective positions.

In the instance, it is true, of the mailed ecclesiastic, how-
ever, at first sight, the union in one person of such opposite
characters as the soldier and priest may startle the mind, the
gallant and noble bearing of the spiritual knight soon recon-
ciles us to the strange phenomenon. So, too, when he whose
vocation it was to hold the pastoral staff began also to sway
the sceptre of a civil prince, the eminent skill and judgment
with which the difficult task of discharging the double and
often conflicting duties of so mixed a sovereignty was accom-
plished, silence every murmur of a protest. But when he who
ought to carry the crozier of peace hoisted the pennon of war,
such a sight naturally gave great offence, and sadly perplexed
the minds of men.

Thus, then, passed seven centuries more, making, with the
eight already described, fifteen altogether that have elapsed
from that great centre of the world's historv, when the spi-
ritual sun reached its meridian altitude in" this earthly life.
These added to the fifteen which had previously passed from
the first shining of the light of revelation, make no less than
three millenniums. And to these again three centuries more
are to be added. Such is the extremely slow course of the divine
guidance of the world, as regulated by the inexhaustible
patience and long-suffering of God in the education of his
human creatures.

In this last period, however, the spirit of discord has
become still more general, and has broken out in all its violence,
gradually attacking and drawing into the dispute every insti-
tution of society and every department of life. In the won-
derful coincidence of many and great discoveries, simulta-
neously made in widely distinct and independent branches of
science, the spirit of man read the proclamation of his ma-
jority. Conscious of this intellectual ripeness, in the first
use of its new powers it assumed towards the faith an atti-
tude of estrangement and controversy, instead of calmly ad-
vancing along the assigned path towards perfection. Even at
the very commencement of this period, the hostile relation

ANTICHRISTIAN SPIRIT OF THIS ERA. 151

between the new science and the ancient faith is perceptible
enough. But it soon showed itself more distinctly, as the rup-
ture became wider and more general, till at last the discord
extended to the very faith itself, which was henceforth broken
lip into bitter and opposing parties. Still later, a newer and
deeper animosity divided the faith in general from the whole
civil and political life, from which in many places its religious
foundation was altogether removed. And now that life was
thus deprived of its higher and spiritual significance, the
strife became universal and complete. Involving science and
life into the discord, it set them also in deadly array against
each other for life thus unspiritualizcd could no longer re-
concile itself to the dreamy ideal of a science which at most
was but partially true, while life itself could not satisfy the re-
quisitions of science. And fearful was the outbreak in which
this last antagonism of principle openly displayed its animosity.

This fourfold schism, then, first, between science and
faith; secondly, in the faith itself ; thirdly, between life and
faith ; and lastly, between the new science (which usurped
the place of the faith' it had discarded) and life itself this
fourfold schism, with its several branches and ramifications,
extending to every department of human existence, lies now
before us, in the present age, as the still unsolved problem of life.

And who but God alone shall or is able to solve it ? As a
question of dispute, this problem and especially its inmost
root, the schism in the faith can be profitably discussed only
in the spirit of love and mutual forbearance between cognate
and kindred minds, who, while they think differently on a
few points, yet agree in most. Many works might be
adduced on both sides, composed in that conciliatory spirit
of approximation, which is most accordant with true phi-
losophy, whose first effort is in all cases directed to recon-
ciling and removing the deeply -rooted animosities of human
nature. To a complete decision, however, of the whole
matter in question, we shall never arrive on the road of dis-
putation. Even though the dispute were maintained with
the most valid reasoning, and were conducted with the most
dignified forbearance and mildness, the attempt would only
be lost labour. For there exists no supreme court of appeal
to whose sentence both sides would be ready to submit. On
the one side the reason, which advances with unlimited

152 THE FINAL MANIFESTATION OF TRUTH.

freedom in its investigations, and faith on the other, with its
assumed authority to decide in the last instance, would alike
refuse to acknowledge its adversary as a competent tribunal.

Thus deeply piercing into the very marrow of humanity,
and thus mortal is the conflict. Indeed a man can scarcely touch
upon it without being earned almost involuntarily into the
very midst of the strife, and very fortunate may he account
himself if he retires from it unscathed. And if it were only
from a mere human point of view of a scientific dispute that
I had to consider it, good reason should I have to be on my
guard lest on this matter my mind should be as it were
forcibly rent and divided into two halves. I have, however,
at present no anxiety of the kind. For my purpose is solely
and entirely to trace out the divine order in the revelation
progressively given to mankind, and following this luminous
thread to lead reflection up to the finishing close of God's
education of the human race, where, in the full shining of
the perfect day, there shall be no more controversy and no
more doubt. Viewing the matter in this light, I see but little
to attract my sympathies in the publicly conducted contro-
versy, however highly important and pre-eminent a place it
may hold in the history of the world. Far more attractive to
me are those isolated and retiring spirits on both sides who,
taking but little if any part in the prevailing dispute, have
their eyes directed rather to the future in watchful expectation
of that full and final illumination, with all its attendant pro-
mises among which we must reckon first and foremost, the
peace and joy of believing in the last revelation of divine mind.
Of these calmer spirits, however, some have actually fallen
and others have been on the very brink of falling into the
plausible error of regarding this third step of enlightenment
as an absolutely new revelation, whereas it is quite clear that
it will be nothing more than the simple completion of the
earlier steps. For a revelation which should give itself out as
perfectly new, apart from and independent of that saving
illumination of the soul which marks the second step, and
which we are already in possession of; which should disavow
this earlier divine revelation of the heart, of love and life in
faith, which is withheld from no one, and which every one
knows, would even by such an announcement proclaim its own
falsity. New heavens and a new earth are indeed expressly

INTERMEDIATE CONFLICT OF TRUTH AND ERROR. 153

promised among the blessings of this last age. Mention is
also made of a Gospel that shall be preached "unto all them
that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and
tongue, and people."* This Gospel, however, is nowhere
called a new one ; since in the old one there is enough for life,
if only it be duly observed, and also for knowledge, if only
it be rightly understood. But it is called the "everlasting"
Gospel; and by this term it is plain that nothing is to be
understood but this full light of divine knowledge now made
perfect in God, and which has become one with faith, and
consequently fully reconciled with life also. In this domain,
and in this spiritual sense, it is not necessary that the fair
morning-star of faith, which has guided us through the dark
night and lighted us to the day-spring, should become extinct
when the sun ascends the heavens in his full meridian splen-
dour. On the contrary, it shall burn the more brightly ; or
rather, to speak more correctly, for here no such contrast
finds a place, it is the morning-star itself that shall expand into
the full sun and illuminate the whole world with its light.

Waiting, therefore, for this manifestation, we must endure
with the more patience the existing discord so long as our
lot is placed amidst it, and show greater moderation towards
it, since we are subject to it in hope. Only let me not be
thought of as recommending a spurious impartiality, which
in truth, is little better than a culpable indifference to questions
the most important that can agitate our own generation and
all humanity or the indiscriminating contempt of an arro-
gated superiority, which is even still more offensive and
baneful to truth than the most vehement adoption of either of
the conflicting views, if associated with honesty of purpose
and conviction. As little, too, would I be thought to favour
the presumptuous decisions of individuals, which, adopting
a peculiar principle, or, as it is styled, a higher point of
-view, even though occasionally it does justice to each in
part, yet on the whole materially wrongs them both. In
the first ages of this intellectual disease, great names were
arrayed on either side. And that through all its variations
brilliant talents and scientific attainments maintained the con-
flict, while there was much that was false and wrong in both
parties, is equally unquestionable. But what avails the un-
* Rev. xiv. 6.

154 IRRELIGIOUS FEATURE OF THIS CONFLICT.

righteousness of man against the righteousness of the cause,
when, as we must, we regard the latter as the cause of God ?

The painful feature of the conflict is the fact that, in a
certain measure, God Himself has become the object of man's
rancour and animosity. In sacred lore and tradition, but
pre-eminently in revelation, God Himself became as it were a
child ; and in the childlike language of the heart, and in the
most confiding manner, gave Himself into the hands of men.
But now, even this marvellous child and the divine word is
near being torn asunder by the disputants, like the child in the
old story or parable. Two mothers, we are told, came and
stood before the king, disputing violently w r hose was the child
that had been overlaid, and whose was the living one. But
the true mother, for both had fallen asleep in the night,
was recognised by her prayer that the child might not be
divided in two by the sword of justice, but preferred that her
son should live, even though she must lose it by resigning it
to the other. "Whereupon the king ordered his officers in no
wise to slay the living child, but to give it to her who by her
love had proved herself its mother/*

But for us the great sentence which is to decide all contro-
versies, and can alone put an end to this discord, is not yet
pronounced. But, in truth, the more confirmed symptoms of
the deepening intellectual strife which mark the present gene-
ration, furnish one proof the more of the near approach of the
day of final decision. And then the perfect triumph of divine
revelation and the fiery baptism of the Spirit, which in those
last days shall be administered, shall bring with it the long
promised universal peace of the soul w r hen under a divine
leader the in-visible One now become visible all that hope
in Him, of all kindreds and families, shall be reunited in Him
in one love and one fellowship. An universal and perfect
peace like this, w r hich, according to revealed truth, is the last
that is to be imparted to the human race, and is even to
continue for ever, must, it is natural to suppose, be preceded
by a violent but closing conflict. And do we not in our own
age see such a one developing itself in a manner unparalleled
by all that have gone before in it ? To this conflict of our
age, then, I must now devote a few words, and consider pre-
eminently the relations subsisting between it and science.
* 1 Kings iii. 16.

ATHEISTIC TENDENCY OF MODERN SCIENCE. 155

In many and various ways, unquestionably, was the spirit
of man called upon in this beautiful era of the restoration of
science to consider itself ripe and mature ; its feelings, too,
answered to the call, and, in some respects, perhaps it was
even so. But let us examine the matter by the same law of
sound reason that we should judge of a corresponding case
in ordinary and social life. Let us suppose a youth to have
attained his legal majority, or, perhaps, by his father's will,
declared of age at a still earlier period. Is it right for him,
all at once, to forget the love wherewith his mother has nursed
and reared him ? Is it right in him, misinterpreting alto-
gether the motive of his father's dying wish, to cast off and
trample under foot all the wise and useful lessons with
which, according to the measure of his years, his mind was
stored at school, merely because he has remarked or expe-
rienced that there is much in life which was not touched
upon in his school learning ? If we saw this in private life,
should we not form a very bad opinion of such a youth who so
suddenly throws off all restraint, and take care that sooner or
later he should fall under another and a stricter oversight,
since he has all at once outgrown parental control. Why thfti
should we form a different judgment in the realm of science
and truth ? All eyes and universal expectation were directed
to this restoration of science. And these hopes were right in
so far as through the lapse of these last times which are has-
tening to a close, the course and trial of human nature are
even to lie therein. But if, as already pointed out, they fell
into a grave error, who, even while they kept within the
bounds of faith, looked upon the promised completion and
final triumph of the divine and eternal revelation in the
light of a new manifestation of truth, and almost as a new
religion ; far greater was the aberration of those who formed
the conception of, and hoped to attain to, an ever advancing
science altogether without God, or at least one which, pro-
ceeding side by side with Him, should never come into vital
contact with Him ! But men cannot thus pass along by the
side of Omnipotence, without coming into contact with Him
and every effort to rise into the higher regions of truth',
which is begun and intended to remain wholly without God,
will, sooner or later, be directed against Him. And every
branch of knowledge, and more especially the highest, if it

156 FALSEHOOD TO BE FOUGHT WITH ITS OWN WEAPONS.

be without God, is but a false light of the mind (geist), which
will only too soon beguile it into the olden darkness of the
soul. And so it came to pass then. For under this smooth
surface of a seeming moral mildness, the lurking poison sud-
denly broke out as it were by a fearful conspiracy of the
times, spreading its contagion far and wide, and corrupting
everything that came within its reach even as it had been
predicted of it in the second book of the future.*

For even out of the struggle of good against evil, the latter
suddenly arose again in a new and unexpected shape, coming
forth, as it were, out of the sea, and the moral world was
transformed into a sea of blood. And so indeed, in these pro-
phetic pages, it is predicted of the enigmas of the last days.
Now, throughout this great catastrophe of the world, so far
as it can be regarded as a peculiar and especial, but historical
warning from God, and a revelation of the divine will, we
may trace among the better disposed, the same gradation of
illumination, advancing through the ascending series of sense,
soul, and spirit, that we have already noticed, on a larger
scale, in the course of the history of mankind. The senses
of many individuals became, indeed, more and more open, the
more clearly they recognised, by its historical characters, the
fatal abyss to which the age of the world was drawing nigh.
The epoch of the restoration was moreover followed by a
general revolution in the sentiments, the moral principles,
and prevailing pursuits of men. The third step, however, of
a right and true knowledge which, from the position of a full
scientific enlightenment of the mind or spirit, should pene-
trate into the profoundest depths of truth, is still wanting, or
at any rate exists as yet only in a very imperfect degree.
This property is the defective point in the problem of the age,
and in all attempts hitherto made to solve it.

The false science, even that unhuman and godless science
which has been already described, can only be overcome and
conquered by the true. The mere method of negation
which generally, indeed, is seldom the right one is here too
insufficient for the purpose. And so, in fact, when clouds
of dust darken the air, or swarms of noxious insects fill
it, it may suffice if the goodman of the house shuts to his

* The Apocalypse or Revelations of St. John the Divine. Trans.

THIS METHOD PURSUED BY MOSES. 157

casement, as he may lawfully do, even because it is his own ;
but when the fearful thunder-storm is lowering in the
heavens, the closed window will but little ensure the safety
of his dwelling, unless he has more wisely provided against
the danger, by a good lightning-conductor. But what is
that? And how came man first to think of it? Why, by
studying the electrical phenomena, and arriving at a full
understanding of its nature, and so in obedience to its laws,
contriving a counteracting and diverting agent for the electric
current, and converting the natural action of the threatening
element into an instrument of protection; And just in the
same way will a true wisdom proceed in the domain of science
and truth. It is only by a good power of a like kind and similar
action to its own, that the supremacy of evil can be overcome.
Even, therefore, and to this purport was the earnest warning
uttered by the mouth of Truth Itself against those who,
although they sat in Moses' seat, neither went in themselves,
nor suffered others that were entering to go in.*

And what a different picture does Holy Writ set before us
in the noble example 'of Moses ! No doubt the preparation
for the work to which he was to be called, of leading success-
fully the people entrusted to him by God out of their Egyptian
darkness through the fearful Red Sea and all the wanderings
in the wilderness, to the borders of the promised land, was
even the forty years of solitude among the noble pastoral peo-
ple with whom he spent the long period of ^ his exile. But
still it is not without a deep significance that it is written that
the daughter of the Egyptian monarch, having adopted the
foundling of the waters, brought him up and educated him
as her own son. So too assuredly is it not without design
that it is said so emphatically of him, that he " was learned
in all the wisdom of the Egyptians."! In the first place,
we have good reason to rejoice at and to acknowledge the
comprehensive spirit and wide standard of judgment which
Holy Writ here sets up. For whereas it passes a severer
sentence of reprobation on the Egyptians than on any other
heathen nation or people, for their moral depravity, it yet
acknowledges that they possessed a scientific wisdom, which
amply rewarded the labour of its acquisition, while it proved
the very errors wherewith in their extreme corruption they
* Matt, xxiii. 13. t Acts vii. 22.

158 A STRUGGLE FOR, TRUTH THE CONFLICT OF THE AGE.

had overloaded it, to be only the more culpable and deserving
of punishment. Shallow and superficial sceptics may, indeed,
as many have already done, avail themselves of such an ad-
mission, and cry, " There ! it is plain enough, Moses bor-
rowed everything from Egypt and the hieroglyphics."

But this is not the case. No doubt both the ten first and
the twelve last letters of the Hebrew alphabet arc hierogly-
phics, as their very names indicate : but in its primary
natural roots, nevertheless, and above all, in its whole spirit,
; and structure, and tone, this language differs widely from the
hieroglyphical Egyptian. Certainly Moses did learn from
Egypt all that there was for him to learn. And this learning
enabled him the more easily to disperse the thick Egyptian
darkness, and the less cause, consequently, had he to fear the
false arts of the Egyptian magicians and serpent charmers.
He took from them aa that was available for his purpose, but
he made it quite new again, and gave it another nature by the
end to which he employed it. He despoiled them of their
"jewels of gold and jewels of silver," by a theft permissible in
the realm of science and truth. For it is lawful for man to
wrest from the evil power all that may be converted into a
means of honouring the things of God and His revealed truth,
and which thereby is better employed, spiritualised, and
invested with a higher and better significance. This is time
even of our own days, as it was then, and indeed always has
been.

Oh that the many great men who, in our own generation,
have deserved so well of mankind, by devoting themselves to the
noble work of re-establishing right sentiments and principles,
had, in this their good design, followed the great example set
them by this man so highly preferred of God. But, with one
or two exceptions, it is impossible to boast of them that, like
Moses, they were " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians."
And hence" the fact is at once explicable why, with such ardent
and unbounded zeal, they should have effected comparatively
so little against the modern Egyptians, and the new Egyptian
darkness of our own days.

An intellectual conflict about truth, and indeed about
divine truth, is the struggle of our age. This fact is already
seen and admitted by a few, but ere long it will be still more
generally acknowledged. God is a spirit of truth ; and even on

FALSEHOOD THII'LING WITH OATHS. 159

this account is His adversary, the spirit of contradiction,
termed " a liar from the beginning ;" and, of all the powerful
instruments and wicked devices of that evil one, the He is the
first and chiefest. And this suggests to me to notice, in pass-
ing, a point in the moral systems of our day, notwithstanding
that it does not properly lie within our prescribed limits. In
most of oui' ethical treatises the question of falsehood and
untruth is but carelessly treated, and seldom discussed with
that prominence and gravity which its great importance
demands. Overt transgressions of the laws belong rather
to jurisprudence than to ethics, which properly treats of
and analyses the leading faults of human character as so
many diseases of the soul. Now, the worst among these
are usually denominated mortal, i. <?., likely to bring the
soul unto death ; but the lie, in the full import of the term
the intrinsic proper lie of the soul, as the predominant fault
in a character of untruth a whole life become, as it were,
one great lie, is far more than mortal, it is even death itself.
And it is even of this sin this secret revolt against and
wounding of the Spirit, even the divine Spirit of Eternal
Truththat is said in Holy Writ, that it shall be forgiven
neither in this world nor in the next.

On this point, then, I think that moral theoiy and teach-
ing can never be stern and rigorous enough in its precepts,
especially as regards individuals. It is not, indeed, a question
about words, but about their interpretation, and what is meant
by those who use them ; and in this respect there may be, and
often is, a false and over- scrupulous delicacy of conscience.
When, however, we remember how, in particular ages of
history, oaths have been played with, millions of oaths lavishly
preferred and shortly re-taken in quite a different and oppo-
site sense, and soon again abjured with as little difficulty ;
and when we consider the evil effects this trifling with the
most solemn of obligations must have had on the moral cha-
racter of a people, we cannot but see some excuse in this
monstrous fact for certain small communities of Christians \\lio
absolutely refuse to take an oath in any case. For when, in
the important point of truth and falsehood, a grave error has
been committed on one side, it is better to meet it on the
other by too great strictness. A rigorous severity can never
entail such fearful consequences in such a case, as the opposite

160 THE SPIRIT OF THE AGE A SPIRIT OF TJNTRTJTH.

fault of an over-indulgent laxity, or, what is even still more
false and erroneous, the regarding the matter as trifling and
indifferent. But the further prosecution of this topic would
lead me out of my proper province, and I have only touched
upon it in passing to that which lies more immediately before

If then there is nothing so dangerous to the character of an
individual, both inwardly and outwardly if there is nothing
that works so insiduously, conveying its secret poison to the
very lowest roots and extremities of the moral character, as
untruth and the spirit of lying, how much more fearful must
its malignant influence prove when it is become the umversa
and prevailing fault of an age which has not only wandered
far from the truth, but is even animated with a deadly hatred

It is to this spirit of lies, and the false splendour of his
colossal empire, and to the final conflict which truth will have
to wage with it on earth, that the most awful of the prophe-
cies already alluded to refer. And the application is easily
made, since a greater part of their warning denunciations
have in our age ,alimd-COjme to an actual fulfilment,
then this giant spirit of destruction and untruth was strong
enough even in his cradle to throttle two-quarters of the
world * what must it be now that the permitted interval of
rest has passed away without being profitably employed to the
cause of truth, and now that this same spirit of murder anc
lies with a far greater body, and endued with far more magical
powers, is let loose again to tread the earth for a while with
iron feet and to deceive the nations?

Those whose responsible position in public life, or compre-
hensive sphere of intellectual activity, enable them to take in
at one glance all the various elements of evil and the pern
cious principles and destructive tendencies which are so actively
at work in our days, will not, perhaps, be disposed to reg
these remarks as groundless or exaggerated ; others, per
may make a mock at them but they may go on in their
delusion for a while.

In conclusion, I have but three observations to add.

* Schlegel is apparently alluding to the triumph of Mahommedanism
in Asia and Africa, and the almost total extinction of Christianity in thos
quarters of the^jEorld. Trans.

A CALL FOR UNION AMONG THE FRIENDS OF TRUTH. 161

first regards the divine permission of evil, and is intended to
form a 'supplement to that Theodicee which I have attempted,
in the only way that such a justification of the divine ways is
permissible to man, by appealing, viz., to his feelings, rather
than by attempting to force his conviction by the rigour of
demonstration. The full justification of the ways of Provi-
dence is reserved for a future day, when all mouths shall be
stopped, whether that awful crisis be near at hand or yet
tarries for a while. If now, the human race be actually sick
and in a sickly state, as indeed cannot well be denied, then
must God's overruling providence in the affairs of the world
be judged of in the same light as, and be compared to, the wise
treatment of a skilful physician. For as the latter, in the case
of a patient whose death was to be apprehended from a total
prostration of his bodily powers and energy, might wish for
or even venture to superinduce a violent paroxysm, in the hope
that in it he might perhaps be able to throw off his fatal
lethargy ; even so, in God's government of the world, those
predetermined councils, which seem so singular, but never-
theless are so expressly foretold, may have a somewhat similar
design. In the times' of the last struggle the power of dark-
ness will probably work itself to death on the earth; and
while the remnant shall come out of the crisis and fiery trial
purer and healthier, the divine truth is to gain a complete
triumph over sin and death.

The second remark I have to make applies to ourselves and
all the well-disposed among our contemporaries, and refers to
the disunion which subsists in these evil times even among the
best of men. Were two nations threatened in common by a
formidable enemy, would they not, however widely they might
differ in or perhaps be estranged from each other by their re-
spective constitutions, languages, and customs, forget in the
moment of danger their characteristic differences, and laying
aside all previous feelings of jealousy or estrangement unite for
their mutual protection and safety ? My heart's wish, therefore,
is that all the truly pious and well-wishers of truth, on which-
ever of the two sides of the now divided faith they may stand,
would unite together without sacrificing those more intimate
differences which cannot at present be got rid of or reconciled,
and, making a righteous peace of mutual forbearance, join
together in a firm alliance against the common enemy of all

162 FINAL TRIUMPH OF TRUTH.

truth and all faith. For that the dearest interests of reli-
gion are in our generation exposed to a violent assault, and
menaced with great and immediate danger, will not be denied
by any lover of truth, even though his conception of the truth
may differ from mine.

Lastly, the third observation that I promised will not take
the form of the utterance of a wish, as rather of the expression
of the firmest conviction, that, however awful and severe this
final conflict may prove, the good cause will not eventually be
lost, but that the great battle will have a favourable issue in
the complete victory of divine revelation, and the celestial
wisdom in the government of this kingdom of truth will be
fully manifest both to men and angels.

EXD OF LECTTTBE TU.

163

LECTURE VIII.

OF THE DIVINE ORDER IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD
AND THE RELATIONS OF STATES.

" THE history of the world is the world's tribunal," * says
one of our most famous poets. If by these words he meant to
convey an opinion that no other tribunal of judgment is to be
expected than that which is even now set up in the history of
the world, then such an opinion, implying that the human race
is to live for ever in its present state, and in this particular
terrestrial life, would be even as groundless as that of the
fanciful conceit, that the human race had existed from all
eternity, if, in sooth, any of the philosophical dreamers of an-
tiquity had ever fallen on such a fancy, or, in modern times,
any of the antipodes to the usual current mode of thinking
should ever stumble upon it. The poet himself, as dramatist
and artist, would but have taken it ill had any one laid before
him a great drama, composed of several acts and scenes, from
which, however, the beginning was torn off, and which, ever
going on, untied the existing perplexities only to fall again into
new and fresh complications; or like a poor journal ever refer-
ring to a continuation, had no true end, no conclusion or proper
termination. But unquestionably a better sense is also con-
tained in the poet's words. He may have merely meant to
say that the mind which rules the course of mundane affairs is
a mind that inflicts retribution on the world ; and that all the
great epochs and incidents of history have a retributive cha-
racter and vindicatory significance.! Such an interpretation
* " Die Weltgeschichte 1st das Weltgericht."

SCHILLER'S Ode to Resignation.

f The following passage forcibly expresses Schlegel's thoughts on this
point : " Les individus de 1'espece humaine s'echappent quelquefois aux
suites de leurs actions, qui dans la regie doivent etre regardees comme les
justes chatimens des infractions faites a la loi de Dieu. Les nations ne
sauraient s'y soustraire ; car leur existence se prolonge et se projette dans un
espace immense, ou les lois eternelles trouvent leur sanction et leur entier

164 AGES OF THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

of the words, which indeed suits well with the author's serious
mind and character, would bring them in perfect unison with
mv own sentiments, and adequately express the truth wnii
forms the theme of our present consideration on the divine
order in the history of the human race.

The human race, then, as it had a beginning, so also wil
have an end ; it will not continue for ever in this present 1
but must eventually coine to a termination. But, to speak
according to the measure of a divine chronology, where a
thousaiidyears are but as one day; who can say who s:
dare offhand to decide whether six or seven of 1
davs of God are fixed for its duration ? Enough to know that
we stand on the borders of the fourth age, and on the passag<
from the third to the fourth. And not unimportant is it, on tb
other hand, for the clear understanding of the whole, to fc
a ri-ht conception of each of these its great divisions and
epochs. The first age is made up of the twenty-five centuries
of obscure primeval history. The second, which we calle
?he a-c of preparation, is formed by the fifteen hundred years
which we reckon from the end of the first up to the centre and
turning-point of the history of the world as known to us, and
from which modern history takes its commencement. Even
the oldest traditionary history of the Gentile nations of an-
tiquity we do not meet with any statements that can be r
upon or any tenable data beyond, if indeed so far back as, the
fifteenth century before the epoch of the commencemenl
modem history. The fifteen centimes which follow ita epoch
form the third age, in which this principle of a new life in tl
Sal. moraCand political world had to develope and corn-
Setelv to unfold itself. In the last Lecture I also reckoned m
this period the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centime:
of our era But if it seems to any more advisable to considei
tteTaa the introductory portion of the fourth and subsisting
. C'est la que la terrible Nemesis se deploie tout entiere,
crime sa bienfaisante reaction; c'est sur la lonue route

%$&s5ffsss^

de Politique, et de la Literature, torn. 11. Trans.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 165

age, there is nothing positively to condemn such a mode of
reckoning ; only, for my part, I cannot but regard it as less
correct arid more inaccurate than the one which I have pro-
posed. In one case as well as the other the same important
consideration will be involved. Reckoning from some point or
other within these last forty years, we have, it must be acknow-
ledged by all, entered upon a grand and decisive epoch in the
history of the world ; and our attention cannot be too often
or too strongly directed to the fact, that we stand at the cri-
tical point of transition from one great period to another.

Now one of the most characteristic signs, by which such
important moments of general revolution in the history of the
world are, for the most part, known and distinguished, is a
number of great events pressed closely together and following
each other in rapid succession ; or, in other words, the accele-
rated course of time. It is no new remark, that, in the poli-
tical history of our own. age, modern Europe has, in the short
space of two-and-twenty years, ran through all the epochs
of the old Roman world, from the first party struggles of the
republic, and its long wars with Carthage, that mistress of the
seas, up to the imperial rule of the Caesars, in the first reigns
mild and indulgent, but at the last so fearfully oppressive and
cruel ; and even up to the final immigration of the northern
nations. Such a simple remark is alone sufficient proof that
another law now rules in the history of the world a quicker
life pulsates in its arteries than beat in the calmer days of old.
Whether, however, this life be thoroughly sound, or, on the
contrary, sickly and feverish, that is quite another question.

But not only in the political world, but also in the intellec-
tual domain of science has the same accelerated course been
noticeable. Only, as compared with that of antiquity, the
course or direction pursued by modern science is altogether
different. We have travelled with equal celerity, but in quite
an opposite course to the ancients. Starting from the last
term, we have reversed the series of their mental progression.
First of all, in the last decades of the preceding century, the
Epicurean cast of thought, or one very nearly resembling it,
was the one chiefly predominant in the philosophical world.
And then together with, but subordinate to it, came scholastic
subtilties and hair-splitting distinctions similar to those of the
later Greek schools, not unaccompanied, perhaps, with the same

166 PUBLIC OPINION.

patient industry of research and extensive erudition, and exer-
cising altogether on the minds of men an influence no less wide,
nor less pernicious, than did the most brilliant of the sophists of
Greece. All the erroneous systems which it was possible for the
human mind to embrace, and which are grounded in its essential
qualities, or which could possibly originate in any (so to speak)
of its inborn misconceptions, which it took the Greeks several
centuries to evolve in slow succession, our age has rapidly and
almost simultaneously run through in as many decades. And in
this fact, if I do not greatly deceive myself, there is much ground
of consolation. It encourages me to hope that this inverse pro-
gression is leading us back again to the truth that in this
ascending line we are gradually coming nearer to the better
times of the first great philosophers of Greece of a Plato, a
Socrates, and a Pythagoras. It must be self-evident that in
this case, and still more so in that analogy of political history
which I have so recently noticed, as generally, in all such his-
torical parallels, nothing more is intended to be asserted than a
general resemblance, which, however, as such, is eminently
remarkable. It would not perhaps be difficult anxiously to
work out the general resemblance into points of detail, but
such an over-wrought assimilation could only lead to false
conclusions and results.

Now that the conflict which our age has to go through
is eminently intellectual is implied simply in the prevailing
notion of a public opinion and its influence. But, at the same
time, we must observe, that in the very notion of opinion, and in
the word itself, there is involved a certain character of extreme
vagueness and uncertainty. No doubt that which man can
properly be said to know is extremely limited and confined.
Of very much all that we can have is merely an opinion, and
with that must we be content to put up. Nay, inasmuch as all
scientific certainty admits not of being imparted to all men,
very much of that which we do properly and certainly know
is best and most beneficially set forth to others merely as an
opinion, in order that we may not seem to force their minds to
the admission of this higher certainty. And what is there
that the passions of a prejudiced or excited multitude cannot
be made to adopt as an opinion, which if presented to them as
a sober conviction of reason would never make an impression ?
So devoid are they generally of that intelligence and accurate

THE FACULTY OF JUDGMENT. 167

knowledge of men and things which are essential and neces-
sary to the formation of a right judgment. If, instead of
public opinion (which, unquestionably, is a great power, but
which, if it takes a wrong direction, is also a very dangerous
one), the appeal were to be made to a public conscience, this
would be, to my mind, far more impressive and serious. To
illustrate my meaning: the impression which the events
of 1793 made on the general feeling of all Europe, and the
universal movement of discontent which, among all European
nations, preceded the great political catastrophe of our own
days, are instances to which the old maxim, vox populi vox
Dei may, without hesitation, be applied. Such feelings are
founded on a true and higher judgment often on a correct
presentiment of evil and wrong even though as we must
admit that in their utterance more or less of passion and
exaggeration reveals itself, and that individual prejudices are
not unfrequently mixed up with them. But how seldom in
the ebbing and flooding tide, in the ever-changing course of
the stream of public opinion, flows there aught that truly
deserves to be called a public judgment. And yet public
opinion is even that on which, in this respect, and relatively to
the theme of our present Lecture, everything mainly and
principally turns.

In discussing the theory of consciousness a chasm remained,
or, rather, was intentionally left open, and the present seems
the appropriate place for filling it up and supplying it. The
power or rather the faculty of judgment has not, as yet, had
its place assigned it. The reason, with its immediate subor-
dinates, memory and conscience ; the fancy, with its subordi-
nates, the senses and inclinations, form six faculties of the
inner man, with which the understanding and will make
together eight. The ninth is the living, loving, feeling soul,
which, although it be the centre of the whole consciousness,
must nevertheless be counted as an independent and peculiar
faculty. As for the heart (Gemutli], (as some peculiarly
designate the collective sum of the tender, moral emotions of
the soul, and which, at any rate, must be carefully distin-
guished from the conscience and also from love), it is, how-
ever, a kind of application of the triple relation and function
of the soul rather than an independent faculty. But the
tenth faculty, which completes the whole cycle and theory

168 THE FACULTY OF JUDGMENT.

of the human consciousness, and which may be regarded as
its crown and perfection, is the judgment, or, in other words,
the judging mind (geisf}.

But now, if this term judgment be understood purely in a
logical sense, as that process of thought which forms combina-
tions and deductions, and by means of which we ascribe to a
subject A a predicate B, this would fall very far short of the
signification in which I here intend it to be taken. Moreover,
it would be, in truth, quite a superfluous task to separate this
cogitative relation, or this relative cogitation, from the other
logical functions of the understanding, and to make of it a
special and independent faculty. The judgment is something
higher than this mere coupling in the thought of some special
A with some general B. Understanding is the cognition of
spirit and of that which it has uttered ; and judgment is the
decision between two things understood, or the " discerning of
spirits." Of how great a multitude of intellectual relations
does a scientific or even an artistic judgment imply the coin-
cidence and concurrent action ! And yet these are merely
private judgments, which involve an assenting feeling in the
individual, but beyond that cannot pretend to any valid autho-
rity. In practical life the judicial function in the state alone
furnishes an adequate standard for estimating the high rank
which the faculty of judgment holds as the centre of the
human consciousness. For, in the deliberative sentence of the
judge, there is comprised both the mature art of the under-
standing, which has taken due cognizance of the matter and
impartially discerned between two objects equally well under-
stood, and also a determination of the will : for though the
actual carrying into effect that which properly and peculiarly
constitutes a willing belong not to, but is independent of,
the judge's office, still the conclusion of a positive judgment
implies the existence of the first determining motive of the
will. In this one act of judging, therefore, there is contained
both functions of the mind (geisf), understanding and willing;
and as the loving soul is the centre of the consciousness, so
the judging mind or spirit is the highest of all its operations.

In the Book of Truth there is a sentence which admits of
application here. " There is none good," it is there written,
" but one, . e., God." However harsh and severe this judgment
may sound at the first hearing, still, upon a little reflection, we

GOD THE SOURCE OF JUSTICE AND AUTHORITY. 169

shall see ample cause to admit its justice. Man is not wholly
and purely good ; at the very best he is not free from faults,
and more or less of imperfection cleaves to all that he does or
is. And even granting that a man might be found devoid of
all admixture of imperfection and quite faultless and thoroughly
good, still he was not so always and from the first. And
even if any should here urge that the angels who have con-
tinued such as they were originally created, were good from
the beginning, we must remember that at least they are not
good in and by themselves, but that, that they are good, comes
from God, who is the source of all goodness. Now just
in the same sense can we also say, Who judges rightly?
There is none that judges rightly, but one, . e., God. lie is
Himself the truth ; and, therefore, He alone has the standard
of truth in Himself, and all truth has its ground and prin-
ciple in Him alone. Every individual judgment and decision,
in all important matters, has its ground, either mediately
or immediately, in this divine basis, and its rectitude must
be estimated according to this standard. But this latter condi-
tion need not make us foolishly anxious ; for nothing impos-
sible is required of us by God. And this requisition, like every
other which He lays upon man, is modified by, and adjusted
to, the measure of human fmiteness. The conscientious judge,
w r ho, after a patient investigation of the cause as it is laid
before him, and after a careful weighing of all the possible
reasons and motives, nevertheless errs or is deceived by a rare
coincidence of circumstances, stands, nevertheless, exonerated,
even though he should have passed an unjust sentence, and
have had the misfortune to condemn the innocent. Although,
when he becomes aware of it, the thought must be painful
enough to his own feelings, yet who, in justice, can reproach him
merely because he was not omniscient? He who in thought,
in science, and in faith, adheres to this divine foundation, the
best and most certain that he can find or that is anywhere
offered to him, may rest calm and composed; he has done the
utmost that lies in his power. He alone, who makes a bad
use of what he has, and what has been given to him, like an un.
just steward, need fear to give an account of his stewardship.
This reference of all judicial sentences to, and their founda-
tion in a divine authority, is an idea which was not unknown
even to the republican states of antiquity, as is evident from

170 KIXGS AS YICEGEBENTS OF GOD.

the way they expressed themselves on the irrefragable sanctity
of the laws and the inviolability of the supreme judicial power,
and also in the maxims which they practically advanced on
this subject. They honoured herein a higher and a diviner
principle, of which, however, in theory they possessed no clear
and perfect knowledge, though in practical life they were
taught by a correct feeling of sound reason and the natural
conscience accurately enough to recognise and steadily and
distinctly to respect it. With us still more generally is it
become an admitted doctrine that all sovereignty and kingly
power is of God, and that all obedience to the laws and to the
supreme authority in the state rests ultimately on a divine
foundation and sanction. If very recently men were for a while
disposed to argue, that political institutions must be founded
on the reason and its unconditional liberty,- yet bitter expe-
rience quickly convinced them of their error, and it was soon
fully refuted by the convincing argument of actual fact. And
accordingly, theory has for the most part reverted to a right
principle, and recognised the divine authority as the true foun-
dation of political authority.

But the principle being thus generally recognised, it is, I
think, still necessary to distinguish with care and accurately to
define in what sense the supreme ruler of the state is the vice-
gerent of God. The indefinite titles which are assumed by
Eastern despots have always been alien to the habits of the
West. But it is not enough to avoid such exaggerated titles
of honour, if nevertheless the appeal to divine right be made
so very vaguely, and simply in general terms to God Himself.
In His absolute essence, God is wholly inconceivable; it is
only in His operations on man and nature, and in His rela-
tions to the ' human race, that we can at all think precisely of
Him. It is only as Creator of the world, as the Lawgiver of
nature, or as the Benefactor and Redeemer of mankind, and so
forth, that we can form a clear and distinct notion of the
Godhead.

Now, is the supreme ruler of the state God's deputy as
Creator of the world ? Who would venture to assert anything
of the kind ? It is true that the paternal rule of the earthly
parent, and the universal feeling among all peoples and nations
of the sanctity of a father's authority, rests on a resemblance
which is, however, only symbolical between his relation and

KINGS AS VICEGERENTS OP GOD. 171

that of our unseen Father which is in heaven. And it is no less
true also, that the reign of a truly paternal monarch over his
people may be regarded as a mere amplification of the father's
government of his family ; a good king is the father of his
people. But such remote, although most significant, analo-
gies furnish us with no precise notion of right ; and it is on
such alone that the whole question here turns. No doubt
when a people is governed well and wisely which is even the
same as to say, paternally governed it exhibits a wonderful
power of natural development ; productive industry flourishes,
population increases, and its physical and mental cultivation
advances rapidly. Unfavourable seasons may undoubtedly
check this tendency, and it will be entirely stopped as soon as
the subject refuses to follow with loving confidence the guiding
hand of the paternal monarch. Whenever they whose duty it
is' to obey seek to be supreme, then are the natural energies of
a great people transmuted into a fearful element of universal
desolation.

If now we inquire in the next place how far it is allowable
to compare the highest authority in the state to the Lawgiver
of nature, we shall find that even in this respect the difference
is so very great that analogy almost entirely fails us. Holy
unquestionably are the laws of every political community in
respect to the duty of obedience which they suppose and
require ; but this is not paid spontaneously and naturally, but
needs to be enforced and maintained by pains and penalties.
And not to speak of the stern laws of retributive justice, but
rather of those mild and equitable enactments designed for the
general benefit and the improvement of the whole community ;
these are still more subject to the imperfection and manifold
changes of human things. Suppose, for instance, a measure
promulgated in any country with the design of balancing in
some degree the agricultural and the manufacturing interests ;
however wisely designed, it is found within a few years to have
totally failed ; under it misery has but increased on both sides,
and the law must be repealed or modified. But it is not so
with the laws which God has implanted in the system of the
universe : they never fail of their intended effect.

Do we further ask in what, if in any respect, the earthly
sovereign is the deputy of God, as Redeemer, Emancipator,
and Liberator ? A notion of grace and mercy does, we must

172 KINGS AND PEIESTS AS VICEGERENTS OF GOD.

admit, attach itself to our idea of supreme authority; and
in this respect it presents a sort of analogy and resemblance
to the idea of the Godhead. Properly speaking, however,
the exercise of grace and mercy forms an exception to the
general rule of man's sovereignty, and belongs to him only
in his special function as administrator of justice. More-
over, the most paternal and beneficent of earthly rulers can
at most provide only for the physical happiness of his people.
He may alleviate or avert heavy calamities, or procure many
temporal blessings and advantages for his subjects ; but the
unhappy soul can be helped by One alone. The distinction I
have just made will become more apparent by means of a con-
trast. Wherever the clergy are not regarded merely as
teachers of the people, but, as is the case in the greater part
of Western and of Eastern Christendom, as priests speaking
with a divine authority, this their public vicegerency relates
primarily and immediately to the Redeemer ; its judicial func-
tions over the conscience ought to shun a visible publicity, and
to be left entirely to the conscience and guarded by its seal of
secrecy. And in this respe'ct lies the distinctive peculiarity of
the relation subsisting between the supreme autliority in the
state and God, which however refers pre-eminently to His
attribute of justice. And here it is no mere remote analogy
and weak resemblance, dependent on the principle of human
weakness and imperfection; but it is a true and real vice-
gerency, publicly admitted and recognised, and exercising
consequently a great public influence. And therefore it is
that among the divers elements or branches of the supreme
political authority (which, however, fundamentally and in its
essence is one and indivisible), a special sanctity is, as I have
already remarked, ascribed to its judicial functions. In a
word, the earthly head of the state is the dispenser of the
divine justice, the vicegerent of the Judge of the world ; he is
a divine functionary, and, so to say, the supreme judge in the
world's tribunal. And this is the point of view from which
all matters and questions connected with this subject may most
fully be answered and most correctly determined. But that
this exalted dignity of the earthly ruler may not be interpreted
too literally, I must here observe, that the divine Judge is one
who allows mercy to take the place of justice, not merely occa-
sionally and by way of exception, but always and invariably ;

HISTORY A PRELUDE OF THE FINAL JUDGMENT. 173

so long, at least, as it is in any way possible. , And here comes
in the application of the principle which we previously ad-
vanced : That God is in nowise absolute, but that on the
contrary His justice is in every case limited by His love and
grace ; while the latter again is restricted and modified by His
justice, and both indeed reciprocally by each other. Whoever
has formed in his heart the least vivid notion of God, will not
entertain the slightest doubt of this union of justice and of
mercy in the divine essence.

When, however, we speak of kings being the dispensers of
divine justice, we mean it in quite a different sense from that in
which, during the great immigration of the northern hordes of
Asia, the barbarian conqueror proclaimed himself the scourge
of God. By assuming this title he merely meant to terrify
his adversaries by the thought of having to encounter in him-
self a fearful and destructive power of evil, whom, in order to
chastise a degenerate world, the Almighty had permitted to do as
he pleased and to let loose his fury on the nations of the earth.
And phenomena of this kind are not confined to the period of
the great migration ; for the true notion of the representation
of the divine judge of the world by the supreme power in
the state combines together with the sternest severity of
justice, which in this respect is both wholesome and necessary,
the greatest clemency, for where is there, or can there be, a
clemency greater than the divine ? But most especially does
this idea imply that which is here pre-eminently requisite,
and insists w T ith a prominence proportionate to its great im-
portance on the strictest conscientiousness in the discharge of
the duties of this vicegerency. But the superior excellence
of this idea over many other explanations of a similar kind,
but labouring under the defect of extreme vagueness, consists
even in this, that it comprises and inseparably combines those
two important conditions, both that the supreme governor is
responsible to God alone, and, as following therefrom, that
he is unquestionably responsible to Him, and that it also
determines in what sense and in what way he is so.

Every great and remarkable event which marks an epoch
in the political history of nations and the world, may, perhaps,
be regarded as a dispensation of justice. If, then, such an
event, however partial and confined to a single people or
empire, or at most extending to an entire age, may be looked

174 HISTORY A PRELUDE OF THE FINAL JUDGMENT.

upon as a sign of judgment already commencing, or at least
of a retribution threatening but mercifully suspended, the
same mode of consideration may, with as good reason, be
applied to every resolution of the political world on the grave
questions of peace and war : for the power of making war
and peace is, at all events, the peculiar and characteristic pre-
rogative of the supreme authority in the state. Now, the
simplest standard, perhaps, of judging of the justice of either
is, if we may so speak, to ask, is the proclamation of war or
the treaty of peace so entirely founded on truth, so perfectly
correspondent to the righteous and judicial character of God,
that man need not fear to lay them before the Judge of the
whole world for His ratification ? If such be the case, then
most assuredly are they right and righteous, whatever be their
consequences, or whatever be the judgment that men may
pass upon them. But, otherwise, if the manifesto of war
contain nothing but shallow and specious pretexts painfully
raked together, or of fine colourable phrases which even the
eye of the world can see through, if a light touch of truth
be only thrown over it in the hope of concealing the con-
queror's lust of aggrandizement, or the equally destructive
principle of an old national feud or jealousy. if, in the pacifi-
cation, under ambiguous terms and cunningly-devised phrases,
the seeds of a future war be carefully sown, and thus the
worst disease of the political world be propagated and multi-
plied from generation to generation, then most assuredly the
guardian eye of Eternal Justice has not watched over its com-
pletion, and bestowed on it His blessing, but another and a
very different coadjutor has had his hand in the game the
spirit of untruth, viz., and of corruption, of strife and ruin,
whom no name so exactly describes as that of a " liar from the
beginning."

Now, as not only the annihilation of the race of giants in
the universal deluge, with which our sacred history opens, and
to which the ancient traditions of almost every people allude,
more or less directly, but also the partial overthrow of a single
nation, the tragical closing catastrophe of particular ages, is, as
it were, a prelude of the final judgment of all nations and peo-
ples of the earth at the end of time ; so, on*he other hand,
the original corruption of the primal lie is propagated as ail
hereditary evil from millennium, to millennium, and from cen-

HISTORY A REHEARSAL OF THE FIRST TEMPTATION. 1 75

tury to century. For even now, may many a fertile spot, the
seat of a nappy and united community in the midst of pros-
perous times, and of peace unbroken at home or abroad, be con-
sidered, if not a garden of innocence, still the blissful dwelling
of peace and quiet. But into these happy precincts the
evil spirit of untruth and discontent ever and anon steals,
to repeat over again in the history of the human race the
same scene of temptation which marked its commencement.
Upwards and downwards, and in a twofold direction, does the
lying spirit of strife ply his seductive arts. Now, on the one
side, he whispers in the ear of the rising generation, " That is
the true knowledge and the real science which men are most
anxious to withhold from you ; but seek first of all to be free,
shake off this unworthy spirit of slavish obedience, then shall
all that is noble and intellectually great be at once yours. In
this way, and thus only, was it attained by the great and
good in ancient times." But, on the other hand, he directs
himself to the individual invested with authority ; and if the
potentate be unrighteous, his ear is already more than half
open, and even if he be upright, still, as a man, he is not
always inaccessible to such whisperings. " Why," he in-
sidiously asks, ' ' dost thou draw back so fearfully before that
which the people call their rights ? These are nothing but
childish notions which the school-boy may do well to declaim
about, but practically they are worthless and unreal ; no one
means them seriously the whole world puts no faith in this
comedy. Rule your subjects with an iron hand, that is all
that they know how to respect nay, they even admire
the bold spirit that defies them, and they "will suppliantly
reverence thy greatness of mind and strength of character
if, betraying no infirmness of purpose, you boldly and sternly
encroach upon or disregard all their pretended rights and
privileges. If only your sovereignty be solidly established
from within, and well rounded from without, then, besides a
great name with posterity, you will also secure to yourself
the present enjoyment of very great and solid advanta^

In this wise, from the original source of the one lie, is the
inheritance of the old evil transmitted from generation to
generation in the political- world, in the two opposite forms
of popular anarchy, and the despotic lust of power and
aggrandizement. These two forms of evil are more closely

176 ABSOLUTE POWER.

allied than at the first look they appear to be in reality ; but
history, the great teacher of truth, gives its sure witness to
their affinity. Nothing is more common in great republics,
than for the discord of the citizens to be put an end to by
some victorious general, whom all parties, weary of their
dissensions, hail as the benefactor of the whole community.
But how seldom is the pacificator content with the glorious
title of the restorer of domestic peace, and does not go a step
further, and become the scheming tyrant and the aggressive
conqueror. The whole history of the world is, in short, little
more than the continuous struggle between the purifying fire
of the divine retribution and this spirit of political lying,
which is ever renewing itself in these twofold forms of anarchy
and despotism.

Moreover, while we acknowledge the divine authority
invested in the supreme ruler of the state, we must take heed
how we mix up with our conceptions on this head the notion,
60 highly dangerous and so pregnant with fatal errors, of the
absolute and unconditional, which, as we have already re-
marked, cannot be applied even to the Godhead without
giving rise to misconceptions. If, therefore, in any country
a party for now-a-days even justice is made a party matter
if anywhere a party of otherwise well-disposed men call them-
selves " absolutists," such a designation is of itself sufficient
to excite our apprehension, lest, with so absolute a way of
thinking, some spark of evil be slumbering beneath the ashes ;
inasmuch as one absolute, i. e., one unconditional element
of destruction invariably calls forth another.

Absolute, if this pernicious term must be used, the supreme
power of the legitimate sovereign of a state may indeed be
called in so far as he is responsible to God alone. For were
the supreme ruler responsible to man, then the only dif-
ference would be, that instead of one, the many to whom
he is answerable would be absolute. But in another sense,
it is impossible to call the supreme power, wherever lodged,
absolute or unlimited ; for it is limited in many ways. Its
exercise is checked and controlled by the treaties subsisting
between it and other powers by the laws which it finds
in existence from the times of his predecessors, and which
are still in force by the family laws of succession, and all
matters pertaining to or connected therewith. If he who is

TWO FORMS OF RELIGIOUS ERROR. 177

invested with the highest power in the state, is determined
to interfere with all these institutions, and violently to sub-
vert existing customs and compacts, then is there, in such a
case, no one really justified or entitled either to make objections
to his measures or to oppose them. By such arbitrary and
violent proceedings, however, he is himself undermining the
very foundation of his own power. And a regard to and
consideration of the possible consequences of such injustice
will in most instances furnish the necessary and salutary check.
Lastly, if we look a moment from the right itself to its actual
exercise and influence, how often and how greatly are the latter
limited by adverse circumstances and evil times. Nothing, in
short, is more at issue with and opposed to nature and to life,
than the very notion of unlimited power, and generally all that
is absolute or destructive.

, But there is yet another side on which the supreme poli-
tical power is essentially checked and controlled. It is bound
to consider and pay respect to the principles of religious
society, which rests no less than itself on a divine authority.
For the church, although very different in its nature, and
flowing from a wholly different origin from that of the state,
is, nevertheless, equally inviolable. If, however, the civil and
political ruler, not content with a coordinate jurisdiction and
the revision of ecclesiastical affairs with a joint authority
and influence, should attempt to make the religious polity also
entirely subject to his own arbitrary will, no one perhaps will
be able to oppose force to force, and probably no one would
be justified in so doing. But by such an attempt, as indeed
by every act of religious oppression, the supreme civil power
would most fatally undermine the very basis of its own autho-
rity. If, for instance, the ruler of a great nation places the
third estate in the painful alternative of making, what in any
case must be most pernicious, a choice between divine and
human authority or rather, to speak more correctly, between
two claims to its allegiance equally divine, he does but smooth
the road which must lead at last to his own ruin.

And here, too, in the spiritual community of the faith, in the
same way as in the political body, man's patrimony of original
evil branches out into two directions. In the one it turns
longingly back towards the past, and in the other it tends
restlessly forward into the indefinite future. Both of these

178 THE LAST JUDGMENT.

aberrations are wholly independent of the outer form as
well as of the subject-matter of belief. They are consequently
to be found in the old covenant, as the first grade of divine
revelation, no less than in the second. The first of these here-
ditary faults of man's nature is deadness, or in a somewhat
different phase lukewarmness manifesting itself outwardly
in a close and literal adherence to the old in its mere external
forms. In a word, it is spiritual death. For though in the
abundance of His love, God may have made a revelation of His
will to man, and even died to make an atonement for him, still
it is left to the free will of the individual to receive it or not ;
and its retention and observance is the trial of his goodness,
and consequently, in this point, as in others, his hereditary
and inborn spiritual death strongly manifests itself. The
second of these hereditary faults, or rather the same in a
different form, is the spirit of innovation, or a false sem-
blance of life, by which, in fact, this inner death is merely
propagated.

On both these faults and erroneous ways of thinking on
religious matters, Revelation expresses itself equally in the
tone of stern reprobation, though perhaps its language with
regard to the former is even still more severe. As regards the
spirit of innovation, all changes in this domain, which are
merely human, and not visibly and manifestly of a divine
spirit and origin, must simply on that account be opposed and
condemned. Now in both the parties into which the faith is un-
happily divided, there are many who are captivated and led away
by this spirit of change. For among those who were originally
seduced by it not a few are now animated with a sincere and
profound respect for whatever is old and sterling, M^hile of the
innovation-mongers of our days, many are to be found in the
ranks of those who originally strove to stem the tide of alter-
ation and change. Oh that all who are pervaded by this evil
spirit, and are ever casting their views forward into the future,
would only advance a little further still in their thoughts, so as
to take in the end and conclusion of all. In the knowledge of
the final judgment of the world (and what is this philosophy of
revelation but such a reminiscence of death and the end in
\vhich light philosophy was even in olden times explained not
indeed in a narrow-minded limitation to our ownselves, but in a
far wider sense, embracing in its universal sympathy the final

GOD'S TEMPORAL JUDGMENTS ON THE WORLD. 179

catastrophe of the whole human race), in the warnings and
allusions to this last day of account, so long and so often
given, men will find all the information that they seek, and
will no longer need any human innovations, since by this
key all that is old and eternal shall receive a trebly exalted
significance and a doubly new life.

But besides the political body and the religious community,
the world of letters forms a third society. Though numeri-
cally smaller, yet in its effects on the minds of men, whether
it moves freely and diffuses itself without the rigid restraints
of form, or is narrowly confined to the formalism of the school,
it is perhaps as great as either. Spiritual in its matter and in
its dissemination, it either renounces a divine sanction, and
stands under the protection and supervision of the state such,
at least, is the predominant relation in recent times or, as
was formerly the case, it grows and nourishes beneath the
shelter and through the fostering care of ecclesiastical in-
stitutions. Holding an intermediate place between the two
other bodies of human society, in its subject-matter more
akin to the one, but deriving from the other its external sup-
port, it is. also of a mixed nature and partakes of both. But
the inborn and original sin of science is exactly similar to that
which infects political life. Manifesting itself in a twofold
aberration, it either assumes, in the spirit of anarchy, an
hostile position towards all that exists from without and is
given to men from above, or perhaps comes forward in a pre-
dominant love of system or scientific sectarianism, \vhich not
unfrequently is as fanatical as the political party-spirit with
which, moreover, it is often very nearly and closely allied.

The nature of the divine order which rules the history of
the world, and its stern retributive law, must, in all essential
points, be now apparent from the preceding remarks. It is an
all-pervading alternation between the purifying fire of God's
punitive justice and the inheritance of the old evil, which
breaks out, now in anarchy now in despotism, at one time in
spiritual deadness and lukewarmness of faith, at another in the
pernicious lust of innovation and change. This purifying fire,
it must also be clear, while confining its immediate operation
to single nations or to marked and distinct epochs of history,
it gives them a new shape and form, invariably gains for itself
a wider extension, so as at last to embrace the whole world.

180 GOD'S TEMPORAL JUDGMENTS ON THE WOELD.

Moreover, every one must feel that in investigating the fiery
track of this judging spirit in its stern course through centuries,'
we must reverently follow at a respectful distance to learn from
it what it is and how it manifests itself, and take good heed
how we presume to confine it within any narrow law, or
reduce it to any precise and rigorous definition. We cannot
be too carefully on our guard against ascribing to Providence
in its guidance of mankind many and subtle designs, which
after all, perhaps, are nothing but the mere fancies and con-
ceits of man. In general, however, it may safely be said that
the subordinate views and higher ends which are visible in the
leading catastrophes of nations and empires, or even of entire
ages, have especial reference to that gradation in the divine
revelation which I explained to you in the previous Lecture
as having a regard to, and comprising the whole human race in,
its comprehensive design. By way of exemplification, and as
an instance of the right application of the ideas here advanced,
I will now, in conclusion, add a few words on those events and
catastrophes of universal history which, in this respect, seem
the most important.

The universal deluge, of which the whole surface of our
globe presents so many and so great traces and proofs, forms
a partition wall, sternly separating the earliest races of men
from the subsequent generations. Of the former it is only
probable that they were very different from the latter, not only
in their manner of life, but also in their physical and intel-
lectual powers and endowments, and likewise perhaps in the
nature and mode of their moral corruption and depravity.
My remarks, therefore, may well be confined to this side of
that great partition wall. The next great catastrophe, which
is both expressly given out as a divine retribution, (and as
such can be proved from profane history as much, though not
so universally, as the former,) is the so-called Babylonian con-
fusion of tongues and the dispersion of nations. This, and
that which is so inseparably connected with it, the confusion
of mythical ideas and legends, is rather hinted than fully and
clearly detailed. The time too is not given, though the locality
is expressly mentioned. It is the same one which, according
to all other historical statements, was the very spot of Western
Central Asia where that contagious malady of the lust of con-
quest first arose, or, if we may be allowed the expression,

THE GREEKS A SECOND CHOSEN PEOPLE OF GOD. 181

where this unhappy invention was first made. This disper-
sion of nations, however, was its natural punishment, since
ever\- unity which is either politically false or intellectually
untrue, must terminate in chaotic dissolution. This historical
fact is distinctly traceable in the world of the ancients among
the West Asiatic, South European, and North African nations
which dwell around the shores of the Mediterranean. Here
we can scarcely find our way out of the labyrinth of traces
of reciprocal relationship which abound, in their medley of cog-
nate languages and their chaos of legends, so remarkably
agreeing and yet frequently so inconsistent in their ideas
of nature, their far-reaching theogonies, and the divine
origination of their heroic families. These chaotic contra-
dictions, however, in which the poetry of heathendom indulged
without restraint, gradually undermined the old popular
belief, and led consequently at a later period to a very
favourable result.

For by this means the Greeks to whom our present
remarks apply especially and pre-eminently gained free
space for the unshackled development of a philosophy which,
though it may have run and wandered through many systems
of error, yet in so far as it was an honest and sincere search
after truth and certainty, served and deserves to be considered
as a preparation and introduction to a higher knowledge and
the adoption of revelation. For because of this intellectual
development (and the fact serves to prove that a pure sensi-
bility to the beautiful, and a clear and pregnant thought on
human life and on nature, is ever highly pleasing to God,)
the Greeks were chosen as the second people of the world, to
be the medium and the instruments of the further diffusion
of revelation in the course of the development of humanity.

In political life, the erroneous tendency of the Greek mind
was to the abuse of liberty and to anarchy. When this
evil had been carried to its wildest extreme, it was over-
taken by its natural penalty (which invariably follows close
upon its track), in the armed supremacy of Macedon (which,
however, was only a brief paroxysm), and the final subjuga-
tion of Greece to the Roman yoke. Among the Romans both
forms of political evil met together, and were closely con-
nected with each other. To escape from domestic anarchy,
they entered on a victorious career of foreign conquest and

182 THE MAHOMMEDAN EMPIRE CHINA.

aggrandizement ; and when intestine dissension had reached its
greatest height, a perfect despotism was established, both at
home and in the provinces.

We recently remarked that the whole of that mixture of
ideas, confusion of legends and traditions, and that continual
alternation between anarchy and despotism, which in the
olden times of heathendom ran through its whole course of
development, from the first dispersion of nations to the esta-
blishment of the Roman empire over the world, immediately
applies to and is only to be understood of the West Asiatic
and South European races. In the East of Asia, two great
nations or empires, which together make up a third, if not
the half, nearly, of the population of the whole earth, have
remained in a great measure free from and uninfluenced by it.
It would almost seem as if the Almighty, with some special
design, had kept and reserved them unto these last times.
For three if not four thousand years India has preserved un-
changed its institution of castes, and all its essential customs
and laws. The very fact that this ancient empire, so extensive,
so abundant in riches, and so singular in its nature, and with
a civilised population equal to that of the whole of Europe
put together, should be now conquered and held in subjection
by the sea-ruling isles of Britain, which the ancients named
the Cassiterides, or Tin Islands, and described as the ultimate
limits of the habitable world, is one of the most remarkable
signs of our days. That in such great historical events, and
such singular juxta-positions, there rules some grand and mys-
terious design of the Mind which regulates the course of
human affairs, we cannot but feel ; only we shall greatly err
if we precipitately determine its particular nature. The wiser
and the safer course is to look forward with attentive expecta-
tion to its further development. Already has this remark-
able approximation of the extreme East and West led to im-
portant consequences. The enlargement of our historical
information by the sources discovered in the East, has alone
been so considerable as to give greater coherence and con-
sistency to our knowledge of the earlier, and indeed, of the
very earliest times, and of the origin of mankind, and to have
afforded a growing testimony and a strong confirmation of
the truth of the sacred narrative.

The celestial empire too, with its monosyllabic language,

PRESENT STATE OF THE JEWS THE MIDDLE AGES. 183

remained until very recently within its walls separate from
and never mixing with the rest of the world. Although China
has been several times subjugated by northern conquerors, it
has nevertheless continued in all essential respects the same.
But now in these modern times of universal ferment and of
change throughout the political world, China too has been set
in movement, and has become so far a conquering power, that
she who in the earlier centuries of Christianity was only
known by name through fable, has become the immediate
neighbour of two great European powers.

The close of the ancient history of the Eastern world in its
westerly regions, is formed by the tragic overthrow of the
Jewish people and the fearful destruction of Jerusalem;
events which are properly described, as also they were long
previously announced, as a partial judgment on an individual
nation. And in this light and in similar colours they are more-
over depicted even by heathen writers. Few things in the
whole course of history furnish so singular and striking a
phenomenon, as this total dissolution of the Jewish nation.
The dispersion over all parts of the earth, for so many cen-
turies, of a people that has exercised so great and so decisive
an influence on the progress of ideas and the higher cultiva-
tion of the human mind, both naturally and scientifically,
makes a sad and melancholy impression on our minds. With
so much the more of reason, then, may we regard it as
a sign of the times, and one, too, full of good promise and of
bright and cheerful hope, if this long and cruelly oppressed
people seems suddenly to be aroused again or awakened from
its degradation, and in manifold ways evincing an intellectual,
moral, and social activity, begins to partake of a more liberal
development and culture. And on one account the fact
appears still more consolatory. Such a re-awakening of this
long ill-treated and degraded race, is in their oldest prophecies
fixed for the last decisive days of the world's history.

In the mediaeval period of modern history we meet with all
the elements of the Christian state. The idea of a pure mon-
archy also was here earned far higher towards perfection, and
much more manifoldly developed than in heathen antiquity.
But the civil and spiritual powers soon came into collision,
and in their mutual conflict were alike guilty of despotic
encroachments on each other. In this sad dissension the

184 PEACE OF WESTPHALIA.

whole state of things fell more and more into a new kind of
anarchy. And in the same way, in our own times, after a
great part of the Christian world had, in sentiment at least,
reverted to heathenism, then as a natural consequence of the
ruling tone of thought and opinion, there was a great relapse
into the double evil of a wild and fatal popular anarchy, and
of a still more destructive military despotism. And the
whole history of the old heathen world is nothing but one
continual alternation between these two evils.

In the Christian West, indeed, both now and in the middle
ages, the predominant tendency to error inclined towards
the side of anarchy. Among the Mahommedan nations,
on the contrary, from the very earliest days of their religion,
the despotic lust of conquest has been, as it were, an inborn
and homebred hereditary failing. It was indeed fed and
encouraged by their national creed. But here also the great-
est changes have taken place. The largest and most power-
ful of all the Mahommedan empires, that, viz., in India, is
entirely overthrown, and scarcely a vestige of it remains in
these times. By a natural revolution of things, the first irre-
sistible conquerors are now themselves conquered and brought
under the yoke of others. And so, too, on the other and
western side of their once wide rule, they who formerly
threatened the existence of civilised Europe are now depen-
dent upon, essentially mixed up with, and owe their political
existence to, European policy and the balance of power. This
total change of the relative position of the Mahommedan
states in general belongs undoubtedly to the characteristic
signs which so peculiarly mark and distinguish our own age.

In the three centuries of modern history which fill up the
interval between the middle ages and the revolutionary epoch
of our own days, the moral constitution of the monarchy has
been far more fully and clearly developed than in any previous
era. But the most striking event of this period of history is
furnished by the sad and melancholy phenomenon of the reli-
gious wars. These were the lamentable consequence of the
schism in the faith, not indeed by any indispensable and neces-
sary law, nor even as its natural, but still its perfectly explicable,
result. In those lands where, as in England and France, there
existed a weaker party of either side, which had either been
fully conquered or was kept under by oppressive civil disabili-

PEACE OF WESTPHALIA. 185

ties, this unhappy phenomenon assumed the most revolting
appearance. But the same state of things took a very different
turn in Germany. Here the religious disputes terminated in
a higher and a nobler result. In a long and fruitless struggle
of thirty years, which wasted and consumed the best energies
of ihe nation, the two contending parties were taught, that
with so nicely balanced strength, no decisive result either way
was to be expected. Coming at length to a wiser mind, they
acknowledged their respective rights, and by a peaceable com-
promise they agreed to live together in the same social com-
munity. This great and famous religious peace, which,
considered merely in the light of a treaty of general pacifi-
cation, is a master-piece of policy, without equal or parallel,
and serving for the basis for all subsequent treaties and ques-
tions of peace, is become for Germany a species of inborn
national necessity and, as it were, a second national character.
She finds in it a full and perfect compensation for many disad-
vantages she labours under as compared with other lands,
while she has acquired from it a great and important posi-
tion in the world of the future. Considered with regard to
the whole world, one cannot well avoid ascribing to this inde-
structible religious peace in Germany, of still higher impor-
tance, however little it is commonly understood or regarded
in this light. Indeed, we cannot but look upon it as the pre-
cursor with hopeful promises, of a far greater and completer
religious peace. A peace, I mean, which shall reconcile not
only all differences in the faith, but also that more universal
and more pervading dissension between faith and unbelief;
the quarrel between science and faith being first adjusted,
and unity restored thereby between them, and consequently
also to life. But to effect this object God, who wills nothing
but peace and unity, must take the upper hand and be
stronger than man, who loves and desires strife ; or at least,
without loving and seeking it, is still ever relapsing into it.

In such or some similar way a religious view of universal
history and of the divine order therein admits of being deve-
loped ; which, however, cannot be truly done with too much
of scientific rigour, or by violently introducing into its plans
any arbitrary and consequently false designs and purposes.

My prescribed limits compel me to confine myself to these
few hints, and in these I have wished principally to call atten-

186 UNIVERSAL CHRISTIAN PEACE.

tion to their reference to our own age, and to exhibit them in
the light in which they appear of universal interest and to
possess an eminent and remarkable destination. Comprised
then in one result, the following are the characteristic signs of
the present age : the two greatest heathen nations, which for
thousands of years stood by themselves apart from the rest of
the world, have lately come into the closest contact with
Europe ; the Mahommedan empires are everywhere falling
into decay, more rapidly than men had been led to expect their
fall; the Hebrew race is beginning to rise from its long
degradation ; in Christian states and communities there is here
and there visible a strong inclination to the old evil of anarchy;
and if the great human peace, which has now lasted twelve
years, appears in some points insecure or at least endan-
gered from within, it is only because it is devoid of a firm
foundation of the internal sentiment of men. What event,
then, could be more happy for our age, what better turn could
the present posture of affairs take, than by bringing about
such a triple divine peace as we have already sketched, to
give a new foundation and a firmer basis to the external
peace of society ? May not this, in God's good purpose, be
the theme which is to occupy the next era of the world ?

END 03? LECTURE VIII.

187

LECTURE IX.

Of the true Destination of Philosophy ; and of the apparent Schism but
essential Unity between a right Faith and highest Certainty, as the
centre of Light and Life in the Consciousness.

THE philosophy of life cannot be any mere science of reason,
and least of all an unconditional one. For such does but
lead us into a domain of dead abstractions alien to life, which
by the dialectical spirit of disputation connatural to the rea-
son, is soon converted into a labyrinthine maze of contradic-
tory opinions and notions, out of which the reason, with all
its logical means and appliances, cannot extricate itself. And
life, consequently, the inner spiritual life, that is, is dis-
turbed and destroyed by it. And it is even this disturbing
and destroying principle of the dialectical reason that most
requires to be got rid of and brought into subjection. In the
mere form, however, of abstract thought there is nothing in
and by itself opposed to the truth. There is nothing in it that
it is absolutely and invariably necessaiy to avoid, or that
never and in no case admits of application. It is no doubt
most certain, that every system of philosophy is on a wrong
track, which borrows its method exclusively from mathe-
matics, and copies it throughout from beginning to end.
Still, in the progressive development of philosophical ideas
certain points may occur there may be certain places in the
entire system where occasionally and by the way such for-
mulas and abstract equations may be profitably employed.
Such a case may happen in the present Lecture. But by thus
employing them only by way of illustration, and episodically in
passing, I hope to establish such an use of them, and to make
it evident that the perspicuity of the exposition does not
essentially suffer thereby.

Philosophy, as the universal science, embraces in its consi-
deration the whole man. As, therefore, it evidently involves
the occasion, so it is not unlikely that cases mav occur where

188 PHILOSOPHY FREE TO USE ANY FORM OR METHOD.

it can happily borrow, now from one now from another of
the sciences, its external form and peculiar formularies. It
can, in short, advantageously avail itself of all in turn. Only,
such an use to be profitable must be free. And this freedom
will best evince itself in the deliberate choice and the diversity
of the images. The method of free speculation, i. e., of phi-
losophy, must not resemble a coat of mail with its infinite
number of little uniform chains and rings. It ought not, as
is the case nearly with the mathematical method, to be
composed, by mechanical rule and measure, of simple pro-
positions scientifically linked together and then formed again
into higher logical concatenations. In short, the method of
philosophy cannot properly be uniform. The spirit must not
be made subservient to the method ; the essence must not be
sacrificed to the form.

Philosophical thought and knowledge, with that diversity
of illustration and variety in method which follows from its
universality, is in this respect somewhat in the same case with
poetry. Of all the imitative arts poetry alone embraces and
by its nature is intended to embrace the whole man. It is
therefore free to borrow its similes or colours and manifold
figurative expressions from every sphere of life and nature,
and to take them now from this now from that object, as
on each occasion appears most striking and appropriate.
Now, no one would think of prescribing unconditionally to
poetry, and compelling her to take all her similes and figures
either from flowers and plants, or from the animal world, or
exclusively from any one of the several pursuits of man,
from the sailor's life, for instance, or the shepherd's, or the
huntsman's,- or from any of his handicrafts or mechanical
arts. For although all such similes, and colours, and expres-
sions, appropriately introduced, are equally allowable in every
poetical composition, and none of them need be rejected, still
the exclusive use of any one class of them as a law would
hamper the free poetic spirit and extinguish the living fancy.
In the same way, philosophy is not confined to any one inva-
riable and immutable form. At one time it may come
forward in the guise of a moral, legislative, or a judicial dis-
cussion ; at another, as a description of natural history. Or,
perhaps, it may assume the method of an historical and
genealogical development and derivation of ideas as best fitted

THE PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE A SCIENCE OF MAN. 189

to exhibit the thoughts which it aims at illustrating in their
mutual coherence and connexion. On other occasions, per-
haps, it will take the shape of a scientific investigation of
nature, of an experiment in a higher physiology, in order
to test the existence of the invisible powers which it is its
purpose to establish. Or again, by the employment of an
algebraic equation or of a mathematical form (which, how-
ever, it regards as nothing more than a symbol and visible
hieroglyphic for a higher something that is invisible), it will
perhaps most conveniently attain to its loftier aim. Every
method and every scientific form is good ; or at least, when
rightly employed, is good. But no one ought to be exclusive.
No one must be carried out with painful uniformity, and
with wearying monotony be invariably followed throughout.

The philosophy of life, then, cannot be any mere absolute
philosophy of reason. And as little can or ought it to be
purely and absolutely a philosophy of nature ; not, at least,
an exclusive one, that is, exactly such and nothing more. Such
a philosophy of nature may indeed in its physiological aspect
possess unequalled scientific wealth, and be full of profound
and ingenious thoughts. But still the right principles and the
regulative ideas of human life can never be deduced from it
easily and without having recourse to forced constructions.
For even man is in his life something higher than nature ;
even he is something more than a mere physical being. Still
less possible, then, were it from such a philosophy of nature
to derive, establish, and to render clear and intelligible the
idea and being of God; the pervading reference to whom,
however, makes man what he is. The idea of God deduced
from such a source alone would, and indeed could only be,
some great final cause of the system of nature.

Neither the conclusions of sound reason, and least of all
those of the conscience, no, nor even dialectic itself (so far
as it is profitably employed by the knowledge of it being made
available for the detection of error), nor physical science, when
cultivated in a noble and lofty spirit, ought in any way to be
excluded from the borders or even the very domain of philo-
sophy. On the contrary, she may in her own peculiar way
adopt them all, and giving them a more extensive sense and
spirit, employ them for her own higher aims. In its primary
and most essential respects, the philosophy of life is a

190 DIFFERENCE OF PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE.

thoroughly human science. It is nothing less than the cog-
nition of man. Now even on this account, and because it is
only by means of his all-pervading relation to God that man
stands above nature and is something superior to a mere
physical being, and something higher too than a mere rational
machine, therefore is the philosophy of life actually and in
fact a true philosophy of God. The philosophy of life attains
this high dignity beyond a mere philosophy of reason or of
nature, simply on this account that the supreme life and
the ultimate source of all other degrees of life is even God.
Now this Supreme Life, which has its life in itself, is the sub-
ject of my present disquisitions. For it is even with the
correct and complete notion of this Supreme Life that the
Spirit of Truth first enters the human consciousness. And
then, in the inner world of man, which before was " without
form and void," that light begins to shine which never shall
become darkness, and of which even this Spirit of Truth has
said "that it was good." This divine but initiatory illumi-
nation is the first step in that progressive development of the
internal light and truth in human life and consciousness, and
which, as starting from this point and passing through its suc-
cessive stages of advancement, it will be our object to trace
in the last seven of the present Lectures. In the eight pre-
ceding disquisitions I have endeavoured, by advancing step by
step, to arrive at this last end of all. We have now reached
the culminating point ; and the Supreme Life, which, accord-
ing to what has been already said, is the primary source of all
other life, and which has its life in itself, is now, together with
the full and true notion of this life, to occupy our common
consideration. And then again, descending from this summit
of light and truth, for which in the meantime I entreat your
entire and closest attention, I propose with hasty step to
retrace our Avay through all the grades of man's spiritual
enlightenment, to carry back your regards and mine into all
the several spheres of life and consciousness.

But now, it has been said that the philosophy of life in
every case and instance invariably ascends to the highest
object of every sphere that it contemplates, and that that
supreme object is God. From this, further, it has been argued
that it is even and truly a philosophy of God. How then
does it differ from theology ?

FROM THEOLOGY. 191

At the very commencement of these Lectures I confessed
that philosophy in general, and especially a philosophy of life,
by reason of the common object which they both treat of,
could not avoid coming into frequent and close contact with
theology. But at the same time, I asserted that the former in
its whole essence is completely and materially different from
the latter, and requires to be carefully restricted within its own
limits. We must take heed lest it either violently encroach
upon the proper domain of theology, or- on the other hand,
become its servile handmaid at the sacrifice of its own
peculiar character and destination. The true relation of these
two kindred sciences, as occupied with a common subject
which is often entirely identical, ana tneir nevertheless so
strongly marked and distinct limits, may perhaps be most
clearly illustrated by a comparison with the mathematical
sciences.

Dogmatic theology, or the science of positive belief, resem-
bles pure mathematics. Its ideas and formularies cannot be
too strictly or too simply defined ; nor, where it admits of de-
monstration, can its proofs be carried out with too rigorous and
mathematical a precision. For in these matters it is impos-
sible to give the least room or influence to individual caprice
without hazarding the loss of all that is most essential in the
positive articles of faith. Philosophy, on the other hand, in
treating of such subjects or at least that part of it which is
occupied with these matters resembles rather mixed geo-
metry in its several applications, such as practical mensuration,
or the science of fortification and the art of war. For phi-
losophy is, if we may so speak, an applied theology. Adopt-
ing the universal ideas of the one living God and His over-
ruling Providence, and, what is so closely connected there-
with, of the soul's immortality and man's free will, it adapts
them, in many valuable practical applications, to the whole
and almost boundless field of historical knowledge and the
development of the human race, as well as to all physical and
experimental sciences, and even to the wide domain of scien-
tific disputes and merely human opinion, with its several
conflicting systems. In this course of practical application
philosophy needs not, in its expressions and formularies,
scrupulously to confine itself to the terminology of its sister
science, or to repeat its words with a careful exactness. On

1Q2 THE BEING OF GOD NOT A MATTER OF REASONING.

the contrary, its best and wisest course is to move with free-
dom, changing and varying its expressions at pleasure. For
inasmuch as it is not itself so rigorously tied up as theology
is to authority, so it cannot appeal to it with equal justice in
order to enforce assent to its own teaching. In the same way,
too, that in algebraic equations a mere hypothetical calcu-
lation is oftentimes introduced, which, moreover, afterwards
suggests many a valuable practical application, so also a
similar hypothetical use of the theological magnitudes or
axioms, if we may so speak, is quite open and allowable to
philosophy in the pursuit of its merely scientific ends. It is
only the most general articles of the faith that philosophy
makes use of. At least the minuter and sharply-defined
determinations of a positive creed are not immediately and
indispensably necessary for its object. Now an overruling
Providence, the soul's immortality, and the freedom of the
will, are articles of universal belief, which, although perhaps
not couched in express words and definite notions, yet still
as germs and vague feelings exist, however deeply they may
slumber, in every human breast that is as yet pure and uncon-
taminated by that captious scepticism which frets and corrodes
itself with its seeming perplexities. These philosophy may
safely take for granted. Nay, it is its duty so to do; and
where it does so in the right way, then will it never on that
account, meet with any considerable obstacle or opposition.
On the contrary, by pursuing this course it will the more
surely arouse and awaken these universal feelings from their
slumber in the human mind, and gradually shape and convert
them into fixed and stable points from which to carry on
the further progress and development of the principle of
faith.

And it is even herein that philosophy will most display its
art, or rather its intellectual power over the minds of men.
It is in this pre-eminently that lies its vocation. But if, on
the contrary, it makes this mission to consist rather in
demonstrating, in a strictly scientific form, the existence of a
Deity, with its natural train of those eternal verities the
immortality of the soul, and the freedom of the will, then at
the very first outset it will lose sight of its true aim and set
up a false one. For were such a demonstration possible,
still nothing essential would be gained by its actual attain-

THE BEING OF GOD NOT A MATTER OF REASONING. 193

merit. For, in such a case, the existence of God and God
Himself would naturally become dependent, in thought at
least, on that from and by means of which the proof was
established, and would consequently appear to us no longer as
the first cause of all, but rather a secondary and derivative
being. In such the primal essence would be made to depend
on our human knowledge and science of reasoning, so to
speak, the latter must, in the plenitude of its power, first
confer upon and guarantee to the former its existence. This
would, indeed, be a complete inversion of the true and natural
order of things, such as, alas, has but too often occurred and
manifested itself in actual experience.

These remarks, however, must be understood as applying to a
strict demonstration of this great verity, or at least to all attempts
of the kind. To point to this truth, to trace every indication
of it, to elucidate it, to confirm it by analogy or other corro-
borative evidences, is quite a different matter. All this is
perfectly alloAvable. But God does not allow his existence to
be proved. By force of reasoning such a belief is not to be
impressed on the mind of that man who is unwilling sponta-
neously to admit it. As life generally, so also this supreme
life must be learned and concluded from every man's own
experience ; it must be adopted with the vividness of a feeling.

Let us now, for a moment, revert to the old scholastic
forms and the designations usually given in the schools to
the several philosophical sciences, and compare with them the
division on which our present disquisitions are based. We
might, in this respect, say that the first five sections of our
treatise have been exclusively devoted to psychology; though
not indeed in the ordiriary narrow sense of the word, but in one
far more extensive, and embracing the whole universe. Accord-
ing to this wider extent and signification of psychology, we
have considered the soul relatively, first of all, to the whole
of philosophy and its several systems ; secondly, to moral life ;
and, lastly, to revelation, to nature, and to God Himself.
The three following Lectures were devoted to an examina-
tion of the divine order of things in the several spheres of
existence, and to the indications of a ruling Providence dis-
coverable therein. They constitute, therefore, a species of
theology; but one, however, empirically conceived and his-
torically worked out from observations in nature and ii)

194 NATUKAL THEOLOGY.

history, not only in the annals of the external world, but
also in the spiritual history of the progressive terms in the
development of truth. Such a theological essay exactly cor-
responds to that notion we so lately advanced, of an applied
or mixed science of theology as the peculiar sphere for this
part or branch of philosophy which concerns itself with the
doctrine of the supreme essence, and the right understanding
thereof.

Now if, in compliance with olden forms of division and a
scholastic phraseology, it be necessary to deliver a scheme
of ontology as the philosophical science and cognition of
really existent things, and also of their true and real essence,
it is clear that such is only conceivable and possible by means
of such an applied theology. For how can things be truly
real, and how can they as such be known in their inmost
essence, except so far as they have their existence and deter-
mination in God, and, in this respect, admit of being known
by us?

In any case, however, the name of natural theology, which
ever and anon we still hear applied to the philosophical
cognition of the Divine Being and His existence, ought care-
fully to be avoided. Such a designation is based on a
thorough misconception and total inversion of ideas. Every

r' im of theology that is not supernatural, or at least that
not profess to be so, but pretends to understand natu-
rally the idea of God, and regards the knowledge of the
divine essence as a branch of natural science, or derives the
idea simply from nature, is even on that account false.
Missing and entirely mistaking its proper object, it must,
in short, prove absolutely null and void. Properly, indeed,
this inquiry needs no peculiar word nor special division and
scientific designation. The name generally of philosophy, or
specially of a philosophy of God, is perfectly sufficient to
designate the investigation into science and faith, and their
reciprocal relation their abiding discord, or its harmonious
reconciliation and intrinsic concord. And this is properly
the point which is here in question; it forms the essential
part of the topic which we have at present to examine.

The internal schism in the faith itself I formerly excluded
from our inquiry, as not lying properly within the limits of
philosophy, and belonging to a higher tribunal. I at the same

MEANS OF RESTORATION TO UNITY. 195

time expressed my conviction that God alone could universally
and totally reconcile it. By this, however, I would not by
any means wish to be understood as asserting that works on
this subject, written with a thorough knowledge of historical
facts, and in a luminous and instructive style, cannot con-
tribute much to the refutation of error. Works of this nature
may, in their degree, tend to bring about a mutual approxi-
mation of sentiment. For they serve to elucidate and clear
up points which, even though they do not involve the essential
articles of positive belief, do nevertheless greatly and exten-
sively co-operate in keeping alive a mutual spiritual alienation
and estrangement of mind. The great merit of treatises of
this kind, when composed with high intellectual powers and
in that noble spirit which is at once just and desirous of
peace, must not in any case be denied or depreciated. Never-
theless, it is idle to pretend that the influence of such essays,
whether greater or less, is not confined to a limited sphere,
extending to a few individuals, or at most to classes.

To judge by the usual course of the divine order in the
realm of truth, a total conversion of the whole mind of the
age, or a re-awakening of entire nations, is only to be expected
from a higher and universal impulse imparted from above.
As a preparation, however, for that divine peace in an uni-
versal unity of faith, which so repeatedly anti so many ways
is promised most distinctly even to this life, nothing can be so
effective as to remove, if possible, or at least to reconcile, that
triple discord already described as dividing and distracting
the inner man. And this is a matter which, as lying within
the sphere of human consciousness and science, unquestionably
belongs to the domain of philosophical investigation. And it
is even the duty of philosophy, whenever it follows its prevail-
ing mediatory and atoning tendency, to attempt scientifically to
bring about the reconciliation of that strife, and undiscouraged
by repeated failures, still to labour to re-establish the perfect
and profound harmony of consciousness and of life.

Now the first dissension, that, viz., between science and
faith, whether actual or apparent, requires for its removal
before all things a mutual understanding and compromise.
The second dissension between faith in general, even a mere
philosophical and natural faith, and that unbelief which is so
general and prevalent in our ai*e, can only end with the per-

196 FAITH AND SCIENCE.

feet triumph of the truth. For only by the full light of divine
knowledge and truth by the triumphant exposition of this
true light, and by the magic power of such a display on the
minds of men shall doubt and infidelity be fully eradicated
and destroyed. The third dissension, between both faith and
science on the one hand, and life on the other, needs, for
the removal of all misunderstanding, something more than a
mere peace and compromise on the disputed points. For this
purpose there is required a thorough union of both carried out
into fruitful and practical application, by which the living
faith and the living science may evince themselves as such,
and manifest their true and wholesome influence on life, how-
ever at present estranged from and adverse to it.

The second and the third of these dissensions are reserved
for consideration in the two following Lectures ; but the first,
that, viz., which subsists between faith and science, is to form
the subject, and its reconciliation the problem, of our present
disquisition.

Now is this dissension necessarily and really grounded in
the thing itself, and in the nature of the thing ? Or rather,
does the blame of it lie with men, and in their defective
apprehension and form ? I have no hesitation in saying that
a living faith and a living science will never be at issue
together, at least on essential points. In three cases no doubt
a dissension, a reciprocal misunderstanding and endless con-
flict between both is perfectly conceivable. It is possible,
either when the faith is a mere matter of memory and of a few
acquired notions, rather than a deeply-rooted conviction of the
soul. Or, secondly, since all the faculties of the human mind
ought to co-operate in giving a full internal development and
an external shape to the truth thus divinely imparted, it may
spring up even when the soul receives it with a full love, but
is nevertheless principally, or at least too much, under the
dominion of a lively fancy, to the exclusion of a due admixture
of clearness of understanding, and the circumspection which
belongs to the distinguishing judgment. Or, thirdly, it may
arise, on the other side, when a conceited and presumptuous
science seeks to establish itself rather than truth, and places
more dependence on its own conclusions than on its announce-
ments.

What then is faith, taken in itself, but the reception into

FAITH AND SCIENCE. 197

the soul of the divine and divinely-communicated verities ?
And what is science, more than the apprehension thereof by
the mind (geist) ? Are there, then, two truths, of which, how-
ever, one or the other is not true ? Undoubtedly there exists,
along with the spirit of truth, another spirit that of contra-
diction and negation. But the latter is no spirit of truth, but
the spirit of untruth and delusion so often described, which
invariably triumphs whenever the mind of man, in its pursuit
of knowledge, seeks itself rather than the truth, and conse-
quently finds, perceives, and retains nothing but its own Me.
And this evil spirit the soul even meets half-way whenever it
is incapable of embracing and retaining the life and the spirit
of the holy faith, and when, consequently, these quickly flee
away, and nothing but the letter and the empty form remains
bchitid. But where the spirit of truth has once departed, error
in manifold shapes and forms finds one way or other an en-
trance into the soul. Is it not one and the same truth which,
on the one side, speaking from the one revelation, impresses
itself on the soul of man as the commanding voice of love
enjoining faith, and which, on the other, condescendingly
offers and presents itself to the mind or spirit of the
believer as a mystery, in order that he may, if he will, inves-
tigate it in order to discover and adopt the meaning and the
light that are veiled and enclosed within it ? Is there, then,
to be a party-feud and a civil war in the heart of man,
between soul and spirit, the two elements of his existence;
just as if it were some ill-organised state where, in opposition
to the supreme political power, some insubordinate body sets
itself up in authority, and presumes to give the law ? Ought,
forsooth, the soul in secret to be liberal, and, in half-unbelief,
to grant immunity to all manner of lusts and desires, while
the spirit is legitimist in sentiment and constitutional in
language? Or ought the soul to be honestly ultra and a
thorough legitimist in its established faith, while the mind, on
its part, by its liberal measures, is perpetually falling into
error ? So far is this from being allowable, that even these
names and these parties would soon cease and disappear
altogether, if, instead of party, the knowledge, and the might,
and the inspiration of life the supreme life, i. e., or God,
were once to take full possession of the minds of men, and
so animate them anew and ardently inspire them with

198 DISCERNMENT THE LINK BETWEEN FAITH AND SCIENCE.

the common spirit and ardour of the one faith and the one
science.

Now the intermediate link which unites science with faith
the mean function betM r een both which admits of demon-
stration within the limits of the consciousness and of philo-
sophy, is discernment (erkenneii). Of this there are two kinds :
the one distinguishes between right and wrong, and conse-
quently, as a separate function, directs itself outwardly in its
operation, and observes differences. By the other >ve see and
comprehend, or understand and discern, that two objects appa-
rently different, are properly and essentially one and the same.
It is with this intrinsic and inwardly-directed discernment, that
we are here concerned. For it is by this highest function of
thought, \vhich penetrates into the inmost essence of each of
two ideas, and by its sentence declaring their similarity, that
we perceive and discern that this science and that faith are
essentially identical. Discerning in this sense is something
different from knowing ; it is, as it were, a second knowing ;
or, if we may be allowed to express ourselves mathematically,
"knowing raised to a higher power." It is this that discovers
the essential unity of Science and Faith, and that must bring
about the restoration of concord between them, and reconcile
them with each other. If, however, this second and higher know-
ing, or this science of science, be referred and confined to one's
own Me or Self, as is too often done, such a course will only lead
us out of the common error of the ordinary self-delusion into
one still more profound, which will prove the more complex
and aggravated, the more scientifically it is evolved, and which
I have already depicted to you in its true colours.

Now this unity of science with faith can only be found and
discovered in their common object, in truth, consequently,
and i. e. in God, who is the sum of all truth. Mere negations
like that of the idea of the infinite, or the notion of the
immeasurable, which is applicable even to nature itself, or
that of the absolute or unconditional, of which many palpably
erroneous applications might easily be made no such pure
negations, nor even any mere enumeration of predicates and
properties devoid of intrinsic coherence, can furnish us with
an adequate conception of the Deity. But now if a cognition,
an understanding of life in general, be attainable (and no scep-
tical perplexities have yet been able to deter or seduce man's

THE TRINITY. 199

sound common sense from entertaining and acting upon such
a supposition), then it is clear that there is no reason for hold-
ing the notion of the supreme life in and by itself to be im-
possible or utterly unattainable by man.

Now this is the path which a profounder science and philo-
sophy has invariably marked out for itself in this respect ;
and in the three different powers, which however are at the
same time but one, in the trine energy of the one first cause
of all, has it ever sought and discovered this highest notion.
In this notion belonging to the supreme science, as advanced
by philosophy in very different ages of the world and among
widely-remote nations, there is a remarkable resemblance,
although in the subordinate statements, there is a greater or
less admixture of error. In the midst of many subordinate
aberrations, it has recognised the one great fact, that in
the Supreme Life, who has His life in Himself, and is the
prime source of all other life, there is at the same time a
creative intelligence and thought which from the beginning
issued therefrom as the Eternal Word self-subsistent and
ordering all things, and that the Light which proceeded
therefrom was itself also the first life. But now just as this
original Life which was from the beginning was not simply
Infinite, but even the source of all finite and infinite exist-
ence, and as this Life is an illumination which illuminates
Itself and all other things, so is this Light also a living
entity, and not merely spiritual and immaterial ; (for as such
even It might still be a part of nature,) but one thoroughly
supernatural and holy, and if man will have it so, an awful
light which repels all darkness from itself, and eternally reject-
ing, annihilates it.

Now this Life, this Word, and this Light, these three dif-
ferent powers in the same energy and in the one substance,
which even therefore is called the Supreme, is at once the
highest object of all science, and the centre and fundamental
source of all faith. And this science of the Highest, even
when regarded exclusively from this single aspect of knowing,
does not exhibit itself as entirely separate from and indepen-
dent of faith, but even as such is from the very first in contact
with it, and taken simply as knowing, involves in it a concur-
rence and co-operation of faith.

In very many and different, not to say infinitely various

200 THE TKIXITY.

ways, it may be shown, pointed out, and established, that
without this full and correct notion of the Supreme Being
every other species of existence and of knowledge must be
without coherence and proper significance. However, as has
been so often observed already, there is not involved in it
any strict necessity. It does not possess any rigour of logical
sequence, constraining the assent of one who in his heart is
otherwise disposed, and in his sentiments has otherwise deter-
mined. For so must it ever be : the final resolve of conviction
is left to the free assent, that quiet internal concurrence of
the will already mentioned which in general brings man into
actual communion with God, and opens and enlarges his
sense for the divine, since such assent is itself even that
sense, or at least the principle and commencement of it.

And this complement of the highest science, which is fur-
nished by the free intemal assent, is even of itself nothing less
than an act of faith. Consequently, the complete and correct
notion of the Supreme Essence is the mystical ring in which
science and faith are at the first beginning indissolubly con-
nected. Nothing but the perversity and shortsightedness of
men in regard both to science and faith, tears them asunder
again, and separating what in God is one and what He has
joined together, sets science and faith in hostile opposition,
mutually obstructing and destroying one another. Moreover,
this highest notion of the highest science is the scientific vertex
or the scientifically culminating expression of man's universal
belief in the one living God. For if this one God is necessarily
to be conceived of as endued with life, it will be sufficient for
me to appeal to the fact that physical science knows not, and
no one even can conceive or comprehend or think of a mode
of life in any sphere of existence, without implying a plu-
rality or at least a duality of co-operating forces. But if,
further, we are to think of it as a perfect life, then must there
be in it a third living energy or operation. Thus, therefore,
on this side also the highest notion of a science which has
attained to its end and to the summit of all existence and all
knowledge, is in perfect unison with the universal feeling of
truth and the natural and simple faith of man.

But now, if the highest science and a divine faith intrinsi-
cally and essentially be properly one, it will naturally turn
and depend on the preservation of the true ratio and correct

FAITH AND SCIENCE RECONCILABLE. 201

proportion between the two powers and elements of human
existence, whether or not in their further application and
actual life they are to continue at unity, without comjngjnto-
hostile collision and discord. The believing soul, like the mis-
tress of a family, ought to hold and retain the chief place in the
house ; the spirit that knows, or that aims at knowledge, as
the master, may pursue out of doors whatever avocations it
pleases, only it must be continually returning to the domestic
hearth, and there warm itself at the pure ascending flame of
devotion and pious meditation. And if in its wanderings it
should most love to stray in the rich and blooming garden of
nature, then of the rare aromatic woods and seeds it there
gathers, it may throw one or more into the fire, in order to add
some sweet ethereal incense to its warming and illuminating
flames.

Or leaving figure, to express myself in more precise and
exact terms, the believing part of the consciousness, observ-
ing its due proportion, ought not to refuse and reject the true
and Godlike science together with that which is Godless, per-
nicious, and false. So, too, the cognitive or scientific portion
ought to abstain from all hostile attacks on the other domain
and on positive faith, which in all probability it has not suffi-
ciently studied and still less perfectly understands. And thus,
also, when this cognitive part (as it ought, and as is essential
to its truth and correctness as science) carefully watches itself
and rigorously abstains from all arbitrary, presumptuous, and
egoistic opinions and ideas, suggestions or beginnings of ideas,
as involving the first disposition to false science and every
species of error, then there is no need for it to be held in
check by the other part, nor to be limited by it.

But in any case we must be ready to admit that the fault
lies in man, and on no account suppose that the dissension
has its ground in the thing itself. For the thing here is
nothing less than truth itself, which cannot be twofold, since
God Himself is this truth and the sum thereof. It is there-
fore important, on the one hand, by means of the old spirit,
to be ever giving new life and energy to faith, by carrying it
back continually to its own eternal foundations, in order
to avert the danger, which is ever threatening it, of spiri-
tual deadness and of the ascendancy of the letter that killeth.
And, on the other hand, we ought never to cease from or to

202 PATIENCE ESSENTIAL TO PURSUIT OF TRUTH.

become weary of refining more and more the higher philoso-
phical science from all the egoistic dross of arbitrary opinions
and fancied apodictic conclusions, labouring the while to com-
plete it according to the threefold dimensions (to hazard the
expression) of this so utterly immeasurable essence of ever-
lasting truth, by keeping incessantly in view the unfathomable
depth, the inaccessible height, the inexhaustible centre of
bliss of the one inconceivable and ineffable Being. For the
fault and the cause of the dissension must in no case be
ascribed to the thing itself, but invariably either to a dead,
imperfectly enlightened, and unintelligent faith, on the one
hand, or on the other, to the arbitrary assumptions or one-
sided conclusions of a science, which in this respect and
degree at least is false and erroneous.

But inasmuch as the fault and origin of the dissension has
partly its foundation in human imperfection and fmiteness, we
must rest content, even if we cannot all at once get rid of and
remove it. We must be satisfied if in this ceaseless struggle
with mail's hereditary and connatural fault of error, the progress
though slow is sure. It is enough if in this surely advancing
progression, each step, however short, brings us nearer to the
truth, and to the perfect cognition of the unity of the highest
science and divine faith. But this is a point on which even
individuals with the most perfect honesty of purpose and a
sincere love of truth, too often go wrong. Unable, perhaps, to
reconcile to their own minds some Conflicting claim of science
and of faith, and to see their way clear out of their perplexi-
ties, then to cut the knot of the problem to which they despair
of soon finding a satisfactory solution, they precipitately adopt
some partial and overhasty conclusion. But slow, extremely
slow, is the advance of man's mental enlightenment in the
realm of truth. And if the course of Providence, according
to the very gradual progression of divine order in this domain,
must be counted by millenniums, then in the life of individuals,
years and decades must be reckoned as days and hours. Even
though some grave doubt, distracting the inmost feelings, but
scarcely definable in express terms some oppressive problem
suggested by the peculiar mental temperament of the indivi-
dual, cannot be resolved in three hours, qr even three days,
still it may perhaps in three years; and if three years be
too little, then thirty years may probably suffice. While

PATIENCE ESSENTIAL TO PUKSUIT OF TRUTH. 203

in spite of this inward doubt we follow uninterruptedly our
vocation in outer life, many a silent change is effected in our
minds, and so at length with altered view r s and enlarged experi-
ence we attain to a calm and clear conviction on the points
which at an earlier period had appeared to us obscure, had held
us in suspense, and oppressed us with perplexing difficulties.

This is the only road that can be safely trod by those who
desire above all things to retain a divine faith, but at the
same tune not to renounce the pursuit of higher science.
And is not this the difficult position in the present day of
every well-disposed person who is in any way connected with
science, or whose pursuits in life require him to occupy him-
self with it ? But now in the case of physical science we are
all content to observe this law of tardy progress ; indeed we
think it quite natural, and hold it to be lie only correct method.
And it is only by following a similar course in the internal
investigations of philosophy that we shall ever arrive at a
stable position and the firm ground of eternal truth. By any
other method, we shall most assuredly lose ourselves among
the ever shifting systems which change with the fashions of
the day, or be carried away by the baseless hypotheses of this
or that sect or school, which, like the sterile blossoms in the
spring, fall fruitless to the ground.

In respect to this tardiness of progress, which most assuredly
is at least not inconsistent with true philosophy, I can appeal
to my own instance, which in such a case is, I hope, allow-
able. It is now nine-and- thirty years since I first read, with
indescribable avidity, the entire works of Plato in the original ;
and ever since, amid many other scientific studies, philosophical
research has been my principal and favourite avocation. In
this pursuit many and various have been the systems of science
of discord and of error that I have had to wander through.
Satisfied neither with the opinions of others nor with my own
views, I felt reluctant to come forward with a system of my
own. In the meanwhile my view of philosophy has been in a
state of inchoation and of tardy but progressive development.
Slowly and incompletely, little by little, incidentally and frag-
mentarily, at different epochs, has some of its principles come
to the light, or escaped me in my earlier literary works and
compositions, an explanation which I do not consider super-
fluous, even for those who are best acquainted with them*

204 HINDOO TRINITY.

But the more I held fast to the two poles of divine faith and
of supreme science, which as such is also divine, the firmer
footing did I gain in that point and that centre in the ever-
lasting Beginning, in which both are one and cease to be at
issue, but rather intimately cohering, do but lend fresh life,
strength, and elevation to each other. And now at length
I believe I have attained to that point when, fully persuaded
myself of this unity of science and faith as grounded in God, I
may safely indulge the wish to impart to others this important
truth, publicly to set it forth, and develope it to the whole
world. And it is to me no slight cause of congratulation that
I am to enter upon this task in the present place and in the
present manner.

Besides those points of correlation already pointed out,
between the highest science and faith, there is still another
way in which the former, in its all-embracing notion of the
triple life of the primal cause and force, is referred to faith,
and even to its positive articles and its divine authority. It
is obliged to appeal to this, in order to find and maintain its
guiding rule and correct standard for the further application
and development of this highest and fundamental notion, and
to keep it clear of all erroneous and extravagant excrescences.
The necessity of this will be best and most simply shown by
a few historical instances.

When we open any of the ancient writings of the Hindoos,
whether it be their scientific systems, their books of laws and
customs for practical life, or their merely mythological poems,
we find them, in every instance, based on the notion of a
divine trinity, and, in some cases, asserting it in express
words and phrases. But inasmuch as, forgetting to maintain
the unity together with the trinity, they abandoned the simple
truth and made thereout three distinct gods, the metaphysical
theory (which otherwise contains so many and distinct traces
of ancient truth) and the trinity of the Hindoos has become a
pure mythology, comprising as long a genealogy of gods as
any other. By the retention, however, of this fundamental
notion their mythology has acquired a theistic hue and colour-
ing, which forms a strong contrast between it and the better
known mythology of Greece, notwithstanding that in other
respects, and in its purely poetic portion, it exhibits many
and strong features of resemblance and affinity. Thus, in this

THE TRINITY OP THE P1ATONISTS. 205

wonderful chaos of distorted truth, of monstrous error, and
pure fiction, we meet with ten fabulous creations of men
instead of the single true one with which, only within the last
three centuries, the Hindoos have formed a more thorough and
permanently based acquaintance. Moreover, in life and in
practice there is exhibited a renunciation of the world, and a
mortification of the body, which, far surpassing the rigorous
self-denial of the early Christian solitaries in Egypt, is carried
to an intensity and an extreme which it is almost incredible
that human nature should be capable of. But co-existing
with all this, we meet with immoral practices and licentious
excesses sanctified by falsehood and superstition, similar to
those we have already become acquainted with in the more
sensual heathenism of antiquity, that, I mean, which pre-
vailed among the ancient races of this our western portion of
the globe. Into such a frightful abyss of error even the most
spiritual system of metaphysics inevitably falls, or at least
easily becomes associated with falsehood, whenever it is left
entirely to itself, and is devoid of a divine rule for its guidance,
and the simple standard of a higher and heaven-descended
authority.

In the history, too, of the development of the Grecian mind
we discover a similar doctrine advanced in one of its latest

rhs. The Neo-Platonists were very well acquainted with
doctrine and idea of a divine trinity ; as, indeed, it may
also be traced in the still earlier writings of Plato himself.
How far the expressions and formularies employed by the
former writers scientifically to convey this idea were perfect
and correct is a question which does not concern us at present
to inquire. Moreover, the determination of it would carry us
far beyond our proper limits, inasmuch as its exact solution
would require a nice and accurate classification of the several
writers and systems which belong to this school. It is, how-
ever, sufficient to remark that this profound metaphysical
school of the Neo-Platonists, which reckoned among its adher-
ents the Emperor Julian, stood in direct and hostile collision
with Christianity. To adapt to the purpose of their opposi-
tion the old Grecian mythology, a faith in which had sensibly
declined even among the masses, they attempted to mould it
according to their own views and notions, into such a theolo-
gical shape and direction as would make it more closely

206 THE TRINITY OF THE TALMUD.

resemble the Indian. By this means they believed it possible
to revive and reanimate the popular faith. But, even if their
ulterior view and their whole object and actuating motive
had not taken a direction so decidedly hostile to the truth,
still their enterprize, even as such, could not but miscarry.
No doubt the mythology of Greece, in its earliest times and
original shape, did contain, in some of its less prominent and
more hidden passages, esoterically interpreted, a few symboli-
cal doctrines and somewhat theistic ideas, as many a profound
examiner of it, in modern times, has recognised and demon-
strated. But, notwithstanding all these traces, which we
must regard as the remains of an older tradition of the primary
knowledge and full revelation belonging to primeval times, still,
in subsequent ages, the Grecian mythology had, on the whole,
assumed exclusively and pre-eminently a poetic development
and form, which even subordinated to itself that political ten-
dency which in so many of its details is so strong. It was,
therefore, nothing less than an absurd and inconsistent attempt
to try, so late in the day, to metamorphose this beautiful world
of fable into