FOOTNOTES:

. . . that brood of idle fearFine nothings worshipped,—why, doth not appear;The gods—whom man made, and who made not man.[66]

. . . that brood of idle fear

Fine nothings worshipped,—why, doth not appear;

The gods—whom man made, and who made not man.[66]

Emancipation! Such is the watchword of materialism. Listen, for example, to the conclusion of Baron d'Holbach'sSystem of Nature: "Break the chains," says he, "which are binding men. Send back those gods who are afflicting them to those imaginary regions from whence fear first drew them forth. Inspire with courage the intelligent being; give him energy; let him dare atlength to love himself, to esteem himself, to feel his own dignity; let him dare to emancipate himself, let him be happy and free." Strange accents these, at the close of a large philosophical treatise intended to prove that there is nothing in the universe but matter. Whence proceeds the dignity of that fragment of matter which calls itself man? Understand well what passes in the mind of these philosophers. In proportion as man lowers his own origin, in the same proportion,—if he does not wish to make himself a brute, in order to live as do the animals,—he exalts himself in an inevitable sentiment of pride. In vain does he give out that the material frame is everything; he feels that thought is more than the material frame; and he accords to himself the first place in the universe. The materialist ignores the Eternal Mind in order to emancipate himself; and whatever he may say, his real deity is not the atom, but himself. The encyclopedists, sons of an age which yielded at once to noble influences and to guilty seductions, united the worship of progress to a degrading philosophy. Consider with what a feeling of pride they lowered man, and you will understand why eternal nature gave place to sacred humanity. WhenFrance had fallen into the delirium of irreligion, it was not a little dust in an earthen vase which was offered for public adoration, but they led in procession through the streets of Paris a woman who was called the goddess Reason.

So it was that materialism ended in the adoration of man. Let us endeavor to understand how the adoration of man turns again to materialism. The mind endowed with intelligence and will is more elevated in the scale of being than inert bodies. This is for us an evident truth. Could one demonstrate it by reasoning? I do not know; but in contesting it, we should contradict the plainest evidence. Reason is superior to matter. If, with the school which extends from Pythagoras to Saint Augustine, and from Saint Augustine to Descartes, we connect reason with God as its principle, the grand science of metaphysics is founded. But if reason does not rise to God, what will happen? This reason, which proclaims itself superior to matter, is not, as we have said already, the individual thought of Francis, Peter, or John. If an individual presented himself as being reason itself, the absolute reason, and said, "I am the truth," it would be necessary to take one of three courses. If wethought that he spoke truly, and if we received his testimony, it would be necessary to worship him, for he would be God. If it were feared that he spoke truly, and those who so feared were unwilling to acknowledge his rule, it would be necessary for them to kill him in order to endeavor to kill the truth. If it were thought that he spoke falsely, it would be necessary to watch him, and the moment he committed an act dangerous for society, to shut him up, for he would be a madman. But the philosophers make no such pretension. The reason of which they speak is the reason common to all, a reason which is not that of an individual, but that of which all rational individuals partake. This common, universal, eternal reason,—where and how does it exist? Reason manifests itself by ideas, and ideas are the acts of minds. To imagine an idea without a mind of which it is the act, is the same thing as to imagine a movement without a body of which it is also the act, in a different sense. Take away bodies, and there is no more movement. Take away intelligences, and there are no more ideas. The philosopher who speaks of an idea which is not the idea of an intelligence, utters words which have no meaning. The reason which is not that of any created individual remains therefore absolutely inconceivable without the eternal Spirit, or God. Idealism is based upon this impossible conception. Thus it is that thought, trying in vain to maintain itself in this abstract domain, ends by holding as chimerical the world of ideas in which it has met with nothing to which to cling. It is seized with giddiness and falls. Whither does it fall? To the ground. It is always thither one falls. Wearied with its efforts to find footing on shifting clouds, the human mind comes back to thepositiveby a violent reaction. Here is the secret of that haughty and derisive materialism of certain modern Germans, who jeer and scoff at the lofty pretensions of philosophy. So it was that Hegel brought upon the scene Doctor Büchner and his fellows.

The great conflict of the spiritual world is not, as it is often said to be, the combat of idealism against materialism. Idealism begins well, and we must not refuse to acknowledge the services which it has rendered to the cause of truth. But philosophy must follow the road traced out in an ancient adage:Ab exterioribus ad interiora, ab interioribus ad superiora.[67]If the mind does notgo to the end of this royal road; if idealism, having surmounted the fascinations of the senses, remains in ideas, without ascending to the supreme Mind, the worship of matter and the worship of the idea call mutually one to another, and revolve in a fatal circle. The struggle between these two forms of atheism reminds one of those duels, in which, after having satisfied honor, the adversaries breakfast together, and gather strength to combat, in case of need, a common enemy. The great combat which forms the main subject of the history of ideas is the combat between belief in God and an atheistical philosophy. Whether atheism admits for its first principle an atom without a Creator, or a reason without an Eternal Mind, is a fact very important for the history of philosophy, but the importance of which is small enough in regard to the interests of humanity.

We passed the Rhine in order to penetrate into Germany, let us now cross the British Channel, and observe what is going on in England.

England, at the close of the seventeenth and the beginning of the eighteenth century, was the principal centre of irreligion. France gave the patent of European circulation to ideas whichproceeded in part from this foreign source. An active propaganda for the diffusion of impious and immoral writings had been established in Great Britain. A strong reaction set in, and, dating from the year 1698, we see formed various societies having for their object the diffusion of good books and respectable journals.[68]These efforts were crowned with success. England, by its zeal in the work of Missions, by its sacrifices for the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, and by its respect for the Lord's-day,[69]assumed[70]the characteristic marks of a Christian nation. Grand measures adopted in the interests of liberty and humanity, placed it at the same time at the head of a seriously philanthropic civilization; but as Père Gratry has remarked, "more than in any other people, there are in the English people the old man and the new."[71]The strange contrasts which are presented by the political action of thisdouble-people are found also in the productions of its thought, in which, while the spirit of piety is displayed full of life, the spirit of irreligion is also manifested with terrible energy. A book is instanced, of materialistic tendency,[72]published in 1828, of which a popular edition was printed with a view to extend the opinions which it advocated. There was sold of this edition, in a short time, more than eighty thousand copies. A thoughtful writer, Mr. Pearson, mentions a statistical statement, according to which English publications, openly atheistical, reached, in the year 1851, a total of six hundred and forty thousand copies.[73]

If we pass from the current literature to scientific publications, we shall meet with facts of the same order. The Hegelianism and the scepticism of the critical school are creeping into the works of some theologians. The theories of positivism, reduced to shape in France, have passed the channel, and have obtained in England more attention perhaps than in the country of theirorigin. They have been adopted by a distinguished author, Mr. Stuart Mill; and a female writer, Miss Martineau, has set them forth, in her mother-tongue, for the use of her fellow-countrymen.[74]Positivism is even in vogue, and has become "fashionable" amongst certain literary and intellectual circles in Great Britain.[75]

In less elevated regions of the intellectual world of England, an organized sect commends itself to our attention. This sect has given to its system of doctrine the name ofSecularism. It has a social object—the destruction of the Established Church and the existing political order. It has a philosophy, the purport and bearing of which we will inquire of Mr. Holyoake. The following is the answer of the chief of the secularists:—"All that concerns the origin and end of things, God and the immortal soul, is absolutely impenetrable for the human mind. The existence of God, inparticular, must be referred to the number of abstract questions, with the ticketnot determined. It is probable, however, that the nature which we know, must be the God whom we inquire after. What is called atheism is foundin suspensionin our theory."[76]The practical consequence of these views is, that all day-dreams relating to another world must be put aside, and we must manage so as to live to the best advantage possible in the present life.[77]Hence the name of the system.Secularismteaches its disciples to have nothing to do with religion in any shape, that they may confine themselves strictly to the present life. It is an attempt of which the express object is to realize life without God.

These doctrines formed the subject of public discussions, in London in 1853, and at Glasgow in 1854. The meeting at Glasgow numbered, it is said, more than three thousand persons.[78]The sect employs as its means of action open-air speeches, the publication of books and journals,[79]and assemblies for giving information and holding debates in lecture-rooms. There are five of these lecture-rooms in London. I have seen the programme, for 1864, of the meetings held at No. 12, Cleveland Street, under the direction of Messrs. Holyoake and J. Clark. There are, every Sunday,—a discourse at eleven o'clock, a discussion at three o'clock, a lecture at seven o'clock. The programme invites all free-thinkers to attend these meetings. Some of the assemblies are public; for others a small entrance fee is demanded. London is the principal centre of the association; but it has branches all over the country, and it numbers in Great Britain twenty-one lecture-rooms, particularly at Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, and Edinburgh.[80]Secularism naturally seeks to magnify, as much as may be, its own importance; and it is not to the declarations of its apostles that we must refer in order to estimate the extent and influence of its action. At the same time the existence of a society, the avowed object of which is the diffusion of practical atheism, cannot be regarded with indifference. At the present moment the affairs of the sect would not appear to be flourishing. A year ago a secularist orator had delivered a vehement speech in favor of virtue. Just as he had resumed his seat, a policeman entered the room and took him into custody. A few days afterwards theTimesinformed its readers that the orator of virtue had just been condemned for theft to twelve months' hard labor.[81]In theSecular Worldof the 1st January, 1864, Mr. Holyoake complains that a great manymauvais sujetsseem to seek in secularism a kind of cheap religion. He declares that he is going to use energetic efforts to purify the sect, and seems to intimate that he shall retire if his efforts fail. Let us leave him to wrestle against the invasion of the orators of virtue, and let us pass from England into Italy.

While Italy is seeking to deliver itself from the bayonets of Austria, it is threatened with subjection to the influence of the most pernicious German doctrines. After having bent, like nearly all Europe, in the eighteenth century, beneath the blast of sensualism, Italy made a noble effort to renew more generous traditions. Two eminent men, Rosmini and Gioberti, the second especially, succeeded in exciting in the youth of Italy a passionate interest in doctrines in which liberty and vigor of thought were united with the confidence of faith. This intellectual movement preceded and prepared a national movement, the course of which has been precipitated by the intrigues of politics and the intervention of the arms of the foreigner. At the present time the influence of Rosmini and of Gioberti is on the decline. Hegelianism is being installed with a certainéclatin the university of Naples. Nothing warrants us in hoping that this system will not produce upon the shores of the Mediterranean the same depravation of philosophic thought which it has produced in Germany. In the ancient university of Pisa, M. Auguste Conti, a brave defender of Christian philosophy, steadfastly maintains the union of religion and of speculative inquiry,[82]and the centre of Italy is less affected perhaps than the extremities of the Peninsula by the spirit of infidelity. But as we go further north, we encounter in the writings of Ferrari the utteranceof a gloomy scepticism, and in those of Ausonio Franchi, formerly a journalist at Turin, and now a Professor at Milan, the manifestations of an almost undisguised atheism. Ausonio Franchi, or rather the man who assumes that pseudonyme, is an ex-priest, who, "while maintaining severely the rule of good morals and the dignity of life,"[83]has turned with violent animosity against his former faith. He exerts some influence over the youth of Italy, and has met with warm admirers in England and Germany. Franchi's profession of faith reduces itself to these very simple terms:—"The world is what it is, and it isbecause it is; any other reason whatever of its essence and of its existence can be nothing but a sophism or an illusion."[84]All inquiry into the origin of things is a pure chimera, and we must therefore limit ourselves to the experience of the present life, and look for nothing beyond it. The author treats with sufficient disdain arguments which satisfied Descartes, Newton, and Leibnitz. It has seemed to me that his understanding, a littleobscured by passion, misconceives the true purport of the reasonings which it rejects, and by thus impairing their force, assumes to itself the right to despise them.

The religious negations of Ausonio Franchi do not stop at Christian dogma. He denies all value to those higher aspirations of the human soul which constitutereason, in the philosophical meaning of the term. Now, this radical negation of the reason is what those Italians who do not scruple to practise it denominateRationalism. And this very unwarrantable use of a word is in fact only a particular case of a general phenomenon. To criticise, means to examine the thoughts which present themselves to the mind in order to distinguish error from truth. The Frenchmen, who call themselves thecritics, are men who require that the intellect shall make itself the impartial mirror of ideas, but shall renounce the while all discrimination between truth and error. The term scepticism, in its primary signification, contains the idea of inquiring, of examining; and they give the name ofscepticsto the philosophers who declare that there is nothing to discover, and consequently nothing to examine, or to search for! One is afree-thinkeronly on the expresscondition of renouncing all such free exercise of thought as might lead to the acceptance of beliefs generally received. This is verily the carnival of language, and thebal masquéof words. These corruptions of the meaning of terms are highly instructive. Doctrines contrary to the laws of human nature bear witness in this way to a secret shame in producing themselves under their true colors. Just as hypocrisy is an homage which vice pays to virtue, so these barbarisms are an homage which error pays to truth.

To return to Italy: that beautiful and noble country has not escaped the revival of atheism. The intoxication of a new liberty, and the political struggles in which the Papacy is at present engaged, will favor for a time, it may be feared, the development of evil doctrines.[85]But the lively genius of the Italians will not be long in attachingitself again to the grand traditions of its past history; and the inhabitants of the land, whose soil was trodden by Pythagoras and Saint Augustine, will not link themselves with doctrines which always run those who hold them aground sooner or later upon the sad and gloomy shores of a vulgar empiricism.

We have not leisure, Gentlemen, to extend our study to all parts of the globe, and besides, there are countries with regard to which information would fail me. Therefore I say nothing of Holland, where we should have, as I know, distressing facts to record. The silence imposed on Spain upon the subjects which we are discussing would render the study of that country a difficult one. I am wanting in data regarding America. Let us conclude our survey by a few words about Russia.

If we are warranted in making general assertions in speaking of that immense empire, we may say that the Russian people, taken as a whole, is good and pious, badly instructed, and often the victim of ignorance or of superstition, but disposed to open its heart to elevated and pure influences. The clergy is ignorant, though with honorable and even brilliant exceptions. It is too much cut off from general society, and consigned to a sort of caste, of which it would be most desirable to break down the barriers, in order to allow the influence of the representatives of religion to extend itself more freely. The young nobles, and the university students in general, are, in too large a proportion, imbued with irreligious principles. Various atheistical writings, those of Feuerbach amongst others, have been translated into Russian, printed abroad, and furtively introduced into the empire. M. Herzen, a well-known writer, has published, under the pseudonyme of Iscander, a work full of talent, but in which come plainly into view the worst tendencies of our time.[86]In his eyes, life is itself its own end and cause. Faith in God is the portion of the ignorant crowd, and atheism, like all the high truths of science,like the differential calculus and the laws of physics, is the exclusive possession of the philosophical few. When Robespierre declared atheism aristocratic, he was right in this sense, for atheism is above the reach of the vulgar; but when he concluded that atheism was false, he made a great mistake. This error, which led him to establish the worship of the Supreme Being, was one of the causes of his fall. When he began to follow in the wake of theconservatives, as a necessary consequence he would lose his power.[87]The writings of Iscander have exerted a veritable influence in Russia. M. Herzen appears to have lost much of his repute, by the exaggerated and outrageous course he has taken in politics; but it is to be feared that the traces of his action are not altogether effaced.

The Russian Empire has been for a long time, in the eyes of the West, only an immense garrison; but now for some years past it has been taking rank among the number of intellectualpowers, and nowhere in Europe is the ascending march of civilization displaying itself by signs so striking. The summons to liberty of so many millions of men, which has just been accomplished by the generous initiative of the ruling power, and with the consent of the nation, testifies that that vast social body is animated by the spirit of life and of progress. But in the solemn phase through which she is passing, Russia is exposed to a great danger. She is running the risk of substituting for a national development, drawn from the grand springs of human nature, a factitious civilization, in which would figure together the fashions of Paris, the morals of thecoulissesof the Opera, and the most irreligious doctrines of the West. May God preserve her!

We have passed in review some of the symptoms of the revival of atheism, and it is impossible not to acknowledge the gravity of the facts which we have established. What must especially awaken solicitude is, that the irreligious manifestations of thought have assumed such a character of generality, that the sorrowful astonishment which they ought to produce in us is blunted by habit. Fashionable reviews, (I allude especially to the French-speaking public), widely-circulatedjournals which take good care not to violate propriety, and which could not with impunity offend the interests or prejudices of the social class from which their subscribers are recruited, are able to entertain without danger, and without exciting energetic protestations, the productions of an open, or scarcely disguised, atheism. Here are ample reasons for thoughtfulness; but this thoughtfulness must not be mingled with fear. We have to do with a challenge the very audacity of which inspires me with confidence, rather than with dread. In fact all the productions of irreligious philosophy rest on one and the same thought, the common watchword, of the secularism of the English, of the rationalism of the Italians, of the positivism of the French, and which may even be recognized, with a little attention, under the haughty formulas which bear the name of Hegel. And the thought is this: The earth is enough for us, away with heaven; man suffices for himself, away with God; reality suffices for us, away with chimeras! Wisdom consists in contenting ourselves with the world as it is. It is attempted ridiculously enough to place this wisdom under the patronage of the luminaries of our age. We are bidden, forsooth, to see in the negation of thereal and living God, a conflict of progress with routine, of science with a blind tradition, of the modern mind with superannuated ideas.[88]We know of old this defiance hurled against the aspirations of the heart, the conscience, and the reason. We know the destined issue of this ancient revolt of the intellect against the laws of its own nature. There were atheists in Palestine in the days when the Psalmist exclaimed, "The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God."[89]There were atheists at Rome when Cicero wrote,[90]that the opinion which recognizes gods appeared to him to come nearest to the resemblance of truth. A poet of the thirteenth century has expressed in a Latin verse the thoughts which are in vogue among a great many of our contemporaries: "He dares nothing great, who believes that there are gods."[91]There were atheists in the seventeenth century, when Descartes exerted himself to confound them, and they reckoned themselves the fine spirits of their time.[92]And who, again, doesnot know that in the eighteenth century atheism marched with head aloft, and filled the world with its clamors. The attempt to do without God has nothing modern about it, it is met with at all epochs. The means employed now-a-days to attain this end have nothing new about them. Atheism exhibits itself in history with the characters of a chronic malady, the outbreaks of which are transient crises. The moment the negation is blazoned openly, humanity protests. Why? Because man will never be persuaded to content himself with the earth, and with what the earth can give him: his nature absolutely forbids it. When we compare the reality with the desires of our souls, we can all say with the aged patriarch Jacob: "Few and evil have been the days of my pilgrimage;"[93]we can all say with Lamartine:

Though all the good desired of manIn one sole heart should overflow,Death, bounding still his mortal span,Would turn the cup of joy to woe.[94]

Though all the good desired of man

In one sole heart should overflow,

Death, bounding still his mortal span,

Would turn the cup of joy to woe.[94]

And it is not the heart only which is concerned here; without God man remains inexplicable to his own reason. The spiritual creature of the Almighty, free by the act of creation, and capable of falling into slavery by rebellion,—he understands his nature and his destiny; but it is in vain that the apostles of matter and the worshippers of humanity harangue him in turn to explain to him his own existence. Man is too great to be the child of the dust; man is too miserable to be the divine summit of the universe. "If he exalts himself, I abase him; if he abases himself, I exalt him; and I contradict him continually, until he understands at last that he is an incomprehensible monster."[95]

"The proper study of mankind is man;" and man remains an enigma for man, if he do not rise to God. So it is that our very nature is a living protest against atheism, and never allows its triumphs to be either general, or of long duration. A solid limit is thus set to our wanderings; and, to the errors of the understanding, as to the tides of the ocean, the Master of things has said, "Ye shall go no further." Therefore atheists may become famous, but, destitute of the ray whichrenders truly illustrious, humanity refuses them the aureole with which it encircles the brows of its benefactors. This aureole it reserves for the sages which lead it to God, for the artists which reveal to it some of the rays of the immortal light, for all those who remind it of the titles of its dignity, the pledges of its future, the sacred laws of the realm of spirits. Humanity desires to live; and to live it must believe; for it must believe in order to love and to act. Atheism is a crisis in a disease, a passing swoon over which the vital forces of nature triumph. Now the vital forces of humanity are neither extinct nor stupefied in our time. The world of literature is sick, and grievously sick in some of its departments; but even there again are manifesting themselves noble and powerful reactions. Then look in other directions. Contemplate the religious movement of society at large, the wide efforts making in the domain of active beneficence, the progressive conquests of civilization, the awakening of conscience on many subjects:—I could easily instance numerous facts in proof of what I advance, and say to you:

Know, by these speaking signs, a God to-dayAs yesterday the same—the same for aye:Veiling, revealing, at His sovereign will,His glory,—and His people guarding still.[96]

Know, by these speaking signs, a God to-day

As yesterday the same—the same for aye:

Veiling, revealing, at His sovereign will,

His glory,—and His people guarding still.[96]

Wrestle then against the invasion of deadly doctrines, wrestle and do not fear. If men rise against God in the name of the modern mind, of the science of the age, of the progress of civilization, do not suffer yourselves to be stunned by these clamors. Let the past be to you the pledge of the future! To make of atheism a novelty, is an error. To make of it, in a general way, the characteristic of our epoch, is a calumny.

FOOTNOTES:[40]Xenophon,Memorab. of Socrates, Bk. iv. 10.[41]La Religion naturelle. Preface.[42]Emile Saisset, in theRevue des Deux Mondes, of March, 1845.[43]See theLettres sur les vérités, les plus importantes de la révélation, by Albert de Haller, translated into French by one of his grandsons. Lausanne, Bridel, 1846.[44]La Métaphysique et la Science, 2 tom. Oct. 1858.[45]Notice sur M. Littré, page 57.[46]Paroles de philosophie positive, page 33.[47]Idem, page 30.[48]Paroles de philosophie positive, page 34.[49]Aperçus généraux sur la doctrine positiviste, par M. de Lombrail, ancien élève de l'école polytechnique. The author says in his preface: "Auguste Comte examined this work with the conscientious attention which he was accustomed to give to the simplest task. He desired by his useful counsels to render it worthy of publication."[50]Revue des Deux Mondes, of 15th Jan. 1860, page 367.[51]Je soupçonne entre nous que vous croyez en Dieu.N'allez pas dans vos vers en consigner l'aveu;Craignez le ridicule, et respectez vos maîtres.Croire en Dieu fut un tort permis à nos ancêtres.Mais dans notre âge! Allons, il faut vous corrigerEt suivre votre siècle, au lieu de le juger.[52]Entre ces deux chemins j'hésite et je m'arrête.Je voudrais à l'écart suivre un plus doux sentier.Il n'en existe pas, dit une voix secrète:En présence du Ciel, il faut croire ou nier.Je le pense, en effet: les âmes tourmentéesVers l'un et l'autre excès se portent tour à tour;Mais les indifférents ne sont que des athées;Ils ne dormiraient plus, s'ils doutaient un seul jour.[53]See, for example,La Religion naturelle, by Jules Simon;Essai de philosophie religieuse, by Emile Saisset;De la connaissance de Dieu, by A. Gratry;La raison et la christianisme, douze lectures sur l'existence de Dieu, by Charles Secrétan;Essai sur la Providence, by Ernest Bersot;De la Providence, by M. Damiron;L'Idée de Dieu, by M. Caro;Théodicée, Etudes sur Dieu, la Création et la Providence, par Amédée de Magerie.[54]See, for example, theEtudes orientalesof M. Franck, theBouddhaof M. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire;L'Histoire de la philosophie au XVIIIesiécle, of M. Damiron.[55]Philosophie de la liberté, vol. i. p. 225.[56]Toutes ces révoltes de la matière en furie.[57]Revue des Deux Mondes, April, 1850.[58]Qu'est-ce la religion?page 586 of the translation of Ewerbeck.[59]Revue des Deux Mondesof 15th April, 1850, p. 288.[60]General Report addressed to theConseil d'Etatof Neuchâtel on the secret German propaganda, and on the clubs of Young Germany in Switzerland, by Lardy, Doctor of law. Neuchâtel, 1845.[61]Pourvu qu'on le délivre d'une vertu bourgeoise et d'une morale d'honnêtes négociants. Blätter der Gegenwart für sociales Leben.[62]See theChroniqueur Suisseof 19 Jan. 1865.[63]April, 1850, p. 292.[64]Force et Matière, by Louis Büchner, Doctor in medicine: translated into French from the seventh edition of the German work, by Gamper, Leipzig, 1863.[65]My object is to point out the atheistical systems which are being produced in various parts of Europe, and not to estimate, in a general way, the tendency of contemporary philosophies. The reader, who would understand the position occupied by materialism in relation to German thought in general, may consult with advantage,Le Matérialisme contemporain, by Paul Janet, Paris, 1864; and the review of this work by M. Reichlin-Meldegg (Zeitschrift für Philosophie, Sechsundvierzigster Band). A Swiss writer, M. Böhner, has lately published a learned work on the subject entitled:Le Matérialisme au point de vue des sciences naturelles et des progrès de l'esprit humain, by Nath. Böhner, member of theSociété helvétique des sciences naturelles, translated from the German, by O. Bourrit, 1 vol. 8vo. (Genève, imprimerie Fick), 1861.[66]. . . Ces enfants de l'effroi,Ces beaux riens qu'on adore, et sans savoir pourquoi,Ces dieux que l'homme a faits et qui n'ont pas fait l'homme.Cyrano de Bergerac.[67]From outer to inner things, and from inner to higher.[68]See the Report of Mr. H. Roberts, in theComptes rendus du Congrès international de bienfaisance de Londres, vol. ii. page 95, and the 23rdBulletin de la Société genevoise d'utilité publique, 1863.[69]Par son respect pour le jour du Dimanche.[70]revêtit.[71]La Paix méditations historiques et religieuses, par A. Gratry, prêtre de l'Oratoire.—Septième méditation: l'Angleterre.[72]The Constitution of Man, by G. Combe. The popular edition was printed at the expense of Mr. Henderson.[73]Infidelity: its aspects, causes, and agencies, by Thomas Pearson. People's edition, 1854, page 263.[74]Auguste Comte et la Philosophie positive, par E. Littré, page 276.[75]"Positivism, within the last quarter of a century, has become an active, and even fashionable mode of thought, and nowhere more so than amongst certain literary and intellectual circles in England."The Christ of the Gospels and the Christ of modern Criticism, Lectures on M. Renan's 'Vie de Jésus,'—by John Tulloch, D.D., Principal of the College of St. Mary in the University of St. Andrew. Macmillan and Co., 1864.[76]See Pearson:Infidelity, particularly page 316, andChristianity and Secularism, the public discussion—, particularly page 8.[77]—dans le siècle.[78]Vapereau'sDictionnaire des contemporains—Art.Holyoake.[79]I have had in view here the first numbers ofThe Secular World, and ofThe National Reformer, Secular Advocate, for 1864.[80]The National Reformerof 2nd Jan. 1864.[81]MS. information.[82]Readers unacquainted with the Italian language will find a compendious exposition of M. Conti's philosophy, in a small volume published, in 1863, under the title ofLe Camposanto de Pise ou le Scepticisme. (Paris, librairies Joël Cherbuliez et Auguste Durand; I vol. in-18.)[83]Such is the testimony rendered to him by M. Aug. Conti in his work,La Philosophie italienne. (Paris, Joël Cherbuliez et Auguste Durand; one small vol. 18mo.)[84]Le Rationalisme(in French), published with an introduction, by M. D. Bancel, Brussels, 1858, page 27.[85]The learned author appears to intimate that the distractions of the Papacy, consequent on its political struggles for temporal power, hinder the salutary influence which it might otherwise exercise in the suppression of evil doctrines. The Translator feels it due to himself to state here, once for all, that he has no sympathy whatever with such a view of the influence of the Papacy. On the contrary, he is disposed to attribute to the Church of Rome most of the evils which afflict, not Italy only, but all the countries over which she has any power. Perhaps, having "felt the weight of too much liberty" in his own Church, the excellent author, fundamentally sound in his own views of Christian doctrine, as is proved abundantly by his writings, has been led by a natural reaction to give too much weight to the opposite principle of authority. The concluding pages of his former work,La Vie Eternelle, indicate a mind too painfully and sensitively averse to all controversy with a corrupt Church, in consideration of the acknowledged excellences of many of her individual members,—her Pascals, Fénélons, Martin Boos, Girards, Gratrys, and Lacordaires.—Translator.[86]De l'autre rive(in Russian).[87]De l'autre rive. v. Consolatio.—This chapter is a dialogue between a lady and a doctor. I have considered the doctor as expressing the thoughts of the writer. The form of dialogue, however, always allows an author to express his thoughts, while declining, if need be, the responsibility of them.[88]Le Rationalisme, par Ausonio Franchi, page 19.—Force et matière, par le docteur Büchner, page 262.—Paroles de philosophie positive, par Littré, page 36.—La Métaphysique et la Science, par Vacherot, page xiv. (Première edition.)[89]Ps. xiv. 1.[90]De Naturâ Deorum.[91]Nil audet magnum qui putat esse Deos.[92]See Bossuet:Sermon sur la dignité de la religion.[93]Gen. xlvii. 9.[94]Quand tous les biens que l'homme envieDéborderaient dans un seul cœur,La mort seule au bout de la vieFait un supplice du bonheur.[95]Pascal.[96]Reconnaissez,Messieurs, à ces traits éclatants,Un Dieu tel aujourd'hui qu'il fut dans tous les temps.Il sait, quand il lui plaît, faire éclater sa gloire,Et son peuple est toujours présent à sa mémoire.

[40]Xenophon,Memorab. of Socrates, Bk. iv. 10.

[41]La Religion naturelle. Preface.

[42]Emile Saisset, in theRevue des Deux Mondes, of March, 1845.

[43]See theLettres sur les vérités, les plus importantes de la révélation, by Albert de Haller, translated into French by one of his grandsons. Lausanne, Bridel, 1846.

[44]La Métaphysique et la Science, 2 tom. Oct. 1858.

[45]Notice sur M. Littré, page 57.

[46]Paroles de philosophie positive, page 33.

[47]Idem, page 30.

[48]Paroles de philosophie positive, page 34.

[49]Aperçus généraux sur la doctrine positiviste, par M. de Lombrail, ancien élève de l'école polytechnique. The author says in his preface: "Auguste Comte examined this work with the conscientious attention which he was accustomed to give to the simplest task. He desired by his useful counsels to render it worthy of publication."

[50]Revue des Deux Mondes, of 15th Jan. 1860, page 367.

[51]Je soupçonne entre nous que vous croyez en Dieu.N'allez pas dans vos vers en consigner l'aveu;Craignez le ridicule, et respectez vos maîtres.Croire en Dieu fut un tort permis à nos ancêtres.Mais dans notre âge! Allons, il faut vous corrigerEt suivre votre siècle, au lieu de le juger.

[51]

Je soupçonne entre nous que vous croyez en Dieu.N'allez pas dans vos vers en consigner l'aveu;Craignez le ridicule, et respectez vos maîtres.Croire en Dieu fut un tort permis à nos ancêtres.Mais dans notre âge! Allons, il faut vous corrigerEt suivre votre siècle, au lieu de le juger.

Je soupçonne entre nous que vous croyez en Dieu.

N'allez pas dans vos vers en consigner l'aveu;

Craignez le ridicule, et respectez vos maîtres.

Croire en Dieu fut un tort permis à nos ancêtres.

Mais dans notre âge! Allons, il faut vous corriger

Et suivre votre siècle, au lieu de le juger.

[52]Entre ces deux chemins j'hésite et je m'arrête.Je voudrais à l'écart suivre un plus doux sentier.Il n'en existe pas, dit une voix secrète:En présence du Ciel, il faut croire ou nier.Je le pense, en effet: les âmes tourmentéesVers l'un et l'autre excès se portent tour à tour;Mais les indifférents ne sont que des athées;Ils ne dormiraient plus, s'ils doutaient un seul jour.

[52]

Entre ces deux chemins j'hésite et je m'arrête.Je voudrais à l'écart suivre un plus doux sentier.Il n'en existe pas, dit une voix secrète:En présence du Ciel, il faut croire ou nier.Je le pense, en effet: les âmes tourmentéesVers l'un et l'autre excès se portent tour à tour;Mais les indifférents ne sont que des athées;Ils ne dormiraient plus, s'ils doutaient un seul jour.

Entre ces deux chemins j'hésite et je m'arrête.

Je voudrais à l'écart suivre un plus doux sentier.

Il n'en existe pas, dit une voix secrète:

En présence du Ciel, il faut croire ou nier.

Je le pense, en effet: les âmes tourmentées

Vers l'un et l'autre excès se portent tour à tour;

Mais les indifférents ne sont que des athées;

Ils ne dormiraient plus, s'ils doutaient un seul jour.

[53]See, for example,La Religion naturelle, by Jules Simon;Essai de philosophie religieuse, by Emile Saisset;De la connaissance de Dieu, by A. Gratry;La raison et la christianisme, douze lectures sur l'existence de Dieu, by Charles Secrétan;Essai sur la Providence, by Ernest Bersot;De la Providence, by M. Damiron;L'Idée de Dieu, by M. Caro;Théodicée, Etudes sur Dieu, la Création et la Providence, par Amédée de Magerie.

[54]See, for example, theEtudes orientalesof M. Franck, theBouddhaof M. Barthélemy Saint-Hilaire;L'Histoire de la philosophie au XVIIIesiécle, of M. Damiron.

[55]Philosophie de la liberté, vol. i. p. 225.

[56]Toutes ces révoltes de la matière en furie.

[57]Revue des Deux Mondes, April, 1850.

[58]Qu'est-ce la religion?page 586 of the translation of Ewerbeck.

[59]Revue des Deux Mondesof 15th April, 1850, p. 288.

[60]General Report addressed to theConseil d'Etatof Neuchâtel on the secret German propaganda, and on the clubs of Young Germany in Switzerland, by Lardy, Doctor of law. Neuchâtel, 1845.

[61]Pourvu qu'on le délivre d'une vertu bourgeoise et d'une morale d'honnêtes négociants. Blätter der Gegenwart für sociales Leben.

[62]See theChroniqueur Suisseof 19 Jan. 1865.

[63]April, 1850, p. 292.

[64]Force et Matière, by Louis Büchner, Doctor in medicine: translated into French from the seventh edition of the German work, by Gamper, Leipzig, 1863.

[65]My object is to point out the atheistical systems which are being produced in various parts of Europe, and not to estimate, in a general way, the tendency of contemporary philosophies. The reader, who would understand the position occupied by materialism in relation to German thought in general, may consult with advantage,Le Matérialisme contemporain, by Paul Janet, Paris, 1864; and the review of this work by M. Reichlin-Meldegg (Zeitschrift für Philosophie, Sechsundvierzigster Band). A Swiss writer, M. Böhner, has lately published a learned work on the subject entitled:Le Matérialisme au point de vue des sciences naturelles et des progrès de l'esprit humain, by Nath. Böhner, member of theSociété helvétique des sciences naturelles, translated from the German, by O. Bourrit, 1 vol. 8vo. (Genève, imprimerie Fick), 1861.

[66]. . . Ces enfants de l'effroi,Ces beaux riens qu'on adore, et sans savoir pourquoi,Ces dieux que l'homme a faits et qui n'ont pas fait l'homme.Cyrano de Bergerac.

[66]

. . . Ces enfants de l'effroi,Ces beaux riens qu'on adore, et sans savoir pourquoi,Ces dieux que l'homme a faits et qui n'ont pas fait l'homme.Cyrano de Bergerac.

. . . Ces enfants de l'effroi,

Ces beaux riens qu'on adore, et sans savoir pourquoi,

Ces dieux que l'homme a faits et qui n'ont pas fait l'homme.

Cyrano de Bergerac.

[67]From outer to inner things, and from inner to higher.

[68]See the Report of Mr. H. Roberts, in theComptes rendus du Congrès international de bienfaisance de Londres, vol. ii. page 95, and the 23rdBulletin de la Société genevoise d'utilité publique, 1863.

[69]Par son respect pour le jour du Dimanche.

[70]revêtit.

[71]La Paix méditations historiques et religieuses, par A. Gratry, prêtre de l'Oratoire.—Septième méditation: l'Angleterre.

[72]The Constitution of Man, by G. Combe. The popular edition was printed at the expense of Mr. Henderson.

[73]Infidelity: its aspects, causes, and agencies, by Thomas Pearson. People's edition, 1854, page 263.

[74]Auguste Comte et la Philosophie positive, par E. Littré, page 276.

[75]"Positivism, within the last quarter of a century, has become an active, and even fashionable mode of thought, and nowhere more so than amongst certain literary and intellectual circles in England."The Christ of the Gospels and the Christ of modern Criticism, Lectures on M. Renan's 'Vie de Jésus,'—by John Tulloch, D.D., Principal of the College of St. Mary in the University of St. Andrew. Macmillan and Co., 1864.

[76]See Pearson:Infidelity, particularly page 316, andChristianity and Secularism, the public discussion—, particularly page 8.

[77]—dans le siècle.

[78]Vapereau'sDictionnaire des contemporains—Art.Holyoake.

[79]I have had in view here the first numbers ofThe Secular World, and ofThe National Reformer, Secular Advocate, for 1864.

[80]The National Reformerof 2nd Jan. 1864.

[81]MS. information.

[82]Readers unacquainted with the Italian language will find a compendious exposition of M. Conti's philosophy, in a small volume published, in 1863, under the title ofLe Camposanto de Pise ou le Scepticisme. (Paris, librairies Joël Cherbuliez et Auguste Durand; I vol. in-18.)

[83]Such is the testimony rendered to him by M. Aug. Conti in his work,La Philosophie italienne. (Paris, Joël Cherbuliez et Auguste Durand; one small vol. 18mo.)

[84]Le Rationalisme(in French), published with an introduction, by M. D. Bancel, Brussels, 1858, page 27.

[85]The learned author appears to intimate that the distractions of the Papacy, consequent on its political struggles for temporal power, hinder the salutary influence which it might otherwise exercise in the suppression of evil doctrines. The Translator feels it due to himself to state here, once for all, that he has no sympathy whatever with such a view of the influence of the Papacy. On the contrary, he is disposed to attribute to the Church of Rome most of the evils which afflict, not Italy only, but all the countries over which she has any power. Perhaps, having "felt the weight of too much liberty" in his own Church, the excellent author, fundamentally sound in his own views of Christian doctrine, as is proved abundantly by his writings, has been led by a natural reaction to give too much weight to the opposite principle of authority. The concluding pages of his former work,La Vie Eternelle, indicate a mind too painfully and sensitively averse to all controversy with a corrupt Church, in consideration of the acknowledged excellences of many of her individual members,—her Pascals, Fénélons, Martin Boos, Girards, Gratrys, and Lacordaires.—Translator.

[86]De l'autre rive(in Russian).

[87]De l'autre rive. v. Consolatio.—This chapter is a dialogue between a lady and a doctor. I have considered the doctor as expressing the thoughts of the writer. The form of dialogue, however, always allows an author to express his thoughts, while declining, if need be, the responsibility of them.

[88]Le Rationalisme, par Ausonio Franchi, page 19.—Force et matière, par le docteur Büchner, page 262.—Paroles de philosophie positive, par Littré, page 36.—La Métaphysique et la Science, par Vacherot, page xiv. (Première edition.)

[89]Ps. xiv. 1.

[90]De Naturâ Deorum.

[91]Nil audet magnum qui putat esse Deos.

[92]See Bossuet:Sermon sur la dignité de la religion.

[93]Gen. xlvii. 9.

[94]Quand tous les biens que l'homme envieDéborderaient dans un seul cœur,La mort seule au bout de la vieFait un supplice du bonheur.

[94]

Quand tous les biens que l'homme envieDéborderaient dans un seul cœur,La mort seule au bout de la vieFait un supplice du bonheur.

Quand tous les biens que l'homme envie

Déborderaient dans un seul cœur,

La mort seule au bout de la vie

Fait un supplice du bonheur.

[95]Pascal.

[96]Reconnaissez,Messieurs, à ces traits éclatants,Un Dieu tel aujourd'hui qu'il fut dans tous les temps.Il sait, quand il lui plaît, faire éclater sa gloire,Et son peuple est toujours présent à sa mémoire.

[96]

Reconnaissez,Messieurs, à ces traits éclatants,Un Dieu tel aujourd'hui qu'il fut dans tous les temps.Il sait, quand il lui plaît, faire éclater sa gloire,Et son peuple est toujours présent à sa mémoire.

Reconnaissez,Messieurs, à ces traits éclatants,

Un Dieu tel aujourd'hui qu'il fut dans tous les temps.

Il sait, quand il lui plaît, faire éclater sa gloire,

Et son peuple est toujours présent à sa mémoire.

(At Geneva, 27th Nov. 1863.—At Lausanne, 25th Jan. 1864.)

Gentlemen,

The thoughts of man are numberless; and still, in their indefinite variety, they never relate but to one or another of these three objects: nature, or the world of material substances, which are revealed to our senses; created spirits, similar or superior to that spirit which is ourselves; and finally God, the Infinite Being, the universal Creator. Therefore there are two sorts of atheism, and there are only two. The mind stops at nature, and endeavors to find in material substances the universal principle of existence; or, rising above nature, the mind stops at humanity, without ascending to the Infinite Mind, to the Creator. We have seen how clearlythese two doctrines appear in contemporary literature. We have now to enter upon the examination of them, and this will afford us matter for two lectures.

The word nature has various meanings; we employ it here to designate matter, and the forces which set it in motion, those forces being conceived as blind and fatal, in opposition to the conscious and free force which constitutes mind. Matter and the laws of motion are the object of mechanics, of chemistry, and of physics. Do these sciences suffice for resolving the universal enigma? Such is precisely the question which offers itself to our examination.

Let us first of all determine what, in presence of the spectacle of the universe, is the natural movement of human thought, when human thought possesses the idea of God. I open a book trivial enough in its form, but occasionally profound in its contents: theJourney round my room, of Xavier de Maistre. The author is relating how he had undertaken to make an artificial dove which was to sustain itself in the air by means of an ingenious mechanism. I read:

"I had wrought unceasingly at its construction for more than three months. The day was comefor the trial. I placed it on the edge of a table, after having carefully closed the door, in order to keep the discovery secret, and to give my friends a pleasing surprise. A thread held the mechanism motionless. Who can conceive the palpitations of my heart, and the agonies of my self-love, when I brought the scissors near to cut the fatal bond?—Zest!—the spring of the dove starts, and begins to unroll itself with a noise. I lift my eyes to see the bird pass; but, after making a few turns over and over, it falls, and goes off to hide itself under the table. Rosine (my dog), who was sleeping there, moves ruefully away. Rosine, who never sees a chicken, or a pigeon, or the smallest bird, without attacking and pursuing it, did not deign even to look at my dove which was floundering on the floor. This gave the finishing stroke to my self-esteem. I went to take an airing on the ramparts.

"I was walking up and down, sad and out of spirits as one always is after a great hope disappointed, when, raising my eyes, I perceived a flight of cranes passing over my head. I stopped to have a good look at them. They were advancing in triangular order, like the English column at the battle of Fontenoy. I saw themtraverse the sky from cloud to cloud.—Ah! how well they fly, said I to myself. With what assurance they seem to glide along the viewless path which they follow.—Shall I confess it? alas! may I be forgiven! the horrible feeling of envy for once, once only, entered my heart, and it was for the cranes. I pursued them, with jealous gaze, to the boundaries of the horizon. For a long while afterwards, motionless in the midst of the crowd which was moving about me, I kept observing the rapid movement of the swallows, and I was astonished to see them suspended in the air, just as if I had never before seen that phenomenon. A feeling of profound admiration, unknown to me till then, lighted up my soul. I seemed to myself to be looking upon nature for the first time. I heard with surprise the buzzing of the flies, the song of the birds, and that mysterious and confused noise of the living creation which involuntarily celebrates its Author. Ineffable concert, to which man alone has the sublime privilege of adding the accents of gratitude! Who is the author of this brilliant mechanism? I exclaimed in the transport which animated me. Who is He that, opening his creative hand, let fly the first swallow into the air? It is He whogave commandment to these trees to come forth from the ground, and to lift their branches toward the sky!"

Here is a charming page, and containing, though apparently trivial in style, a good and sound philosophy. Let us translate this delightful description into the heavier language of science.

The intellect is one of the things with which we are best acquainted; logic is the science of thought, and logic is perhaps, among all the sciences, the one best settled on its bases. The intellect discovers itself to us in the exercise of our activity. We pursue an object, we combine the means for attaining it, and it is the intellect which operates this combination. What happens if we compare the results of our activity with the results of the power manifested in the world? When we consider in their vastensemblethe means of which nature disposes, when we remark the infinite number of the relations of things, the marvellous harmony of which universal life is the produce, we are dazzled by the splendor of a wisdom which surpasses our own as much as boundless space surpasses the imperceptible spot which we occupy upon the earth. Think of this: thescience of nature is so vast that the least of its departments suffices to absorb one human lifetime. All our sciences are only in their very beginning; they are spelling out the first lines of an immense book. The elements of the universe are numberless; and yet, notwithstanding, all hangs together; all things are linked one to another in the closest connection. Thesavantstherefore find themselves in a strange embarrassment. They are obliged to circumscribe more and more the field of their researches, on pain of losing themselves in an endless study; and, on the other hand, in proportion as science advances, the mutual relation of all its branches becomes so manifest that it is ever more and more clearly seen that, in order to know any one thing thoroughly, it would be necessary to know all. It needs not that we seek very high or very far away for occasions of astonishment: the least of the objects which nature presents to our view contains abysses of wisdom.

The acquired results of science appear simple through the effect of habit. The sun rises every day; who is still surprised at its rising? The solar system has been known a long while; it is taught in the humblest schools, and no longersurprises any one. But those who found out, after long efforts, what we learn without trouble, the discoverers, reckoned their discoveries very surprising. Kepler, one of the founders of modern astronomy, in the book to which he consigned his immortal discoveries, exclaims:[97]"The wisdom of the Lord is infinite, as are also His glory and His power. Ye heavens! sing His praises. Sun, moon, and planets, glorify Him in your ineffable language! Praise Him, celestial harmonies, and all ye who can comprehend them! And thou, my soul, praise thy Creator! It is by Him, and in Him, that all exists. What we know not is contained in Him as well as our vain science. To Him be praise, honor, and glory for ever and ever!" These words, Gentlemen, have not been copied from a book of the Church; they are read in a work which, as all allow, is one of the foundations of modern science.

I pass on to another example, and I continue to keep you in good and high company. Newton set forth his discoveries in a large volume all bristling with figures and calculations.[98]The work of the mathematician ended, the authorrises, by the consideration of the mutual interchange of the light of all the stars, to the idea of the unity of the creation; then he adds, and it is the conclusion of his entire work: "The Master of the heavens governs all things, not as being the soul of the world, but as being the Sovereign of the universe. It is on account of His sovereignty that we call Him the Sovereign God. He governs all things, those which are, and those which may be. He is the one God, and the same God, everywhere and always. We admire Him because of His perfections, we reverence and adore Him because of His sovereignty. A God without sovereignty, without providence, and without object in His works, would be only destiny or nature. Now, from a blind metaphysical necessity, everywhere and always the same, could arise no variety; all that diversity of created things according to places and times (which constitutes the order and life of the universe) could only have been produced by the thought and will of a Being who isthe Being, existing by Himself, and necessarily."

Here, Sirs, are noble thoughts, expressed in noble style. I recommend you to read throughout the pages from which I have quoted a fewfragments. Let us now analyze the ideas of this great astronomer as thus expounded. We may note these three affirmations:

1. The universe displays an admirable order which reveals the wisdom of the Power which governs it.

2. The universe lives; it is not fixed, and its variations suppose an intelligent Power which directs it.

3. The variable existence of the universe shows that it is not necessary; it must have its cause in a Being who istheBeing, necessarily, by His proper nature.

Such are the views of Newton. Examine this course of thought, and see if it is not natural. Observation reveals to us facts. Facts in themselves, isolated facts, are nothing for the mind; but in the facts of nature, human reason discovers an order, and in that order it recognizes its own proper laws. To keep within the domain of astronomy—there is harmony between our mind and the course of the stars. If you have any doubt about this, I appeal to the almanac. We there find it stated that in such a month, on such a day, at such an hour, there will be an eclipse of the sun or of the moon. How comes the editorof the almanac to know that? He has learnt it from the savants who have succeeded in explaining the phenomena of the skies. The savant therefore can in his study meet with the intelligence which directs the universe. If he makes no mistake in his calculations, the eclipse begins at the precise hour which he has indicated. If the eclipse did not take place at the instant foreseen, no one would suspect Nature of not following the course prescribed by the directing intelligence; the inference would be that there had been a fault in observation, or an error of figures on the part of the astronomer.

When science, then, does its part well, the mind of man encounters another mind which is governing the world and maintaining it in order. The special science of nature stops there, as we shall explain further on; but this is not all that man requires, when he makes use of all his faculties. All is passing and changing in the domain of experience; and reason seeks instinctively the cause of changeable facts in an unchangeable Being, the cause of transient phenomena in an eternal Being. Nature, therefore, does not suffice to account to us for itself. It demands a power to direct it, an intelligence to regulate it; an absoluteeternal Being as its cause. This is what reason imperatively requires; and when we possess the idea of God, nature reveals to us His power and His wisdom.

This is an old argument, and they call it commonplace. It is commonplace, in fact; it has appeared over and over again in the discourses of Socrates, in the writings of Galen, of Kepler, of Newton, of Linnæus. Yes, this argument has fallen so low as to be public property, if we can say that truth falls when it shines with a splendor vivid enough to enlighten the masses. If I desired to bring together here the testimony of all the savants who have seen God in nature, the song of all the poets who have celebrated the glory of the Eternal as manifested by the creation, the enumeration would be long, and I should soon tire out your patience. You can understand therefore that if there are, as the misanthrope Rousseau says there are, philosophers who hold in such contempt vulgar opinions that they prefer error of their own discovery to truth found out by other people, then the ancient argument, which infers the wisdom of the Creator from the order of the creation, must be the object of but small esteem with them. Still I for my part take thisold argument for a good one, and I mean to defend it.

Nature is verily and indeed a marvel placed before the observation of our minds. The growth of a blade of grass, the habits of an ant, contain for an attentive observer prodigies of wisdom. A drop of dew reflecting the beams of morning, the play of light among the leaves of a tree, reveal to the poet and the artist treasures of poetry. But too often, blinded by habit, we are unable to see; and when our mind is asleep, it seems to us that the universe slumbers. A sudden flash of light can sometimes arouse us from this lethargy. If science all at once delivers up to us some one of those grand laws which reveal in thousands of phenomena the traces of one and the same mind, the astonishment of our intellect excites in our soul an emotion of adoration. When the first rays of morning light up with a pure brightness the lofty summits of our Alps; when the sun at his setting stretches a path of fire along the waters of our lake, who does not feel impelled to render glory to the supreme Artist? When dark cold fogs rest upon our valleys at the decline of autumn, it only needs sometimes to climb the mountain-side, in order to issue all at once from thegloomy region, and see the chain of high peaks, resplendent with light, mark themselves out upon a sky of incomparable blue. Often have I given myself the delight of this grand spectacle, and always at such a time my heart has uttered spontaneously from its depths that hymn of adoration:

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