laws of nature; of the mysteries of time and space; the wonders and revelations of animal and spiritual magnetism; of the infinite and invisible; and deals with the profoundest questions of divine truth with more ease and familiarity, and not half the reverence of a Jesus or a Paul. He speaks as though he had sounded all the depths of knowledge, with an air of unquestionable authority. He talks of things known and unknown, mostly of the last. He uses coined formulas of speech, "words of prodigious length and thundering sound." He rises up into what he calls the spiritual view of all subjects. He expands, and becomes more and more transparent, till the inflation is so great as to end in the usual results of the law of expansion; or he passes off out of sight into infinite fogdom; and, like the comet that became entangled among the moons of Jupiter, never regains his orbit again, which, perhaps, is little cause for regret. The comet is scarcely needed to light up our evening skies; and its presence will not be missed, while the fixed stars continue to shine on in their everlasting beauty.

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9. Now we are ready to say that we have no reverence whatever for this kind of philosophers, nor for their philosophy. It is a broad burlesque upon the name. is all surface-there is no depth to it. It is vain and deceitful, engendering pride and strife, and without profit or use. It has no practical side to it. It does not come down into the earnest and solemn realities of life, and speak to our individual and social duties, relations, and responsibilities. It spends itself in asking questions, which, if answered, would lead to no valuable results. the profound and mysterious. It occupies all its time in mere speculation, in weaving gossamer webs, and building rainbows on the ever passing clouds. It talks like a parrot but never works, never makes itself useful. It is like a certain poet of whom Johnson says, " he wrote as though

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he had been to a feast of the muses, and coming away had stolen all the scraps." It is satisfied with this shadow of wisdom, with technicalities and formulas, without ever making any serious attempt to approach the substance, to attain a knowledge of the truths which these formulas are intended to represent. In a word, this folly, absurdly called philosophy, is a mere baby, not to say idiotic, babling, sheer nonsense mostly; intelligible neither to itself, nor to those who hear.

10. "But do you fear progress?" O no; but we would have the progress forward, and not backward. "Do you fear free thought and discussion ?" O no; but desire it, and value the privilege, and for that reason avail ourselves of it in saying what we have to say now. "But if these speculations are idle, if the philosophy you oppose is false and foolish, it will die when it it has had its day." We know it; and precisely for that reason we speak, that we may help to make its day as short as possible. If we believed error and folly to be immortal in their nature, we should cease to oppose them; but it is because they are not, that we give our voice and hand against them, hoping to hasten their death. The reason assigned for silence, is precisely the reason for speaking.

11. Besides, although we have no fear for truth and sound philosophy in their contact with these impalpable gasses; yet there are many honest minds which are led away by them from the solid earth, where they have hitherto walked forward securely, into the vast quagmires of an unexplored region, where the way is difficult, and leads to no land of promise. And there are many shallow ones who, under these influences, following bewildered guides, hasten to make themselves ridiculous. Both these evils

we would do what we may to prevent.

12. For Philosophy in its noblest sense, in the large meaning of the word, we have the profoundest reverence,

and desire its increase and its influence in the world. We honor from the soul that love of wisdom which alone rightfully bears the name; and which, bearing it, seeks to make it honorable by earnest effort to discover the hidden relations of things; the threads of connection between cause and effect; which reverently makes its inquiries into the laws that regulate mind and matter, by which God moves forward the order of events in the physical and spiritual worlds; which seeks to understand the meaning of life— to unfold the nature of its responsibilities and duties; and to rule to wise and useful ends all knowledge and power, and bring the feelings, the purposes and actions into conformity with the laws of eternal rectitude.

13. This Philosophy is venerable and lovely in the sight of heaven, as well as of earth. All wise men, and all good men rejoice in its presence, and welcome its labors and their results. Great is the good which it has wrought out in the diffusion of knowledge, in the instruction of the ignorant, and in silencing the babbling of vain and shallow pretenders. It has done great service in bringing man into a more intimate acquaintance with God, with his works and his laws; and it has inspired many souls with a higher faith and a more grateful love towards Him who doeth his will in the armies of Heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and who is the Father of us all. It has also made man more closely to look into his own nature, to develope its powers, discover its laws, its relations to the outer world, the elements of his moral and spiritual life, the sources of its strength, the causes of its decay, and the remedy.

14. All this has true philosophy done, and so deserves our respect and affection. It is the friend and handmaid of Religion, which is, after all, the highest and most perfect Philosophy. Or, in other words, Philosophy itself, when rightly understood in all its relations, uses, and ends,

when brought to the last analysis, is in fact Religion. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Religion of the New Testament, is the truest, the noblest intellectual, spiritual, and practical Philosophy the world has ever seen. Freed from all the peculiarities and absurdities, from all the idle and profitless speculations and misty dreams which have been in all ages associated with that name, it has at once struck home into the great and earnest realities of life. With its sublime doctrines of God, with its teachings of the present order of nature and events, with its divine speech of the future, and its practical application of all truth to the duties and aims of life-with these it has accomplished and will accomplish more for our race, than all forms of Philosophy, so called, have ever been able to foreshadow even, in all ages of the past. And so, therefore, as the best and divinest Philosophy, showing its power by its works, it claims alike our faith and our affection.

15. I know that the study of Philosophy and Physical Science may be pursued independently of the Gospel, independently of faith or practice, as an intellectual exercise merely. But I know also that, in such case, it is defeated of its legitimate ends, and robbed of the crown of its glory. All science, physical and moral, all knowledge of whatever nature, is intended for use; and it is the office of true Philosophy to put it to this use. It seeks not only to establish facts and principles, but to apply them to show the practical side of them. It looks into the heart of nature, and seeks for causes and the hidden relations of things; not to rest in these-not to gratify an idle curiosity and the vain pride of learning—but to get nearer to the first great Cause, the Life-spring, the God that is at the centre of all things, and from whom, as the heart of the universe, all things derive their existence, and its perpetuation. It seeks through these to understand more of his perfections, the glory of his works, and the

goodness of his character, and his relation and disposition towards his creatures. It seeks also through this knowledge to obtain a clearer insight into the purpose of our present life, to develope the powers and faculties of the" mind, to cultivate the affections, to discover our obligations and duties, and to illustrate the hope and faith of a future life.

16. This is the office of Philosophy in the first and last, and only proper meaning of that much abused term. In this way it shows its literal and highest signification-love of wisdom-consecrating that wisdom, consecrating all knowledge to the glory of God and the good of man. And so, in this way, as we have said, true Philosophy in its final causes, in its last analysis, is identical, so far as respects its practical relations, with Religion. And hence, I repeat, the Gospel of the New Testament, the Religion of Christ, is the truest and most perfect philosophy which has ever been taught in our world. It is the only system which dedicates all knowledge of God, and nature, and man, to holy and useful ends; which proclaims as its ultimate purpose, and pursues it with unswerving fidelity and firmness, the illustration of the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of the Divine Character; and the direction of the thoughts, feelings, and actions, the whole life of man, to the high and noble ends for which it was given.

17. In this respect I do not claim for Christianity more than is universally conceded. I only wish the concession was a more intelligent one, and that the principle it involves was more justly appreciated. I wish those who are so ambitious of philosophizing, would honestly ask the meaning and aim of Philosophy, and then look into the Gospel, and see if they do not find both these developed there as in no other book, as in no other system.

18. Considered simply as an intellectual exercise, I believe the doctrines of Christ respecting God, the creation,