Chase.] -••" [Feb. 7, 



a well defined notion of the laws of nature, which enables them to give up 

 the idea of an intelligent Ruler, it would be much better that they should 

 express the notion by some other term than law, and they should by all 

 means give such clear definitions as will enlighten the understanding of 

 their readers. If they have no such notion, they use "words without 

 knowledge." The use may be honest, and free from intention to deceive, 

 for every one is liable to an inconsiderate employment of terms which have 

 been familiar from childhood. But a professed searcher for truth, who be- 

 lieves that the majority of thinking men have, for ages, been blinded by 

 error, can hardly be excused for forcing their expressions into a meaning 

 which they would unanimously repudiate. Such a course may lead to one 

 of those endless wars of words which constitute a large portion of the 

 fancied oppositions between science and religion, but they hinder, instead 

 of helping, the spread of knowledge. When science claims the right of 

 free discussion, the right must be granted, but only in legitimate ways. 

 The etymological bond between reor and res, reason and real, think and 

 thing, is only one out of many indications that philosophy is only concerned 

 and can only deal with ideas ; that the ideal is, as Plato taught, the only 

 reality to which we can possibly attain ; that all manifestation, material as 

 well as spiritual, is only the expression of ideas ; and that nothing can be 

 gained by trying to banish or ignore the highest ideas which have been 

 revealed to men and to shut them within the narrow bounds of manifesta- 

 tion, of which we can know nothing except through subordinate ideas. 



The highest philosophy, while it seeks for nothing but the truth, will 

 be satisfied with nothing short of the whole truth ; truth to the whole 

 triplicity of human nature; truth which can harmoniously promote all the 

 purposes of revelation, sanctification and inspiration. 



A strong feeling of spiritual need, with the implicit dependence upon 

 the intimations of faith which is its natural accompaniment, gives philoso- 

 phy a leaning towards mysticism ; the happiness, which accompanies every 

 satisfaction of the need, awakening a thankfulness to the Giver of all 

 good and a recognition of His benevolence which lead to theories of op- 

 timism. An energetic, self-asserting will, with an accompanying disposition 

 to yield to every impulse of desire, gives a tendency towards dogmatism ; 

 the abuses of freedom, which characterize "the natural man," giving be- 

 lief a subjective bias which is shown in systems of pessimism. Active reason- 

 ing powers, leading to a continual exercise of thought upon speculative ques- 

 tions, give rise to skepticism ; the impossibility of reaching any conclusion, 

 in which something is not taken for granted, convicting finite reason of in- 

 herent weakness, throwing a shade of doubt over every commonly accepted 

 belief, and tending towards nihilism, or a denial of all reality. Christian- 

 ity assigns each group of theories its proper limits, by teaching that "God 

 is good ;" the human "heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately 

 wicked ;" " the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, 

 for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know them, because they 

 are spiritually discerned." There is no inconsistency in believing : 1, that 



