382 SINGLE CONCEPTION OF COSMOS. 



force already in existence are brought into another kind of 

 combination and motion and life results." We proceed, 

 says Strauss, " from the secure basis of elemental forces, to 

 vegetable and animal life, to the universal vital principle of 

 the earth, thence to that of our solar system, and thus ever 

 on and on, till at last we comprehend all that exists in one 

 single conception, and this conception is that of the 

 Cosmos."* O dictum mirabile ! O miranda credulitas ! 



* There is one consideration in connection with Strauss' doctrine of 

 great practical importance, which cannot be discussed here, but which 

 ought not to be entirely overlooked, even in a book like the present. 

 The following passage which I extract from the Spectator, is well 

 worthy of the reader's perusal, though not very intimately connected with 

 the subject of my book. 



" And this condition of mind is the more formidable that, should the 

 present decay of religious faith go on, we should expect simple want of 

 interest in life to become one of the most prolific causes of suicide, as 

 with some Oriental nations it probably already is. The failure of the 

 belief in Providence, the loss of the conviction that the circumstances 

 of life are really adapted by an omniscient love to the discipline of our 

 minds, involves of itself an enormous loss of moral interest. There 

 are plenty of men who neither have nor can have much faith in them- 

 selves, in their own power to create for themselves interests worthy of 

 laborious efforts and struggles. If they cannot believe that such in- 

 terests are provided for them, and that so long as they are faithful to 

 themselves, what seems to be want and loss is really the opportunity 

 of higher gain, it is impossible but that life should seem to them, as it 

 seemed to Howard, to consist in a multitude of uninteresting and re- 

 pulsive details, in disfigured and suffering human forms flitting about 

 wearily on errands of no moment, in senseless noise, and misplaced in- 

 telligence, and capricious pain, all exciting no emotion except one of 

 dreary ennui and desire to hasten the moment of dissolution. The bind- 

 ing power of religious faith, its power to give a real salvation even to 

 the intellect, by fixing it on the invisible ends and ties which render life 

 something more than it seems to be, can hardly be exaggerated. With- 

 out it, in a world of such mere " phenomena" as some philosophies 

 suppose it to be, we are satisfied that the terrible commonplaceness of 



