THE BELFAST ADDEESS. 169 



the human understanding in its demand for logical 

 continuity between molecular processes and the phe- 

 nomena of consciousness. This is a rock on which 

 Materialism must inevitably split whenever it pretends 

 to be a complete' philosophy of life. What is the moral, 

 my Lucretian? You and I are not likely to indulge 

 in ill-temper in the discussion of these great topics, 

 where we see so much room for honest differences of 

 opinion. But there are people of less wit or more 

 bigotry (I say it with humility), on both sides, who are 

 ever ready to mingle anger and vituperation with such 

 discussions. There are, for example, writers of note 

 and influence at the present day, who are not ashamed 

 publicly to assume the " deep personal sin " of a great 

 logician to be the cause of his unbelief in a theologic 

 dogma.* And there are others who hold that we, who 

 cherish our noble Bible, wrought as it has been into 

 the constitution of our forefathers, and by inheritance 

 into us, must necessarily be hypocritical and insincere. 

 Let us disavow and discountenance such people, cher- 

 ishing the unswerving faith that what is good and true 

 in both our arguments will be preserved for the benefit 

 of humanity, while all that is bad or false will disap- 

 pear.' 



I hold the Bishop's reasoning to be unanswerable, 

 and his liberality to be worthy of imitation. 



It is worth remarking that in one respect the 

 Bishop was a product of his age. Long previous to his 

 day the nature of the soul had been so favourite and 

 general a topic of discussion, that, when the students of 



* This is the aspect under which the late Editor of the Dublin 

 Review' presented to his readers the memory of John Stuart Mill. 

 I can only say, that I would as soon take my chance in the other 

 world, in the company of the 'unbeliever,' as in that of his Jesuit 

 detractor. In Dr. Ward we have an example of a wholesome and 

 vigorous nature, soured and perverted by a poisonous creed. 



