HIS RELIGION. 



8l 



Delight in virtue or the public good. 



Elevated standard of excellence. 



Enthusiasm for ideal nobleness. 



Excellence for its own sake. 



Fundamental principles. 



Genuine benevolence. 



Good of mankind. 



High intellectual and moral eminence. 



Human improvement. 



Ideal excellence. 



Ideal nobleness. 



Intellectual and moral development. 



Intrinsic usefulness. 



Larger and freer existence. 



Lofty moral standard. 



Love of justice. 



Love of mankind. 



Noble principles. 



Religion of humanity. 



Reverential admiration. 



Sympathy with mankind. 



Ultimate improvement. 



Ultimate prospects of humanity. 



Unselfish benevolence. 



Vista of improvement. 



It is interesting to hear that all 

 these superexcellences are to be 

 introduced by people like himself, 

 for thus he writes : 



" I looked forward, through the pres- 

 ent age of loud disputes, but generally 

 weak convictions, to a future which 

 shall unite the best qualities of the 

 critical with the best qualities of the or- 

 ganic periods [what and when were 

 these?]. . . . [when] they shall not, 

 like all former and present creeds, re- 

 ligious, ethical, and political, require to 

 be periodically thrown off and replaced 

 by others " (p. 166). " I agreed with 

 him [Comte] that the moral and intel- 

 lectual ascendancy, once exercised by 

 priests [and Christian pastors ?], must in 

 time pass into the hands of [Utopian] 

 philosophers, and will naturally do so 

 when they become sufficiently unani- 

 mous, and in other respects worthy to 

 possess it "(p. 212). [Two very im- 

 portant conditions.] 



How different is the spirit that 

 breathes through the following letter 

 of Sir David Brewster to Professor 

 James Forbes, written on the nth 

 February, 1830, and to be found at 

 page 60 of the life of the latter, pub- 

 lished lately : 



" You will find that a life of science 

 6 



has in it no superiority to any other, un- 

 less it is pursued from a higher principle 

 than the mere ambition of notoriety, and 

 that a demagogue or a philosopher differs 

 only in the objects of their selfishness. 

 [How applicable this is to Mill !] As you 

 will now have experienced how unsatis- 

 fying even the pursuit of knowledge is 

 when insulated from higher objects, I 

 hope, if you have not been fortunate 

 enough to begin the study earlier, that 

 you will devote yourself to the most ex- 

 traordinary of all subjects, one which 

 infinitely surpasses the mechanism of 

 the heavens, or the chemistry of the 

 material world, the revelation of your 

 duty, and the destiny of man as con- 

 tained in the Bible a book which occu- 

 pied the best hours of the manhood of 

 Newton, of Locke, and of Euler." 



The strongest reason given by the 

 Pagan philosophers, or that can be 

 advanced to-day, for the existence 

 of God, is the existence of man 

 himself; for the sentiment expressed 

 by Cicero is an appeal to every in- 

 telligent being : " Every man must 

 recognize a Deity who has any rec- 

 ollection and knowledge of his own 

 origin." To - day he is not, to- 

 morrow he is conceived, and in nine 

 months he is born, the most help- 

 less of creatures, to appearance the 

 sport of every circumstance as re- 

 gards his preservation, and the time 

 and mode of passing out of his 

 earthly existence. What is said of 

 him by the Psalmist is but the ex- 

 pression of the instinct of nature : 

 " I am fearfully and wonderfully 

 made." " Thou art he that took 

 me out of the womb." " I was cast 

 upon thee from the womb ; thou art 

 my God from my mother's belly." 

 "By thee have I been holden up 

 from the womb ; thou art he that took 

 me out of my mother's bowels : my 

 praise shall be continually of thee." 

 Of this created being, who was orig- 

 inally " made a little lower than the 

 angels," Job says : " If I wait, the 

 grave is mine house." " I have said 

 to corruption, Thou art my father : 

 to the worm, Thou art my mother, 

 and my sister." "How much less 



