96 METAPHYSICS 



the character of a mental attribute, it is exercised, or 

 withheld, at will, and assumes the position of the chief 

 determinant in shaping and colouring the life of the 

 individual and the community. 



In pursuing our enquiries into this aspect of the great 

 subject of faith, we at last find its highest development 

 in the appreciation of "things not seen," and in the real- 

 isation of a world beyond the powers of sense to appreciate, 

 to which the instincts of humanity point backwards and 

 forwards, and regarding which some of the greatest intel- 

 lects of the past and present have done, and are doing, 

 their best to form an estimate of it, and with more or 

 less consistency and success, have endeavoured to found 

 a system and to raise a religious superstructure which will 

 embody faith and ensure obedience to the laws which its 

 particular interpretation necessitates and determines. 



Amongst the human family scattered all over the world, 

 faith, as between man and man, community, tribe, and 

 nation, is essential for the conduct of business of com- 

 merce generally, of amenity to the laws, local and general, 

 of acquiescence in the manner of their administration and 

 contentment with the state of things as they are, and even 

 where the "state of things" is universally acknowledged 

 to require amendment, faith holds out the promise of the 

 ultimate evolution and obtainment of that amendment. 



From all this, it must be concluded that faith is the 

 universal cement alike of the animate and inanimate 

 universe, that without it the world could not exist, that 

 material change in orderly fashion would be impossible, 

 that the relationships of living beings would be constantly 

 strained, that the conduct of man to man would be for 

 ever arbitrary and uncertain, and that the realisation of 

 the higher aspirations of humanity would be an impossi- 

 bility, or a monstrosity, dictated in outline by the eccen- 

 tricities, the irresponsible promptings of ambitions, and 

 the aspiring designs of individual members of the race, 

 which would live but for a day, and give place to a 

 repetition of ineffectual effort and ephemeral performance, 

 and so on, ending without progress or improvement to 

 the individual or the community for ever and ever. 



Let us rejoice, therefore, that faith exists, and let us 



