THE CONSTITUTION OF MATTER. 39 



with those loftier convictions, more precious and as solid, 

 which form our moral and religious inheritance, and the 

 crowning prerogative of our nature. The most advanced 

 science rejects none of the traditions and objects to none 

 of the great lasting sentiments of past ages. On the con- 

 trary, it fixes the stamp of certainty on truths hitherto lack- 

 ing adequate proofs, and rescues from the attacks of skep- 

 ticism all that it coveted as its prey. No proof of the soul's 

 immortality is so strong as that we have drawn from 

 the necessary simplicity and eternity of all the principles 

 of force. Nothing bears witness so powerfully to the 

 majestic reality of a God as the spectacle of those diversi- 

 ties, all harmonious, which rule the infinite range of forces, 

 and bind in unity the ordered pulses of the world. Enough 

 has been said to prove the truth that the moral greatness 

 and the intellectual dignity of a nation must always be 

 measured by the standard of the esteem and credit it accords 

 to high metaphysical speculations, and chiefly to such as 

 relate to the constitution of matter. Meditation on the 

 constitution of matter is the best method of teaching us to 

 know mind, and to understand that every thing must be 

 referred to it, because from it every thing flows. 



