io6 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



veiled in the scenes put before him by the glamour of science. 

 We find him inquiring if he does well to hunt and fish, 

 or if he ought to live on pulse only, afraid to kill 

 animals, and if there is reason to be afraid to kill even 

 plants lest they should suffer in their sensitiveness ? We 

 remember these fancies in our childhood. The unnamed 

 writer ' On the Diversions of Hunting, Shooting, Fishing, 

 &c./ considered as compatible with humanity, p. 341, has 

 leapt bravely through the weaknesses of sentiment that 

 keep us from the use of our nature in the direction of those 

 healthy sports. He says, * It might then perhaps appear 

 that amidst all the variety and eccentricity which the con- 

 templation of a given character presents, the primary dis- 

 position, the original nature, and springs of action are 

 extremely few. If this were proved, the seeming incon- 

 sistency between many of the actions of an individual must 

 disappear, as it would be unfair to reason from any partial 

 view of his character.' 



This seems true, even when character rises high the 

 foundations are left : we stand upon the earth. This by no 

 means shortens the height to which we may see, or dimin- 

 ishes the world in which the mind lives. We must not 

 forget that the universe of matter has an extension beyond 

 all our conceptions, although we must equally remember 

 that the space between the moving spheres contains power if 

 not matter also, and is inconceivably greater than any space 

 occupied by visible or known material. The materialist has 

 been obliged so to extend his ideas of matter that it has 

 grown into mind ; the visible universe with all its greatness 

 has become too small for those who have learnt to look on 

 the magnitude of that which is active but invisible. 



It will be seen that in the first volume we have certainly 



