The Philosophy of F. H. JacohL 157 



another by a syllogistic method. This is why the light in the 

 heart was quenched when brought into the understanding. That 

 light conveyed the divine image, which in the order of nature 

 must be felt in order to be known. We cannot always describe 

 what we have seen with our natural vision ; much less can we ex- 

 pect to impart to another the first fruits of our spiritual seeing. 

 The Apostle Paul said it was not lawful to utter the things which 

 were revealed to him when "caught up into paradise." Simi- 

 larly, doubtless, it is unlawful — impossible on account of the dis 

 abilities of our nature — for a man to formulate and communicate 

 to another all of the religious experiences of his heart, even after 

 they have so entered into his being that torture and death cannot 

 induce him to deny them. This is the philosophy of the be- 

 liever's testimony, daily declared in the sanctuary and daily dis- 

 puted in the mart, " I know that my Eedeemer liveth." 



Owing to a lack of this experience the unbelieving naturally 

 question the legitimateness of this faith, or at least ask the be- 

 liever to prove a necessary connection between the mental phenom- 

 ena on which he rests his faith and any objective cause. Suppose 

 we make a similar demand of themselves. Can they show any 

 necessary connection between the best established facts in science 

 and any objective cause ? All knowledge hangs upon a chain, 

 some links of which are hidden, so that, without the exercise of 

 a large practical faith, no science would be possible. When we 

 trace the phenomena involved in a single perception of an out- 

 ward object through the eye, we are charmed with the delicate 

 ■offices of different parts of that organ ; but when the light, in 

 obedience to optical laws, has painted a beautiful inverted image 

 of the object oq the fine tissue of the retina, the physical phenom- 

 ena of vision can be traced no further; they cease or disappear 

 as motion, or physical change, and re-appear at once as intel- 

 lectual perception — something which bears no discoverable re- 

 semblance to any of the physical phenomena of seeing. The 

 chain of causes in all perceptions goes out of sight, some links 

 are hidden. 



According to Lotze,^ " We shall never be able to prove that it 



' Mikrokosmus, vol. i., p. 161 ; Leipzig. 1856. 



