ORDER PACHYDERMATA. 361 



material invisible creation should be so much beyond the 

 reach of our faculties, as we in truth find it. Metaphysi- 

 cal science, if indeed it merit the rank of a science, is in 

 general a baseless superstructure ; it is for the most part 

 deduced from data altogether presumed or professedly in- 

 comprehensible : no wonder then that it is unsatisfactory 

 and inconclusive. One set of philosophers, because they 

 cannot comprehend what is obviously beyond the reach of 

 human sense, because they cannot demonstrate the con- 

 nexion between mind and matter, between materiality and 

 immateriality, pertinaciously insist on their identity, and 

 thus dispose of one great but rational mystery by the sub- 

 stitution of another still greater and absolutely irrational. 



It is true that the very existence of a mystery is to be 

 ascertained only by fruitless attempts to explain and un- 

 unravel it, or by its obvious admitted impossibility by 

 natural means; these attempts, however, when conducted 

 with propriety, moderation, and deference to what is com- 

 monly received as sacred among us, are deserving of respect 

 and attention, and tend eventually to the establishment of 

 truth. Many doctrines that have given offence to the best- 

 meaning persons, as militating against received, admitted 

 truths have eventually, on thorough investigation, been 

 found to support that which they were thought to destroy. 

 Copernicus was proscribed, and Newton was deified for 

 teaching almost the same doctrine ; and thus it not un- 

 frequently happens, that a more enlarged conception and 

 nobler views of the Deity are obtained by the discovery of 

 facts which were at first sight thought incompatible with 

 His attributes ; but the doctrine of mental materialism has 

 been investigated, if not always temperately, at least 

 thoroughly, and but few uninfluenced by preconceived no- 

 tions, or by fancied superiority of understanding, have 

 adopted it as more comprehensible and satisfactory than 

 that to wh4ch it stands opposed. 



Without therefore stopping to balance probabilities, or 



