wliicli arc (.'iKui^li of tlu'iiischcs lo destroy llic unlcnalilc nulh 

 ot a 'wise I 'roxidcnce' and an 'all loving- Palliei" in llea\en.' " 



l-roin X'oltairc. Ivousseau, Thomas I'aine and l\t)bcrt (1. 

 Ingfcrsoll. who preached from the text, ".An honest God is the 

 noblest work of man," lia\'e come similar rellections n])on a so- 

 called God, A\diosc acts arc claimed to be always just, but whose 

 record, as g"i\'en us. shows that he is as weak as the most falli- 

 ble of mankind. 



Is it strange that the early joyous and care-free spirit of 

 this man. in brooding" over the eternal loss of those whose pres- 

 ence had been his very life, should have become darkened, and 

 which, in his last days, gave voice to the words which arc now 

 resounding from ocean to ocean in our land. 



As we read his posthumous work, "The Mysterious 

 Stranger." we are profoundly impressed by the uncertainties 

 in that troubled soul, regarding creation, existence, a material 

 universe, and an infinite hereafter of identity. 



Its pages are disappointing in that they present to us only 

 the sordid, tragic and ignoble side of life and ignore the higher, 

 spiritual aspirations of man which make him strive for the 

 greater good, and sometime be worthy of liberty. 



In theology a "distinction" is made — wdiich is no distinc- 

 tion, — between Free-will and Foreordination, Predestination 

 and Prescience. The teacher of Metaphysics tries to explain 

 the absolute certainty of Free-will, although everything has 

 been foreordained and foreknown by a great First Cause, w^ho 

 created us; but in his didactics he admits that we have no 

 Free-will, for no one can desire evil as evil, all our acts being 

 restricted by the strife for an end denominated the "summum 

 bonum." 



"Finis lion cadet sub ciectione." 



In "Purgatory," Dante says: 



"All indistinctly apprehend a bliss 

 On which the soul may rest ; the hearts of all 

 Yearn for it ; and to that wished bourn 

 All therefore strive to tend :" 



and he inquires from the spirit of Marco Lombardo : 



"The world indeed is even so forlorn 

 Of all good, as thou speak'st it. and so swarms 

 With every evil. Yet, beseech thee, point 

 The cause out to me. that myself may see, 

 And unto others show it ; for in heaven 

 One places it, and one on earth below." 



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