788 Review of Vhistoire [No. 167. 



material causes and explanations are not even comprehensive, but are 

 limited only to certain phenomena of nature. The next step in the 

 march of reason, is to collect all these phenomena in one view, as well as 

 to reflect upon the forms, in which they appear in our mind. When 

 this circle of natural causes, of their being reduced to one and the same 

 (material) cause, and their mode of connection with our perception has 

 been completely passed through, when by this process the various stores 

 of learning, and a progressive power of reflection and reflected notions 

 have been produced, the mind will be perceived in its contrast with ma- 

 terial nature, that is to say, as perceiving, as comprehending a variety of 

 objects in one and the same view. This stage of philosophical reflection 

 is impossible, without being preceded by the former, — the materialist 

 consideration. At first, however, the more obvious acts and faculties of 

 the mind are only perceived, that is to say, in its difference from 

 nature, and only when they have been examined, are the various mani- 

 festations of the mental activity submitted to investigation ; the mind 

 appears then as a moral agent, and it is then the highest destination of 

 mankind to realize a hierarchy of moral ends. 



It is evident, that in this exposition, the assertion is not included, 

 that on the first stage of the philosophic development of the human 

 mind, no notions of mental acts should have existed ; on the contrary, 

 they undoubtedly existed ; for it is in the nature of the mind to be 

 conscious of its acts ; but this consciousness is first found in an unre- 

 flected perception ; as a clear, well defined notion it cannot exist, until 

 by a series of opposite notions, the nature of the mind becomes manifest. 

 The same law exists, as regards the perception of moral ends, which, 

 however, is not necessary here further to discuss. 



Religion follows the same steps in its development. Powers of 

 nature, or objects of external perception, have been first worshipped 

 as the gods of man. They are, for instance, the elements, water, earth, 

 fire, ether, or phenomena of short duration, though of overwhelming 

 power, as the clouds, thunder and lightning, &c. ; or objects on the 

 sky, as sun, moon and stars. In the Vedas prevails an adoration of the 

 elements and the starry sky ; the Greeks previously to the worship 

 of the Olympian gods, adored Uranos (sky), Gaia (earth), Chronos 

 (time), &c. In a later period qualities of the mind are attributed to the 

 gods, as we find the gods of Olympus, or the gods of the Indian pan- 



