831 



Sufficiently enlightened man would recognize the vanity of 

 his desires, and would die of disgust/^ Nirvana, the utter and 

 final extinction of being, is the only hopj3. Such is " the sublime 

 spirituality towards which we are tending — a spirituality 

 which, according to a great poet, found its first rise in the 

 bosom of Lucifer," and its first disciple in the unhappy " Cain/^ 

 Hartmann seems to be at present the guiding star amongst 

 these wise men of the East. (Note E.) 



18. For myself, I look upon all this sublime spirituality as 

 litorally weighed in the halaiices and found wanting. I not 

 only believe in the existence of the material universe, but also 

 that the Creator formed everything very good, and that His 

 works still proclaim the truth, which is contradicted by the 

 philosophy we are considering. "The invisible things of Him, 

 from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being under- 

 stood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and 

 Godhead, so that they are without excuse." 



19. The Theory of Atoms was at first allied to Atheistic spe- 

 culations; but, when more fully understood, it becomes favour- 

 able to views of creative wisdom, and as Cudworth observes,^^' 



there seems a natural connection between it and theology. 

 On the other hand, the denial of all real existence of the 

 material ivorld, must be set down as equally repugnant to 

 religion and to common sense. 



Part II. — Motion. 



20. In the preceding part we have felt the difficulty of recog- 

 nizing as scientific fact the Atomic Theor3^ We have learnt, 

 it is to be hoped, a lesson of caution, which we must not forget, 

 when carrying forward our investigations into a region where 

 the balance and the weight threaten to fail us, and we have to 

 look for other methods of investigating truth. 



21. We have seen that " the idea of motion" is vaunted as 

 the highest discovery of " the scientific and pure reason" of this 

 century, now verging towards its decadence. For my own 

 part, I must admit that my reason is so far from being " pure 

 reason" — so enslaved" is it by the fetters of common sense — 

 that I am unable to conceive of motion where matter and the 

 atom have disappeared," and there remains nothing to he moved. 



* Daubeny, on the Atomic Theory, p. 12. 



