664 
Force and Matter , 
[November, 
create one. Your readers are probably familiar with the 
answer of Napoleon to the savans who were with him in 
Egypt, when pressing on him their materialistic propaganda. 
He turned on them, pointing to the heavens, its grand 
galaxies being visible, and is reported to have said, “ It is 
all very well, gentlemen, but who made all this !” 
Before proceeding with my discussion a few remarks may 
be permitted. I am no bigot, and therefore ever willing to 
accept truth wherever it is to be found. I neither decry nor 
accept creeds, deeming the basis of one and all the same— 
viz., the simple idea of an existing God. The only distinc- 
tion I find in creeds is, that each endeavours to outdo the 
other in extravagant assumptions, to which and to the 
scientific ignorance of their propounders must be attributed 
the mischief so rife in the present day. How beautiful, 
acceptable, and logical is the simple conception of God as 
the creator and maintainer of natural phenomena. Had this 
idea been maintained in its primitive conception and taught 
in its integrity, how endearing and grand all social ties 
would have become. The idea of a universal brotherhood 
would have been realised with God as our Father. Humanity 
would then have become an intellectual being, but in lieu 
we have sense predominant with craft and greed as ruling 
attributes. I have no sympathy with theologies, but I have 
with the pure principles — which, alas ! are merely ideal — they 
inculcate. I may be asked, What is God ? It is sufficient to 
reply in the language of the Feduci when invoking the 
spirit : “ I know not where Thou art, or what Thou art, but 
only that Thou art.” It is impossible for man to define 
what is God : all that can be said is, that in phenomena we 
witness His manifestation, for therein we see intelligence 
embodied. If Professor Max Muller and those who worked 
in the same field have rightly construed their theories, if the 
cuneifom inscriptions and Egyptian hieroglyphics stand for 
anything, we must conceive man had a conception of 
spiritual things and a belief in an immortal principle or soul : 
the facSt is intruded in the earliest historical records. 
Palaeontology also brings its evidences. The Cro-magnon 
race contemporary with the great mammals had a belief in 
another life, M. Quatrefages (“ Human Species, p. 328) says : 
— “ The care bestowed upon burial places shows that the 
hunters of Mentone, as also those of Salutre and Cro- 
magnon, believed in the wants of their dead beyond the tomb. 
Our acquaintance with the customs of so many savage 
nations of the present epoch forbids any other interpretation 
of the interment of food, arms, and ornaments with the 
