Hylo-Idealism ? 
319 
1884.] 
realisation in human intelligence is by abstract reasonings. If 
we summon the beliefs of man as an evidence, the evidence 
is most conclusive, for never has there been a people found 
who have not this abstraction, — presented as creeds, cults, 
superstitions, worship of dead ancestors, &c., all pointing to 
the belief of a life beyond the earth life. If, then, there be 
a life beyond the grave — and of this I have no doubt, 
Science leads to such a conclusion — it is clear there must 
be a link with the unknown, and there is to be found the 
Interpreter and the Law-giver. Is it because man has dis- 
covered the method of some of the mechanics and chemistry 
by which Nature produces her results, that therefore he 
comprehends the all of Nature, its origin, and end bounding 
the Universe, by his own narrow perceptions ? The very 
faCt of his limitation and cognition shows that intelligence 
is a working principle, for without intelligent consciousness 
where were all his theories ? Himself in his “thinks” om- 
nipotent and a God — pshaw ! Carry back his histological 
learning a few centuries, what did he know of the kingdoms 
of the Infusoria, which play so great a part in the economy 
of Nature? “Life swarms everywhere, life preys on life; 
whence is this inexhaustible flood of existence, from the atom 
fluttering in the sunbeam up to the star lost in the depths of 
infinity ? what principle can we discover to explain this 
limitless, eternal, and boundless prodigality ?” A principle 
of being there must be. What did we know of the order of 
the systems of worlds and luminaries, of suns in strata, in 
myriads. If these grand additions to scientific knowledge 
are the results of few centuries, what may we not hope for 
with the improved scientific appliances and methods of cul- 
ture in the coming eras of existence? We may know even 
the unknown, and discern what we now conceive to be 
an unembodied reality. To limit thought, mind, soul, and 
the all of the great unknown to an origination from matter 
is ignoring the very being of man. Step by step, from the 
protamceba to the human, man has ascended organically and 
intellectually, until he has become a thinking, intellectual, 
conscientious, and moral being. To what end ? lo perish 
utterly ? To become dust, to pursue the same round com- 
mencing again where he began ? It is an illogical sequence. 
If progress and development and evolution mean anything, 
it (if they are one) means the attainment of a higher phase 
than that of perception, or even of human conception ; the 
intellect must expand and obey the law until the illimitable 
is reached, — possibly a resolvement into its origin, as Buddha 
taught. It is in the unknown we can know the why and the 
