169 
Placitis Philosophorum, Cicero’s De Natura Deorum, and some 
of his other works. No one also is likely to get a clear idea of 
the connection of the physical theory with Democritic atheism, 
without having made him&elf master of the first three chapters 
at least of Cudworth’s great work, The True Intellectual System 
of the Universe, and probably of some other works which I 
have not had leisure to attend to in my own research. Of 
modern works Dr. F. Uebei'weg’s History of Philosophy, 
translated by Morris, seems to be one of the most 
useful. 
Let us now see with what apparatus the author of the 
Address undertook to bring before one of the most learned 
bodies in Europe, and to recommend to them, this Philo- 
sophy, including in some degree at least the atheistical prin- 
ciples. 
The chief portion of his equipment appears to have been, a 
recently published work of Professor Lange, entitled Die 
Geschichte des Materialismus ;* a work by an American, Dr. 
J. C. Draper, entitled History of the Development of Science 
in Europe, of which I would wish to be understood to speak 
respectfully, and to separate altogether from Lucretian princi- 
ples; Munro’s Lucretius; and two or three other modern books. 
Almost at the commencement of the Address Bacon is men- 
tioned, but it is in a quotation from Lange, and in depreciation 
of Aristotle and Plato as compared with Democritus. 
I am mentioning bare facts, and I presume that the most 
devoted friend or admirer of the author of the Address, could 
scarcely venture to speak highly about the amount of scholar- 
ship brought to bear on this difficult point of Greek philosophy. 
The historical sketch which follows is just what might have 
been expected : a polished and rapid style is used to give us 
a sketch of philosophy, chiefly in connection with the atomic 
* Since the delivery of the Belfast Address, another volume of this very 
learned and elaborate work has appeared, forming the second part of the 
second book. , t> c 
The following translated extracts would seem to show that i rotessor 
Lange’s own sentiments are very different from those of the author of the 
Address i 
p a cre 149. “We are not in a condition to comprehend the atoms, and 
we are not able, out of the atoms and their motions, to explain even the 
smallest phenomena of consciousness.” 
Again. “ One may twist and turn the idea of matter and force as one 
will, D we stumble at length upon the incomprehensible or unknowable, if not 
altogether upon mere inconsistency, as in the conception of the forces which 
act at a distance in empty space. There remains no hope of solving the 
nroblem — the hindrance is a Transcendental.” 
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