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weeps over fair children whom it has, like Brutus, doomed to 
death by a mistaken fanaticism. 
If we inquire into the metaphysical conditions of this sad 
engenderer of sorrow, we shall find, I think, that it is an in- 
tellectual malady ; a mental imperfection somewhat similar to 
colour-blindness, only not, like that singular defect, unattended 
with pain. The imperfection consists in an inability to admit, 
at the same time, the existence of the contingent and the 
absolute, and to appreciate the province or district, so to speak, 
which belongs to each. That form of the imperfection which 
refuses the contingent leads to mere transcendental idealism, 
but not necessarily to religious scepticism. Though Schelling 
was not a fervent Christian, Malebranche was. The other 
form, however, the rejection of the absolute, must inevitably 
end in a logical and a metaphysical deception. The logical 
fallacy I will not enlarge on now. It would take the form, 
usually, of that called in our logical treatises the fallacy “ a 
dicto secundum quid ad dictum simplicitcr,” or its converse ; 
and would lead us to an utter confusion between will and 
mechanical power, between the fitfulness of the imperfect and 
the steady consistent energy of the perfect. The metaphysical 
error would rather resemble the incorrect perceptions of a sight 
which, in other respects of normal power, will not bear 
focussing to the usual extent, and therefore deprives its pos- 
sessor of the advantage of seeing what is within, or beyond, 
a certain distance, while at the same time its goodness disposes 
him to doubt or deny the existence of what he is unable to 
perceive. The absolute being withdrawn from view, and the 
contingent alone remaining, the sceptic is left to the contem- 
plation of force in the place of Divine Will ; and to the ulti- 
mate choice (an unhappy one) between Atheism, Pantheism, 
or Fatalism. The outcome of these is as injurious to the 
community as they are in themselves full of sorrows to the 
individual. No one can doubt this who watches the course of 
modern unbelief. From the rejection of a written revelation, 
and a Personal Deity, it advances to the denial of moral re- 
sponsibility, and the repudiation of social relations, social 
duties, social morality ; eliminating sin by the simple process 
of asserting the non-existence of moral evil. It professes by 
this course to cure the griefs to which humanity is liable ; the 
medicine, however, is no true balm, but rather like that narcotic 
which for a short time induces oblivion of troubles only to 
intensify them tenfold when the patient wakes to consciousness 
again. Even the Greek poet could see that £he Supreme Being 
alone was the giver of peace to the troubled mind : — 
