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the earth clad, as with a garment, in primeval innocence. The 
original order has been reversed, and natural truth has now 
become the groundwork and basis of all truth. We live, as 
has been truly said, but weakly lamented, in a “ mechanical 
age ” ; but humanity need not, on that account, despair of its 
future. Properly speaking, <f mechanics ” deals with machinery, 
and, therefore, with “ forms ” ; but there are living and 
spiritual forms, as well as dead and material ones; and the 
laws of mechanics are, in all strictness, laws of the infinite, 
and partake of infinite perfection. The great problem of the 
future is to translate the laws of material mechanics into those 
of spiritual mechanics — to show, in other words, that the laws 
of Matter and the laws of Spirit are not laws of a different order 
but of a different degree. When we can do this, the Spirit of 
the Age, mechanical though it be, will be justified of its chil- 
dren. The claims of philosophy to its own proper estates will 
no longer be disputed, for they will rest upon an unassailable 
foundation of scientific truth. We shall hear no more of the 
discordance between Science and Religion, and Theology will 
again be reinstated in the respect and affection of thoughtul 
men, by acquiring a natural basis, and becoming indissolubly 
connected with the truths of the material universe. 
It may be that we are yet far from this happy consummation ; 
that we must yet fight through a long period of spiritual unrest 
and disturbance before the lion can lie down with the lamb, and 
the higher and lower notes of the mighty organ of the universe 
can be brought into complete accord. No man dare prophesy 
on such matters, but the signs of the times are clear to read. 
I would only say, in conclusion, that it appears to me to be of 
the utmost importance in the investigation of truths of whatever 
order, to maintain an affirmative rather than a negative mood 
of mind. It may be regarded as tolerably certain that the 
greatest intellectual discoveries have been made by men, to 
w hom affirmation was more easy and more natural than negation. 
There is no gift, no endowment of genius, which the student 
of truth should so earnestly endeavour to preserve as that 
positive mental habit which we all possess in childhood, but 
which we frequently cast away in later life as useless or per- 
nicious. It is not a good thing to hold beliefs so tightly that 
we cannot give them up if need be, and if the evidence against 
them be sufficient. We should not even hold our beliefs in any 
w r ay which would render us unwilling to examine the grounds 
on which they rest and to patiently listen to all that can be 
urged against them. We may rest assured that as no truth is 
without its modicum of human fallibility and human error, so 
