315 
liave been ennobled and in a certain sense directed by that 
view of nature wbicb gives us to see it as a wondrous book 
spread out for our instruction^ — a parable full of meaning 
inspired by the mind of its Author. 
In the very formation of language^ if we believe our revela- 
tion, we find that the mind of man was drawn out by the 
Creator in connexion with the study of His works (Gren. ii.). 
But how great is onr ignorance, even yet, of Nature ! Accord- 
ing to the Chinese, the formation of writing began with the 
very illustrious Fou-he, whose virtue united heaven and earth. 
He lifted up his eyes oii high and saw figures {icen) from 
which he gained instruction, and he lowered them to the 
earth, and beheld models to imitate on the earth. __ 
He then invented writing according to six rules, the first of 
which was to design the form. 
The characters for sun and moon belong to this form, and 
it is by figuring the form or the body of the sun and moon 
that they were represented in ancient writing (Kou-iven).^ 
Afterwards follow figurative and curious metaphorical and 
other resemblances. Such, in its substance, must also have 
been the origin of the Egyptian hieroglyphics. 
But if the world had been formed by a caucus of utilitarian 
philosophers, with drab for its colouring and uniformitarianism 
for its rule, where would have been its teaching ? We cannot 
picture to ourselves a Positivist writing Shakspeare, still less 
could we believe in a government of Agnostics having sound 
principles of statesmanship. Not knowing God in nature and 
in Providence, they neither can know their own nature nor 
that of other men. The negation of God^'’ is a worm at the 
root of all beneficial legislation. 
May England be preserved from, and France be delivered 
from, such guidance ! 
CONCLUSION. 
I shall have failed in my special object in this paper if I do 
not carry the conviction of my readers with me that the nature 
of the Agnostic, — his idiosyncracy, if you will, — must be 
studied by those physicians who would bring health to his 
soul. It is a very familiar observation that a man convinced 
against his will is not converted after all. Even an animal 
may be driven to a fiowing well of purest water, but cannot 
^ Essai sur VOrigine et la Formation similaire des Fcritnrcs fgumihcR 
Chinoim et Egy^ptiennes, (p. 9). Pantier, Paris. 
