501 
Life , as well as his God in History. Both these works contain 
things of the highest value, especially the latter ; but it is 
painful to observe the effect which the endless licence of con- 
jecture, arbitrary theories, and the transcendental philosophy 
have produced on the mind of that really religious and zealous 
man. His belief in the transcendental philosophy seems 
greatly to have dimmed his vision as to the distinction 
between the subjective creations of the mind and the objective 
facts of history. His unlimited trust in theory, conjecture, 
and the certitude of his own supposed mental intuitions, has 
betrayed him into beliefs which we might under other circum- 
stances have assigned to the most unlimited credulity ; such 
for example, as his belief in the philosophic value of mesme- 
rism, clairvoyance, and second sight, and his discovery from the 
Evangelists and apostolical writings, that they do not represent 
that Jesus Christ rose from the dead; but that He partially 
recovered from the effects of crucifixion, gave Peter His last 
instructions in a secret interview, left Judea for the purpose of 
preaching to the Gentiles, and died shortly afterwards from 
exhaustion in Phoenicia. It is refreshing to know that some 
men's hearts are sounder than their heads, and this was the 
case with Bunsen ; but to dignify such speculations by the 
term of Rationalism is to invite confusion of thought. It 
may be said that many other speculators, including Sweden- 
borg, were men of mighty intellect. I shall not deny it ; but 
their imaginations upset the balance of their other mental 
powers ; and the rational man is he in whom all the powers 
of the mind are exercised each in its due place and proper 
subordination. It is absurd to dignify by the term rational, 
or rationalistic, the transgression of these limits. Transcen- 
dentalism, mysticism, and the unlimited use of conjecture for 
the purpose of creating facts where history fails to supply 
them, are the brothers of credulity. Let theologians, philo- 
sophers, men of science, and historians, beware of these three 
deadly sins of the human intellect, and we shall hear less of 
the alleged disagreement between religion and science. 
I must now bring this paper to a close, although there are 
many other points which ought to be included in it, and some 
notice of which is almost necessary for its distinct elucidation. 
A paper like this cannot have the distinctness of a treatise. 
Let it therefore be taken for what it is, — an essay, in Lord 
Bacon's sense of that word, in which I have taken a very 
rapid survey of several of the most important subjects of 
human thought. I trust, therefore, that it will be discussed 
as such, and not as a work in which I have carefully elaborated 
those subjects, viewed them in all their manifold complications, 
