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the heat of which was sufficient to have sustained all existing 
matter in the form of gas. If so, their existence must have 
been very uncomfortable during the countless ages the matter 
of the solar and sidereal systems has taken in cooling. The 
alternative will doubtless be preferred, that a time once was, 
when the first being capable of sensation began to be. But a 
vast interval separates the sentient from the non- sentient, not 
a succession of trifling variations. The philosophy which 
attempts to construct a universe without the intervention of a 
God is bound to give us an account of how the first sentient 
being began to be. 
68. But there are several other states of being which are 
separated from each other, not by short steps but by vast 
intervals. Among these self-consciousness occupies a con- 
spicuous place. It is obvious that it exists. It is as certain as 
any fact of time or space. We can all and each of us utter the 
mysterious word “ I/ J and attach a distinct meaning to it. It 
is the most mysterious of words. Who shall fathom its pro- 
found depths ? It is that which separates between self and not- 
self, person and thing. It is that which constitutes us a unity 
in the midst of plurality and change. As beings capable of 
self-consciousness, we feel that we have existed through long 
intervals of time, surrounded by and deeply interested in multi- 
tudes of things which are not ourselves. Not one particle of 
matter constitutes our present bodies which composed them 
twenty years since, yet we are the same. There must have 
been a time when self-conscious beings existed not. There 
must, therefore, have been one when a self-conscious being 
first began to be. Here then is an interval the depth of which 
the imagination can but imperfectly fathom. It is not too 
much to say, that no theory of evolution can bridge this over 
without the intervention of a self-conscious Creator. 
69. There is yet another interval. A being may be a person, 
and yet have no conception of right or duty. I select this con- 
ception as representative of the whole moral nature of man, of 
which it forms the most remarkable characteristic. It is imma- 
terial to my argument whether the utilitarian philosophy is 
correct in its analysis of the origin of the idea. I firmly believe 
that it is not. But the fact cannot be gainsaid, that vast 
numbers of minds, of the highest order, have a clear conception 
of duty quite distinct from any reference to utilitarianism. On 
the contrary, they feel the strongest obligation to sacrifice 
themselves to it in contradiction to the strongest dictates of 
expediency. There is something within us which says, let right 
prevail, even if the heavens fall. There must, therefore, have 
