argument, historical or philosophical, for denying a trustworthy authority in religion. To deny a trustworthy authority in morals would probably too much alarm the age. But Sir James Stephen justly observes upon the great progress of disintegration in religious thought during the twenty-eight years which have passed since Lewis published in 1849. In twenty-eight more years, perhaps, those of us who may be alive will have nerve to look in the face the proposal that the unreal theory, which separates religious doctrine and practice, shall be allowed to go the way of all flesh; and that the doctrine of a trustworthy authority in morals shall be abandoned, as well as that of a trustworthy authority in religion. Using his happy faculty of illustration, Sir James Stephen closes with two parables.43 In the latter, one of two seeing men lays claim to a superior kind of sight, called 'intueing,' and not possessed by all, which discloses to him what is passing in sun, moon, and stars. Such a parallel emphatically convicts pretenders to a transcendental faculty. But against those who take their stand, in good faith, on the general constitution, which God has given to His human creatures, it is really a pointless dart. There are some philosophies, which maim this constitution by declining to take account of some of its most important offices and organs. He who argues against the Hedonist, that there is such a thing discerned or discernible by men as good apart from pleasure, asserts nothing for himself which he does not assert for humanity at large. All or most faculties may indeed enlarge, multiply, and vary their powers by vigorous and judicious exercise; or may stunt and finally lose them by disuse. But the starting-point is the same if the goal is not, and the race is run along level ground on even terms. By intuition I only mean mental sight, the faculty common to us all. I do not ask how far it is an original power, or how far it is one trained or reached by the exercise of other powers. How we know God, this is hardly the place to inquire. But it may be the place to say I cannot assert any method of knowing Him otherwise than by operations in strict conformity with the general laws of our nature. I agree with the deceased Mr. Dalgairns, that my knowledge of God is as real as my knowledge of man;' and bold, or more than bold, is he who affirms that his knowledge of man is limited to what his senses can discern in man. The disintegration of belief, to which Sir James Stephen refers, is, I believe, very largely exaggerated in the estimates of some of those who have suffered it; but is yet in itself both remarkable and ominous. Among the special causes which have promoted or favoured it has probably, I admit, been that unusual rapidity of material progress, to stimulating which a great portion of my own life and efforts, in the line of my public duty, have been directed. In extremely kind terms, Sir James Stephen challenges me on this subject. I do 43 P. 297. not deny the fact, nor my own relation to it. I plead, however, first, that whatever zeal I had in the cause was inspired by the hope, not of our increasing the wealth or weight of the wealthy, but of our bringing millions upon millions out of a depressing poverty into a capacity at least of tolerable comfort; and that, in acting otherwise, I should have been like a physician refusing to use the appropriate means for bringing back to health a patient of questionable habits, lest he should misuse the blessing when attained. There can be little doubt that, with this abnormal rapidity in the creation of masses of wealth, there has come a shock to moral and mental equilibrium, and a perceptible overweight of material objects and pursuits. But on the other hand it may be allowed us at least to hope that the effect of such a shock may pass away, like an atmospheric disturbance, when it has produced its proper amount either of discomfort or of mischief. But here again we stand at the door of a large subject, which it would be especially unsuitable to prosecute at the end of a paper already carried to an extent that may well have exhausted the patience of the most willing reader. I shall close with a single remark on the celebrated dictum of Vincentius, quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus; on which Lewis has offered critical observations that, in the letter, it would be difficult to dispute. My remarks shall be not on its positive but on its negative value. It supplies, or ought to supply, an useful safeguard against the mental panic to which some give way when they perceive, or think they perceive, some violent rush of popular opinion. It is a good antidote against the sentiment which has not yet assumed the form of a counter-adage, but which may be fairly expressed in the words quod nunc, quod hic, quod a paucis. It may supply some fresh securities for our mental freedom against the hurried and crowded, and yet rather too imperious, demands of our own day and place; and may remind us that the promises and purposes of the Creator are not for an age but for the ages, and not for a tribe but for mankind. W. E. GLADSTONE. NOTE.—In an article on 'The Abuses of a Landed Gentry,' which appeared in the May number of this Review, a Public Drainage Loan is mentioned, and the question is put: 'What did the landed gentry do with it? Mr. Caird tells us that they borrowed at 6 per cent. from the Government, and lent at 7 per cent, to their tenants.' We are requested by Mr. Caird to state that he has been erroneously quoted as the authority for that general statement, which, though it may be true in some few exceptional and unimportant cases, is to his knowledge inapplicable and unjust to the landed gentry as a whole.'-Ed. CLA Clarendon's opinion of Falkland, 141 Clifford (Prof.), A Modern Symposium, College at Constantinople, 740 College of Surgeons, women applicants - self-government of the, 809 - relations between the mother country proposed confederation of, 817 Convocation, constitution of, 693 - the living voice of the Church, 769 Copyright and patent law, distinction Council of Trent, history of the, 130 Crookes (William), Another Lesson from the Radiometer, 879-887 Cross's (Mr.) speech on the Eastern Crystallography, new German journal Cunning system, or Khitraya Mekhanika, Cygnus, discovery of a new star in, 162 EA DARTH'S axis, on possible displace- Edinburgh University, medical women Egypt, importance of, to England, 717, -, proposed occupation of, by England, Electric conductivity of water, 513 The Ridsdale Judgment and its Ellis's (A. J.) improved alphabet, 638 - and Wales, ancient monuments Evans (John) on displacement of the Exhibition of 1851, Commissioners of Experience and knowledge, question of age of the Indian coal-bearing beds, Fiji Islands, cost of the, to Great Fishes, amphibious, 172 Five (The) Nights' Debate, by M. E. Foraminifera, researches on, 170-171 Foreign Office, need of a better know- ledge of Turkey at the, 874 664 'Free Church in a free State,' an absurd Fremy and Clémandot on iridescence Frilley (G.) and J. Wlahoviti, Le Mon- [MMACULATE CONCEPTION, India, Great Britain's policy towards, 42 Indian coal-bearing beds (Feistmantel), Induction coil, Mr. Spottiswoode's large, Infallibility of the Roman Pontiff, 182, 'Intue,' use of the word, 297, 925 |