older Greek philosophy, and assumed without the consciousness of a controversial attitude the supremacy of Divine intelligence and power, is a proof of the antecedent original existence in the human mind of the idea of God.' Plato, similarly, seems to have felt himself embarrassed when called upon to prove the existence of Deity, since he asserts that man is secretly and insensibly led, by his affinity with the gods, to believe in their existence, and to honour them. This was also the teaching of Socrates and Xenocrates; and even Epicurus argued similarly from the universal presence of theistic beliefs. Plutarch says, 'If you go through all the world you may find cities without walls, without letters, without rulers, without money, without theatres; but never without temples and gods, or without prayers, oaths, prophecies, and sacrifices, used to obtain blessings and benefits, or to avert curses and calamities.' Lactuntius testifies that in all emergencies the pagan calls upon God for succour. Professor Tyndall says, "The facts of religious feeling are as certain to me as the facts of consciousness. There is that deep-seated feeling which, since the earliest dawn of history, and probably for ages prior to all history, incorporated itself in the religions of the world.' Finally, the whole body of supporters of the hypothesis of 'derivation' must logically concede the innate origin of religious ideas, since, as Darwin, Brawbach, Caspari, Jagar, and others maintain, the germs of the religious nature begins already to reveal itself in the dog and other quadrupeds. When from the religious phenomena of savages we turn to the history of mankind at large, and consider the wide prevalence of vast religious systems, the religious pretensions of all schools of philosophy, and the divine breathings of the poetry of all peoples; and, finally, the utter ineradicability of the religious sentiments of mankind, it would seem an act either of fatuity or perversity to deny that the Ethical faculties are fundamentally co-ordinate with the intellectual, and hence answer to correlates in the realm of being, as real as the existence revealed by the activity of any of the cognitive faculties of our nature. We venture to close this discussion with an apostrophe from Herder : "No! Eternal source of all life, all being, and all form, thou hast not foreborne to manifest thyself to thy creatures. The prone brute obscurely feels thy power and goodness, while he exercises his faculties and appetites suitably to his organization; to him, man is the visible divinity of the earth. But thou hast exalted man, so that, even without his knowing or intending it, he enquires after the causes of things, divines their connection, and thus discovers thee, thou great Bond of all things, Being of beings! Thy inmost nature he knows not, for he sees not the essence of any one power; and when he would figure thee he has erred, and must err, for thou art without figure, though the first and sole Cause of all forms. Still, this false glimmering of thee is light; and the illusive altar he has erected to thee is an unerring monument, not only of thy being, but of the power of man to know and worship thee.' BRIEF NOTICES OF BOOKS. Spiritual Refreshment for Travellers to son. THIS is such a book as Wesley would have approved, and recommended to his societies. In its doctrinal, experimental, and practical teachings, it is thoroughly Wesleyan. No one but a Methodist of what may be called the old school of theology would or could have written it. There is nothing in it of hazy or doubtful speculation. Its opinions are positive and pronounced. At the same time it is animated with a truly catholic spirit, and beautified with a world-wide charity. With simplicity, copiousness, and unction it ministers instruction, consolation, and encouragement, upon a variety of interesting and important subjects. True to its title, it provides much and varied 'refreshment for travellers to Zion,' and is eminently suitable for family reading or closet meditation.' With a generosity worthy of commendation, the author surrenders the profits of the work to the preachers' Friendly Society.' This consideration, added to the intrinsic merits of the book itself, will, we trust, induce the preachers to promote its circulation. We may just add that it is of crown 8vo. size, 340 pages, beautifully bound in cloth, price 3s. 6d. |