liberty” in his own Church, the excellent author, fundamentally sound in his own views of Christian doctrine, as is proved abundantly by his writings, has been led by a natural reaction to give too much weight to the opposite principle of authority.  The concluding pages of his former work, La Vie Eternelle, indicate a mind too painfully and sensitively averse to all controversy with a corrupt Church, in consideration of the acknowledged excellences of many of her individual members,—­her Pascals, Fenelons, Martin Boos, Girards, Gratrys, and Lacordaires.—­Translator.

[86] De l’autre rive (in Russian).

[87] De l’autre rive. v.  Consolatio.—­This chapter is a dialogue between a lady and a doctor.  I have considered the doctor as expressing the thoughts of the writer.  The form of dialogue, however, always allows an author to express his thoughts, while declining, if need be, the responsibility of them.

[88] Le Rationalisme, par Ausonio Franchi, page 19.—­Force et matiere, par le docteur Buechner, page 262.—­Paroles de philosophie positive, par Littre, page 36.—­La Metaphysique et la Science, par Vacherot, page xiv. (Premiere edition.)

[89] Ps. xiv. 1.

[90] De Natura Deorum.

[91] Nil audet magnum qui putat esse Deos.

[92] See Bossuet:  Sermon sur la dignite de la religion.

[93] Gen. xlvii. 9.

[94]

     Quand tous les biens que l’homme envie
     Deborderaient dans un seul coeur,
     La mort seule au bout de la vie
     Fait un supplice du bonheur.

[95] Pascal.

[96]

     Reconnaissez, Messieurs, a ces traits eclatants,
     Un Dieu tel aujourd’hui qu’il fut dans tous les temps. 
     Il sait, quand il lui plait, faire eclater sa gloire,
     Et son peuple est toujours present a sa memoire.

LECTURE IV.

NATURE.

(At Geneva, 27th Nov. 1863.—­At Lausanne, 25th Jan. 1864.)

GENTLEMEN,

The thoughts of man are numberless; and still, in their indefinite variety, they never relate but to one or another of these three objects:  nature, or the world of material substances, which are revealed to our senses; created spirits, similar or superior to that spirit which is ourselves; and finally God, the Infinite Being, the universal Creator.  Therefore there are two sorts of atheism, and there are only two.  The mind stops at nature, and endeavors to find in material substances the universal principle of existence; or, rising above nature, the mind stops at humanity, without ascending to the Infinite Mind, to the Creator.  We have seen how clearly these two doctrines appear in contemporary literature.  We have now to enter upon the examination of them, and this will afford us matter for two lectures.