thoughtful work on 'Appearance and Reality,' he says, "a future life must be taken as decidedly improbable." On the contrary, we hold that, to a purely natural theism, immortality is pledged by the goodness of the Deity, and it is demanded by the disorders and unexplained confusions of the world that now is. Surely it is no great undeserved compliment to the wisdom of the Deity to believe that this world is more than a comedy of errors. Shall we dare pronounce this universe of ours one huge blunder, which, had the power been ours, we should have blotted out for ever? More keen-sighted has our recent Christianly theistic philosophy of religion been to perceive what good reasons there may be for no more minute or detailed insight having been granted us into the nature of the life to come. It has, too, been more content to rest in the love of the Divine Father, of Whose ordering that life will be, and to cherish a firmer faith in that law of spiritual continuity whereby the eternal morrow shall mean the perfecting of the unfinished salvation and character of to-day. Hence it has been gradually recovering the confidence in a future life which the excessive dogmatism of so-called Christian systems had weakened in the minds of men. It has, in fact, maintained so deepening a hold, through every darkness and obscurity, upon the love of the Living Father, as to be able to say that, as for it, its unquenched hope is to behold His face in righteousness, and,

THE GOAL OF IMMORTALITY.

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in awaking after His likeness, to be therewith satisfied.

"And shall I find no Father? Shall my being
Aspire in vain for ever, and always tend

To an impossible goal, which none shall reach—
An aim without an end?

Or, shall I heed them when they bid me take

No care for aught but what my brain may prove?
I, through whose inmost depths from birth to death
Strange, heavenward currents move;

Vague whispers, inspirations, memories,
Sanctities, yearnings, secret questionings,
And oft amid the fullest blaze of noon,
The rush of hidden wings?

Nay; my soul spurns it! Less it is to know
Than to have faith: not theirs who cast away
The mind God gave them, eager to adore
Idols of baser clay.

But theirs, who, marking out the bounds of mind,
And where thought rules, content to understand,
Know that beyond its kingdom lies a dread

Immeasurable land."

Because the theistic advances of recent times have been what in this and previous chapters we have tried to portray, we close this work with the comforting reflection that, although philosophy is more than the individual philosopher, the theistic philosopher can yet to-day, with more piercing glance and more penetrative insight, with greater sweep of vision and more dauntless confidence of faith, make his own, notwithstanding those per

plexities of the cosmos that remain, -for still, as Dante says, "insensate he who thinks with mortal ken to pierce Infinitude,"

"Matto è chi spera, che nostra ragione

Possa trascorrer la infinita via,”

the beautiful prayer of Geibel, with its fine spiritual daring and rich theistic sentiment, of which we venture to subjoin a rendering of our own in the form in which it was long ago cast off in leisure

moments :

"Herr, den ich tief im Herzen trage, sei Du mit mir!

Du Gnadenhort in Glück und Plage, sei Du mit mir!
Im Brand des Sommers, der dem Manne die Wange bräunt,
Wie in der Jugend Rosenhage, sei Du mit mir!
Behüte mich am Born der Freude vor Uebermuth,
Und wenn ich an mir selbst verzage, sei Du mit mir!
Gieb deinen Geist zu meinem Liede, dass rein es sei,
Und dass kein Wort mich einst verklage, sei Du mit mir!
Dein Segen ist wie Thau den Reben! Nichts kann ich selbst;
Doch dass ich kühn das Höchste wage, sei Du mit mir!
O Du mein Trost, Du meine Stärke, mein Sonnenlicht,
Bis an das Ende meiner Tage, sei Du mit mir!"

Lord, Whom in depth of heart I bear, be Thou with me!
Thou Fort of grace in peace and plague, be Thou with me!
When shine of summer sun the cheek of man doth brown,
As when with roses fenc'd in youth, be Thou my crown!
Preserve me, Well of Joy! lest I should haughty be,
And if I of myself despair, be Thou with me!
Thy Spirit to me give, that pure my song may be,
And that no Word may e'er accuse, be Thou with me!
Thy blessing be as Vine-dew! Self can nothing be;
But that I may the highest dare, be Thou with me!
O Thou my Consolation, Strength, and Sunlight free,
On to the end of life's brief day, be Thou with me!

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND SUBJECTS.