his other doctrines can be given, which does not involve the abstract idealism which lies at the root of the numeric theory of Being.

Let us not strive to overstrain the significance of the few oracular remnants of thought from which a notion of his system must be gathered, but rather, while confessing their subtle tendency towards the truth, accept his tenets in their plainest terms. And even thus they are sufficiently grand to fill us with surprise; for do they not intimate that the whole scheme of creation is a glorious and mighty order (Kooμoc), proceeding from, as well as resulting in, an infinite harmony, in which the All is the co-adaptation of the One?

This One, then, what is it? It is "God the governor and originator of all, everlastingly One"-" the bond of the continuance of mundane things "-"that which is above all contraries, and yet implicitly involves in itself all contrariety." It is the universal monad, which manifests itself in all special subordinate monads, and which, permeating them all, forms at once the bond of the system and the origin of the universe. It is the thoughtful, active, arranging reason, which unifies and harmonizes the world. As all things proceed from, and bear the impress of, this primal Unit, it follows that "all reality consists of copies of numbers" issuing from the infinite with special forms, and receiving being from the-aπpov TVεvμα-infinite atmosphere of the world,* by breathing which they become capable of infinite development; and as all numerical developments are only peculiar relations of unity, so all states of being are but special finite manifestations of the infinite. Matter, in separating from the monad, becomes the multiple, the variable, the imperfect, the discordant, the unequal, the indefinite, the evil-i. e., constitutes the dyad; and spiritual beings, when they emanate from the monad, and enter the dyadic state, become imperfect and evil. Material existence has for its centre a fire-the sun-oria TOU Tavros-the hearth of the whole. Round this fire in choral dance move the earth, the moon, the planets, and the firmament. From the central fire, as their mediate source, the soul-particles emanate, enter the atmosphere, in the moment of birth are inhaled, and in that of death exhaled again into the vital air, where they again float, and again receive life, again die, and are again granted existence, till the imperfections of the dyadic nature are eradicated, and the soul becomes qualified for reabsorption into the Supreme Monad for ever. Do we not all sometimes feel inclined to say—

"I well nigh dream

I too have spent a life the self-same way

Does not this notion bridge the distance between the "infinite" of Anaximander, and the "air" of Anaximenes? See B. C., vol. vi., pp. 1, 41.

66

An age ago; and in that act a prayer
For one more chance went up so earnest-so
Embued with better light, let in by Death-
So free from all past sin-that it was heard;
That life was blotted out, not so completely
But scattered wrecks enough remain to wake
Dim memories."

Let us grant that, stated as a fact, this is far and wofully wide of the truth. Yet let us behold it steadily as a theory, and what does it imply? Surely the greatest thought that ever throbbed within the brain or animated the soul of any worthy of the ancient world, and that is this:-The human soul, in its personal entity, its veritable ego state,-is not the subject and slave of the laws which govern the surrounding and accidental phenomena amid which it dwells, but bears within itself a life that is indestructible, as the essence from which it flows; that the measure of the soul's capacity for enjoyment is in exact proportion to the manner of life from youth upwards," and that its after fate corresponds to its preceding moral state. It is true that, unblest by the pure light of heavenly truth, his views of life were limited to "the circumscription and confine" of this present scene of being, and did not go out stretching upward and onward to the throne and the very presence of the Most High. But was it not a sublime, uninspired vision into the eternal truth of being that taught him to behold in Death, not the dire messenger of sheer annihilation, but the enlargement of the nature, experience, and destiny of man-the medium through which a new opportunity of moral evolution was bestowed, wherein the self-same, the identical soul, either in a higher nature should reap the conscious joy of his former moral deeds, or in a baser form of existence taste the woe of moral depravity; while in either Hope lit its lamp within the chambers of the soul, and cheered the present with glimpses of futurity? Never is the great soul more truly revealed than when it vestures a new great thought with the garments of eloquence and truth. And truly there is no grander thought in the whole range of merely human speculation than this much ridiculed doctrine of Metempsychosis. If from such a thought a mighty heathen drew forth a moral code of great purity, and practised its severest precepts honestly, shall we not each say to himself, "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whoever thou art, who, knowing the truth," walkest not therein ! Such is only a general view of the system of Pythagoras; we reserve for a future article a more detailed account of such portions of his philosophic tenets as are in the present paper either imperfectly treated of or completely omitted.

Religion.

HAVE WE SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE, APART FROM SCRIPTURE, TO BELIEVE IN THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL?

AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-II.

THE arguments in favour of an affirmative side of the above question seem to be rather of a speculative and analogical, than of a positive character. And in our present state of existence they must necessarily be so; for, organized as we now are, the presence of anything purely immaterial is impalpable to the grossness of our bodily senses, and we have no other media of communication with external objects; so that, from actual and personal experience, we cannot be assured that the spirits which leave our world still remain in a state of existence.

Yet we believe that, even setting aside (for the time being) the light of revelation, there still remains ample testimony to prove to the inquiring mind that the faculty of thought which leads it to examine the probabilities of its external duration, will

continue to live for ever.

And, firstly, the soul of man is immaterial. When under the influence of "Death's twin-brother, Sleep," unconscious of all that is passing round us, what incursions into the realms of fancy does not the spirit make, perfectly independent of the body! Who will not bear witness to her ceaseless activity? She is fully as busy as when concerned in the turmoil and confusion of the world in which she dwells. And

"Her ceaseless flight through devious worlds speaks her nature Of subtler essence than the trodden clod,

Active, aërial, towering, unconfined,

Unfettered with her gross companion's fall."

Can any impediment offered to the body stay the sublime aspirations of man's wondrous soul? Who has not seen, when the functions of life are completing their last work,-yes, even when the fainting form is struggling in the cold embrace of its mysterious visitant, Death,-at such a time the spirit yielding a brighter lustre than it ever did when its mundane companion was in the possession of full health and vigour? And can any one, knowing that even a few such cases occur, believe that in the moment when the heart, creature of flesh and blood, ceases to exist, that same instant the soul, the gem which the body has

but for a time, is at once and for ever obscured in everlasting night? The immateriality of the soul does not prove its immortality, but it may convince of the fact that the body and spirit are not synonimous existences, seeing that they sometimes continue their operations independently of one another.

Another argument in favour of this view of the case is, the innate consciousness of the eternal duration of the soul, which men have universally entertained. From the worshipper of Boodh to the inhabitant of civilized Rome; from the Scandinavian warrior to the philosopher of classic Greece; from the rude aborigines of Northern America to the wise and learned of the present day ;-men of all nations and of every age have firmly believed in the non-annihilation of a part of their being. Whence

comes

"This fond desire,

This longing after immortality?"

It is a portion of the spirit of man, and constantly develops itself with its other manifestations. Addison says, "there is argument for the immortality of the soul drawn from the perpetual progress of the soul to its perfection, without a possibility of ever arriving at it; which is a hint that seems to me to carry a great weight with it. A brute arrives at a point of perfection that he can never pass. In a few years he has all the endowments that he is capable of; and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the same thing he is at present. Were a human soul thus at a stand in her accomplishments, were her faculties to be full blown, and incapable of further enlargement, I would imagine it might fall away insensibly, and drop at once into a state of annihilation. But can we believe a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progress of improvement, and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of its Creator, and made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, wisdom, and power, must perish at her first setting out, and in the very beginning of her inquiries ?"

The soul of man being immaterial, it appears evident that it can never be destroyed; or, at least, that the power alone that created it can check its duration. The question, then, is, "Does a probability exist that such will ever be the case ?" From what we see around us, everything would lead us to conlude that this power will never be exercised. Nothing in this world is annihilated, though all things in connection with it are constantly changing. The fuel which we burn is not consumed, but, its parts separating, enter into new combinations, and so become amalgamated with other substances. Examples might be multiplied ad infinitum. And is it reasonable to suppose that the spirit of man, the noblest work of which our unassisted powers are capable of conceiving, will alone be annihilated, alone be quenched in endless, hopeless darkness?

No! we must believe that the mighty soul, with its sublime aspirations, with its grand faculties, with its infinite capacity for weal or woe, with its attributes of reason, recollection, and reflection, will endure for ever, and that in a more extensive sphere of action than it can occupy in this mere prison of clay, "the embryo of our free existence;" for this is but

"The bud of being, the dim dawn,

The twilight of our day, the vestibule.”

Reason, analogy, innate perception, the desire of nations, and the continually unfolding powers of man, all these proclaim that the spirit within him is immortal.

"The sun is but a spark of fire,

A transient meteor in the sky;
The soul, immortal as its sire,
Shall never die!"

LA PENSEE.

แ

*

AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-III.

*

The dread of something after death,

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns,-puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have,
Than fly to others that we know not of.

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all."-Shakspere.

It is of great importance we should definitely fix the line of demarcation between faith and reason, philosophy and revelation; perhaps at no time and on no question so necessary as the present. The limits of reason, objectively considered, are the boundaries of the world of sense; subjectively considered, the world of sense is etherialized by reflection, and frequently leads to the delusion that reason has ingress to the world of spirits. This material world and its manifold laws, relations, actions, and sayings, are the boundaries of reason. Revelation lifts the veil of the spirit world and the future; its chief peculiarity, its essential characteristic, is the communication of knowledge, thoughts, and feelings to man, unattainable by less miraculous means. The terms of the present question preclude revelation, and demand from us proofs of the immortality of the human soul by reason alone. Bearing this in mind, we must rely upon facts, realities, and clearly defined, firmly established inferences derived therefrom, to support or condemn our view of the case.

Not only is the kind of evidence limited to realities, but the extent of evidence available is restricted; demonstration, as the term is ordinarily used, is altogether inapplicable; a certain degree of probability is alone attainable by reason, unless it can be shown that the finite can comprehend the infinite, that time

I