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continuance of individual life in the future by the cessation of all sexual connection."

Taubert, Du Prel, Venetianer, Volkelt, Noirè, Von Hellwald, and various other writers in Germany, adhere by slighter or stronger ties to the pessimist philosophy. The best French work on pessimism is Caro's 'Pessimisme au xixe. Siècle' (1878).

Pessimists dwell, of course, on the sad realities of suffering and death. As to these facts I may refer my readers to the ingenious considerations by which Dr Macvicar endeavours to show that they are not to be regarded as limitations of power, wisdom, or goodness in the Creator. See his 'Sketch of a Philosophy,' Pt. iv. ch. x. This remarkable and profound work has not obtained the attention which it merits.

NOTE XXXIV., page 341.

HISTORIES OF PANTHEISM.

M. Emile Saisset's Essai de Philosophie Religieuse ' is, on the whole, the ablest work on pantheism. A good English translation of it, under the title of 'Modern Pantheism,' was published by T. and T. Clark of Edinburgh, in 1863. It does not treat of oriental or classical pantheism. It consists of two parts. It consists of two parts. The first part contains seven historical studies or treatises with these titles: (1) Theism of Descartes; (2) God in the system of Malebranche; (3) Pantheism of Spinoza ; (4) God in the system of Newton; (5) Theism of Leibnitz; (6) Scepticism of Kant; and (7) Pantheism of Hegel. A common

aim connects and unifies these treatises-namely, the endeavour to trace the development and to test the worth of the pantheistic notion of Deity. The second part is composed of nine meditations on the following topics: (1) Is there a God? (2) Is God accessible to reason? (3) Can there be anything but God? (4) God the Creator; (5) Is the world infinite? (6) Providence in the universe; (7) Providence in man; (8) The mystery of suffering; and (9) Religion. The fifth meditation is the most questionable in its reasoning. M. Saisset contends that the infinity of God implies the infinity of the created universe, but only a relative infinity; or, in other words, illimitable extension in time and space. His chief argument for the conclusion is that there is no proportion between a finite creation and an infinite Creator, and hence that the creation must be relatively infinite in order to be worthy of the Creator. Obviously, however, if the argument be good at all, it is good for more than this conclusion. There is no proportion between absolute and relative infinity. If a finite creation cannot be worthy of an absolutely infinite Creator, neither can a relatively infinite creation be worthy of Him; but creation must be an effect completely equal to and exhaustive of its cause; or, in other words, pantheism, against which M. Saisset has so ably contended, must be true. There is a criticism of M. Saisset's work in Dean Mansel's 'Letters, Lectures, and Reviews.'

The Essai sur le Panthéisme' (1841), by the Abbé Maret, is a work much inferior to M. Saisset's; but it contains a considerable amount of information, and its reasoning is often judicious and conclusive. It was very favourably received by the Roman Catholic clergy of France, one of its leading ideas being that a denial of

the doctrine of the Roman Catholic must inevitably lead to pantheism. This notion was admirably exposed by Saisset in an article, "De la Philosophie du Clergé," published in his 'Essais sur la Philosophie, et la Religion au xix. Siècle' (1845).

In the 10th volume of the 'Memoirs of the Royal Society of Göttingen' there is a Latin dissertation-De ortu et progressu Pantheismi inde a Xenophane Colophonio primo ejus auctore usque ad Spinozam Commentatio-by the laborious German historian of philosophy, J. G. Buhle. G. B. Jäsche's 'Pantheismus nach seinen verschiedenen Hauptformen, seinen Ursprung und Fortgange,' &c. (1826), is a three-volumed work of no great merit.

The Rev. J. Hunt's Essay on Pantheism' (1866) is so good that one cannot but regret that it is not better. It is the result of very wide reading, but of too rapid reading. As a statement of the opinions of others it is, I think, thoroughly accurate; but obviously the author required more time than he allowed himself to form his own opinions, and to arrange and master the materials which he had collected. If Mr Hunt, now that he has admirably finished a still more laborious task, were again to take up the subject, he might, with comparative ease, produce by far the most satisfactory history of pantheism.

The anonymous 'General Sketch of the History of Pantheism' (1878), of which only the first volumetreating of the subject from the earliest times to the age of Spinoza-has appeared, is well written, but not otherwise to be commended. The author's dislike of labour utterly disqualifies him for historical work. He says that his sketch is "chiefly a compilation, taken more

frequently from translations and abridgments of originals, than from the originals themselves;" but, in reality, so far as it has yet gone, it is chiefly a compilation from three books-Maurice's 'Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy,' Lewes's 'History of Philosophy,' and Draper's 'Intellectual Development of Europe.' He has given an account of oriental pantheism apparently without reading even a single translation. His independence both of originals and translations as to Greek pantheism seems also to have been nearly complete.

NOTE XXXV., page 350.

HINDU PANTHEISM.

Besides the well-known works of Max Müller, Muir, and Monier Williams, A. Ludwig's Philosoph. und Relig. Anschauungen des Veda' (1875), and P. Asmus's 'IndoGermanische Religion' (1875 and 1877), are to be recommended to those who wish to understand the thoughts which gave rise to the Vedas.

The first stage of the growth of the pantheistic philosophy of India out of its Vedic germ is that which is represented by the most ancient of the class of writings designated Upanishads. In eleven or twelve of these Upanishads the principles of the Vedanta philosophy are more or less explicitly contained. A very full account of this stage of the doctrine, supported by abundant citations from the originals, will be found in M. Regnaud's contributions to the 'Revue Philosophique during the last three years. The Upanishads contain

merely the elements of the Vedantist philosophy. The work which sets before us its next stage consists of 555 aphorisms, known as the Vedanta or Brahma Sutras, and attributed to Vyasa, called also Badarayana, who is supposed to have lived in or near the fifth century of our era. Here the doctrine is developed in a systematic form, and the objections of rival systems are combated. A summary of the teaching of these Sutras is given by Regnaud in Rev. Phil., No. 2, 1878. The epoch of commentators followed, one of whom, Sankara, obtained an extraordinary influence, and secured for the Vedanta doctrine a decided supremacy among the philosophies of India. The work which gives the clearest and most succinct exposition of the system at the time when it was completely developed, is that designated the VedantaSara, or Essence of the Vedanta. Its author, SadanandaTogindra, is believed to have lived about the tenth century. An English translation of it by Roer was published at Calcutta in 1845.

In the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas, the pantheism of India is to be studied in alliance with its mythology. For a general view of these works see Monier Williams's 'Indian Wisdom.' Accounts of them, and translations from them, are numerous.

In none of the Hindu philosophies was the doctrine of creation admitted. The theists of India no less than its pantheists-those who affirmed no less than those who denied the personality of God - assumed the eternity of the substance of the world. Thus the ancient theistic treatise, edited and translated by Professor Cowell-the Kusumanjali-argues for the existence of a supreme personal Lord "from the existence of effects, from the combination of atoms, from the

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