nations which wrought them out have ages since perished. Can we believe, in the face of six thousand years of such progress, that the social system is to be arrested or destroyed? After all the advance that has been made in the lapse of time, will any millennium seem too distant or utopian to have its growth out of even this present world?

(3.) It is demanded by the organization of society. According to that organization, the progress of the arts depends upon the progress of the sciences, and the former come to fruition in the order of the latter. Already the physical arts are shedding a millennial splendor in the marvels of printing, steam, and telegraphy, while the remaining series begin to presage the decline of caste, war, and superstition, through the agency of commerce, diplomacy, and philanthropy. And it enters into the very notion of social regeneration, that this social structure should continue to be developed until its ideal is fully realized and the whole race is intellectually, morally, and physically transformed. Upon any other terms, a millennium, properly speaking, is simply inconceivable.

(4.) It harmonizes the otherwise conflicting interests which science and religion have fostered. Instead of abandoning both, or postponing both to some vague, far hereafter, it begins at once to practically unite the natural and the supernatural, the terrestrial and the celestial, the human and the divine. In

its light, heaven is found to be but the full flower of earth. The kingdom of the heavens is that realm of planets, suns, and stars to which the earth is both spiritually and materially linked, of which now we have only some hints from celestial mechanics and chemistry, but which shall yet be more fully unfolded by celestial sociology and theology, as the abode of our Father who is in the heavens, of whose Son the whole family both in heaven and earth is named. The world to come is to be thought of as being historically developed out of the world that now is, and the life of the individual so bound up in the life of the race that both have their resurrection together, whensoever the spiritual so predominate over the material forces of the planet as to transfigure it into an abode of truth and righteousness. Even the coming of the Son of Man to judge both quick and dead, and the triumphal meeting of saints and angels in the skies, may be viewed as not less a crisis than a pageant; the rational blending of the earthly into the heavenly history; the winged globe bursting from its chrysalis and blazoning its cross among the stars.

We therefore now conclude, after a full survey of all modern opinion, that the two kinds of knowledge by which it is divided are not only reconcilable, but actually being reconciled. Let neither the philosopher nor the theologian despair of their ultimate coincidence, but rather let both strive together to effect it, and therein hail at once the thorough fusion

of Christianity and civilization, and the practical union of earth and heaven.

And now, in the course of ages, through the divine wisdom and goodness, the time seems at hand when this great truth is by them both to be seized and applied. The world is fast ripening for the issue. After six thousand years, it presents at length the two realms of Heathendom and Christendom under the two phases of barbarism and civilization, marshalled as if for the last conflict of error and truth; and it remains to be seen whether, through the union of religion and science, civilization is not to be transfused with Christianity, heathendom supplanted by Christendom, earth joined to the kingdom of the heavens, and mankind brought into the family of the Universal Father.

Nor could there be conceived a problem more sublime and momentous than that which is thus given to our age to solve. To ascertain the respective spheres, prerogatives, and methods of human reason and divine revelation; to adjust their reciprocal relations on principles binding upon the adherents of both; to apply such principles throughout the sciences to all pending controversies, with the view of sifting error from truth; to gather by this means evidence of a growing harmony between the two great bodies of knowledge, as they accumulate and advance, supporting, interpenetrating, and illustrating each other; in a word, to gradually heal that im

mense schism which for centuries has been stealthily invading the most cherished opinions and interests of mankind, and thenceforward to link the divine and human reason, in their joint process through coming ages, against all earthly error and sin,-these are objects which have only to be stated in order to be felt in all their moral value and grandeur. They are not the transient concerns of any calling, sect, or party, but the lasting and catholic interests of humanity. And though no single mind or generation may achieve them, yet the bare conception and attempt would themselves be their own sufficient reward. To be simply living at a time when such an ideal is but beginning to dawn among men, must seem to one who rises to its full comprehension, the richest boon that has yet been conferred upon them, and, in the first joy of its discovery, he might almost tremble lest it be too good and glorious ever to become real, or through some fault or want in nature, should fall short of fulfillment, could he not find, on surveying the scale and resources of creation, that the order of the world is not less fixed than is its progress sure.

What is now needed is no new system or school of philosophy, but rather the discovery and announcement of vast movements of the philosophic mind, involving all schools and systems in their sweep, and destined, after centuries of hidden growth, to be brought into conscious activity and visible cooperation. The field of research, like a quarry

wrought by successive generations, already lies strewn with fragmentary truths, which are as the chiseled stones of a structure hitherto without model even in the fancy of the builders, as they wrought apart each at his own task; but now, at last, the plan of the Divine Architect is to be displayed, the master-workmen in each science marshalled, and the perfect temple of knowledge reared, to the glory of God and for the good of mankind.

This mature effort and final task of the human mind may be anticipated under the name of the ultimate philosophy, or that last summative science which is to be the fruit and goal and crown of all the sciences, as well as the means of their highest use and grandeur. Before the cognitive instinct can be satisfied, and the mass of knowledge rendered exact, coherent, and operative, the sciences themselves must be made the subject of science; must become the material, as well as instrument, of research, and their product, like other phenomena, be brought within the sphere of rational prevision and control. If we could imagine them perfected singly and apart, there would still remain the work of bringing them into logical connection, organizing them as a compact system, and concentrating them intelligently upon the social well-being; but this work really enters into their growth as well as fruition, and is so essential, they may as little thrive without it as branches severed from a common tree. To discover these vital relations