Both were intent only upon freeing reason from its trammels, whether ecclesiastical or scholastic, and could not then foresee its present license or discord, or the necessity which has thus arisen, of training it to study science itself, with the same directness, patience, and candor, wherewith they trained it to study nature and scripture.

It is indeed true, that in advance of the exigency, that august and prescient mind which planned the Instauratio Magna would seem to have propounded the very task which is now imminent, or at least so much of it as relates to the natural sciences, though with no real expectation of seeing it then accomplished. "The sixth and last part of our work, to which all the rest are subservient, is to lay down that philosophy which shall flow from the just, pure, and strict inquiry hitherto proposed. But to perfect this is beyond both our abilities and our hopes; yet we shall lay the foundations of it and recommend the superstructure to posterity." And it is now easy to see that the "universal and complete theory" which with just forethought he pretended not to offer, could not have been framed or even attempted, until the sciences should have reached some measure of perfection, and out of their own lack of consistency and order clamored for law and system.

But now at last this need and preparedness for the great effort have arrived. If we examine, we shall find that each of the three works here projected as

necessary to the completion of philosophy may at least be begun, if not pursued to a good degree of forwardness.

Have we not already the materials of a theory or doctrine of perfect knowledge? The map of the intellectual, like that of the physical globe, is almost complete, with scarcely a terra incognita to be explored, and philosophy might well reach her ultima thule in conjunction with geography. In other words, the exact limits of research may be said to have been ascertained and its several provinces defined. All the sciences at least have a name, are in various stages of progress, and fast coming into new and fruitful relations. Attempts even have been made to discover and impose upon them that system to which they are presumed to be tending. And if such forward minds have hitherto failed, it has been partly because it is only through repeated failures we can pass to success, and also because they have not brought to their task that catholicity, candor, and patience which are the cardinal virtues of the philosophy they espouse, but have allowed some metaphysical or theological prejudice to hinder a just induction, and vainly tried to force upon science, as the old scholastics tried to force upon nature and scripture, some partial and foregone theory. They have either exscinded the knowledge which has been revealed or the knowledge which has been discovered, and so announced pretended laws of scientific development

which both history and reason falsify. But the very fact that efforts in this direction are put forth, and that even these crude, tentative hypotheses have yielded such brilliant results, augurs the full success that is at hand. After long ages of philosophical discipline and the accumulation of a mass of sciences extending to every class of phenomena, what now remains but that the inductive spirit should return upon its own intellectual product, in search of that sublime theory of cognition which is to be its crowning triumph, and at length set forth as the matured reason of the race and the destined of the pyramid of knowledge?

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Have we not also, in large measure, the means of framing an organ of perfect knowledge? The cognitive mind, now grown experienced in all modes of research, has already garnered a store of principles and precedents wherewith to enter intelligently and authoritatively the more imperfect sciences, and preclude the waste and error and confusion which marked its infancy. Master builders in the art of constructing science, one after another, have tried their hand upon the model, and given well-tested rules for the actual building. In inductive philosophy we have a line extending from Bacon to Comte, and in speculative philosophy, another from Kant to Hegel; while the very extreme into which the two latest thinkers have pushed their respective methods has already created the need of that third and last philosophy which

shall mediate between them, and lead them back from their errant courses within the just and safe limits which they impose upon each other. Though our philosophical literature is as yet wanting in this latter department of sciential thought, and there exists scarcely a treatise which can command the equal respect of both sects of disciples, those of reason and those of revelation, yet there is a craving among each after the laws of their latent affinity and the terms of their ultimate agreement. Now that so much of thorough drill has been infused among the different votaries of science, who doubts but that the logical spirit shall soon enter also their border feuds, and at length devise and publish those perfect canons of research by which the whole host of seekers for truth shall be marshalled as one mighty phalanx for the final career of eternal progression?

And may we not even begin to forecast the actual scheme and issue of perfect knowledge? Although that matured humanity which must result from matured intelligence has hitherto been aspired after only by elect minds, as but a vague ideal, and with faint presentiment; yet now, at last, the prospect grows clearer and surer and thrills even the popular heart. By a few, at least, the vital connection between society and science is seen to insure the perfection of the one in that of the other. And as we feel that pulse of humanity which ever beats onward, and survey the wreck of systems in which fond

visionaries have sought some airy tower of prospect, we can but devoutly hail, even if still afar off, the dawn of that era which the seers and saints and sages of all time have longed to see; and, entering with new joyfulness into their sacred prescience and prayer, proceed to labor as well as yearn for the great consummation.

Thus have we been brought to that fullness of time when Providence seems waiting to give the reins of the world to ripe reason, and is summoning us to enter with faith and hope upon the impending task.

For the scene of its inauguration, philanthropy selects the western hemisphere. A clime so strangely hidden for ages from mankind, would seem but the destined theater of these later acts of history. And we have but to scan the map of the world to find that what could not elsewhere may here be practically initiated.

It could not originate in the eastern hemisphere. The two diverse civilizations-the oriental and occidental-representing the practical issues of the two diverse philosophies—the intuitional and the logical— having proceeded apart for six thousand years on opposite sides of the globe, must meet as in completed circuit on some virgin soil and common ground ere their joint mission can be accomplished. While still in their native seats neither can thoroughly sift and appropriate the other. Both are there hampered by