tholics. I have found belonging to each of these sections, noble-hearted and pious men-men of whom the world was not worthy. Men may have better hearts than heads-better actions than creeds-and live far beyond the narrow circle of the sect to which they belong. I discuss not MEN, however, but PRINCIPLES. We cannot all be right, though we may all be wrong. It is my wish to find the truth and teach it. I am either right or wrong. If I am wrong, I shall ever esteem as my best friend, the man who will try to put me right, though he may be unsuccessful. If I believe I have found the truth, it is my duty, in the spirit of meekness, to teach it to others. But some who hold other opinions say, "we don't want your teaching; we are satisfied with being what we are." Very likely; but does that alter my duty, or lessen my obligation? By no means. The Chinese have no wish to have our Bibles, any more than our opium. They say "keep your Bibles at home for yourselves and your children. We don't want them. We have gods and Bibles of our own. Let us enjoy them. We don't interfere with you, and why should you interfere with us?" Does this appeal lessen our anxiety, or diminish our effort to send the Gospel to China? Does this declaration lessen their need of it? The rule of Scripture is,

No!

"Let your light so shine before men"-let us help one another.

It will be observed that greater space is given to the consideration of the Principles of the Church of England, than to that of the principles of any other section of the Church of Christ, and that for two reasons:

1.-Because all men-both in and out of the Church—are not agreed as to whether its principles are Romanistic, Rationalistic, or Evangelical; whereas, there is but one opinion about the principles of Dissenters.

2.-Because we are all responsible for the teaching of the Church of England, as it is sanctioned and supported by us, that is, by the State, of which we form a part. In this discussion, however, I have been far more lenient than many of the leading Evangelical Clergymen, as will appear from quotations given in Appendix III.

All I ask for is, that the work be carefully and conscientiously read. If I have failed to prove my positions, I have done evil to none: if I have succeeded in the proof, I may have done good to many. Any how, I have done my work with a pure conscience, and now leave the result in the hands of Him, who is "the way, the truth, and the life.”

CHAPTER I.

THE ARCHETYPAL UNITY OF THE

UNIVERSE.

NOTHING is isolated and alone. Every object, great and small, in the universe, is influenced by every other. Between every orb and atom in the infinitude of space is found a bond of brotherhood. On a clear winter night, a thousand stars are visible to the naked eye; but if the power of vision be augmented by telescopic aid, they increase in magnitude by degrees, and in number by myriads. One small star, sparkling on the surface of a dark abyss, is resolved into two or more. The first glance through the telescope may even show them one; but by and by, with careful observation, they are seen clearly distinct, though still very near to one another. Watch them for days or years. They retain their relative positions, and move around a common centre generally, what seems to be the centre of gravity of the system to which they belong-or

B

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INFLUENCE OF GRAVITATION.

they revolve around each other; or one moves away beyond the rest, diminishing in brilliancy every day, until at length it becomes invisible: yet, after years of wandering from its associate worlds, it returns again and shines as brightly as ever. The distances between these orbs of light are incalculably great, though they seem so near; but their distances from other stars are greater, and from our earth are greater still: yet such are the laws impressed upon created objects-that each of those distant orbs influences ours: and that every single drop of water in the ocean, or dewdrop trembling on a blade of grass, or grain of sand upon the shore, influences those distant stars as well as all others in the broad expanse of heaven, and is influenced by them in return. The motion even of an insect's wing, fluttering in the sunbeam, and the gyrations of the smallest animalcule swimming in a globule of water, half a line in diameter, as it moves in search of food, or the protrusion of the extemporised foot or finger of the lowest forms of Rhizopods as they form a current within the globule wave to satisfy the wants of nature, cause every star in the universe to tremble in its orbit, in proportion to the moving force, diminished as the square of the distance, but in no case annihilated.

This world in which we live, with its teeming

NERVE-FORCE AND ELECTRICITY.

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population, great and small, affect, not only other worlds, by the force of gravitation, but the inhabitants of the most distant star on the confines of the universe, by means of the disturbance caused by voluntary action, in the great ocean of electric force, in which all worlds move, and by which all beings are affected. Nerve-force and electricity are closely allied to each other, though not, in every way, identical. Experiments prove to a demonstration that they mutually influence each other. Thought and emotion affect the nerve-force. Nerve force contracts the muscles, and muscular contraction moves the arm. Nerve-force passes with lightening speed through the nerve-fluid. The equilibrium of the internal, and thence of the external, electricity is thereby disturbed. The disturbance may be small and imperceptible; yet, as the sunbeam bottled up, and kept in a dark place for many years, turns black, an attenuated film of iodide or chloride of silver or uranium-though nothing can make so small a quantity of treasured light perceptible to the human eye-so the electric perturbation, however small, caused by one thought, or a momentary feeling of the human heart, sends forth an influence through every world and every being in the wide. creation ; and this influence can never cease to be.

All worlds and objects give proof of common