the work would thereby be too much extended, perhaps well-nigh doubled, and that the aim I had in view might thus be prejudiced. Spoken utterances have a manifest advantage; the speaker can facilitate by the manner, the comprehension of the matter, he can infuse into his accents the living voice of his heart. He and his words stand in direct relation with the listener. Written utterance fails of this, and has only the compensating capability of operating, with less force it is true, but with more enduring effect on the reader, long after the echo of the spoken word has died away. Each Lecture must necessarily have its own exclusive theme, which it must examine to its close; and thus confined within certain limits, a subject requiring elaborate discussion can extend no further than another demanding briefer consideration. But for these disadvantages, the author finds abundant compensation in the adaptation of the form, and in the pleasure he experiences in placing before an enlightened public, the results of the laborious investigations of years. In the following Lectures, the path of history has been followed. History, while delineating the future of each, attaches itself to no one party. Whoever, therefore, seeks to reason on strictly historical premises only, without belonging to any one party, will arrive at conclusions that some will deny, others accept as But entire acceptance from any one party, must he the less expect to enjoy. their own. Without having originated much that is new, I am conscious that I may claim to have struck out a new path. My especial aim and endeavour have been, to remove religion from the ideal station assigned to it, into the position to which it belongs-into life. Religion has so long abandoned society, that it is scarcely a matter of surprise if society has in its turn abandoned religion. The two thus parted must be re-united. Religion must come to understand that it can exercise no true and beneficent influence on the individual, until society collectively shall have become religious. Society must come to comprehend, that it cannot raise itself from its present prostrate condition, until it shall have realised the principles which were long ago enunciated by religion, but of which the removal of religion from the actual world, its taking refuge exclusively in the celestial 'Hereafter,' have caused the loss for actual life. I shall seek an opportunity of resuming and amplifying my examination of this important branch of my inquiry (only touched upon in Lectures III. and XII.) in a future course, at a fitting moment. b |