which no law could prevent. For even in the Divine economy one evil is sometimes permitted to prevent a greater. Such arguments as those we have noticed do another injury to the cause of temperance. They divert men's minds from the true remedies. Whatever tends most to improve the moral state of society will do most to remove the evil. Education will have its results in raising the people above this degrading vice. Yet it is not so much deficiency of knowledge as lack of principle that causes the evil; and this nothing can adequately supply but religion. All other bonds are external, and are little able to bear the strain of these appetites. This only can with certainty control them. Yet we do not say that religion is the only direct means that should be used. Everything should be done that can, either directly or indirectly, contribute to so desirable an object as temperance. We hope the publication before us will not be without its use. The cases of intoxication and its victims, described in the poem, and represented in the numerous illustrations, are sufficient to excite disgust and oppress the heart with sadness; and the scenes of comfort and happiness connected with temperance form a pleasing and encouraging contrast. May they both help to promote the same desirable consummation ! THE RELATION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS TO INORGANIC MATTER, AND ON THE INTERACTION OF THE VITAL AND PHYSICAL FORCES. A Lecture, Introductory to a Course of Physiology, by J. BELL PETTIGREW, M.D., F.R.S., etc., Lecturer on Physiology at the School of Medicine, Surgeons' Hall, Edinburgh. THIS lecture, which appeared in the Lancet of November 15th, and which want of space prevented us from noticing last month, discusses a subject of the first importance, and fearlessly introduces the question, whether Nature is the work of an intelligent Being or the result of accidental causes. The lecture is more especially interesting to us from one of the authorities it introduces on the side of Divine Causation. As the lecturer not only contrasts our author's views with those of one of the modern schools of philosophy, but compares them with those of the ancients, it will be necessary to quote an introductory passage:— "In ancient Greece it was customary to regard all matter as consisting of four elements —viz. earth, air, fire, and water. The elements now, owing to the rapid advance to chemistry and the judicious use of spectrum analysis in the hands of Bunsen and Kirchoff, amount to sixty-five. "Thales believed that the secret of life was to be found in the water; Anaximenes was of opinion it resided in the air; Pythagoras traced it to heat, and Xenophon of the earth. Hippocrates went further, and asserted that vois (Nature) presided over and controlled all the actions of the body. According to him, Nature assimilated what was good for the body, and rejected what was bad. Plato, still more daring, attributed a soul to man, consisting of three parts-namely, the knowing or cognitive faculty, seated in the head; the passions, placed in the breast; and the appetites, confined to the belly. Aristotle entertained similar views. The soul, in Aristotle's opinion, was the vital energy or power which animated all organic bodies. Thus, with him, there was a vegetative soul for plants, a sentient soul for animals, and a rational soul for man. Plato and Aristotle, with a weird wisdom, drew a broad line of demarcation between matter, life, and spirit. Democritus and Epicurus, who believed in none of these things, regarded the body as an accidental aggregation of stray particles, variously grouped, and consequently discharging dissimilar functions. In Democritus and Epicurus we behold the materialist of modern times; in Plato and Aristotle the immaterialist. "It is exceedingly interesting and, I will add, exceedingly instructive to trace those ancient doctrines rising gradually from matter to life and from life to spirit or soul, but I will not tax your patience; suffice it to say, that the ground originally occupied by Plato and Aristotle on the one hand, and by Democritus and Epicurus on the other, is vigorously maintained by two rival schools of modern philosophers. Thus there are those who attribute everything that exists to a spiritual agency, or what is the same thing, a divine power; while there are others who persistently maintain that the universe and all it contains is due to an accidental assemblage of parts mutually 1 Strictly speaking, Aristotle held that man, while possessing, in common with the brutes, a ux, possessed also a Trevμa, or rational principle. acting and reacting upon each other. Newton and Swedenborg, e.g. support the former view, and Haeckel and Tyndall the latter. These four philosophers equally assume the existence of matter for their systems of the universe, but there is this fundamental difference between them: Newton and Swedenborg attribute the disposal, arrangement, and movements of matter directly to divine interposition and agency; whereas Haeckel and Tyndall refer everything to a power inhering in the matter itself. In other words, Newton and Swedenborg admit that matter, once created and placed in certain conditions, will obey certain laws; they, however, deny that matter can accomplish anything of itself, which is the position defended by Haeckel and Tyndall. "Newton's conception of the universe is very grand. He pictures a mighty chaos, matter without form in the illimitable void. He then represents it as assuming shape and falling into position by the force of gravitation and under divine guidance. The assuming of shape is the origin and order of movement. By motion thus produced the universe becomes gradually perfected; the relative size, distances, and movements of its several parts can be accurately ascertained.1 Newton never loses sight of a first cause. Thus, speaking of the formation of the sun and fixed stars, he says: 'I do not think (this) explicable by mere natural canses, but am forced to ascribe it to the council and contrivance of a voluntary agent.' Numerous other passages of a like tenor might be cited from this author.2 "Swedenborg, in like manner, when descanting of gravitation, attributes the disposal of matter to divine agency. He says that nothing can be truly known of the visible world without a knowledge of the invisible, for the visible world is a world only of effects, while the invisible or spiritual is a world of causes. * "Haeckel gives a very different and not over-cheering account of the Creation. It is too long to quote on the present occasion, but I may state briefly that he refers not only the origin of the primitive cell, but also that of the young earth, to condensation and rind-formation. He does not recognise a First Cause. He says: The homogeneous, viscid, plasma substance, which singly and alone formed the bodies of the first organisms, and even at this day quite alone forms them in the case of the monercs or simplest amoebic forms, is analogous to the tenacious and viscid planetary substance which contains the elements and substance of the young earth, as well as of the other glowing world bodies. In both cases the form of the creation happened, not through the capricious interference of a personal Creator, but through the original power of matter fashioning itself. Attraction and repulsion, centripetal force and centrifugal force, condensation and rarefaction of the material particles, are the only creative powers which at this point lay the foundations of the complicated structure of creation.' Thus speaks and writes Haeckel. His system is not more intelligible for having excluded the divine agency. It is principally remarkable for bringing us face to face with the hydra-headed, myriad-handed protoplasm, and with the primitive cell, regarding which we have heard so much in recent times. Haeckel, it will be observed, holds extreme evolutionist views. According to him, matter does everything of itself and for itself. "Tyndall is equally extravagant in his opinions. In the region beyond the microscope limit, he says, the poles of the atoms are arranged-that tendency is given to their powers; so that when the poles and powers have free action, and proper stimulus in a suitable environment, they determine first the germ and afterwards the complete organism. From the foregoing it will be evident that philosophers are diametrically opposed to each other as to the constitution of the universe: one sect attributing everything to divine agency and to law and order impressed upon all matter, whether living or dead, from the first; the other believing that matter of itself can account for the universe and all it contains. Both sets of philosophers, however-and this is the point with which we as physiologists have to do-equally believe in matter and force." As the lecture also discusses the subject of spontaneous generation we may have something further to say upon it in our next. 1 "From the time when Newton discovered, by analysing the motions of the planets on mechanical principles, that every particle of ponderable matter in the universe attracts every other particle with a force varying inversely as the square of the distance, astronomers have been able, in virtue of that one law of gravitation, to calculate with the greatest accuracy the movements of the planets to the remotest part and the most distant future, given only the position, velocity, and mass of each body of our system at any one time." 2 Newtoni opera omnia, p. 430. London, 1782. 3 Life of Swedenborg, p. 17. New York, 1854. 4 Haeckel, Natürliche schöpfungs Geschichte. Berlin, 1868. Miscellaneous. EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE.-The an- he trusted that one of the effects of the nual meeting of this important union of Christians of different denominations was this year held in New York. Many delegates from Europe were present, and all the meetings were numerously attended. Some progress is being made towards union, if we may judge by an address of the Dean of Canterbury (Dr. Smith), in which he showed the consistency of Christian union with denominational distinctions, and explained that diversity in opinion was not only an inevitable incident of our imperfect state, but also essential to 'progress." The Dean also acted on his convictions, by joining with the ministers of other denominations in administering the sacrament of the Holy Supper in a Presbyterian church- -an act which has greatly offended many of his Episcopal brethren. Since the close of the meetings of this Alliance, and the return of the members who had visited it from England, two important public meetings of welcome have been held in London. The first of these was arranged by the London Congregational Union in the Weigh-house Chapel. The second was held in Exeter Hall, and was presided over by Lord Ebury, the President of the Evangelical Alliance. From the addresses delivered at these meetings we select some features of Christian life and character in America. American Love of Christian Union. On this subject Dr. Stoughton, at the meeting at Exeter Hall, remarked-"In America there seemed to be a far greater desire for union than existed in this country. There were, of course, contentions and strifes among religious people, but there did not seem to be the same warfare between denomination and denomination that existed here. He did not want to cast the slightest reflection upon some of his Christian brethren in this country, but there were many of them full of Christian sympathy who did not thoroughly sympathise with the rest of their brethren in their cravings after union. There were some of them who looked upon it as a weakness. That was not the current feeling in America, nor was it the feeling of his own heart. It was not the feeling that brought the Evangelical Alliance into existence, and meeting that night would be to revive the spirit of union and to advance the usefulness of the Evangelical Alliance. In America there was a craving after union, which was, to his mind, most beautiful. They had a passionate love for it, and pursued it as the grand object which shone before them." Position of Ministers.- "Whatever," says Mr. M'Millan, "the Americans do with their money, they are exceedingly careful in supporting religious institutions and the Christian ministry." Examples of the salaries of ministers are given, rising from £300 to £1200 per annum. What now is expected of the minister in return for his stipend? Mr. Carvel Williams shall tell us :-"It seems to be a maxim with American Christians that their ministers ought to think for themselves, and to say exactly what they think. Their language is not, 'We pay you handsomely, and we expect you to do our bidding, to say as we say, and think as we think;' but it is exactly the contrary. The American churches expect their ministers to devote all their mental powers to their service, or rather to the service of Christ. They expect him not only to be regular and punctual in the conduct of ordinary services and the doing of church work, but they expect their minister to be a teacher and a theological teacher. They say, 'If our minister do not teach us, he is of no use to us.' They further believe that religion must be in harmony with the knowledge and sentiment of the times. In fact, deadness and stagnation seem to be two things of which the Americans have a great dread, in religion as well as in everything else." Sermons and Services.There is a growing idea," says Mr. M'Millan, "in the churches of Massachusetts, which idea will in time find its way to England, that two services on the Lord's Day in the pulpit are too many. In Dr. Adam's church, at Boston, there is a morning service, to which the pastor gives his entire strength. The members in the evening meet in what they call their chapel-a building attached to the church-and there they conduct a Bible service. The pastor presides, and gives SWEDENBORG.-At a recent meeting of the members of the "Whitby Young Men's Christian Association,' a paper was read by a Mr. Thomas Bland on "Religion," in the course of which he is reported to have said: "As represented by the various sects, religion failed to fulfil his idea of what it should be. The practice of many of the sects was bigoted, intolerant, and uncharitable, and quite inconsistent with the sublime principles of true religion. He advanced several opinions, and approved of them, held by the Unitarians and the Swedenbor gians, more particularly those relating to future punishment held by the latter." MYSTICISM.-Under the title of "Mysticism, Scepticism, Dogmatism, and Rationalism," the Church of England Magazine publishes a paper by the Rev. Edward Geoghegan, M.A., incumbent of Bardsea. All these phases of opinion are regarded, when rightly exercised, as elements in the formation of Christian character, but as liable to abuse by their exclusive and abnormal development. In describing the abuse of Mysticism, the author falls into the common error respecting Swedenborg, whom he introduces and dismisses in the following sentence:-"In the writings of Baron Swedenborg, also, may be seen examples of the errors into which Mysticism may fall, when it is not duly controlled by the other faculties." What are the errors into which Swedenborg has fallen is not stated; and as an example of the exclusive development of one feature of character only, no selection could be more mistaken. A man of universal knowledge, in whom every faculty and power of the mind was wisely and proportionately developed, and by whom all these powers were constantly exercised, cannot be truthfully presented as an example of Mysticism, as Mysticism is commonly understood. OLD CATHOLICS.-This lody of seceders from the Papacy continues to gain strength in Germany. Bishop Reinkins, whom they have appointed to the oversight of their churches, has been adopted as a Catholic bishop by the Government. At their annual Congress held at Constance in the month of September last, the chairman, Von Schulte, gave the following account of the number of adherents to this movement :-" Altogether the statement of the bishop's pastoral, that over 50,000 Catholics of Germany' had elected him, was within bounds, and it was quite certain that the number of decided Old Catholics in the Empire would be better reckoned at 200,000. The Church was now in possession of about 100 parishes, if they could only get the priests to occupy them.” REFORMED EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN AMERICA.—Bishop Cummins and seven other clergymen have held a meeting and formally set up a new religious body on the basis of belief in the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the Word of God and the sole rule of faith and practice; in the Creed commonly called the Apostles' Creed; in the divine institution of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord's Supper, and in the Doctrines of Grace substantially as they are set forth in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. This Church recognises and adheres to Episcopacy, not as of divine right, but as a very ancient and desirable form of church polity. It retains a liturgy which shall not be imperative or repressive of freedom in prayer, and accepts the Book of Common Prayer as it was revised, proposed, and recommended for use by the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church A.D. 1785, reserving full liberty to alter, abridge, enlarge, and amend the same, as may seem most conducive to the edification of the people, "provided that the substance of the faith be kept entire.' The Church condemns and rejects the following erroneous and strange doctrines as contrary to God's Word:-1st, That the Church of Christ exists only in one order or form of ecclesiastical polity. 2ndly, That Christian ministers are priests in another sense than that in which all believers are "a royal priesthood." 3rdly, That the Lord's table is an altar on which an oblation of the body and blood of Christ is offered anew to the Father. 4thly, That the presence of Christ in the Lord's Supper is a presence in the elements of bread and wine. 5thly, That regeneration is inseparably connected with baptism. Bishop Cummins stated that he had the names of twenty-five ministers who were ready to join the new movement, and who would do so as soon as parishes could be found for them. Rules were adopted for the admission of members and ministers from other Christian communities into connection with the church, and Dr. Cheney elected as a second bishop, his consecration having since taken place. ITALY.-We have received the follow ing letter from a correspondent respecting the Nuova Epoca, which is advertised on our wrapper. This publication, which has just entered on its third year, is very ably edited by Professor Scocia, and is an excellent New Church missionary, and considering the great difficulty of obtaining admittance for new lights" among the Roman Catholic or indifferent and often sceptic Italian populations, it is fairly successful. Its circulation is steadily increasing, there being now 300 subscribers in Italy, and the effort only needs a little support by us in England to make it the means of extended usefulness. A very pleasing fact is that the Nuova Epoca numbers among its constant and appreciative readers persons from all ranks and professions, even Roman Catholic priests, medical men, lawyers, etc., and that it finds access at public institutions and libraries throughout the kingdom. Professor Scocia is a very able man, whose heart is in the work. He has already translated into Italian the "New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine," the "Heaven and Hell," and the "Divine Providence," the latter work being now in the press, and intended to be published in the course of next month. Let us support him in his work. It will give me much pleasure to receive subscriptions and donations, which I will acknowledge and forward. JOSEPH GALLICO, 4 Lawford Road, Kentish Town, London. NATIONAL MISSIONARY INSTITUTION. -The following letter from the National Missionary was unavoidably omitted last month:"Dear Sir,-You will most likely have received an account of my visit to Barnsley from our good friend On Captain Bufham, who generously paid all the local expenses of the lectures and services. Since leaving Barnsley I have visited Sheffield, preaching twice on Sunday the 23rd November, and delivering two lectures on week evenings. The services and lectures were well attended; our own friends manifestly regarded the visit as both pleasant and useful. the occasion of the first lecture, a gentleman, a Secularist, who has written a reply to Mr. Finch's tract on the 'Existence of God,' was present, and asked several questions, especially in relation to the apparent contradictions in the letter of the Word. This same gentleman also attended the second lecture, when he was so far gratified by what he heard, as to second (in an approving speech) a vote of thanks to the lecturer. What he had heard, he said, was so different from what he expected to hear— on the Scripture way of Salvation,' that the questions he had thought of did not apply. He observed that the prin ciples of Swedenborg were very little known. "From Sheffield I proceeded to Radcliffe, where I preached on the morning of Sunday, November 30th, and thence to Besses-o'-th'- Barn, where I preached in the afternoon: both services were well attended. After the afternoon service a committee meeting was held, to consider the question of appointing a permanent leader, when it was concluded that the Society, with the promised aid of the Conference Fund, is pecuniarily in a position to justify such a step. Their room is very eligible, and I consider the field one which might be undertaken, with every prospect of success, by a young man who could for a time accept a small salary, say £80 a year, and who has determined to devote his life to ministerial work. I sincerely hope that one will be found, and that the Church will be strengthened by such an appointment. During my stay at Radcliffe I proceeded to Bacup, where I gave two week-evening lectures; these were fairly, though not largely attended. This visit was suggested to my mind by the circumstance of a newspaper discussion being now in progress between our friend Mr. J. R. Boyle and A Primitive Baptist.' I thought that a thoughtful presentation of our views, quite apart from the discussion, might be useful, and I hope it was. I next proceeded to Middlesboro'-on |