Since the momentous and fundamental principles of Religion are thus suddenly transformed into axioms in the "SACRED SCIENCE," may we not confidently predict the safe and rapid progress that must follow this happy discovery — in awakening religious sentiments in the infantile mind, and acquainting it with the vastness of its ultimate destination. Religious Education will now proceed on the safe and sure path of Science. It can no longer be a question whether the child is first to be instructed in the dogmas of Catholicism, or at once initiated into the pure precepts of Primitive Christianity. In this Science, as in all other pure sciences, we are not left to a vague and uncertain choice of procedure; but are constrained to commence with the sacred axioms: the Existence of God — the

Immortality of the Soul—a Future State; and, from these incontrovertible points, to develop the entire "Science of Religion," establishing on scientific grounds that perfect Code of Moral precepts revealed to us in the "Sacred Volume" by Jesus Christ, which at once preserves them from cavil, and assures us, that if we renounce that "Book" there is no other means of salvation for that "Book" contains the "Sacred Science," the Word of God!-Will not the rising

generation have good cause to applaud the indefatigable perseverance of their predecessors in the successful investigation of the prime instrument of thought, the human mind, when scientific Truth stands boldly forward, and assures them that the "DIVINE REVELATION" of our Saviour points out the only road to Salvation, and that, according to common SENSE, cultivated REASON, and the "SACRED SCIENCE," there can be no other! Hence all departure from the "Sacred Book," all disputation on its contents, and all petty divisions into sects, can only arise from incautiously confounding the HISTORY with the DOCTRINE, which the invaluable discoveries in mental science have enabled us in the present work completely and for ever to separate. No doubt whatever can now remain in the mind of man, which is his pre-eminent part — his Soul or his Body—the fleeting visions and fluctuating impressions of SENSE, or the permanent and eternal laws of REASON the facts that occur on earth which, when recorded, are denominated HISTORY, and are properly enough termed the WORD OF MAN - or the principles, which are the spiritual things of heaven, and, being purified from the dregs of every thing earthly, constitute a DOCTRINE which is indeed the WORD of GOD. How superior Faith is to Knowledge must now

be more than evident to the least reflective mind.

Knowledge is founded on the evanescent impressions of SENSE, while Faith "the belief in things unseen

is inherent in REASON. We have already displayed the elements of Knowledge; we will now show the mental

elements of Belief:

BELIEF OF REASON.

Conception Idea + Connexion

=

Spiritual Nature.

Spirits are the offspring of REASON. How applicable, then, are the laws of the Soul, which is of a pure spiritual nature, to the laws of virtue, with which they are so congenial! What we call Knowledge and consider so very certain is really no more than a combination of Sensations to which UNDERSTANDING has given forms, and thus constituted them so many intelligible objects— INTUITION-phenomenon - a mere mental procedure depending upon some Cause out of the mind-noumenon; whereas, in RATIONAL BELIEF the whole procedure is entirely mental, and requires no foreign aid. It springs up from the very nature of REASON itself, and, like mathematical figures, is the same in the mind of a Peasant as in that of a Newton, if formed at all. Some minds are more cultivated than others; but no mind can make a circle that is not round. So with FAITH : some minds may have studied the subject more diligently

than others; yet all minds are susceptible of equal advancement, or the enlightened only would inherit the kingdom of heaven. This scientific Faith is, with regard to CONVICTION, precisely on the same footing as the mathematics both are built on Syllogisms. The marked distinction between Belief and Knowledge may be made very apparent, thus:

The laws of REASON, which are the laws of Virtue, furnish a Code for the regulation of the motives of our actions. Motives belong to the Soul, which resides in ETERNITY, and which, being of an infinite nature, requires infinite laws for its government. Actions, on the other hand, appertain to the Body, which occupies TIME, and, being of a finite nature, requires finite laws for its regulation. As the laws of SENSE and UNDERSTANDING are strictly confined to the arrangement of matter, and are consequently called the laws of physical or material nature, so the pure spiritual laws of REASON

regard the disposition of spirit, and must be considered as the laws of Heaven or of Virtue. The laws of SENSETIME and SPACE-when applied to Sensation, constitute material nature; the laws of UNDERSTANDING —the Categories-are the formal laws of nature when in contact with Sensation. These very same laws, when abstracted from Sensation, constitute the pure mathematics; consequently, nature is a compound of pure mathematical form and Sensation, which constitutes its matter.

It is a well known fact, that pure mathematics are entirely free from Sensation; consequently, the Categories, which are the essence of these pure intellectual forms, must be quite distinct from the forms of SENSETIME and SPACE. Out of these pure mental essences -the Categories REASON Constructs its ideas, which

of course must be still further removed from Sensation. To what can these laws of PURE REASON apply if not to Spirits! As SENSE and UNDERSTANDING conjointly constitute nature from given matter - Sensation; so REASON, from the intellectual essences of UNDERSTANDING the Categories constructs the ideas of the entire world of Spirits. It is the office of PRACTICAL REASON to form a code of laws for the government of the Soul, with the moral law, as revealed by Jesus Christ, at their head; and it is the business of SpECU