brought upon the scene
Doctor Buechner and his fellows.

The great conflict of the spiritual world is not, as it is often said to
be, the combat of idealism against materialism. Idealism begins well,
and we must not refuse to acknowledge the services which it has rendered
to the cause of truth. But philosophy must follow the road traced out in
an ancient adage: _Ab exterioribus ad interiora, ab interioribus ad
superiora_.[67] If the mind does not go to the end of this royal road;
if idealism, having surmounted the fascinations of the senses, remains
in ideas, without ascending to the supreme Mind, the worship of matter
and the worship of the idea call mutually one to another, and revolve in
a fatal circle. The struggle between these two forms of atheism reminds
one of those duels, in which, after having satisfied honor, the
adversaries breakfast together, and gather strength to combat, in case
of need, a common enemy. The great combat which forms the main subject
of the history of ideas is the combat between belief in God and an
atheistical philosophy. Whether atheism admits for its first principle
an atom without a Creator, or a reason without an Eternal Mind, is a
fact very important for the history of philosophy, but the importance of
which is small enough in regard to the interests of humanity.

We passed the Rhine in order to penetrate into Germany, let us now cross
the British Channel, and observe what is going on in England.

England, at the close of the seventeenth and the beginning of the
eighteenth century, was the principal centre of irreligion. France gave
the patent of European circulation to ideas which proceeded in part
from this foreign source. An active propaganda for the diffusion of
impious and immoral writings had been established in Great Britain. A
strong reaction set in, and, dating from the year 1698, we see formed
various societies having for their object the diffusion of good books
and respectable journals.[68] These efforts were crowned with success.
England, by its zeal in the work of Missions, by its sacrifices for the
diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, and by its respect for the
Lord's-day,[69] assumed[70] the characteristic marks of a Christian
nation. Grand measures adopted in the interests of liberty and humanity,
placed it at the same time at the head of a seriously philanthropic
civilization; but as Pere Gratry has remarked, "more than in any other
people, there are in the English peo