of
things to the empire of thought. "The problem of philosophy,"
according to Plato, "is, for all that exists conditionally, to find a
ground unconditioned and absolute." It proceeds on the faith that a
law determines all phenomena, which being known, the phenomena
can be predicted. That law, when in the mind, is an idea. Its beauty
is infinite. The true philosopher and the true poet are one, and a
beauty, which is truth, and a truth, which is beauty, is the aim of
both. Is not the charm of one of Plato's or Aristotle's definitions,
strictly like that of the Antigone of Sophocles? It is, in both cases,
that a spiritual life has been imparted to nature; that the solid
seeming block of matter has been pervaded and dissolved by a
thought; that this feeble human being has penetrated the vast masses
of nature with an informing soul, and recognised itself in their
harmony, that is, seized their law. In physics, when this is attained,
the memory disburthens itself of its cumbrous catalogues of
particulars, and carries centuries of observation in a single formula.

Thus even in physics, the material is degraded before the spiritual.
The astronomer, the geometer, rely on their irrefragable analysis,
and disdain the results of observation. The sublime remark of Euler
on his law of arches, "This will be found contrary to all experience,
yet is true;" had already transferred nature into the mind, and left
matter like an outcast corpse.

4. Intellectual science has been observed to beget invariably a doubt
of the existence of matter. Turgot said, "He that has never doubted
the existence of matter, may be assured he has no aptitude for
metaphysical inquiries." It fastens the attention upon immortal
necessary uncreated natures, that is, upon Ideas; and in their
presence, we feel that the outward circumstance is a dream and a
shade. Whilst we wait in this Olympus of gods, we think of nature as
an appendix to the soul. We ascend into their region, and know that
these are the thoughts of the Supreme Being. "These are they who
were set up from everlasting, from the beginning, or ever the earth
was. When he prepared the heavens, they were there; when he
established the clouds above, when he strengthened the fountains of
the deep. Then they were by him, as one brought up with him. Of
them took he counsel."

Their influence is proportionate. As objects of science, they are
accessible to few men. Yet all men are capable of being raised b