ed by the mind; Christianity a fiction created by the heart. Though
an appreciation is shown of ancient forms of religion,(946) all are
regarded as visionary; and, in looking forward to the future, philosophy
affords no cheering hope: nothing remains, save the annihilation taught by
the ancient Buddhists.(947)

The course of the history now brings before us two writers, who stand
distinguished from the last group by their firm theism, and strong protest
against pantheism in every form. One of them was an American;(948) the
other an alumnus of this university.(949)

The life and work of the former, so far as they relate to our inquiries,
may soon be told.(950) In early life a unitarian minister, he caught the
spirit of intellectual inquiry and reconsideration which Channing had
excited; and devoted himself with indefatigable industry to study the
modern philosophy and criticism of Germany, until he became one of the
most learned men of the American continent. In his own country his
fearless and uncompromising denunciation of slavery, as well as of
political and commercial hollowness, caused him to be viewed as a social
reformer rather than a theological teacher. In ours he is viewed as a
teacher of deism. The cause of his power is obvious. Feeling that his
mission was not merely to pull down, but to build up, he spoke with the
vigour of a dogmatist, not with the coldness of a critic. To a burning
eloquence and native wit he united the picturesque power of the novelist
or the artist. But his vigour of style was deformed by a power of sarcasm
which often invested the most sacred subjects with caricature and
vulgarity; a boundless malignity against supposed errors. How different is
the tone of his satire from the delicate touches of the modern French
critic(951) who was named in the last lecture! and yet, on the other hand,
how changed from that of the infidel writers of the last century. Though
he equals Paine in vulgarity, and Voltaire in sarcasm, his spirit and
moral tone are higher. They wrote, actuated by a bitter spirit against the
Christian religion, without earnestness, without religious aspirations,
with the coldness of unbelievers: he, with the earnestness of a preacher
touched with the deepest feelings; and though the Christian writer will
shudder at his remarks as much as at theirs, yet he sees them modified by
passages of pathetic sentiment, in which, in words unrivalled in sceptical
literature, admiration is e