es, seem to have been based
on the oriental idea of Emanation. Even in the masculine literature of
Rome we find numerous passages which are still quoted, with glowing
admiration, by the Pantheists of modern times.[114] There is, indeed,
but too much reason to believe that the numerous references which occur
in the Classics to the existence of one absolute and supreme Being, and
which Dr. Cudworth has so zealously collected, with the view of proving
"the naturality of the idea of God," must be interpreted, at least in
many instances, in a Pantheistic sense, and that they imply nothing more
than the recognition of one parent Substance, from which all other
beings have been successively developed.

We find some lingering remains of Pantheism in the writings of the
middle age. Scot Erigena, in his work, "De Divisione Naturae," sums up
his theory by saying: "All is God, and God is all." Amaury de Chartres
made use of similar language. And it must have been more widely diffused
in these times than many may be ready to believe, if it be true, as the
Abbe Maret affirms, and as M. de Hammer offers to prove, that the
Knights of the Order of the Temple were affiliated to secret societies
in which the doctrines of Gnosticism and the spirit of Pantheism were
maintained and cherished.[115] It reappeared in the philosophical
schools of Italy before the dawn, and during the early progress, of the
revival of letters and the Reformation of Religion;[116] and even now,
after three centuries of scientific progress and social advancement, it
is once more rising into formidable strength, and aspiring to universal
ascendancy.

From this rapid survey of the history of the past, it is clear that
Pantheism is one of the oldest and most inveterate forms of error; that
in its twofold character, as at once _a philosophy_ and _a faith_, it
possesses peculiar attractions for that class of minds which delight to
luxuriate in mystic speculation; and that, in the existing state of
society, it may be reasonably regarded as the most formidable rival to
Natural and Revealed Religion. We are far from thinking, indeed, that
the old mechanical and materialistic Atheism is so completely worn out
or so utterly exploded as some recent writers would have us to
believe;[117] for M. Comte and his school still avow that wretched
creed, while they profess to despise Pantheism, as a system of empty
abstractions. We do think, however, that the grand ultimate struggle