or a specimen,[142] alike
amusing and instructive, of Schelling's speculations on this subject. We
shall not attempt to interpret its meaning, for, in sooth, we do not
pretend to understand it: but one thing is clear, the laws of Matter, of
Dynamics, of Organic structure and life, the laws of Knowledge, of
Action, and of Art, are all exhibited as mere deductions or corollaries
from the "idea of the Absolute;" and in the name of Natural Science, not
less than on behalf of Theology, we protest against this vicious method
of Philosophy, and do most earnestly deprecate the substitution of
Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, in the place of our own Bacon, and Boyle,
and Newton, as models of scientific thought.

The _practical influence_ of Pantheism, in so far as its peculiar
tendencies are not restrained or counteracted by more salutary beliefs,
must be deeply injurious, both to the individual and social welfare of
mankind. In its Ideal or Spiritual form it may be seductive to some
ardent, imaginative minds; but it is a wretched creed notwithstanding;
and it will be found, when calmly examined, to be fraught with the most
serious evils. It has been commended, indeed, in glowing terms, as a
creed alike beautiful and beneficent,--as a source of religious life
nobler and purer than any that can ever spring from the more gloomy
system of Theism: for, on the theory of Pantheism, God is manifest to
all, everywhere, and at all times; Nature, too, is aggrandized and
glorified, and everything in Nature is invested with a new dignity and
interest; above all, Man is conclusively freed from all fantastic hopes
and superstitious fears, so that his mind can now repose, with tranquil
satisfaction, on the bosom of the Absolute, unmoved by the vicissitudes
of life, and unscared even by the prospect of death. For what is death?
The dissolution of any living organism is but one stage in the process
of its further development; and whether it passes into a new form of
self-conscious life, or is reabsorbed into the infinite, it still forms
an indestructible element in the vast sum of Being. We may, therefore,
or, rather, we must, leave our future state to be determined by Nature's
inexorable laws, and we need, at least, fear no Being higher than
Nature, to whose justice we are amenable, or whose frown we should
dread.[143] But, even as it is thus exhibited by some of its warmest
partisans, it appears to us, we own, to be a dreary and cheerless creed,