nt of the testimonies of history."

This was indeed a race of thinkers who have been equaled in strength in
but few periods of history. Coming in regular succession, their systems
sprang from Kant's philosophy, and constituted the growth of his
wonderful achievement. They tended to withdraw the flippant spirit of
criticism to a more serious and modest path of inquiry, and to make men
look more at their own weakness than at their greatness. But what a mass
of subtleties do we have to pass through to get at the substance of
their speculations! There is something so unsatisfactory in the study of
them, that we find relief only in the knowledge that the Bible contains
the true basis of all sound thinking on the great themes connected with
the well-being and destiny of man. The plainest statements of the word
of God are more valuable than all these vaporings about the non-_Ego_,
the _Ideal_, and _Self-hood_. Simplicity is bliss.

"Yon cottager who weaves at her own door
Pillow and bobbins, all her little store,
Content though mean, and cheerful if not gay,
Shuffling her threads about the live-long day,
Just earns a scanty pittance, and at night
Lies down secure, her heart and pocket light;
She for her humble sphere by nature fit,
Has little understanding and no wit;
Receives no praise, but though her lot be such,
Toilsome and indigent, she renders much;
Just knows and knows no more, her Bible true;
And in that charter reads with sparkling eyes
Her title to a treasure in the skies."

But yet we grant to these men the meed of having meant well, and of
reforming the philosophy and literature of their times. The immediate
effect of their views was decidedly in favor of Rationalism, because
they almost uniformly deny the absolute authority of the Scriptures.
They grant too much to reason. While Kant would drive the truant mind
back to self-contemplation, he terminates by giving to reason a value
and dignity so great that it becomes entitled to decide upon matters of
faith. Their theories, spun out at such length and concluding in so
little satisfaction, make us rejoice that we have not to depend upon
philosophy for guidance in matters of either the intellect or heart.
They thought independently of the Bible, and here lies the ground of all
failure to obtain positive results in metaphysics. The Scriptures
furnish everything noble and real, and when philosophy ai