popularity of the Empirical Philosophy, which, as we have said ourselves, is a distinctive form of contemporary thought? This is a question which requires a long answer. Had we space for it we should begin by qualifying the allegation. What really distinguishes modern thought is the observation of phenomena, as what distinguished ancient thought was investigations of the first causes and issues of phenomena.* Evidently our intuitions, if we have any, are as applicable in one case as they were in the other; in other words, Empiricism is only a particular way of observing phenomena. And the fact is, that what seems to be the spread of Empiricism is in large measure the spread of Rationalism, an appeal against ancient beliefs, not to experience but to reason, not to the observed order of the universe but to the intuitions of the mind; a continuation of the antecedent philosophy in the very act of deny. ing portions of its dogma, and a denial of the Empirical Philosophy in the very act of accepting some of its conclusions. We go farther; the whole popular unbelief of the last three hundred years is rationalistic, and Empiricism itself has no vitality which it does not draw from the Rationalism in the midst of which it has been engendered. We submit this remark without further comment to the consideration of theolo gians. Christianity is to be defended, not by spending powder on Hume, or Mill, or Mr. Spencer, but by coming to terms with the reason of Man. In the second place, we should recall attention to the fact, already noted, that the process of Empirical Philosophy is not only a legitimate, but an indispensable part of all mental action, automatic, popular, scientific, and philosophical. If in the investigation of efficient causes men formerly leaned to intuitions and Rationalism, it is not surprising that they should end by leaning to sensations and Empiricism, in the observation of phenomena. The chaos of contemporary philosophy has not come from the use of a false method but from the abuse of a right one. The creation of the future will come, if it ever comes, from the union of the two-Rationalism and Empiricism. And in the third place we should point out that the results of the Empirical process are in possession of one irresistible charm. They are brand-new. Old

* New Englander for April, p. 329.

enough in themselves they have fallen upon this generation, which does not trouble itself much about antiquity, with all the power of surprise. We have worn out the inspirations of the old beliefs, God and creation, the soul and immortality, are the warm and fluid conceptions of the infancy of the race. Long ago they have stiffened into dogma and crusted over with institutions and laws; or, struck into the coinage of popular thought and speech they have lost their lustre in passing from hand to hand. The poetry has turned into prose, the spiritual into the material, the sacred into the secular, the kingdom of heaven" which cometh not with observation" into a pompous and oppressive kingdom of this world like any other. In every way the new is become old, the fresh commonplace, the vivid enthusiasm of the past the dull convention of to-day. In the midst of these faded traditions, the decay and incapacity of emotions, comes Mr. Spencer and Professor Tyndall with their fascinating surprises, to tell us that in matter are the promise and potency of all life, in the redistributions of molecular motion all the fine rhythms of the soul, and that the universe flows from no paltry anthropomorphic First Cause, but from that incalculable grander source the "Forever Inscrutable." This is a most unexpected gospel and attractive precisely because it is so; the apocalypse of a new heavens and a new earth which it is not in the nature of man to be indifferent to. How wonderful that Persistent Force should be capable of all this, that Matter and Motion should know how to rise through all these admirable transfigurations. How much diviner they are than you suppose them to be, O fools and blind! And if they have come so far in the past who can tell whither they tend in the future? what bewildering metamorphoses of loveliness and grandeur they will pass into in those remote ages when I, and probably you

Have melted away into infinite azure-in short when all is blue.

But let us say it sincerely restless as we are beneath the ashes of our extinguished emotions, bound by the yoke of custom heavy as frost

And deep almost as life,

this new world of thought with its revolutionary dogma and startling surprises has a legitimate attraction and a use. For

the moment, liberty lies that way, the unfettered, spontaneous, idiomatic action of the mind. The silence of ontology and the clamor of empiricism mean-ennui and reaction.

But now in the nature of things novelty is one of those charms which won't wear. If the Empirical Philosophy has vitality in it, it must submit to grow old-fashioned and familiar in its turn. Let us imagine, if we can, that it has at least supplanted its predecessors and conquered the race; that men, having "conducted the Deity across the frontiers of the knowable" and having renounced the separateness, the self-determining power and the responsibility of the soul, have bowed down to Persistent Force and committed themselves to the resistless flow of universal Evolution; that the empirical generalizations have been incorporated into the structure of society, that their sweetness and light fill all literature, art, and worship, that they determine all the activities of the world, until the consciousness of every man is supersaturated with them; what will come of it all? We hazard a prediction that there will come of it an era of tyrannous convention and commonplace more insufferable than man ever felt or dreamed of before; an era, that is, of thwarted impulses and repressed passions, and therefore, either of fatal revolutions, or else of return to the forsaken faiths of mankind. And this remark will explain to the reader why we have put the last words of Mr. John Stuart Mill at the head of a paper on the Values of Empirical Generalizations. Whoever would like to know the effects of pure empirical training on character and happiness, or to forecast the style of the coming millennium, let him give a month or two to the Autobiography and the Essays on Religion. If at the end of his studies he is still unable to account for the mental and moral phenomena he has found-the exhausted interest of the philosopher, the enuui, the dejection, the faltering return to discarded superstitions-by what he already knows of empiricism, then let him give another month to Mr. George Henry Lewes's Problems of Life and Mind. He will find there the pure atmosphere and perfect temper of the new creed, and so, probably, be helped to the understanding of Mr. Mill's experiences by a few of his own.

ARTICLE II.-OPPORTUNITIES FOR CULTURE IN THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

OR, SOME REASONS WHY CHRISTIAN STUDENTS SHOULD CHOOSE THE MINISTRY FOR A PROfession.

AMONG the signs of our time, indicating the growth of a more generous and natural estimate of Christian institutions, is a change of public sentiment as to the Christian ministry. The sacerdotal aspect of this profession is plainly waning before the public eye, while its humane aspect, if a simple word may be used to cover an idea wide and multiform, is in the ascendant. Nor is this change of the public mind capricious. It is the logical result of the old-time Protestantism, coöperating with the more modern study of nature and the modern development of philanthropy.

In public estimation, therefore, a minister now is much less a priest, than he is a teacher, friend, and leader. His merely professional qualities are of less consequence than are his personal. As a power in society, the profession itself is less;-the man himself is more; so that the arena to which public demand now calls the Christian minister being thus more natural in its scenery, and more various in its affiliations with men, is also more vital and imperative in its practical interests, and while less priestly and pedantic, is on the whole more stimulating, more healthful and attractive than ever it has been before.

But it is discouragingly obvious that this changed sentiment concerning the ministry has not yet thoroughly affected the very class of persons who have most need to feel it ;—I refer to the Christian young men in the colleges. They are a noble class of men, and they cherish a lofty ideal of devotion to the highest ends; but year by year a decreasing proportion of them are choosing the ministry for their profession. Breathing the exhilarating air of the time, they are repelled from the old sacerdotal idea of the ministry, and with the newer, more humane and more fascinating idea of that profession, they are yet unac quainted. Something should be done to correct this prejudice,

to inform this ignorance, to dispel these shadows of mouldy tradition, and to show young men what a preeminent and royal field is now opened in the Christian ministry, ample enough to justify their purest ardor, and to attract their noblest ambition.

Much indeed is now being done to this end. Such courses of lectures upon preaching as have been recently introduced at Yale Theological Seminary and elsewhere, are in this regard invaluable. Uttered by men whose own ministry is even with the times, brilliant and devoted, they set forth a most manly and attractive ideal of the sacred profession. They have already accomplished much towards enlightening the minds of Christian students, who in various quarters are pursuing their academic studies.

Yet these students are even now too much in the dark. Like those who in the midst of modern productions, are still intent upon an antiquated text-book, they yet fail to discover the changed aspect of the ministerial profession. They do not yet understand what pastors themselves are coming to understand, how directly this profession puts men in the line of the noblest modern culture, and how surely it may lead them to that fine and complete manhood which their best ambition could crave. This matter must be opened still further. Students as a rule have no lack of desire for the glory of a finished manhood. They must then measure this argument in favor of the ministry, that it opens a straight path toward such a manhood. This argument is indeed, partly old, but it is also in a vigorous sense, a new argument; for it rests upon a view of the ministry, long discredited, newly developed and every hour coming into bolder relief in the public mind. These young and ambitious Christian students are needed in the ministry. For there is, in our own country at least, imperative need of more ministers, ministers too, who shall be prime men. But other professions beckon and Christian students obey. They must be called back in the name of considerations noble and novel, more apparent in the busy public arena than in the library or the cloister, which clearly indicate the vital, special, and practical connection at present existing between the fulfilling of a true Christian ministry and the attaining of a generous and athletic character.