By adopting and relying on the Baconian course of seeking and deriving instruction and truth by a collation and examination of facts, or, as it is called, experimental experiencehe was conducted to the notable result of denying the justice, the goodness, and the wise and sufficient providence, of God; and of asserting that the required justice, goodness, and providence resided with those of the family of man whose social consideration and conduct are influenced by Prudentiality. Had Mr. Malthus, instead of yielding himself up to that particular course of reasoning by facts, which is falsely called philosophical, by which he could not derive the necessary light, nor elicit any conclusive truth, had nourished and adopted that faith which revealed religion demands, and without which faith religion is a mere name—he would have been led by this faith to a very different view, and into a very different course of reasoning; a course by which he would have built up, or established, all the required truth.

Then Adam Smith, keeping in his view only the actual or factual state of human society,- the existing and prevailing condition, together with the particular causes by which this condition was brought about, these causes being concentred in the will and agency of man,-assumed, in accordance with the Baconian rule and course, that this actual or factual state and condition presented the right and inevitable state and condition, the best state and condition possible, and so took for the foundation of the human social system, Selfishness. Our schoolmen in the province of Economic Science, and their followers, have attempted to elevate and dignify this by calling it "Nature."

Another strong and most notable instance of the bad, false, and delusive character of the Baconian course and process,— an instance fraught with matter of great and awful warning, -is afforded by the writings of Godwin. To this instance I

have already adverted in another work. This writer, in his work on Political Justice, has attempted to prove the selfdependence, the self-command, the self-possessing power of the human mind, its self-originating and self-originated power, that is, its independence of the power, influence, law, and will of God. In order, then, to derive his assumption, he chose to infer that God derived all his knowledge and power by examining, contemplating, and studying, the facts and laws of physical creation. This fountain of knowledge being open. and accessible to man, hence, he inferred also that man, by the exercise of his intellectual faculty, might acquire that knowledge and power which his Creator possesses; and so, by this exercise of self-action, attain of himself a state of immortality.

By these, together with other instances adduced, we learn what extravagant, wild, and abominable thoughts and courses the human spirit and mind engender and pursue, when once they have been seduced into a departure from the solid courses of simple practical truth; when, cherishing and indulging the base passions conceit and pride, they take delight in holding up before the world the issues of these bad passions, in those innumerable forms in which they may be created by imaginations that are unchastened by a love of, a reverence for, and a faith in, God's law and truth.

If Bacon were now with us, we might feel assured that he would be amongst the foremost to announce a caution against the misunderstanding, as well as against the great abuse, of his method of reasoning, which have been made, and which are now being made; the abuse being used as a concealment of that ignorant and false treatment of subjects which is so largely passed off on the people in the names of science and

*The Church, vol. ii. p. 326.

philosophy. Bacon discerned how greatly the human spirit and mind are addicted to self-conceit, to self-esteem, to selfadoration, and to self-worship. He knew, and has declared, how rapidly these corrupt elements of the human spirit and mind engender ideas; how attached men and women become to their own self-begotten ideas; with how much diseased ardour they convert these ideas into Idols; and how industrious they are in launching their idols on the broad surface of society; and when so launched, in supporting them, and in getting others to support them by plausible arguments, so that many become deceived, and being made dupes, join in offering the impure homage and worship. We have to see that idols, thus basely created, are introduced within every department of human action and life, and that the sacred province of religion is not kept free from them; but that, being there introduced, they are invested with a holy title. This has been done in the case of our prevailing Principles and System of Political Economy; for some of the most ardent advocates of the science, in order to induce people to receive the spirit of the system, and to act in accordance with its doctrines, have declared of it that it is to be the great uniter and pacificator, the regenerator, of the people of all the nations of the world; that by it there is, at length, really and truly announced "Peace on earth, goodwill towards men." The belief of many men, or indeed of almost all men, is yielded up to this, though these men are seen to exhibit their belief in ways, many of which are contrary the one to another. Thus, the idol is set up, and is as ignorantly and generally worshipped as was the image of gold erected on the plain of Dura.

The principle of idolatry is the copious and ever-flowing fountain at which the people of all nations drink. The constant cry is "Prophesy unto us! Prophesy unto us!"

The prophets do prophesy, and the suffering, anxious, and eager people are ever ready, too ready, to listen. The idolmakers are never weary of their trade, nor cease for a moment from their labours. Whether they are walking or running, whether sitting or lying down, whether awake or asleep, the forge is still kept at work; the imagination conceives, the idea is born, it becomes a living creature; and, having been worked up into the form of an idol, is set up on every plain where civilisation reigns. Soon, however, the people find that their idol is a deceit, an abortion; and then another, equally inflated and hollow, has to be selected from the innumerable family, to be set up in its place, to be loved and worshipped, until, in its turn, it is set aside.

.

As was done on the plain of Dura, so is it done on the plain of Social and Political Economy and Science. The image of gold, the great human idol, is set up on high, and all men are called upon to fall down and worship. One party of men, at one period, elevate before the faces of the people, and vehemently laud and applaud, their golden idol under the names - Protection of National Interests Protection of Home Trade-Laws for keeping up the Price of Labour, -Laws for keeping up the Price of Corn, and other laws of a like character. Another party of men, at another period, elevate before the faces of the people, and as vehehemently, or more vehemently, laud and applaud another golden idol, under the names Free Trade and CommerceFree Labour and Free Competition among all labourersFree Production and Free Consumption - Free Money, and no laws affecting the Use of it-Free Communication and Intercommunication of the people of all the Nations of the earth the free Application of a Power that shall astonish mankind by the great exploit of "passing a girdle round the earth in forty minutes."

But, when all these evolutions, revolutions, and changes have, one after another, been glorified, submitted to, tried, and endured, the people, in their necessity, have to declare that they have found little or no difference between one and another; that the whole is a matter and course of experiment which does not result in salutary experience; that the National Capital is still like the fabled cup of Tantalus, which, as soon as it has offered the precious liquid to the parched lips of the suffering and tortured creatures, withdraws it from them; that one idol has been found as hollow as the other; that neither by the one nor by the other has substantial relief been afforded them; and so, like Mercutio in the play, who, by the working of party strife and animosity, had received a death-wound by the hand of a Capulet fellowcountryman, they are ready to exclaim, with regard to the whole family of idol makers—“A plague on all your houses!"