of the system of philosophy. In such a work as this the application of the principles to extended details must necessarily be left to the specialists in their respective departments. In a human being reason and perception are added to the bodily senses. They are better and surer guides than sensuous impressions, and I have ventured to put in them the confidence that they deserve, believing that superior truths when once revealed can be supported by reason, and that it is possible to comprehend intellectually the first causes in science and all the essentials of religion.
It is well known that materialism and all systems of thought that endeavor to build up a philosophy without the knowledge and the acknowledgment of God and apart from Him, lead into uncertainty and consequent doubt, into confusion of ideas, and to the final denial of the possibility of knowing first causes or anything about the Creator; and consequently they lead into agnosticism of such a character that no progress in supernatural or supersensual things is possible. If a tree may be known by its fruits, any system of thought that leads to general agnosticism is thereby proved to be false; for agnosticism, as we shall observe, is the mental darkness of error.
It has been quite popular to receive with unquestioning faith any thing that bears the
