Nature And Science.

be defined . The materialist may call it matter , the rationalist force , the moralist God , it includes them all . The grandest conception we can form of Infinite Deity is " Infinite Spirit , " and we prefer that definition . Materialism is the negation of God and religion , and of the

means whereby God and relig ion have been forced upon the conviction of mankind—miracle , revelation , and hope of immortality . If belief in them be utterly illogical , as Professor Haeckel , arguing from his theory , assures us , we must abandon it , or cling to it only as an ideal .

But the propositions of materialism are not thus conclusive , whereas spiritualism affords a logical sequence , pointing to opposite conclusions ; a series of higher laws

which sway matter in the order of the nniverse . By spiritualism I mean , not the rage for seances and tableturning , but the affirmation of God and religion by miracle , revelation , and a future state .

Defining spirit as superior to and distinct from matter , and deity as infinite spirit , I submit the spiritual hypothesis as the alternative for " spontaneous generation , " conceiving

it to be more consonant with the recognised order of nature , and a more rational explanation of her laws . It has claims at least equal to conditional acceptance by the scientific world , until " spontaneous generation " shall be proved .

The spiritual hypothesis recognises a power above matter , to which matter is obedient and plastic , and that the laws found in matter are the effects of that power ; that the force of heredity is a law of spirit , adaptation the effects of other particles of matter similariiy inspired ,

that spirit is infinite , including tho great Orreries of the Universe and pervading each minutest cell . It claims also that the vast spaces of the Universe aro not empty but full , filled with active spiritual intelligences , with worlds and spheres which our senses , being adapted only to the

perception of matter , cannot grasp . It recognises the intercourse of other stages of being with our own , a possibility which religion , through history , affirms ; it believes matter to be subject to higher laws besides those formulated by Professor Haeckel , whereby miracle and revelation are

effected , without being direct interventions of an anthropomorphous Deity ; it teaches that death does not annihilate conscious individuality and that the spirit disembodied goes into the state of being to which its acquired attributes may have most fitted it .

These ideas , it will be seen , are the religious , neither more nor less ; similar to those inculcated by all religions which havo been found entitled to respect ; there is a something definite about them , and I venture to say that they rest upon a firmer foundation than those which require the hypothesis of " spontaneous generation . "

I have before me a pamphlet which serves to show how much these speculations are troubling earnest brethren far and wide . Views like those of Professors Huxley and Haeckel cannot be scattered around without stirring

reflective minds to their very depths and exciting the most dormant current of Masonic thought . I quote from an address delivered last September by the Rev . Robert Kidd , LL . D ., to our brethren in Auckland , N . Z . upon an

interesting occasion : — " One chief uao of Freemasonry , in thia generation , is to maintain cautious stability in the minds of the brethren , that none of ns be lightly led away by bewildering novelties . The exercise of Eeason and investigation has , in our age , attained to an immense aggregate

of beneficial results ; but let us not yield to the mental intoxication that wonld confound things which are distinct . The principles of Freemasonry itself teach us to appreciate the faculties of the human intellect , its wondrous , its god-like capabilities of discernment and discovery ; but they also inculcate its limitation . Science deals only ,

and can deal only , with phenomena aud secondary causes : but the mainspring of the energies that actuate tho Universe , the primal source of the adaptations that combine to constitute the eternal Order and Ilarmouy , the ultimate causation of the agencies , these arc behoud the ken of scientific experiment . "

• Ihe most fashionable theory , at the present moment , among tho wanderers from a pure Theism , is little else than a revival of fancies indulged in , thousands of years ago , by one of tho sects of ancient philosophy . It ii to the effect that what we call Matter is in itself

innately endowed with all possible potency of both action and combination , that the spontaneous motions of the molecules are competent to perform the whole . Of such imaginings a sufficient correction is afforded in the following few emphatic lines of the poet Young : —

Has matter innate motion ? Then each atom , Asserting its indisputable right To dance , wonld form a universe of dust .

Has matter more than motion ? Has it thought Judgment and genius ? Is it deeply learned In mathematics ? Has it framed such la ws ¦ Which but to guess a Newton made immortal ?

Nature And Science.

If so , how each sage atom laughs at me , Who think a clod inferior to a man ! If art to form , and counsel to conduct , And that with greater far than human skill , Beside not in each block , a GODHEAD reigns ; And if a God there is , a God how great !

" But it is said that wo cannot demonstrate the Divine Existence , that it is a mere hypothesis or theory . We could not , brethren , demonstrate the building of King Solomon ' s Temple , nor the construction of the pyramids of Egypt . Of the Great Architect of the Universe we have the species of proof that affords a full moral certainty . And if that proof were less cogent than it is , we should

stall be under a supreme obligation of conscience to seek after Him , if haply we may find Him . Well and wisely has ono of the greatest and best of Scotland ' s many illustrious sons , Dr . Chalmers , in bis own peculiar style of magnificent diction , Betting forth profound thought , thus said : — "' To this condition there attaches a most clear and incumbent

morality . It is to go in quest of that unseen Benefactor , who , for aught I know , has ushered me into existence , and spread so glorious a panorama around me . It is to probe the secret of my being and my birth ; and , if possible , to make discovery whether it was indeed the hand of a benefactor that brought me forth from the chambers of nonentity , and gave me place and entertainment in that glowing

territory , which is lighted up with the hopes and the happiness of living men . It is thus that the very conception of a God throws a re . sponsibility after it . And is there any so hardy as to dony that the curious workmanship of his frame may have had a Designer and an Architect , who hath so marvellously suited all that is around us to our senses and our powers of gratification ? Tho graces innumerable that

lie widely spread over the face of our world , the glorious concave of heaven that i 3 placed over ns , the grateful variety of seasons that , like Nature ' s shifting panorama , over brings new entertainment ' and delight to the oye of spectators—these show that , anterior to our assured belief in His existence , there lies upon us a most imperious

obligation to stir ourselves up that we may lay hold of Him . . . . And the same moral force which begins this inquiry also continues and sustains it . If there be power in the very conception of a God to create and constitute the duty of seeking after Him , this power grows and gathers with every footstep of advancement in the high investigation . '

" I repeat , therefore , brethren , —and I would with all befitting respect present it specially to the attention of tho worthy brother who is now exalted among the chief guides and rulers of our Fraternity , —that Freemasonry , in the existing juncture , has a special vocation and function . We are called upon to champion the allcomprehensive truth , that the one main distinction between man and man is this , the belief or the absence of belief , tho perception or the failure to perceive , that SUPREME MIND controls the Universe , that we are under the moral government of the Most High . "

At a meeting of the Psychological Society , on 16 th March , Mr . Serjeant Cox , President , in the chair , referring to a statement in tho Scotsman newspaper , that Mr . Bruce ( the owner of the emigrant ship , the Strathmore , which was wrecked in November last , with great loss of life )

had been informed , by an alleged clairvoyant , of the wreck , and the saving of some of the crew on an island , at or near the time of its occurrence , and some weeks before the loss was known in England , the President said that , in pursuance of their plan of investigating all alleged psychological

phenomena , he had written to Mr . Bruce , the owner , to inquire if this statement of the Scotsman was correct . He had received an answer from that gentleman ( which he read ) , stating that the fact was as published , The fact was communicated in writing , by post , so that there was no

question as to its being made before the loss was known A paper , by Mr . C . Bray , " On Consciousness , " was read by Mr . F . K . Munton , the Hon . Sec . A discussion followed , by Mr . Coffin , Mr . Pike , Mr . Gordon , the President , and others . It was stated that the Committee of Investigation had been formed .

The Drama.

THE DRAMA .

Pom at the Royalty . A NEW comic opera , from the pen of M . Bucalossi , was produced at tho ROYALTY , on Saturday last , with complete success . The plot is of the usual unintelligible character , and comprises the adventures of a party of French opera singers cast upon a desert island in tho

Pacific Ocean borne of these adventures aro amusing , and tho dialogue is also not devoir ! oE humour . But it is chiefly to tho light and pleasaut music of M . Bucalossi that the success of the piece is to be ascribed Tho characters aro well sustained by Miss Patty Laverne , Miss Annie Goodall , Mr . Rouse , aud Mr . Knight Aston .

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gn \ : ed an imperishable fame for its facility in healing old inflammatory sores about the shins and ankles , and for bad logs and old wounds it cannot bo equalled ; nor is it less efficacious in gathered breasts and abscesses . When the complaint has been oflong continuance , Holloway ' s Pills will expedite recovery if taken in those doses which act as alteratives on the stomach and . tonics on the tonititution ,