covery" in science. "The man is raised to a pitch of insight and becomes a seer, entering into things through God's constitutive ideas, to read them as from God. For what are laws of science but ideas of God, those regulative types of thought by which God created, moves, and rules the worlds? Thus it is that the geometrical and mathematical truths become the prime sources of scientific inspiration; for these are the pure intellectualities of all created being, and have their life, therefore, in God. Accordingly, an eloquent modern writer says, Those pure and incorruptible formulas which already were before the world was, that will be after it, governing throughout all time and space, being, as it were, an integral part of God, put the mathematician in profound communion with the Divine Thought.'"

We have sought to give our readers some idea of the system of Scotus Erigena, a man of small stature, but of great genius, extensive and profound learning, "a logic worthy of Plato and Proclus," a lively imagination, strong common sense, a shrewd native wit, and a divine instinct to recognize the highest truth wherever it may lie concealed, who rejected, from an instinctive impulse, all the erroneous consequences which might be drawn, by a falsely strict logic, from his doctrines. He saw that the true office of logic is to legitimate the deductions of reason, not to usurp the office of reason in drawing those deductions. Hence, he did not lose the soul, as did the false mystics, in the return to God. There was a union of substance, but no confounding of persons. Thus, while he kept bright the glorious views of the future life which mystics enjoy, the future dwelling in the bosom and essence of Deity, he did not lose the personal consciousness, the memory of friends and recognition of them, and all the other hopes which, to the common believer, hang round the doctrine of the resurrection. So, too, while he placed the Divine Being far above the region of things and far above the reach of mortal understandings, making the only knowledge of him to be the denial that he is any thing, he at the same time made him present in the human soul, not far from any one of us, able and willing to hear our cries and grant us all things. Nor, on the other hand, though he made union with God to be the end of life, did he at all favor either ascetic retirement or indulgence in fanatic zeal and an impious fervor of piety. He kept near to God, yet separate from him. He neither allowed the universe to be a machine from which

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its Author was remote, nor did he confound it with its Author and make matter to be part of the Godhead.

The doctrine of Scotus concerning the identity of religion and philosophy was, as we have said, the foundation of the two principal schools of the Middle Ages; the scholastics predicating religion of philosophy, and the mystics philosophy of religion. Scholasticism, and mysticism, and false mysticism, have played their part; new schools in philosophy and science have arisen, and new modes of thought prevailed; but the teaching of Erigena is the unseen basis of them all. Philosophy and religion are one and the same; the one seeking for the truth of God, the other for the God of truth. Theology is the only science; for what are physics and metaphysics but the study of God's works?— and even the mathematics, are they not, to say the least, illustrated by him alone? Creation is a set of diagrams what others can he have? for the geometer; so that, even if space and time be independent of the Creator, they are measured only by motion; even algebra and geometry imply, therefore, motion; motion implies force, and force will. All things, then, are of God, and we understand nothing until we are reconciled to him. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and wisdom is perfected in us only so far as Christ is formed within us, only so far as we are lifted into the life of Christ, are made one with him and with Him that sent him, see and feel that all things are of God, see that there is a sense in which we may speak of "the identity of the law of gravity and purity of heart," both alike the law and working of the Father's love.

In chemistry, botany, zoology, geology, mathematics, the highest thinkers are men of deepest religious thought. The "connection of the physical sciences" is becoming clearer, and a tenth Bridgewater Treatise might be made less "fragmentary"; the history of the inductive sciences "is ever showing clearer "indications of the Creator." It is daily more evident that no " system of nature,' nor of "logic ratiocinative and inductive can deny to" faith the things that are faith's." We are glad, that, both in Germany and in France, men are paying some homage to Scotus Erigena, the first to say, what all must confess to be true, that, in the intellect, philosophy and religion are one and the same.

T. H.

ART. III. THE WATER CELEBRATION.*

WHAT is most simple and common around us, so as ordinarily to escape even our notice, often involves matter of surprising significance and deep meditation. When we look upon so familiar a thing as rain or dew, a mass of vapor, or a cup of cold water, we do not reflect, perhaps, that we are contemplating one of the most mysterious elements and everlasting agencies of the Almighty,-the great instrument, indeed, which, in connection with fire, he has used in all the fashioning and disposing of his universe. "In the beginning," after the general act by which "God created the heaven and the earth," before even the light was, the first thing, as we read, that took place on the earth, when it was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep," was, that "the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters"; and only after their right distribution did the earliest blade of grass appear, the fruitful tree arise, "the moving creature, that hath life," animate the scene, and "the fowl fly in the open firmament of heaven."

As we ponder such a process, complacency at our own doings gives place to admiration of the Divine. It has been of late a season of jubilee in this city. A stream from one of nature's reservoirs has been led for twenty miles beneath the ground, through hills and rocks, across swamps and rivers, to pour its refreshment into the heart of our city; and the magnificent triumph of human energy and skill has been celebrated with unparalleled displays of splendor and rejoicing. And whether we look at the greatness of the work now accomplished, its vital connections with the health, happiness, and morality of a great city, its relation to ever-increasing and future wants, or at the difficulties and delays attending the inception and progress of the enterprise, this final outbreak of joy at its completion will hardly seem strange or excessive. Certainly no procession for a military triumph, no exultation over the fatal working of the arts of destruction, can have any claim to the justification that may be pleaded for the, perhaps somewhat, showy and expensive

*Speeches of Nathan Hale, Chairman of the Board of Water-Commissioners, and of Mayor Quincy, on Occasion of the Introduction of the Waters of Lake Cochituate into Boston, Oct. 25th, 1848. [Published in the newspapers of the day.]

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parade and display which was witnessed. Surely the bell rings, the cannon roars, the people shout more reasonably for such a victory for human subsistence and good than for all the ravages made in human life and substance. But the deeper, universal, silent gladness in possessing and using the boon will better mingle in the true proportions the mutual congratulations of the people with their gratitude to Heaven.

Rock, hill, river, and morass have not been the only obstacles in the way of this magnificent achievement of blessing. Its proposal and initiation had to encounter a more serious resistance in the inert indifference or active opposition of many, even from among those whom it was afterwards so greatly to benefit. Doubt, fear, interest, stood long against this, as they always do against every noble undertaking, whether of material or moral improvement. But we will not dwell upon this hostility and coldness in the past, believing, that, however conscientious they may have been, they are now converted into friendliness and zeal, and are lost in the common thanksgiving. There can be no question, now at least, we presume, that the right source of supply has been chosen, and that it has been opened none too soon for the comfort, if not the absolute necessity, of our population. From the Speeches named at the beginning of this article, we learn that the subject of supplying Boston with pure water was first introduced to the attention of the City Council by Josiah Quincy, the second mayor of the city, and was repeatedly brought forward by his successors in office. The present mode of supply was first proposed in the Report of a Board of Commissioners in the year 1837. In 1844, the source finally agreed upon was more fully investigated. The authority to proceed was granted by the legislature in an act passed in March, 1846. The works were so far completed as to convey the water into the city, October 25, 1848,- by an aqueduct of brick masonry, leading from Lake Cochituate to Brookline, nearly fifteen miles long, thence by iron conduits to the centre of the city, and by tubes connecting the central reservoirs with the service-pipes, in their united length not less than sixty miles. Two large reservoirs are rising, besides the main basin at Brookline,-one in the city proper, the other in South Boston. With the exception of the brick conduit, the various works of masonry are chiefly of granite, and are built in the most substantial manner. Partly by regular subterraneous excavation, partly by a path along the quicksand,

and partly by hard tunnelling through the hardest rock, as well as through hills, the long channel has been made. Dams, gate-houses, culverts, the larger structures being roofed with iron, have been reared in solid proportions. The estimated cost of the whole work is about four millions of dollars, the debt involved being financially arranged so as to be defrayed in the manner which has seemed most just, feasible, and convenient. When the reservoirs are completed, a sufficient pressure will constantly be felt upon the pipes to supply every demand in the upper rooms of buildings and allow any examination of the main structure for repairs.

It would be pleasant, passing over the skepticism or diversity of opinion that hindered, to award the deserved meed of credit to the zeal and disinterestedness which have advanced the work. But even were it easy to give to individuals their proportionate commendation, no praise could equal, in the pleasure it would afford, their own conscious satisfaction in having contributed variously, by their humane thoughtfulness and foresight, or their earnest and unwearied advocacy, to the commencement and prosecution of an enterprise ending in a result so glorious and beneficent, not to the living alone, but to the future generations whom this gift of pure water will welcome to the stage of being. The sight of the living spring among us, aspiring at every vent to reach the air-line that strikes the level of the parent lake, shall both reward those who have dug into its channels, and yield its copious draughts to the remotest descendants of ancestors that planted themselves upon a bleak peninsula how transformed into the marvellous centre of world-wide communications by sea and by land. And much that may be unfavorable to health in the concentration of means and appliances for an intense social life shall be so counteracted by this all-pervading current of pure water, that we may hope for the inhabitants of the city as great a measure of health as can be found among equal numbers in any part of the interior.

The speeches of Messrs. Hale and Quincy furnish evidence of the vigor, despatch, and fidelity manifested in conducting the project to its accomplishment, through every department, whether of civil superintendence, financial supply, or subordinate labor. Surprise at the rapidity with which the work has been executed is joined with admiration of its substantial excellence. From the vote of the citizens, through legislative action, the engagements of contractors, and the skill