Editorial note — LESSON VI.

[Footnote A: These remarks are made in view of what Mr. Herbert Spencer says of the value of "A Mystery ever pressing for an interpretation," as an "ultimate religious truth of the highest possible certainty"; but which, if analyzed, will be discovered to be of no more religious value than the conception of the "Infinite Power" as mechanical force. Yet Mr. Spencer thus speaks of it: "And thus the mystery which all religions recognize, turns out to be far more transcendent mystery than any of them suspect—not a relative, but an absolute mystery. Here, then, is an ultimate religious truth of the highest possible certainty—a truth in which religions in general are at one with each other, and with a philosophy antagonistic to their special dogmas. And this truth, respecting which there is a latent agreement among all mankind from the fetish-worshiper to the most stoical critic of human creeds, must be the one we seek. If Religion and Science are to be reconciled, the basis of reconciliation must be this deepest, widest, and most certain of all facts—that the Power which the Universe manifests to us Is utterly inscrutable." "First Principles," pp. 47, 48.]