A self-degradation, my friend, which to the utmost removes the mind from God. And this Creed was welcome to those to whom the belief in Him was irksome. That which we see and touch became to such Philosophers the whole of Reality. Deity--the Relation of the Creation to the Creator--the hope of a Futurity beyond the grave--vanished from the Belief of Materialists living in, and by, and to--Sensation. SEWARD. And with what a horrid sympathy was the creed welcomed! NORTH. Ay, Seward, I who lived nearer the time--perhaps better than you can--know the evil. Not in the schools alone, or in the solitude of philosophical thought, the doctrine of an arid speculation circulated, like a thin and unwholesome blood, through the veins of polite literature; not in the schools alone, but in the gorgeous and gay saloons, where the highly-born, the courtly, and the wealthy, winged the lazy hours with light or dissolute pleasures--there the Philosophy which fettered the soul in the pleasing bands of the Senses, which plucked it back from a feared immortality, which opened a gulf of infinite separation between it and its Maker, was cordially entertained--there it pointed the jest and the jibe. Scepticism a study--the zeal of Unbelief! Principles of false thought appeared suddenly and widely as principles of false passion and of false action. Doubts, difficulties, guesses, fine spinnings of the perverse brain, seized upon the temper of the times--became the springs of public and popular movements--engines of political change. The Venerations of Time were changed into Abominations. A Will strong to overthrow--hostile to Order--anarchical--"intended siege and defiance to Heaven." The irreligious Philosophy of the calmer time now bore its fruits. The Century had prepared the explosion that signalised its close--Impiety was the name of the Giant whom these throes of the convulsed earth had borne into the day, and down together went Throne and Altar--But where are we? BULLER. At the river mouth. NORTH. What! at home. BULLER. See the Tent-Lights--hear the Tent-Music. NORTH. Your arm, Talboys--till I disembark. Up to the Mount I shall then climb, unassisted but by the Crutch. _Printed by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh._ Transcriber's Notes: Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed. Simple typographical and spelling errors were corrected. Italics markup is denoted by _underscores_. Bold markup is denoted by =equals=. Greek text has been transliterated and is denoted by @at signs@. Provided anchor for unanchored footnote on pp. 133 and 172. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 66 No.406, August 1849, by Various