"She spake, I said, the spirit, and at her word Behold the heavens were opened as a book. I am the world-soul, nature's spirit I, Ere universe or constellation was, System, or sun, or orb, or element, Darkness, or light, or atom, I first lived; I and Necessity, though twain in life, Yet one in Being. Time and life are one. But insomuch as nature is destroyed In God's assumption to Divine estate Of an especial soul, necessity Ends in extreme original nothingness." It is very tantalising to be so near the source of wisdom, and utterly unable to avail ourselves of it. How it fared with Helen we do not know; but for ourselves, it is in vain we are told,-- "Again the world-soul voiced itself, and I Drank in the _fruitful glories_ of her words As earth consumes the golden skiey clouds." These "fruitful glories" are to us mere darkness. We can just gather where some of these "clouds," by no means "golden" to our vision, came from. As, for instance, when we hear that-- "The actual and ideal meet but once, _Where pure impossibilities are facts_." Or, further on, when this world-spirit thus enlightens us:-- "She stood and spake intuitive of Heaven, The World-divining Spirit whilom named. Now such as man is to himself is His Divine idea; but the God which is, Is not the God men worship, not alone Ineffable, but inconceivable; How shall an atom comprehend the Heaven? Two points men occupy in space and time, And half exist of matter and in form: Thus, His existence is their opposite; And all is either God or nothingness, _Being with nonbeing identical_." And so we are landed in the Absolute of Hegel; and in that insufferable jargon of his, by which, (confounding _the laws of thought_ with _the nature of things_,) he proves, because we cannot think of existence without a reference to non-existence, nor think of non-existence without the contrasted idea of existence, that therefore existence itself includes non-existence, and non-existence includes existence, and they are identical--(_sein_ = _nicht sein_.) We cannot compliment Mr Bailey on the skill he has displayed in his combination of Hegelian philosophy with his theological doctrines. In the following extract Lucifer is the spokesman:-- "_Lucifer._--_All creature-minds_, like man's, are fallible: The seraph who in Heaven highest stands May fall to ruin deepest. God is mind-- Pure, perfect, sinless. Man imperfect is-- Momently sinning. _Evil thus results From imperfection._ * * * * *