"The offence of the Cross" has not "ceased," and many finding that these are the opinions of this Author, will perhaps lay down his book as unworthy of their attention: yet the editor, biographer, and expositor of the great French thinker, Maine de Biran, will not need introduction to the intellectual magnates of our own or of any country. The translator will be thankful, if some of those,--the youth more especially,--of his own country, who have been dazzled by the glare of false science, shall find in this work a help to the reassuring of their faith, while they learn in a fresh example that there are men quite competent to deal with the profoundest problems which can exercise our thoughts, who at the same time have come to a conviction,--compatible as they believe with principles of the clearest reason,--of the truth of those very doctrines which form the substance of evangelical Christianity. In saying this, the translator is far from claiming the Author as belonging to the same school of theology with himself: but differing with him on some important points, he has yet believed that this volume is calculated to be of much use in the present condition of religious thought in England, and in this hope and prayer he commends it to the blessing of Him, whose being and attributes, as our God and Father in Jesus Christ, are therein asserted and defended. GENEVA, _November, 1865_. FOOTNOTE: [1] A translation of this work, by an English lady, has been published by Mr. Dalton, 28, Cockspur street. CONTENTS. LECTURE I. PAGE OUR IDEA OF GOD 1 LECTURE II. LIFE WITHOUT GOD 43 PART I.--THE INDIVIDUAL 45 PART II.--SOCIETY 72 LECTURE III. THE REVIVAL OF ATHEISM 117 LECTURE IV. NATURE 175 LECTURE V. HUMANITY 245 LECTURE VI. THE CREATOR 297 LECTURE VII. THE FATHER 340 LECTURE I. _OUR IDEA OF GOD._ (At Geneva, 17th Nov. 1863.--At Lausanne, 11th Jan. 1864.) GENTLEMEN, Some five-and-twenty or thirty years ago, a German writer published a piece of verse which began in this way: "Our hearts are oppressed with the emotions of a pious sadness, at the thought of the ancient Jehovah who is preparing to die." The verses were a dirge upon the death of the living God; and the author, like a well educated son of the nineteenth century, bestowed a few poetic tears upon the obsequies of the Eternal.