add that such a statement indicates a thorough-going misapprehension of idealism. As for the author's argument that an idealistic position impeaches the veracity of God, it could only have force if we presuppose that it is the business of our thought to copy a reality which already exists independently of it. Berkeley's famous question is here in order as to what meaning can be given to the absolute existence of unthinking things. And, further, must not one's philosophy be either an idealism or materialism with its correlate, physical necessity? The same lack of metaphysical insight is shown by President Hovey's criticism of the "immanent" view of cause, which is maintained by both the philosophers above mentioned. He characterizes furthermore Professor Schurman's proposition that "it is the essence of Spirit to manifest itself" as "an unqualified assertion." His own view seems to be that existence has a meaning apart from activity. These and other fundamental misconceptions furnish occasion for pointing out that these questions regarding the relation of God to the universe do not lie within the province of theology, but belong to and can only be settled by a metaphysic. The other portions of the book seem to me much more valuable than these early chapters. The lectures on Christian Ethics apply the principles of Christ's teaching to the relations of ordinary life. They are both vigorous and inspiring. Perhaps the most interesting are the chapters entitled "The Golden Rule" and "The State and Religion."
Professor Müller having promised in the Gifford lectures of 1890 a trinity of courses upon Natural Religion, has now completed two of them; it is to be hoped his life will be spared to crown the series with the last. In these courses his object is to show that man, without a special revelation, has gained a belief in God, the soul's immortality, and future retribution. Natural Religion is treated (1) as Physical (or Historical) Religion, or the conquest of the idea of the Infinite or Divine through observation of Nature, (2) as Anthropological (or Rational) Religion, or the gradual growth in man of belief in something Infinite, Immortal, and Divine, and (3) as Psychological Religion, or Philosophy of Religion, or the development of the relation of the Divine or Infinite to the human soul. The last course is to be given hereafter. The author contends that the highest concept of Deity is gained without external revelation and is within the reach of every human being by this three-fold route of Nature, Man, and Self.
