be obtained; and the boast is as idle as that of Archemides, that if he had a place whereon to place his lever, he could raise the earth. It is a mere sophistical evasion to demand conditions which cannot be fulfilled, as the data of conclusions which are to be expected. If the conditions were attainable, the matter would be then to be proved. As it stands, no proof is possible; and the supposition does not warrant the inference. We know we have never yet approached the knowledge of mind, if such doctrines are correct. The "indisciplinable wanderings of passion," of which Mr. Shelley speaks in his note upon marriage, seem to deride all motive, and to laugh at all rational deductions. The "aged husbandman," is not "more experienced than the young beginner," as Mr. Shelley supposes, "because there is a uniform, undeniable necessity in the operations of nature;" but because he has seen more of these operations. Now the more we see of the operations of the human mind, the less we are able to comprehend its nature. We are perpetually startled by endless contradictions:—
"The rogue, and fool, by fits, is fair and wise!
And e'en the best, by fits, what they despise."
Instead of that immutable certainty, which
