many acting and re-acting on each ' other to bring their collective force 'to bear upon the same subject' matter. If language is an in'estimable gift to man, the logical 'faculty prepares it for our use. 'Though it does not go so far as to 'ascertain truth; still, it teaches us 'the direction in which truth lies, and 'how propositions lie towards each other. 'Nor is it a slight benefit to know 'what is needed for the proof of a 'point, what is wanting in a theory, 'how a theory hangs together, and 'what will follow if it be admitted.'

This great principle of order in thinking is what we are too apt to forget. Give us,' cry many, 'safety ' in our opinions, and let who will be 'logical. An Englishman's creed is 'compromise. His bête noire extrava'gance. We are not saved by syl'logism.' Possibly not; but yet there can be no safety in an illogical posi

tion, and one's chances of snug quarters in eternity cannot surely be bettered by our believing at one and the same moment of time self-contradictory propositions.

But, talk as we may, for the bulk of mankind it will doubtless always remain true that a truth does not exclude its contradictory. Darwin and Moses are both right. Between the Gospel according to Matthew and the Gospel according to Matthew Arnold there is no difference.

If the too apparent absurdity of this is pressed home, the baffled illogician, persecuted in one position, flees into another, and may be heard assuring his tormentor that in a period like the present, which is so notoriously transitional, a logician is as much out of place as a bull in a china shop, and that unless he is quiet, and keeps his tail well wrapped round his legs, the mischief he will do to his neigh

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bours' china creeds and delicate porce lain opinions is shocking to contemplate. But this excuse is no longer admissible. The age has remained transitional so unconscionably long, that we cannot consent to forego the use of logic any longer. For a decade or two it was all well enough, but when it comes to four-score years, one's patience gets exhausted. Carlyle's celebrated Essay, 'Characteristics,' in which this transitional period is diagnosed with unrivalled acumen, is half a century old. Men have been born in it-have grown old in it— have died in it. It has outlived the old Court of Chancery. It is high time the spurs of logic were applied to its broken-winded sides.

Notwithstanding the obstinate preference the bulk of mankind' always show for demonstrable errors over undeniable truths, the number of persons is daily increasing who have

begun to put a value upon mental coherency and to appreciate the charm of a logical position.

It was common tall at one time to express astonishment at the extending influence of the Church of Rome, and to wonder how people who went about unaccompanied by keepers could submit their reason to the Papacy, with her open rupture with science and her evil historical reputation. From astonishment to contempt is but a step. We first open wide our eyes and then our mouths.

'Lord So-and-so, his coat bedropt with wax,
All Peter's chains about his waist, his back
Brave with the needlework of Noodledom,
Believes,-who wonders and who cares?'

It used to be thought a sufficient explanation to say either that the man was an ass or that it was all those Ritualists. But gradually it became apparent that the pervert was not always an ass, and that the

Ritualists had nothing whatever to do with it. If a man's tastes run in the direction of Gothic Architecture, free seats, daily services, frequent communions, lighted candles and Church millinery, they can all bo gratified, not to say glutted, in the Church of his baptism.

It is not the Roman ritual, however splendid, nor her ceremonial, however spiritually significant, nor her system of doctrine, as well arranged as Roman law and as subtle as Greek philosophy, that makes Romanists nowadays.

It is when a person of religious spirit and strong convictions as to the truth and importance of certain dogmas-few in number it may be ; perhaps only one, the Being of God -first becomes fully alive to the tendency and direction of the most active opinions of the day; when, his alarm quickening his insight, he reads