whose names are almost as familiar on this side of the ocean as in England itself, are Twickenham, Strawberry Hill, Hampton Court, Harrow, Epping Forest, Waltham, Chiswick, Turnham Green, Barnet, Ealing, Hounslow, and many others. The book contains some hundreds of illustrations, giving pictures of the noted houses, churches, and monuments of every description, with which these towns abound. The book furnishes a collection of pictures of just those things which make traveling in England so full of interest to the American tourist.

The August number of THE ART AMATEUR contains the usual profusion of designs, including decorations for cup and saucer and tiles; carved, embroidered and illuminated borders; a figure decoration for painted tapestry; a beautiful jade screen; fine examples of old lace, and numerous suggestions for workers in metal. The chief art exhibitions of London and Paris receive extended description. A fine portrait of F. M. Boggs is accompanied by a biographical notice, and some interesting pen sketches. There is also a portrait and biographical notice of Mrs. Emily J. Lakey, an American lady, who is winning reputation in London as a cattle painter. The article in the "Modern Home" series treats of the drawing room; it is richly illustrated and will prove invaluble to every one who has such an apartment to decorate and furnish. Price 35 cts.; $4.00 a year. Montague Marks, publisher, 23 Union Square, New York.

Cassell & Company's MAGAZINE OF ART for August opens with a full page engraving of the painting of Walter Langley, "Among the Missing."-The leading article contains a sketch of the life and work of F. J. Gregory, A. R. A., by Frederick Wedmore, with several engravings from his paintings. Other articles are The Marvel of the World," by David Hannay, with seven engravings." A Child's Fancies," by Robert Louis Stevenson."Going around with the Plate," from the picture by G. Knorr"The Austrian Museum," by W. Martin Conway, with six engravings." Rondeaux of the Galleries," by Andrew Lang."Walks in Surrey," by H. E. Ward, with five engravings"With the Mahdi," drawn by E. Benninger.-Old English Pottery," by Cosmo Monkhouse.-"Stage Royalties," with eight portraits from etchings by Lalauze.-"French Art at the Salon," by C. W. Brownell.-"Current Art," four engravings.-"The Chronicle of Art."-" American art notes."-Yearly subscription, $3.50. Single No. 35 cents. Cassell & Co., Limited, New York.

THE

NEW ENGLANDER.

No. CLXXXIII.

NOVEMBER, 1884.

ARTICLE I.-AN ANALYSIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN ITS RELATION TO ESCHATOLOGY.

THE one department of Theology on which as yet no certain light has fallen is the field of Eschatology. The Biblical declarations are given for the most part in figures; and whether the consuming fire be literal brimstone; or the remorse of conscience; or the gradual loss of character; or the unconscious degradation of being is still matter of discussion. So long as we confine ourselves to figures we get indeed substantial truth, sufficient for purposes of practical preaching. That sin brings in its train torment and anguish, loss and destruction keen and terrible enough to justify the most terrific of material imagery no one will deny who has comprehended the real enormity of sin. Philosophical Theology is however a very different thing from practical preaching. Preaching aims at practical impressions. Theology at accurate and comprehensive ideas. One deals with sunrise and sunset; the other with the revolution of the spheres. The

preacher may regard the Trinity as a mathematical enigma; and the atonement as a commercial bargain; and justification as a legal fiction; and yet in spite of this his figurative mode of thought, nay, even on account of it, be able to accomplish good results. But in the mind of the theologian such pictures have no place. To him these words must stand for spiritual processes and relations; or else they have no right to be.

To attempt to place the doctrine of Eschatology on a philosophical basis will no doubt seem at first sight presumptuous. The theme is commonly regarded as altogether beyond the range of finite speculation. The present essay makes no pretensions to solve the problem; nor does it claim any authority for its conclusions. The most that can be hoped for is to indicate the thread by which the future explorer of this mysterious labyrinth must be guided.

The fault with nearly all speculation on this subject hitherto has been that figurative and accidental aspects of the subject have absorbed attention; while the fundamental fact of spirit has been ignored. Time and happiness: duration and misery: these have been the forms under which the subject has been discussed. These are accidental, not essential aspects of spirit. Consciousness is the essence of the soul. Time is the record or self registration of the various states of consciousness, as the barometer is the register of atmospheric conditions. Pleasure and pain likewise are effects resultant from the states of mind in which the soul exists, pleasure indicating that the soul is in a state of healthy activity and full realization; pain denoting that the full free outgo of spiritual life is fettered and restrained.

The fundamental fact of spirit is consciousness. Cogito ergo sum. In other words, the basis of existence is thought. Just so far as modern philosophy has sprung from this root has it been fruitful. So soon as it has become severed from it, has it withered and died; and the flames of criticism are fast consuming its lifeless branches. For brevity and conciseness, throughout this essay the word consciousness will be used to signify all forms of conscious being, including the volitional and the emotional, as well as the

purely intellectual activities of the soul. As Hegel remarks, "there are not at bottom two separate faculties, thought and will. Will is only a specific mode of thought, viz: thought going out into external existence, as an impulse toward selfrealization."

Inasmuch then as consciousness is what I am; or in other words I am the consciousness I have;-the thought I think with its attendant volition and emotion, it follows that the problem of eschatology is simply to ascertain what are the ultimate and enduring states of consciousness.

If an analysis of the possible states of consciousness can be made; and if those states which have in themselves the elements of permanence can be determined; then those permanent states of consciousness will be the ones in which the soul will exist eternally.

What then, stated in the most general and inclusive terms, are the modes of consciousness in which a soul can exist? Reduced to the ultimate terms these states or modes of consciousness are three: World-consciousness; Self-consciousness; and God-consciousness. The order in which these are placed is not accidental but represents the order in which these states succeed each other in the normal development of the individual. And the best definition of these terms is to be found by tracing their genetic connection.

First, World-consciousness is that state in which the soul is occupied with the phenomena of the outer world of men and things. The Intellect is busied with unifying these various objects; reducing them to classes, and tracing between them the connection of cause and effect. The emotions are the direct product of the given environment. The Will is occupied exclusively with compelling material forces, under which head even other men and women are as yet included, to minister to the individual's own physical necessities. The typical savage, hunting and fishing for a bare subsistence; the infant, laughing when tickled, crying when hurt, and wondering on all occasions, are the perfect representatives of this stage of consciousness; though older children of more civilized pretensions retain marked traces of their primitive condition. In Scripture language this is a state without

law, or philosophically stated the man lives in a world of which he knows no higher meaning than its mere phenomenal existence. Being conscious of the world and nothing more; entertaining no thoughts; experiencing no feelings; and putting forth no volitions save such as the world without and his physical senses give rise to, the man is in all respects under bondage to his senses, and the world's obedient slave.

This is the first of our three stages of consciousness. The question of eschatology on this point is, Can this state be eternal? Has it in itself enduring life? The only answer that can be given is that it has not. This world passeth away and the fashion thereof. And the being whose consciousness is simply of the world and its fashion must perish with it. Indeed, such a being has not yet become an independent spirit, a self-existent soul. Such a being originates nothing, loves nothing, wills nothing save the fleeting variations of a fleeting world. All the faculties and joys of true spiritual life are lost to him, and he is lost to them. As St. Paul declares, “ τὸ φρόνημα τῆς σαρκὺς θάνατος.” The minding of the flesh is death. The being is lost because it has not yet found itself; is dead because it has not yet come to life. This is the genuine metaphysical truth and scripture declaration which lies at the basis of the much abused doctrine that infants are lost. They are not yet endowed with the power and joy of spiritual life. This is a self-evident truth, and those who see it are not to be classed with the blind believers in an arbitrary condemnation to be adjudged them in the future. Their only hope, and this view by no means shuts them out from hope, is that either here or elsewhere they may develop into spiritual life. As yet they are spiritually nothing; or, if you wish to conceal the fact under a phrase which gives them the appearance of being something, you may say with Dorner that they are "potential punctual existences of future personality."

World consciousness, therefore, must perish with the world which is its object. It is spiritual death. This state therefore cannot be a form in which the soul is to exist eternally. One of the three modes of consciousness is therefore excluded from the sphere of eschatology.