of truth,
are the elements which constituted the secret of that patient and
all-enduring thought which conducted the mind of Newton from the
obscurities and dreams enveloping the world below into the bright and
shining region of eternal truths above. In our humble opinion, Newton has
done more for the great cause of knowledge, by the mighty impulse of hope
he has given to the powers of the human mind, than by all the sublime
discoveries he has made. For, as Maclaurin says: "The variety of opinions
and perpetual disputes among philosophers has induced not a few of late,
as well as in former times, to think that it was vain labour to endeavour
to acquire certainty in natural knowledge, and to ascribe this to some
unavoidable defect in the principles of the science. But it has appeared
sufficiently, from the discoveries of those who have consulted nature, and
not their own imaginations, and particularly from what we learn from Sir
Isaac Newton, _that the fault has lain in philosophers themselves, and not
in philosophy_."

We are persuaded the day will come, when it will be seen that the despair
of scepticism has been misplaced, not only with regard to natural
knowledge, but also in relation to the great problems of the intellectual
and moral world. It is true, that Plato failed to solve these problems;
but his failure may be easily accounted for, without in the least degree
shaking the foundations of our hope. The learned Ritter has said, that
Plato felt the necessity imposed upon him, by his system, to reconcile the
existence of evil with the perfections of God; but yet, as often as he
approached this dark subject, his views became vague, fluctuating, and
unsatisfactory. How little insight he had into it on any scientific or
clearly defined principle, is obvious from the fact, that he took shelter
from its difficulties in the wild hypothesis of the preexistence of souls.
But the impotency of Plato's attempts to solve these difficulties, may be
explained without the least disparagement to his genius, or without
leading us to hope for light only from the world's possession of better
minds.

In the first place, such was the state of mental science when Plato lived,
that it would have been impossible for any one to reconcile the existence
of evil with the perfections of God. It has been truly said, that "An
attention to the internal operations of the human mind, _with a view to
analyze its principles_, is one of the distinc