nd harmony, may be of more convincing
validity than all the formal arguments logic can build.40
"Sentiment," Ancillon says, as quoted by Lewes, "goes further than
knowledge: beyond demonstrative proofs there is natural evidence;
beyond analysis, inspiration; beyond words, ideas; beyond ideas,
emotions; and the sense of the infinite is a primitive fact of the
soul." In transcendental mathematics, problems otherwise
unapproachable are solved by operating with emblems of the
relations of purely imaginary quantities to the facts of the
problems. The process is sound and the result valid, notwithstanding
the hypothetical and imaginary character of the aids in reaching it.

When for mastering the dim momentous problems of our destiny
the given quantities and relations of science are inadequate,
the helpful supposititious conditions furnished by faith may
equally lead over their airy ways to conclusions of eternal truth.

The disbelievers of a future life have in their investigations
applied methods not justly applicable to the subject, and
demanded a species of proof impossible for the subject to yield:
as if one should use his ear to listen to the symmetries of beauty,
and his eye to gaze upon the undulations of music.

It is therefore that the terribly logical onslaughts of
Feuerbach are harmless upon most persons. The glittering scimetar
of this Saracenic metaphysician flashes swift and sharp, but he
fights the air with weapons of air. No blood flows from the
severed emptiness of space; no clash of the blows is heard any
more than bell strokes would be heard in an exhausted receiver.
One may justifiably accept propositions which strict science
cannot establish and believe in the existence of a thing which
science cannot reveal, as Jacobi has abundantly shown41 and as
Wagner has with less ability tried to illustrate.42 The utmost
possible achievement of a negative criticism is to show the
invalidity of the physiological,

40 Abel, Disquisitio omnium tam pro immortalitate quam pro
mortalitate argumentandi generum.

41 Von den goutlichen Dingen and ibrer Offenbarung. Wissen und
Glauben mit besonderer Beziehung zur Zukunft der Seelen:
Fortsetzung der Betrachtungen uber Menschenschopfung und
Seelensubstanz.

analogical, and metaphysical arguments to furnish positive proof
of a future life for us. But this negation fully admitted is no
evidence of our total mortality. Science is impotent to give any
proof reaching to