Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 9.djvu/552

 538 CKITICAL NOTICES. The proof of the first part of his thesis is given, summarily, on page 417, by Dr. Stirling himself : There can no Supreme Being be, but that must to Himself say / : I AM THAT I AM. Man, again, it is said, is made " after the likeness " of God : " a man is the image and glory of God ". It is the very heart of the Christian Religion that the Infinite God, become Finite, is a Man. And Man is /. Even by the privilege of having been made like unto God, Man is I. It is that that he has of God in him. So, then, even to realise the privilege even to realise the / for that it is, that he is here. We are sent here to think. To realise / that is the purpose, and that is the history of the universe. the cogency of this reasoning each reader must judge for himself. It is obvious, however, that the two parts of the thesis are not really parts of one thesis at all. They form distinct ques- tions belonging to distinct departments of scientific inquiry. No. 2 is largely historical and demands a book to itself under the general heading, History of Philosophy. No. 1 belongs totally and entirely to Metaphysics. It has nothing to do with the relations, philosophic or otherwise, of Hegel and Schelling as such, nor is it easy to quite forgive Dr. Stirling for adding to the inherent diffi- culty of the problem other difficulties due to a style of treatment gratuitously exasperating. W. H. FAIRBKOTHER.