[127] “Old Mat” is now off duty, but may still be seen about the hotel. He thinks he knows more about the cave than any man living, and still better qualified than the younger guides to exhibit its wonders!
OUR EPIPHANY.
What though we cannot, with the star-led kings,
Adore the swaddled Babe of Bethlehem!
Behold, as sweet a Benediction[128] brings
A new Epiphany denied to them.
The Mary Mystical ‘tis ours to see
Still from his crib the little Jesus take,
And show him to us on her altar-knee,
And sing to him to bless us for her sake.
Shall we the while be kneeling giftless there?
In loving faith a richer gold shall please,
A costlier incense in the humblest prayer,
Nor less the myrrh of penitence than these:
And there between us holy Priesthood stands,
Our own Saint Joseph, with the chosen hands.
[128] Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
THE COSMIC PHILOSOPHY.[129]
Herbert Spencer has often been alluded to in our pages, and one of his works, that on Biology, has been specially noticed by us. He is usually classed with the positivists, and we have ourselves so classed him; but he protests against this classification, and, after studying carefully, or as carefully as our patience would permit, the volume before us, we confess the classification appears to be inexact, and even unjust to the positivists. There are considerable differences between his philosophy and the Philosophie Positive as we find it set forth by M. E. Littré, its greatest living chief; for, as set forth by its founder, M. Auguste Comte, in his own works, we would rather not speak, for, to confess the truth, we have never had the patience to read them so as to master their doctrines. Yet, as far as we do know the system, it differs on several points, and much to its advantage, from the cosmic philosophy set forth in Mr. Spencer’s First Principles, especially as to the relativity of knowledge and the theory of evolution. It is the product of a higher order of mind than Mr. Spencer can boast, and of a mind originally trained in a better school.
Mr. Herbert Spencer is a man of considerable native ability, of respectable attainments in what is called modern science, and a fair representative of contemporary English thought and mental tendencies; but he has made a sad mistake in attempting