Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-05-28
The VIII ard its Lirsramrc-ProE Bspy's
Posthumous Work.. se0

lPosthurnous Work. IN.
When man shall have arrived at a knowl-
edge of all truth, and a realization of all the
benefits of that knowledge, his mission upon
earth will be accomplished. That the human
race had beginning, is demonstrable in
the light Of physical science; that It viii
have an end, is perhaps equally 50. II we
admit the fact of progress we can not easily |
escape its consequence, which Is perfection;
the ultimatum being reached, there is moth
ing more to be achieved, and nature, in all
her departments, dispenses with things ri
pened, things useless, and things unused.
Reasoning analogically, it is fair to pre-
sume-although IL sounds unorthodox TO do
so--that the world (by which we mean hu-
manity) viii not be permitted to come to an
end until all the faculties with which man is
gifted by the Creator have been fully and
symmetrically developed in some one race or
generation. Reason rejects the idea of au
arbitrary cutting off in a state of unrpeness
and imperfection; and turns away in distaste
from those who preach doctrines so much Mt
war with the testimony of universal nature,
speaking to all who have the capacity to OBJ
serve her manifestation. f
If a knowledge of all truth is condition
precedent to the terrestrial finality, it is evil
dent that there are good many knotty ques-
tions to be disposed of before it win be per-
mitted to arrive; too many to admit of hope
to bring the time Of their settlement within
the short period of that ten, fifteen or twenty
years, more or less, wherein our second-ad-
vent friends expect to be summoned to wit
ness the contamination. New calculations
will therefore become necessary; the time
will need to be heightened; postponement
must be had, and the sooner general review
of the figures takes place, looking toward
that end, perhaps, the better. ..'
But is it incumbent upon mankind to
answer all the questions which mankind has
asked, and settle the knotty points over which
mankind has puzzled itself ever since it began
to entertain problems respecting its own ma
ture, who made it, how and for what purpose
it got where it finds ITSELF and why it is as it
is, and not some other way2 To be sure it
is. The fact that it has asked them is proof
that they are to be answered. The fact that
they will not die, testifes that there arc great
truths, and important to mankind, to be de-
veloped through these means-that they are
necessary. Sheer as we may at fhte and free
will, blind chance and predestination, and
deliver them over to philosophers, or-which
is the same thing-visionaries as much as we
may, they are nevertheless things too potent
to be put down. They viii not depart when
hidden; they will abide no shallow and in
complete solution; they do not pass away
with dynasties, or vanish with changes of
manners, or resolutions of taste, or mutations
in the objects of human pursuit They be-
long to all ages, all civilizations, all philoso-
phies; and Of the literature of dead peoples,
that part into which they have entered, is
almost all that has survived.
The best known American work upon
theology is that of President Edwards, in
which the great question of necessity and
free-will is discussed. The worst and most
troublesome flaw in the Christian system, or,
to speak with more precision, the popular
theology is that it adopts, in different parts
severally, the free will and the necessitarian
notions; attempts to reconcile ideas of an
inexorable predestination with consequences
than can only attach to astate of moralli liberty,
being to this day, that which calls forth the
severest efforts of the clerical, and makes the
heaviest drafts for blind and unreasoning
faith upon the lay professor.
James Pollard Espy, better known by his
theory of storms, left at his decease body of
essays upon the subject of Moral Accounta-
bility, which have recently been published%
making perhaps, the ten thousandth vol
. ume that has appeared upon this most fruitful
of all subjects of speculation. OF this work
we have not the space, nor the time, nor the
ability to attempt q review; and can only
speak of it in general terms. In the first
place, it has several good qualities; it is
Understanding but to ninety-fve pages
octave; and its matter is logically arranged,
and put in clear Saxon English. 1t is not
easy to mistake the drift of the writer's Ian
guage; and his opinions are expressed so,
that, right or wrong, what they are will
remain no secret to the careful reader
How new they are, is another question
only answerable by such as have ex.
tended their researches into books farther
than we have had the opportunity, OF
have imbibed more distinct notion OF
the doctrinal differences between the
writers than we have been able to obtain
from the words they employ. In truth, the
whole subject as it appears in literature, i:
Obscured and perplexed through the various
meanings attached by authors to the term:
in which they express their ideas A settled
terminology alone would solve scores Of
questions that are now apparently made
more difficult by every attempt at solution
and show differences which now seem ire.
concilable to be merely the effect of loose.
ness in the language employed to define tn,
positions of the parties to the dispute. Tht
man who thinks with exactness, and employ
words with precision, will constantly fint
himself at loss, amid the most celebrated
treatises, TO discover the exact shade of tn
authors meaning: without which all that h
has said is barren of significance. There ar
books, and those of no mean repute, whicl
close thinkers cannot read. The effect of al
attempt to do so is sense of dullness ant
impotency-a feeling of useless and yet ex
hausting labor, that is painful and oppressiv,
in theextreme .. .ns .s rrHW