senses; created spirits, similar or superior to that spirit which is
ourselves; and finally God, the Infinite Being, the universal Creator.
Therefore there are two sorts of atheism, and there are only two. The
mind stops at nature, and endeavors to find in material substances the
universal principle of existence; or, rising above nature, the mind
stops at humanity, without ascending to the Infinite Mind, to the
Creator. We have seen how clearly these two doctrines appear in
contemporary literature. We have now to enter upon the examination of
them, and this will afford us matter for two lectures.

The word nature has various meanings; we employ it here to designate
matter, and the forces which set it in motion, those forces being
conceived as blind and fatal, in opposition to the conscious and free
force which constitutes mind. Matter and the laws of motion are the
object of mechanics, of chemistry, and of physics. Do these sciences
suffice for resolving the universal enigma? Such is precisely the
question which offers itself to our examination.

Let us first of all determine what, in presence of the spectacle of the
universe, is the natural movement of human thought, when human thought
possesses the idea of God. I open a book trivial enough in its form, but
occasionally profound in its contents: the _Journey round my room_, of
Xavier de Maistre. The author is relating how he had undertaken to make
an artificial dove which was to sustain itself in the air by means of an
ingenious mechanism. I read:

"I had wrought unceasingly at its construction for more than three
months. The day was come for the trial. I placed it on the edge of a
table, after having carefully closed the door, in order to keep the
discovery secret, and to give my friends a pleasing surprise. A thread