strain of grateful and exulting Optimism, that we confess we have not
fully arrived at--namely, that everything "is very good." (p. 387.) From
this impression we have only one constructive drawback to notice in the
author's mechanical but fanciful constitution of the universe, by which
a special Providence in the government of the world seems to be
dispensed with, and the Almighty is placed in the sinecure position of
the Grand Elector of the Abbe SIEYES, with nothing to do. But no divine
attribute is abscinded--no glory of Omnipotence dimmed--whether it
pleases him to rule by direct interpositions of power, or his own
pre-ordained eternal laws.

Still less can we detect in the speculative inquiries of the _Vestiges_
conclusions hostile to the moral and social interests of the community.
Men are formed to be what they are; vice and crime are the fruits of
malorganization, and malorganization is the result of the unfavourable
conditions in which the subject of it has been placed, prior or
subsequent to birth. These are the author's leading metaphysical
inculcations. They impose grave duties upon individuals and upon
society, rightly understood and applied, but we cannot discern a hurtful
tendency in them. They are useful knowledge, knowledge that it would be
well for parents and rulers to master, by showing the importance of
education, of favourable circumstances, and of good moral and physical
training, for rearing happy, well-ordered, and virtuous members of the
community. Supreme in intelligence, man, we firmly believe, is not less
supremely blessed in the means of felicity, provided his real nature and
position in the scheme of creation were understood, recognised, and
carried out. He has his place, his office, and his destiny; he is no
enigma but as an individual; "in the mass," as the author emphatically
remarks, "he is a mathematical problem." His conduct is uniform and
consistent; the result of known and ascertainable causes--causes