THE THEOLOGICAL REVIEW: A Quarterly Journal OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT AND LIFE. VOL. XIV. Nos. LVI.-LIX. WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON; MANCHESTER: JOHNSON & RAWSON, 89, MARKET STREET. gt-wenley -17-39 THE THEOLOGICAL REVIEW. No. LVI-JANUARY, 1877. I-THE TRUE IDEA OF DIVINE KOSMOS. ALTHOUGH I hold the evolution of thought in human history to be rationally continuous and progressive, with no really absolute contradictions between the stages of belief, yet it would be idle to deny that the discoveries of physiology are likely to prove little short of revolutionary in their effect on orthodox and ordinary notions about such subjects as Free Will, Responsibility, the nature of Moral Evil, and its relation to God. "The last acquired faculty in the progress of human evolution," says Dr. Maudsley, "conscience is the first to suffer when disease invades the mental organization." "Conscience is a function of organization-the highest and most delicate function of the highest and most complete development thereof." One may object to this mode of expression; still the fact it endeavours to express cannot be explained away. The writer is a high authority in regard to insanity; and in reading his works I think the general impression derived is, that you can with difficulty distinguish between cases of insane criminality, and cases of criminality not usually regarded as insane. Indeed, on p. 26 of his "Responsibility in Mental Disease," he virtually says this. Moral insanity is counted by our best medical authorities as disease quite as much as intellectual insanity. What Dr. Maudsley says of the cruelty of our treatment of the insane till quite lately is very striking, and he no doubt explains the causes correctly. The lower animals and some savages evince the |