own existence too.* Cogito, ergo sum, said Descartes. "I think, but it does not follow that I exist," says Mr. Huxley in substance. Mr. Huxley's personal pronoun contradicts him, as the Latin inflections of Descartes' verbs confirm the elder philosopher. The agnostic's psychology dictates his theology. He will not admit that reason in man implies a being who is reasonable, and he therefore consistently enough refuses to see in the intellectual system of the universe an intellect of which it is the expression. He will not affirm the existence of God because he will not affirm his own existence. He is an agnostic in relation to a Deity because he is an agnostic as regards himself. It is curious that Mr. Mill, who was in speculation at once an acosmist and an apsychist, threw away all these refinements and became practically a Theist when in his posthumous Essays on Religion he discussed the intellectual and moral problems offered by nature and human life.

The truth is every man is conscious not only of his thoughts, but of himself thinking. "To each of us," as the late Sir James Stephen well expressed it, "I' is the ultimate central fact which renders thought and language possible. "All human language, all human observation, implies that the mind, the I, is a thing in itself, a fixed point in the midst of a world of change, of which world of change its own organs form a part. It is the same yesterday, to-day, and tomorrow. It was what it is when its organs were of a different shape, and consisted of different matter from their present shape and matter. It will be what it is when they have gone through other changes." The possibility at t

any rate remains that the "I," which is permanent through all the changes of the organization which it informs, and which it may have preceded and may outlast, originates that organization and is not originated by it. May it not be the formative impulse which Mr. Huxley acknowledges, the Archæus which builds up from germs in which analysis has not yet been able to detect any difference, the diverging forms of the plant and animal, the lichen and the man?

It is inevitable to believe that as reason in man supposes a rational mind substantially existing, and not a mere series of states of consciousness, so the Rational Order discernible in the Kosmos implies a Rational Disposer. His designs and character we must, of course, interpret in terms of our own thought and feelings, though they may be below or wide of the truth, just as we interpret the feelings and actions of the lower animals by human analogies which transcend them. We anthropomorphize the brutes upward as we anthropomorphize the Deity downward. The gaps which the physical sciences leave in evolution are thus filled up. An Eternal Life in the universe explains the transition from dead matter to living organizations, an Eternal Reason in the universe explains the development of life into mind, of the sentient into the rational, and indeed the whole cosmic process in its successive stages, from the gaseous mist to man. If these things have come out of the "indefinable latency," it is because they were in it from the first. You cannot evolve anything out of a thing which was not originally there. Whether, and by what steps of thought, the Immanent Reason leads us to a Reason which is Transcendent, to the Deity of a moral and spiritual Theism, or finally to the God of Christian theology, is not for discussion here and now. -National Review.

WANDERING in the pleasant environs of Paris, or even further afield, upon the broad routes nationales of the Charente and La Beauce, it is no uncommon thing to meet on a summer day a little open vehicle flitting along without apparent means of motion, upon noiseless rubber-shod wheels, or panting forth a gentle warning from a square-shaped box in front. Two, and sometimes three, persons are seated in it, one of whom drives by means of a handle. To stop or to start again requires the turn of a screw or the push of a pedal. Such, in its most accomplished and most graceful form, is the Automobile. To see it pass at racing speed-some of these little machines can spurt at twenty miles an hour-takes one's breath away at first. The apparition is uncanny, leaving a sensation like that which no doubt impels Brittany children, on catching sight of a cyclist, to cross themselves (a lady cyclist, enculottée as the custom is in France, produces a quite remarkable effect on some of these little Catholics in the remoter parts of the province). But those who have swallowed the cycle will not strain long at the Automobile; and after the first decent show of apprehension has been disposed of, the obvious exhilaration and novelty of the exercise begins to exert a charm. For there is joy in going quickly and in doing no work, and though the eye be proof against surprises, the heart is not fortified against desire, and-enfin-it is probable that in a year or two every one will be wanting to drive without horses, and to scour the open country at sweet will in a vehicle that can match the bicycle for lightness and for speed, while saving the superfluous element of labor. In other words, there is no reason why, within a decade at most, we should not see considerable changes in our present modes of travelling.

That such a revolution should be sprung on us ready-made is humiliating and rather remarkable. Locomo.

tion is a matter on which, as a nation, we are inclined not a little to fancy ourselves. The railway sprang from our loins, and setting aside certain of our southern lines, which are notorious, no country knows better how to manage it. Worthy to rank with the British railway is the British liner. The British coach was famous before both, and British carriages to this day are held in honor. As for the British cycle, it is pre-eminent in almost every market for excellence of design and manufacture. It is curious, therefore, that Britain should have had no hand. in evolving the automatic vehicle, though, as we shall see, there is a reason for it; and it is even more curious that, failing this country, it should have been left for the French, who are adept rather at claiming than originating mechanical devices, to produce such a development, instead of the Americans, who have specialized one branch of it, at any rate-the electric tramway -to an extent undreamed of yet by other nations.

It is small comfort to know that the earliest efforts were mainly British. The steam-carriages of Hancock and of Gurney were antiquated and cumbrous machines, designed rather to startle the last generation than to exert any influence on this one. Had the matter not been allowed to drop, however, something might have come of it, for our grandfathers at one time were much exercised about mechanical road traction. Even a velocipede, in which the rider pushed himself along by kicking at the ground, was regarded as having "a real philosophical character, and as likely to be of the very first importance to certain classes of society" (Gentleman's Magazine, May, 1819). The following notice, picked up in a remote north-country village, shows that even there the infection had spread, and offers a vague suggestion of something more compli cated and ungainly :

TO BE RAFFLED FOR

taken as the same. It is true, I be

A GRAND GIG,

MADE BY JOHN JAMESON,

Cart and Plough Maker, Knarsdale.

He can ride upon it and carry along with him two boys or girls, each a chair to sit in, and one for himself. By turning the handle backwards or forward and by turning the helm to the right or left it will go. She has three wooden wheels, three cast metal wheels, and brass bushes. It is a great curiosity to see it!!! One shilling for one throw is paid, and book his name. Mr. Thomas Milburn and Mr. Jonathan Walton to be inspectors for the throws. The subscribers may appoint any person to throw for him.-Justice will be done. Printed (according to order) by J. Pattinson, Alston.

Watt himself patented one attempt, depending, like all the other important ones of his time, on steam. But with the failure of steam the matter seems to have dropped. The enterprising generosity of The Engineer in offering a premium of £1000 for the best mechanical carriage of British design may succeed in reviving the old interest now; but, whatever the outcome of it, we must admit that we are too late in the field to establish any kind of priority claim, or even to do justice to our past reputation. And yet the problems involved in automatic locomotion are not in themselves especially difficult ones. They require the combination of lightness, strength, and elegance, with a choice of the most suitable engine for converting fuel into power. The fact that English engineers have done so little of late years toward their solition is primarily, no doubt, due to the cause that automatic road vehicles, except in the form of traction engines and steam rollers, have been practically rendered illegal in this country by the Locomotive Acts, and by that bewildering tissue of statutory anomalies, the local authority by-laws. That they were intentionally excluded is not likely, as they had hardly been thought of; but since the Act is administered literally by the Local Government Board, and since, in point of fact, several promising ventures, including a line of electric omnibuses which was proposing to grace the Hammersmith Road, have had to be given up on this account, the effect may be

succeeded in evading the authorities, and has recently accomplished a journey of fifty miles over English roads, on an automatic dog-cart built in France. But this, so far as I know, is a solitary achievement, and might have ended in penalties of forty shillings and upward for quite an assortment of by-laws contravened.

66

As a matter of reference a list of the principal clauses which operate to check automatic travelling in this country Ten may not be without interest. years hence they ought to appeal to the historian of curious facts. I am sure they are insignificant enough," as the great Master of Trinity remarked. First, there is a Locomotives Act of 1861, the common ancestor of all subsequent Acts, which pleads as its reason for existence that: "Whereas the Use of Locomotives is likely to become common on Turnpike and other Roads, and whereas [certain previous] Acts do not contain any Provisions for regulating the use of such Locomotives be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, etc., . . . as follows":—

3. Every locomotive propelled by steam or any other than animal power, not drawing any carriage, and not exceeding in weight three tons shall have the tires of the wheels thereof

not less than three inches in width. *

*

*

*

*

11. It shall not be lawful to drive any locomotive along any turnpike road or public highway at a greater speed than ten miles an hour, or through any city, town, or village at a greater speed than five miles an hour; and any person acting contrary hereto shall for every such offence, on summary conviction thereof before two Justices, if he be not the owner of such locomotive, forfeit any sum not exceeding five pounds, and if he be the owner thereof, shall forfeit any sum not exceeding ten pounds.

*

Firstly, at least three persons shall be employed to drive or conduct such locomotive : Secondly, one of such persons, while any locomotive is in motion, shall precede such locomotive on foot by not less than sixty yards, and shall carry a red flag constantly displayed, and shall warn the riders and drivers of horses of the approach of such locomotives, and shall signal the driver thereof when it shall be necessary to stop, and shall assist horses, and carriages drawn by horses, passing the same : Fifthly, every such locomotive shall be in. stantly stopped, on the person preceding the same, or any other person with a horse, or carriage drawn by a horse, putting up his hand as a signal to require such locomotive to be stopped.

4. Subject and without prejudice to the regulations hereinafter authorized to be made by local authorities, it shall not be lawful to drive any such locomotive along any turnpike road or public highway at a greater speed than four miles an hour, or through any city, town, or village at a greater speed than two miles an hour; and any person acting contrary thereto shall for every such offence, on summary conviction thereof, forfeit any sum not exceeding ten pounds.

Finally, by the Locomotives Amendment Act of 1878, Section 31, it is enacted that the Corporation of the City of London, and the Metropolitan Board of Works, and the Council of any Borough which has a separate quarter sessions, may make by-laws as to the hours during which locomotives are not to pass over turnpike roads or highways, and may grant annual licenses to locomotives, and exact fines of divers magnitudes, all which are a terror to peaceful men.

Now, it will be seen at once from the above, that whatever may be done in the ordinary way of driving a coach and four through Acts of Parliament, a coach without the four, or for that matter any vehicle of less exalted stature the trim Victoria, or the dainty dog-cart, even the whirling tricycle, if there be absent the saving grace of animal propulsion-would have as much difficulty in forcing its way through these combined enactments as the camel of apostolic times would have had in negotiating a Syrian needle. So

*Subsequently amended to twenty yards. Mr. A. H. Bateman's Motor Tricycle is an actual case in point. See the Wheel World, March, 1881.

to remedy the grievance-for grievance it has at last become-the late President of the Local Government Board brought in yet another Bill, to "amend still further the regulation, etc. .." by annulling all that had gone before in respect of vehicles weighing less than two tons. This Bill was unfortunately shelved in the scramble which attended the late Government's exit from power, and therefore has not passed into law. But there are symptoms that it will come up again on an carly occasion, and then the obstructions to "automobling"-or whatever the sport may be called-should vanish.

Before dealing with the changes for which, it is legitimate to expect, this Bill will pave the way, some information should be given as to the extent to which automatic travelling is already an accomplished fact in France. This will be best done by setting out the results of the recent competitions for Automobile vehicles. Following on a couple of velocipedic contests in 1891, the Petit Journal last year organized a race for voitures sans chevaux, over a course of seventy-eight miles, between Paris and Rouen. Every size and kind of vehicle were admitted, with certain restrictions as to cost, manageableness, and minimum rate of speed. The preliminary tests weeded out all but twenty-one of the intending competitors, and six of these failed to make the goal within the specified time; so that there remained fifteen to deal with, of which thirteen were driven by petroleum (or gasoline) motors, and two by steam engines using coke as fuel. No electrically-driven vehicle survived the test. The quickest time over the course, counting all stops, was five hours forty minutes, achieved by a steam driven traction engine; but as this hardly satisfied the conditions of lightness and elegance required by the problem (and indeed it must have been a horrid sight to see this bulky body tearing up the ground in its flight), the preference was awarded to four petrofeum-driven carriages by Messrs. Peugeot fils and Panhard et Levassor, which divided the first prize between them. The pace credited to these was something short of fourteen and a half

miles an hour, which dwindled away by degrees to nine miles an hour, the speed attained by the second steam carriage, which gallantly plodded in last.*

The contest which took place this year, in June, showed similar but, in some ways, more encouraging results; for although the number of successful vehicles was reduced to nine out of a largely increased field, the conditions of the trial were very much more se

vere.

The course was run from Paris to Bordeaux and back, a distance of nearly seven hundred and fifty miles, which the winning vehicles (by the same pair of makers as won the previous year's record) covered in the remarkable time of forty-eight hours forty-eight minutes, and fifty-four hours thirty-six minutes respectively. This, taking the first figure, gives a rate of fifteen miles an hour. The

race, once more, was to the petroleum engine, which secured the first eight places, leaving the ninth to a cumbrouslooking steam vehicle built for seven persons, and travelling at the dignified speed of eight miles an hour. It must be admitted, however, that the steam vehicle lost twenty-two hours in consequence of a breakdown, and did well to arrive at all within the stipulated time.t The following is an analysis of the twenty-nine vehicles (out of forty-six entries) which were ready or able to present themselves for this contest :

The mixture suggests something between a caucus' race and a view of

the road to Epsom on Derby Day; but when it came to the starting-point some of the less homogeneous elements were removed. Thus, for instance, the tricycle failed to put in an appearance. Of the bicycles, one did not start at all, the other was prematurely demolished by collision with a dog. One of the

electric vehicles contented itself with a short promenade round the suburbs of

*La Nature, July 28th, August 25th, 1894. + Ibid., June 15th, 1895, et seq.

*

Paris, not feeling equal to coping with the difficulty of re-charging its batteries when they ran down. The other performed a creditable but expensive feat by providing in advance relays of charged cells at ten different stations along the route. In spite of this precaution, which got over what has always been considered one of the main difficulties in connection with electric vehicles, it failed to arrive at the winning post. In fact, one of the points most conclusively settled by these contests is that for light and rapid road work the electrically propelled vehicle is a failure. Storage cells, even with vulcanite cases and of the spongiest build, are too heavy for the energy they provide; in addition to which they are fragile and troublesome, will run for too short a time without re-charging, and call for a system of dynamo stations along every main road before they could ever come into even moderately practical use. It is a pity that it should be so, for they possess undoubted advantages on the score of simplicity and cleanliness, and are so much safer than the petroleum engine that one cannot help hoping they may justify themselves some day. Indeed, one may say that for use in towns, where the traffic is slow and the streets are smooth, they have already done so. In our dream of the future they play a prominent part as the natural successors of the hansom cab and the omnibus.

A

Of the petroleum vehicle, which has proved itself so far incontestably superior to all rivals, it may be said that it owes much of its extreme lightness to its modesty in the matter of fuel. leum will suffice it for five or six hours; few pints of gasoline or rectified petroand when this is gone it is easy to replenish at a cost of something like a halfpenny an hour. According to a tive weights of fuel required for petroforeign scientific journal, the comparaleum, steam, and electric (accumulator) traction to produce one horseline; 6 lbs. of coal and 40 lbs. of power for an hour are 14 ozs. of gaso

* M. Jeantaud, the owner of this vehicle, has since published a pamphlet in which its behavior over 600 kilometres of the course is described.