in its widest acceptation, is applicable to all who follow the dictates of reason, whether in their speculative or practical life. In its more restricted signification it is applied specially to that system of religious opinion whose final test of truth is placed in the direct assent of the human consciousness, whether in the form of logical deduction, moral judgment or religious intuition, by whatever previous process these facilities may have been raised to their assumed dignity as arbitrators. The rationalist, as such, is not bound to maintain that a divine revelation of religious truth is impossible, nor even to deny that it has actually been given. He may admit the fact of a revelation, and may accept certain portions of it as of permanent authority; but he assigns to the higher tribunal of his consciousness the right of determining what is essential to religion and what is not.