It must therefore be simple, indeterminate, indifferent, possessing no essential character, resembling nothing that we actually know.

All this is true of our _ideas_, but not of _beings_.
The highest idea,--that which is the logical condition of all others, and also the most general, the most abstract, the most indeterminate,--this idea contains all others, and by receiving this or that determination, it becomes this or that particular idea.

But what is true of the _idea_ is not true of the _being_; no such vague, indeterminate, indifferent being exists; and yet Pantheism confounds _the idea_ with _the being_, and rests entirely on that confusion of thought." * * * * * In bringing our review of Modern Pantheism to a close, we may offer a few remarks illustrative of its _nature and tendency_, whether considered as a system of speculative thought, or as a substitute for religious belief.
In this view, it is important to observe, first of all, that the theory of "Idealism," and the doctrine of "Identity," which constitute the groundwork of the more spiritual form of Pantheism, are not more adverse to our belief in the existence and personality of God, than they are to our belief in the reality of an external world, or in the existence and personality of man himself.

They stand equally related to each of these _three_ topics; and, if they be accepted at all, they must be impartially applied, and consistently carried out into all their legitimate consequences, as the only philosophical solution of the whole question of Ontology.

Perhaps this is not understood; certainly it has not been duly considered by the more superficial _litterateurs_, who have been slightly tinctured with Pantheism; but it will be acknowledged at once by every consistent Idealist, who understands his own philosophy, and who is honest or bold enough to carry it out into all its practical applications.