THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
I 
 
 K-S 
 THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 OF HUMAN NATURE. 
 
V 
 
THE 
 
 PHILOSOPHY 
 
 HUMAN NATURE, 
 
 IN ITS 
 
 PHYSICAL, INTELLECTUAL, 
 
 MOEAL RELATIONS; 
 
 WITH AN ATTEMPT TO DEMONSTRATE THE ORDER OF 
 PROVIDENCE IN THE THREE-FOLD CON- 
 STITUTION OF OUR BEING. 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY M'CORMAC, M.D. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN. 
 1837. 
 
BELFAST: Printed by James Bowden, High-street. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE following Work is an attempt to lay down the more 
 important conditions of our being ; to trace their various re- 
 lations, the laws which regulate them, and their first origin. 
 Consciousness has been considered with reference to its three 
 grand elements, and every thing has been enumerated that 
 was calculated to throw any light on its complicated and most 
 interesting phenomena. It appeared self-evident that certain 
 physical, moral, and intellectual states, were more conducive 
 to virtue and happiness than others ; that there was a close 
 connexion between them, and that the whole, might be suc- 
 cessively elucidated, beginning with the most elementary, and 
 ending with the most complex. It likewise seemed that to 
 execute this; to shew the mutual dependance of these states, 
 and the necessity of improving each, to secure the joint per- 
 fection of all, might be of some service to the cause of 
 humanity: that religion and morality might be promoted 
 by demonstrating, independent of other sanctions and con- 
 siderations, that there was a natural bond of obligation tend- 
 ing to the maintenance of our well-being, which could not be 
 infringed without the certain contingency of misery, evil, and 
 disease. Our position on earth our expectations here and 
 hereafter, and the detail of our various duties, are fully ade- 
 quate to occupy the attention of the most zealous inquirer. 
 It has not been thought requisite to attempt any formal de- 
 monstration of the being of a God, but it was conceived im- 
 peratively so, to enlarge on his boundless wisdom and power, 
 and to dwell upon every practicable illustration of his Divine 
 Providence. A brief outline of the physical condition of man 
 has been given, while the ne< essity of elevating it, in order 
 
IV PREFACE. 
 
 to secure the general advancement, has been urged. But 
 more especially, the supremacy of the moral law the con- 
 nexion which we thereby maintain with the Deity and with 
 another form of existence, and the not to be evaded obliga- 
 tion under which we labour to obey it, have been set forth. 
 This has been shewn to be the corner-stone of human excel- 
 lence ; that, before which, mere intellect sinks into insignifi- 
 cance, and without which, talent, rank, or power, is an idle 
 dream. 
 
 In taking up topics upon which human ingenuity may well 
 exhaust its utmost powers, a wide field of investigation has 
 been entered into. Man's origin, capacity, and destination, 
 are problems among the most important that can engage his 
 attention. They have been variously solved, and it is not 
 perhaps, too much to say, that in this world at least, they will 
 never be wholly cleared up. Still, in the waste of conflicting 
 opinions, there are abiding principles of truth and right, re- 
 posing on the foundations of our common nature, which it is 
 desirable to bring under one head. That this has been here 
 accomplished, is not for a moment asserted, but it is at least 
 allowable, to make the attempt. If no important truths are 
 added, it is hoped that few are omitted ; while, if what has 
 been realized however imperfectly, tend in any degree to 
 fulfil the vital objects in view, the writer's labour will not 
 prove in vain. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 HUMAN NATURE IN ITS PHYSICAL RELATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 INTRODUCTION ...... 1 
 
 CHAP. I. On the first Laws of Consciousness - 9 
 
 I. Sensation, 9 II. Vision, 10 III. Hearing, 14 IV. Smell, 
 15 V. Taste, 15 VI. Touch, 16. 
 
 CHAP. II On Painful, Pleasurable, and Indifferent Sensations 17 
 I. Indifferent Sensations, 17 II. Painful Sensations, 18 
 III. Pleasurable Sensations, 18. 
 
 CHAP. Ill On Instinct - 20 
 
 CHAP. IV On the Relations of the Human Frame with the 
 
 Material World - 22 
 
 1. On our Physical Relations at large, 22. I. Relations of the 
 Senses, 22 II. Physical Relations a Source of Mental De- 
 velopment, 24 III. Relations as Regards Gravity, 25 IV. 
 Relations of the Digestive and other Organs, 25. 2. Human 
 Wants lay the Foundation of Human Excellence. War, 26. 
 3. Adaptations of Outward Objects to our Organization, 28. 
 I. Adaptations of Air, 28 II. Adaptations of Water, 30 
 III. Adaptations of Minerals, 32 IV. Adaptations of Ani- 
 mal Substances, 34 V. Adaptations of Vegetable Substan- 
 ces, 35. 
 
 CHAP. V. On Man's Physical Relations and Mutual Dependance 40 
 CHAP. VI. Relations of Man with the Inferior Animals - 42 
 
 CHAP. VII On the Invariable Order of Sensation - - 48 
 
 CHAP. VIII. On the Organization of Man and Brutes - 51 
 
 1. General Remarks, 51. I. Organs of Nutrition, Reproduc- 
 
VI INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 tion, and Relation, 51 II. Organic Energy Derived from the 
 Nerves, 53. 2. Organization not the Source of Thought, 54. 
 
 CHAP. IX On Organic Causation - - 57 
 
 1. Physiology Defined, 57. I. Laws of Nature Invariable, 57 
 II. Disease Averted by attending to the Laws of our Or- 
 ganization, 59. 2. Invariable Succession of the Phenomena 
 which Surround us, 60. I. On the Contingency of Events, 61. 
 3. On Final and Efficient Causes, as regards the Organiza- 
 tion, 62, 
 
 CHAP. X On the Organic Laws, and the Necesssity of Obey- 
 ing them - 64 
 1. Premature Destruction from Infringement of the Organic 
 Laws, 64. 2. On the Influence of Repetition, 65. I. Ne- 
 cessity of Avoiding Extremes, 65 II. On Exercise, 66 III. 
 On Excess, 67 IV. On Cleanliness, 69 V. Influence of 
 Habit, 69 VI. Conformity Facilitated by Correct Feelings 
 and Ideas, 70. 
 
 CHAP. XI. On the Influence of Circumstances on Human Or- 
 ganization - - 71 
 1. Circumstances Productive of Health and Disease ; Heredi- 
 tary Influence, 71. I. Training, 73 II. Heat, Cold, Mois- 
 ture, Food, and Climate, 75 III. Disease, 77 IV. Mental 
 Disease 79. 2. Legislative and Individual Influence, 80. I. 
 Employment, 81 II. War, 82 III. Emigration, 83. 3. Re- 
 ciprocal Influence of Human Beings, 85. I. Superstition, 86 
 II. Capital Punishments, 87 HI. War, 89 IV. Duelling, 
 92 V. Murder, 92 VI. Asceticism: Suicide, 93 VII. 
 Slavery, 94. 4. Influence of Literature, Science, and Art, 96. 
 5. Influence of Mind on Body, 97. 
 
 CHAP. XII. On the Adaptations of the Human Frame; its 
 Unceasing Mutations, and the Argument thereby derived, for 
 the Separate Nature of the Human Soul; also, on Organic- 
 Decay and Death 99 
 
 CHAP. XIII. On the Best Means of Securing the Physical 
 Well-being of Mankind - - 105 
 
 1. Physical Education, 105. I. Regulation of Atmospheric 
 Vicissitudes, 106 II. Exercise, 107. 2. Measures of Hy- 
 giene, 108. 3. Supply of Physical Wants, 109. I. Sources 
 of Human Destitution, 1 1 1 II. On Competition, 113 III. 
 On the Instrument of Exchange, 114 IV. On National 
 Debts, 144 V. Occupation of the Soil, 116 VI. On the 
 Nature of Capital, 117. 4. Means of Relief, 117. I. Ex- 
 tension of Commerce and Manufactures, 118 II. Diminu- 
 tion of Taxation, 119 III. General Remarks; Reward of 
 Labour too Small, 121 IV. On Community of Property, 122 
 
 V. Existing Arrangements Defective, 124 VI. Labour 
 
 Banks; Better Regulation, and Higher Reward of Labour, 125. 
 
 CHAP. XIV. On the Physical Perfectibility and Improvement 
 of Mankind ----- 128 
 
INDEX. Vll 
 
 PART IT. 
 
 HUMAN NATURE IN ITS INTELLECTUAL RELATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 CHAP. XV On the Mind, and on the Origin aud Nature of 
 our Ideas and Faculties - ] 33 
 
 1. The Mind, its Seat and Nature; General Remarks; Origin 
 of Ideas, 133. I. Idea of Space, 13511. Ideas of Vision, 
 136 III. Ideas of Hearing, 136 IV. Ideas of Smell and 
 Taste, 137 V. Ideasof Touch, 138 VI. Ideaof Time, 139 
 VII. On Innate Ideas, 140. 2. On Association and its Laws, 
 141. 3. On Complex Ideas, 145. 4. Abstraction, Generali- 
 zation, and Classification, 149. 5. Induction, 151. 6. On 
 the Origin of Language, 152. 7. On Active and Passive 
 States of the Mind, 154. 8. Reason, Judgment, and Reflec- 
 tion, 155. 9. Imagination, 157. 10. Memory, 159, 11. 
 Futurity and Prescience, 160. 12. Motive, 162. 13. Will, 
 163. 14. Belief, 166. 15. Identity, 172. 
 
 CHAP. XVI. On the Relations and Adaptations of the Human 
 Mind - 174 
 
 1. General Remarks, 174. I. Relations of Man with Man, 
 17611. Relations with the Phenomenal world, 181 III. 
 Relations with the Deity, 182. 
 
 CHAP. XVII On the Primary Equality or Inequality, and on 
 the Peculiar Tendencies of the Human Intellect - - 186 
 
 CHAP. XVIII. On Language, Science, and Art, and on the best 
 Means of Acquiring a Knowledge of them 191 
 
 1. General Remarks on Language, 191. I. On the Acquisi- 
 tion of the Mother Tongue, 195 II. On the Acquisition of 
 Dead Languages, 199 III. On the Acquisition of Modern 
 Languages, 203. 2. On the Acquisition of Science, 203. 
 
 3. On the Acquisition of Art, 206. I. Music, 207 II. 
 
 Painting, Statuary, and Architecture, 211 III. Poetry, 213. 
 
 4. On Adult Exertion, 216. 1. On the Education of Facts, 
 217H. On the Subordination of Mental Activity to Utility, 
 219. 
 
 CHAP. XIX On the Influence of Circumstances on the De- 
 velopment of the Mind - . _ 220 
 
 1. General Remarks : Internal Circumstances, 220. I. Phy- 
 sical Constitution, 22111. Mental and Moral Energy, 223. 
 
 2. External Circumstances, 225. I. Government, 22611. 
 Religion, 228 III. Literature, Science, and Art, 230 IV. 
 The Passions, 232 V. Human Wants, 232 VI. Commerce, 
 236 VII. Family and National Influence, 237 VIII. Rank, 
 240 IX. Habits, 241 X. Climate, 242 XI. Age, 244 
 XII. Sex, 246. 
 
 CHAP. XX On the Physiology of the Human Mind - 248 
 
 1. Introductory Remarks ; Materialism, 248. 2. Liberty and 
 
Till INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 Necessity, 251. 3. The Evils of Ignorance and the Advantages 
 of Knowledge, as Regards the Physiology of the Human Mind, 
 252. 4. On Sleep, 261. 5. On Insanity, 264. 
 
 CHAP. XXL On the Influence of the Mind on the Body, and 
 on the Feelings ... 267 
 
 I. Influence of Mind on the Body, 267 II. Influence of Mind 
 on the Feelings, 270. 
 
 CHAP. XXII. On the Regulation of the Intellect with a View 
 to our Greatest Advantage and that of Others - 272 
 
 1. General Remarks ; the Acquisition of Knowledge, 272. . 
 I. The Diffusion of Knowledge, 274. 2. The Generation of 
 Intellectual Energy, 281. 3. Credulity and Scepticism, 283. 
 4. Value and Accessibility of Mental Pleasures and Pursuits, 
 286. 5. The Necessity of a Sense of Accountability, 288. 
 6. Importance of Habit, 290. 7. On the Proper Balance of 
 the Mind, 291. 
 
 CHAP. XXIIL On the Best Means of Improving the Mind 295 
 I. Utility of Education, 296 II. Self-instruction, 297 III. 
 Operation of Governments, 298 IV. Individual Effort, 300 
 V. Cultivation of Science, Nature, and Art, 301 VI. Re- 
 gulation of the Passions, and Removal of Prejudice, 304. 
 
 CHAP. XXIV On the Progressive Perfectibility of the Human 
 
 Mind - 307 
 
 CHAP. XXV. On Death, and on our Condition Hereafter, 
 Viewed in Reference to the Intellect - - - 312 
 
 PART III. 
 HUMAN NATURE IN ITS MORAL RELATIONS. 
 
 CHAP. XXVI. On the Feelings, Passions, Affections, Moral 
 Judgments, and their Origin - 321 
 
 1. General Remarks: Feelings of Pleasure and Pain derived 
 in the First Instance, from Organic Sources: Inferences, 321. 
 
 2. The Appetites: Pleasures and Pains of Sense are Re- 
 membered : Not Capable of Indefinite Prolongation, 325. 3. 
 Feelings Variously Associated : Disinterestedness : Growth 
 and Progress of the Feelings, 329. I. Love of Offspring, 333 
 II. Filial Love, 335 III. Fraternal Love, 336 IV. The 
 Love of Sex, 337 V. Friendship, 340 VI. Love of Truth, 
 342 VII. Love of God, 344 VIII. General Reflections on 
 the Affections: Virtue, what? 348. 4. Painful Feelings; 
 Utility of Pain; Disinterested Grief, 351. I. Sorrow and 
 Grief, 354 II. Fear, 355 III. Repentance, 357 IV. Dis- 
 appointment, 360 V. Mental Weariness, 363 VI. Painful 
 and Pleasing Recollections and Anticipations, 365 VII. Pain 
 a Means, but never an End, 367. 5. Mixed Feelings, 368. 
 
INDEX. IX 
 
 Page 
 
 I. Union of Pleasure with Pain: Melancholy, 370. 6. On 
 the Inferior Passions and their Origin, 372. I. Remorse, 377 
 II. Envy, 379 III. Contempt, 381 IV. Resentment, 382 
 V. Revenge, 383 VI. Pride, 384. 7. General Considera- 
 tions on the Inferior Passions, 385. I. Bloodthirstiness, 
 Cruelty, and Brutality, 386 II. Fanaticism, Bigotry, and 
 Superstition, 388 III. Disinterested Malevolence, 390. 8. 
 Apathy: Absence of all Feeling: Absence of the Better 
 Feelings, 393. 9. Mixed qualities ; General Considerations 
 on the Passions, 397. 
 
 CHAP. XXVII. On the Moral Judgment Conscience Theory 
 of Virtue, and Language of Passion - - 400 
 
 1. On Conscience or the Moral Judgment, 400. 2. On Virtue 
 and Vice, 408. 3. Case in which Virtue is Appreciated and 
 Vice Chosen, 418. 4. On the Language of Passion, 419. 
 
 CHAP. XXVIII On the Influence of Circumstances on the De- 
 velopment of the Passions, Feelings, and Moral Principles 421 
 1. General Remarks; the Evolution of the Moral Principles 
 Depends Partly on Others, and Partly on Ourselves, 421. I. 
 Influence of Governments, 426 II. Influence of Education, 
 428 III. Influence of Human Life of "Moral Energy, 432. 
 
 CHAP. XXIX. The Physiology of the Mind as Regards the 
 Affections, Passions, Feelings, and Moral Judgments - 436 
 
 1. Fundamental Conditions of Consciousness, 436. I. No 
 Material Organ for the Exercise of the Feelings, 436 II. 
 Feelings and Ideas not called up with Equal Facility, 438 
 III. On the Influence of Association, 442 IV. On Sympathy, 
 443 V. On the Exercise of the Feelings, 445 VI. The 
 Feelings and Affections Regulated by Immutable Laws, 447 
 VII. Feelings during Sleep, 448 VIII. On Double or 
 Divided Consciousness, 449 IX. Moral Insanity, 450 X. 
 Transference, 452. XL On the Succession of Ideas and Feel- 
 
 v ings, 455 XII. Cannot Appropriate the Affections and Emo- 
 tions of Others without Archetypes in Ourselves, 456 XIII. 
 Feelings and Affections sometimes Remain, when the Con- 
 victions Connected with them have Passed away, 457 XIV. 
 Philosophical Childhood, 459 XV. On the Association of 
 Pleasurable Feelings with Acts of Self-denial and Forbearance, 
 460 XVI. The Growth of the Affections and the Practice 
 of Morality, not Contingent on a Knowledge merely, of their 
 Theory and Origin, 461 XVII. Feeling and Passion more 
 Extensively Diffused than what is Supposed, 462 XVIII. 
 Beneficence towards Others, the Source of Superior Affec- 
 tions, and Injuries, of Inferior, 464 XIX. Influence of Age 
 on the Feelings, 464 XX. Utility of the Passions, 466. 
 
 CHAP. XXX. On the Influence of the Heart on the Mind and 
 Frame, and on Itself . - - 467 
 
 CHAP. XXXI On the Regulation of the Affections, Feelings, 
 and Moral Conduct, with a View to Secure our Own Best In- 
 terests and those of Others - 478 
 
X INDEX. 
 
 Page 
 
 1. Our Duty to Ourselves, 478. I. Duties, as Regards the 
 Body, 478 II. Duties, as Regards the Mind, 479 III. Duties, 
 as Regards the Heart, 480. 2. Our Duty to Others, 500. 
 3. Our Duty to the Deity, 514. 
 
 CHAP. XXXII. On the Best Means of Cultivating the Feelings 
 and Affections, as well as of Securing and Perfecting the Exer- 
 cise of the Moral Powers - - 532 
 I. Specific Measures Necessary for Cultivating the Feelings 
 and Moral Powers, 53211. The Children of Every Class 
 should be Trained to Moral Excellence, 535 III. Influence 
 of Public Opinion with Regard to the Improvement of Society, 
 536 IV. Injurious Regulations with Regard to Property, 
 539 V. Influence of Superior Moral Communion, 540. 
 
 CHAP. XXXIII. On the Perfectibility of the Heart and Moral 
 Powers Here and Hereafter - 543 
 
 CHAP. XXXIV On Our Condition Hereafter 553 
 
THE PHILOSOPHY 
 
 OF HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE science of man is the most important, 
 and the study of his nature the most interesting, 
 of all the pursuits to which he can addict himself. 
 It must be attended to, not in one particular, but 
 in all; not only with regard to the intellect, but 
 to the body, and not only in relation to these, but 
 to the feelings and affections. They must be 
 studied and appreciated, at once severally and col- 
 lectively. Improvements in the analysis of the 
 different conditions of the human mind, and the 
 revival of neglected truths, place the connexion 
 here urged in a striking light. This is exempli- 
 fied in the recent progress of physical science, 
 which confirms views previously supposed to rest 
 on grounds purely metaphysical. 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The necessity of studying our nature in its 
 three-fold division, reposes on a variety of parti- 
 culars. For years, the doctrine of innate ideas 
 and realism, which is but a modification of it, ex- 
 cited a warm controversy. The origin of the 
 dispute which is probably coeval with speculation 
 itself, seems lost in the night of time. All the 
 ideas which we are capable of experiencing, flow 
 in the first instance from sensation ; a truth of 
 great importance in education, as well as in lay- 
 ing a foundation for the argument from analogy, 
 in favour of the similar origin of the affections, 
 feelings and moral judgments. If our ideas and 
 feelings arise from sensation, and if our various 
 mental and moral states be a mean result of edu- 
 cation, the circumstances in which we are placed, 
 and our personal efforts, it yields an enormous 
 scope to the legislator and the philanthropist. 
 The proposition however, is susceptible of rigo- 
 rous demonstration. If our knowledge if our 
 qualities whether for good or for ill, are in no 
 case inborn, it necessarily follows, not only that 
 all are capable of superior intellectual and moral 
 culture, but that all have an unequivocal right to 
 receive it. 
 
 I experience an unflinching confidence in the 
 fulfilment of the superior destinies of our race. 
 It is a long-cherished conviction, and one which 
 
INTRODUCTION. .1 
 
 I shall carry to the grave. God is just and mer- 
 ciful : he has implanted capabilities that can never 
 be exhausted. The grievous errors which mark 
 our career, must be ascribed to defective train- 
 ing, deteriorating circumstances, and insufficient 
 personal exertion. Even the wisest and best 
 probably, afford but an imperfect criterion of 
 what, under happier auspices, all might become. 
 At birth, we are innocent, and with proper man- 
 agement, might remain so through life. What a 
 glorious prospect does it not unfold to mankind, 
 when they shall acquire wisdom enough to apply 
 the principle to the full extent. There need 
 then, be no ignorance, no want of feeling and no 
 crime ; and why, but because all shall be culti- 
 vated, and because it is impossible for such un- 
 happy results to accrue, when the causes which 
 lead to them are lopped away for ever. All 
 other public measures dwindle into insignificance, 
 when contrasted with the efficacy of universal 
 training. In ten short years, the machinery 
 of instruction might be brought into operation, 
 and a moral revolution gradually accomplished. 
 There are too many jarring interests and con- 
 flicting opinions however, as well as too low an 
 estimate of the dignity of human nature, to per- 
 mit a provision of such boundless utility to be 
 carried into effect. Even so then, until the 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 world consent to work this great good, so long 
 shall desolation, and sin, and misery, prevail. It 
 is not intellectual cultivation alone, that will do 
 the work; the feelings, affections and moral 
 principles must be developed, while the physical 
 condition of the community at large, must be ele- 
 vated. We have abundant facilities for securing 
 happiness, but we are so constituted, that this 
 cannot be accomplished unless by the joint exer- 
 tion of all our faculties, and by the successful 
 elimination of the better qualities of our nature. 
 Ignorance, indolence, and immorality, never have 
 reaped and never will reap, the reward of know- 
 ledge and virtuous energy. It is not animal 
 comfort to which we must aspire, nor yet intel- 
 lectual superiority, nor even, best and highest 
 though it be, moral and religious excellence, but 
 all united. Any thing short of this, is incompa- 
 tible with the well-being of the whole man and 
 with the assumption on his part, of that position 
 on earth which he has been made capable of en- 
 joying. Let existing obstacles however, be what 
 they may, the time must work round when they 
 will fade into nothing, and when the human race 
 shall assert with one voice, their indefeasible 
 rights never to be deprived of them again. 
 Step by step, mankind approach a consummation 
 of virtue, knowledge and happiness, which the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 world has not yet seen. We might be faint- 
 hearted indeed, were this mighty change to de- 
 volve on human agency alone; but the path has 
 been marked out by superior skill, and the ope- 
 ration of circumstances under the controul of an 
 all-directing Providence, must finally lead us to 
 the happy goal. 
 
 Though I have come in contact with the dark 
 side, I have also had abundant opportunities for 
 acknowledging the kindness of my fellows, and 
 for rejoicing in my community with the great 
 family of mankind. It is a pleasure to reflect that 
 unceasing good offices are every where going on, 
 and that thousands as well as myself, have borne 
 unequivocal testimony to the reception of unpur- 
 chased, and unless by gratitude, unrequited kind- 
 ness. It makes the heart within, to sing for 
 gladness, to think of all these things, as well as 
 of the generous acts and deliberate sacrifices, of 
 which the earth is the theatre. The capabilities, 
 the cultivation of which, has produced these bene- 
 ficial results in a portion of mankind, might also 
 lead to them in the whole. We cannot perhaps, 
 hope to finish our career without suffering; but 
 there can be no lasting unhappiness without moral 
 depravity, and of this there need be little in the 
 world. The evils to which we are exposed, are 
 intended to promote our well-being, and to in- 
 
6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 spire energy, fortitude, and entire submission to 
 the Divine will. They have nothing in common 
 with iniquity, though never so strenuously con- 
 founded, and we could not escape the liability, 
 without also losing the advantages of choice. 
 Sickness, death, and the various casualties of life, 
 unless in so far as they result from it, are widely 
 remote from active and passive vice from false- 
 hood, ingratitude and all iniquity. We should 
 oppose the latter, but it is our duty when they 
 become inevitable, to submit to the former. The 
 one may assail the good, the brave and the wise, 
 but the other never can. It is impossible for the 
 world to go back the very generation of so much 
 excellence, knowledge and virtue, affords peremp- 
 tory evidence that humanity must advance. If 
 these have been created out of nothing from the 
 dark and dreary void, what have we not a right 
 to anticipate from the intellectual and moral 
 agencies now at work? There is indeed, every 
 reason to exult over the prospects of our race, 
 and to hope that mankind shall finally, and with- 
 out the possibility of relapse, be able to overcome 
 the obstacles that now beset their path. 
 
 It is the duty of every lover of his species to 
 strive on and on, since upon such under Provi- 
 dence, the progress of humanity must devolve. 
 The world may not thereby, be rendered supremely 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 wise and good, but assuredly, it will be made both 
 wiser and better than it could other wise become. 
 It is incumbent upon us to aim at excellence, or 
 we shall achieve no good. If we do not aspire 
 to that which we have not reached, how will it 
 be practicable for us to advance ? There is no 
 presumption so great, as that which sets bounds 
 to the improvement of mankind ; we may under- 
 rate, but we cannot over-rate it. With what pro- 
 priety indeed, can we limit those who must ne- 
 cessarily, be so much wiser and better than 
 ourselves? The ignorant assuredly, are not to 
 draw up rules for the wise ; nor those of an im- 
 perfect condition of society, for those of a perfect. 
 Even in our own time, applications before un- 
 known, of physical science to human convenience 
 have been witnessed ; and shall we suppose those 
 of the mind in any degree less practicable ? Its 
 powers in this respect, are infinitely greater than 
 any which it is able to exert over the phenomena 
 of matter, and still better calculated to promote 
 human dignity and well-being. When the won- 
 derful endowments with which we have been 
 gifted, shall be duly appreciated, there is every 
 reason to hope that our position in future ages 
 as contrasted with the past, will seem little short 
 of perfection itself. 
 
PART I. 
 
 HUMAN NATURE IN ITS PHYSICAL RELATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE FIRST LAWS OF CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 I. CONSCIOUSNESS is that fundamental con- 
 dition without which we could not exist. Its first 
 forms are not remembered, or if so, are con- 
 founded with more recent ones. It is the com- 
 mon title of our sensations, feelings and ideas, 
 and these include all the phenomena of our 
 earthly existence. 
 
 It is usual to say that sensations arise from the 
 action of outward objects on our organs; it is 
 evident however, that all we know of either, must 
 be states of the mind. Thus colour is the result of 
 a visual perception. It does not reside in the 
 object, but in the organ; and this again, is a form 
 of consciousness. Extension and resistance are 
 names of muscular sensations, likewise mental 
 conditions. United with the sensations arising 
 in the cutaneous papilla, they constitute touch. 
 When the undulations of the atmosphere impinge 
 
10 ON CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 upon the ear, the sound is but a condition of that 
 organ. Reflection teaches us, that although the 
 cause of sensation lodges without, sensations them- 
 selves, must be forms of consciousness. What this 
 cause is, our faculties afford us no means of know- 
 ing ; but it is obvious that the external cause and 
 the inward vehicle, must be radically distinct. 
 
 Sensations are the first forms of consciousness, 
 and may be pleasurable, painful, or indifferent. 
 When those of the last class are remembered, 
 they constitute ideas and mental perceptions ; 
 when the two former, they become the founda- 
 tion of our emotions of pleasure and pain. Un- 
 less sensations precede, ideas or emotions cannot 
 follow. By this arrangement, a few primary or- 
 ganic pleasures or pains, may be reflected over 
 innumerable mental states in themselves devoid 
 of either. A simple and truly wonderful origin 
 for those varied conditions which sometimes glad- 
 den and ennoble, and sometimes, degrade and 
 render existence miserable. We cannot learn 
 how sensation is effected, nor shall the process 
 ever be laid bare. As to what the mind is in- 
 trinsically, we cannot know. It is susceptible of 
 certain modifications, which constitute not only 
 all our knowledge, but the means of obtaining 
 it. These bear the collective title of conscious- 
 ness. The thing that is conscious, we call mind ; 
 the thing that provokes the consciousness, we 
 style outward object. 
 
 II. All our senses are worthy of admiration, 
 but there are advantages peculiar to each. They 
 
ON CONSCIOUSNESS. 11 
 
 render us conversant with the phenomenal world, 
 with our fellow men, and with the various crea- 
 tures that tenant the earth; but more especially, 
 with the signs of God's existence and wonderful 
 providence. Light connects us with objects at 
 a distance; without its aid, we should be on a 
 level with the insects whose knowledge is obtained 
 through the medium of touch. Thus degraded, 
 we might feel the heat of the sun, but could not 
 tell its source ; and unable to perceive their light, 
 we should be unaware of the existence of the 
 stars. The glorious panorama of nature the 
 illuminated heaven with the glad aspect of earth, 
 would be equally unknown : our intercourse with 
 our species would be limited, and our support 
 precarious. The importance of vision is so 
 great, that all the superior, and most of the in- 
 ferior animals, have been provided with it. A 
 large proportion of our ideas owe their origin to 
 this sense. Works of genius and the records of 
 knowledge are addressed to it, and without it, 
 could neither have existence nor utility. Colours 
 are the source of many pleasures. Creation 
 would be monotonous were light and shade the 
 only distinctions, as is the case during the gloom 
 of evening and the prevalence of snow. As it 
 is, we have the hue of beauty ; the thousand 
 aspects of bird and flower ; the gay tints of art, 
 and in fine, the endless diversity of every thing 
 that surrounds us. Colours are enhanced by 
 combination and contrast, as in mosaics, and 
 still more, in the variety of nature. How bril- 
 
12 ON CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 liant is the aspect of beds of flowers ? The 
 splendour of the rainbow, no less than that of 
 many living objects, fills us with admiration and 
 delight. By night, the moon and stars provide 
 us with their tinted and gentle radiance; while 
 meteors and other forms of the electric fluid, add 
 their brilliancy. The very sea is full of splen- 
 dour. Many insects and some plants even, emit 
 light at night. It would be difficult to describe 
 the flitting and glowing illumination of the firefly. 
 We are enabled to multiply the pleasures arising 
 from these sources, by transferring the hues of 
 nature to the produce of our industry. We can 
 thus preserve them for years ; and if the material 
 be not very perishable, as in the canvass of the 
 painter and the frescoed wall, they 'will often re- 
 main uninjured for centuries. The paintings of 
 the early masters, the decorations of Pompeii and 
 of the Egyptian tombs, are of very ancient date. 
 When the light so liberally bestowed by nature 
 ceases, we supply its place by an artificial illumi- 
 nation that perpetuates the lustrous colouring of 
 the day. Thus comfort and convenience are 
 promoted, while existence is multiplied, and light 
 and life are imparted to what would otherwise 
 come within the dreary dominions of darkness 
 and night. How much is thereby added to human 
 industry, to hours of study and social intercourse ? 
 Yet contrivances even of earthly origin, must be 
 referred to the only Giver of knowledge and 
 power ; since without Him there could be no art, 
 nor any science or skill. 
 
ON CONSCIOUSNESS. 13 
 
 
 
 How well adapted is the organ of vision to con- 
 vey expression ? How speaking is the eye of in- 
 tellect ; how powerfully does it reflect the impulse 
 of every passion of love, of hatred and of scorn ? 
 Yet how vacant is the eye of apathy and igno- 
 rance ; but above all, how dull and unmeaning is 
 the eye of the dead? There is no limit to the 
 impulses which this organ conveys from the soul, 
 and none to those which it can bring back. The 
 language of the eye includes a host of ideas and 
 feelings innumerable: how poor would speech 
 become without its aid; how vast its addition to 
 human intercourse? Does it not yield an ex- 
 pression of friendship, love, parental affection, 
 filial reverence, mute obedience, exultation, curi- 
 osity, heroic daring, ardent hope and devout sub- 
 mission, to which no tongue could give utterance ? 
 Such copious access to God's creation and the 
 face of human kind, yields scope for boundless 
 gratitude. For how desolate is the darkness of 
 the poor blind, who can never hope to look abroad, 
 till the great veil is lifted up that sunders life from 
 immortality ? 
 
 By means of conventional marks, we have the 
 power of referring at pleasure, to the records of 
 human genius and knowledge ; thereby adding 
 to our stores, and perpetuating the better feelings 
 of our nature. How boundless the field when 
 men shall learn to avail themselves of it, and how 
 numerous the advantages which we have already 
 derived all by means of the eye? Without 
 this organ there could neither have been art nor 
 
14 ON CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 artist, or any written evidence of human acquire- 
 ments. When we reflect upon these diversified 
 utilities, so boundless and so beneficent in their 
 operation, our hearts expand with gratitude and 
 
 joy- 
 in. The properties of vision are copious and 
 
 wonderful, but how admirable is the sense of 
 hearing? Anatomists have expatiated on the 
 resources displayed in the structure of the ear 
 and on its fitness for the purposes assigned to it. 
 Were it not for this organ, man could not main- 
 tain delicious converse with his kind ; he could 
 not listen to the voice of tenderness or the com- 
 munings of affection, nor could the accents of his 
 offspring vibrate through his heart. Eloquence 
 would be mute, and the cheerful intercourse of 
 humanity would cease. The thunder would re- 
 sound unheard, and the sea would dash against 
 the beaten shores in vain. The ample volume of 
 the wind, whether in the raging tempest or 
 the gentle zephyr, would pass unnoticed. The 
 roar of the cataract, the rushing of the torrent, 
 the murmur of the rivulet, the sighing of the trees, 
 the song of the birds with all the fitful melody of na- 
 ture, whether by night or by day, would have no 
 existence for our kind. None of our organs arc 
 adapted for use simply, but for pleasure also ; and 
 that not merely by direct sensation, but through 
 the infinite avenues of association. We not only 
 hear, but we also appreciate music the most ele- 
 vating of the pleasures of sense, and one that 
 awakens in our hearts the most lively anticipations 
 
ON CONSCIOUSNESS. 15 
 
 of futurity. Without hearing, social intercourse 
 would be destitute of its greatest charm, and the 
 orator, the moralist and the man of science, would 
 lose their most efficient means of conveying in- 
 struction and delight. When one feels these 
 things, it awakens a profound conviction of wis- 
 dom and goodness divine. 
 
 IV. All the senses yield scope for contempla- 
 tion, and not least so, that of smell. Like the 
 rest, it may be looked upon as an organ of use 
 and as one of pleasure ; as enabling us to select 
 our food and to regale ourselves with delicious 
 fragrance. It accompanies and heightens the 
 appetite, while it animates and increases the plea- 
 sures of the palate. The satisfaction which we 
 derive from a charming portion of the vegetable 
 world is enhanced by it. The aspect of the rose 
 is not more sweet, than is the ineffable odour 
 which we inhale from it ; and this is no less true 
 of many other beautiful flowers, of which the 
 blended fragrance on summer days, streams like 
 incense up to heaven. Even the emanations of 
 wild plants afford a pleasure, which is not the 
 less vividly felt, because secretly and unosten- 
 tatiously furnished by the hand of nature. The 
 perfume does not always perish with the flower, 
 for we can extract and enjoy its fragrance, when 
 the source is no more. 
 
 V. Without taste, it would be difficult to dis- 
 criminate between proper and improper articles 
 of food, while the pleasures thereby derived, would 
 be lost. We are thus incited to provide for our 
 
16 ON CONSCIOUSNESS. 
 
 sustenance, and though often abused, the stimu- 
 lus accomplishes its purpose. How numerous 
 are the social gratifications to which ^is sense 
 contributes, and which otherwise could not be 
 experienced? Thus physical wants are made 
 subservient to the cultivation of our moral nature. 
 
 VI. The variety involved in touch is mani- 
 fold. In combination with muscular motion, it 
 lays the foundation of the association which en- 
 ables us as it were, to see extension. Probably, 
 the perception of the interlimitation of colours 
 by the retina, as well as the action of the 
 muscles of the eye, assist in this. It is usual to 
 restrict the sense of touch to the papillaB of the 
 lips, tongue, fingers, and surface, though not 
 confined to these. The immediate pleasures of 
 this sense, are not very numerous ; but by aiding 
 in the formation of the visual perception of sen- 
 sation, it adds immeasurably to the faculty of 
 sight. Its utility as one of the safeguards of 
 existence is very great. Sensitiveness to physi- 
 cal injuries is nearly confined to the skin, as 
 little pain is felt after the integuments are di- 
 vided. This is an arrangement the scope of 
 which is obvious. Our muscular efforts are guided 
 by the united aid of sight and touch. The blind 
 depend upon the latter at all times ; without it, 
 we should find it impossible to use any tool or 
 utensil with accuracy, while the arts would re- 
 main in the rudest imperfection. 
 
 From the foregoing it will appear that the 
 senses are bound up together, mutually assisting 
 
ON SENSATION. 17 
 
 and assisted ; that they are the sources of endless 
 pleasures and of infinite applications of conve- 
 nience and utility, and that they display in the 
 most ample manner, power, wisdom, and good- 
 ness, at once varied, wonderful and inexhaustible. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON PAINFUL, PLEASURABLE AND INDIFFERENT 
 SENSATIONS. 
 
 I. SENSATIONS are painful, pleasurable or in- 
 different ; the latter however, preponderate. 
 Were it otherwise, it would incapacitate us from 
 attending to our duties. Indifferent sensations 
 are the leading agents of the business of life, and 
 the basis of our intellectual attainments. We 
 can call them forth at pleasure, and experience 
 them to an extent, that does not come within the 
 bounds of calculation. How very many take 
 place during the acts of reading, writing or walk- 
 ing; while we regard an extensive prospect, a 
 numerous army, or the stars of heaven? The 
 rapidity and the diversity of sensation are very 
 great, particularly in the young. This provides 
 for their instruction, and fulfils various useful 
 ends. Each contraction of a child's muscles, 
 and every effort of its tiny hands, yield further 
 knowledge of outward objects, and lay the foun- 
 
18 ON SENSATION. 
 
 dation of the indissoluble association between 
 vision and the recollected perception of extension. 
 
 II. Painful, are less numerous than pleasing 
 sensations; nor are they inflicted unless to se- 
 cure some countervailing advantage. Suffering 
 or death would ensue, were we not to maintain 
 the well-being of our frames. We pity those who 
 perish midst ice and snow, but the union of intel- 
 ligence with mutilated and frozen limbs, would be 
 a greater evil. Alternate exertion and repose 
 are pleasurable, but if either be carried to excess, 
 mischief must arise. Liability to pain secures 
 our existence, and we are thereby warned of 
 danger, when our vigilance might otherwise slum- 
 ber. Though an evil in itself, it is the indispen- 
 sable condition of our being, and an indirect 
 means of securing the goods of life. If sickness 
 is attended with suffering, it is at once the evi- 
 dence of its presence, and the incentive to its 
 removal. We may deplore the ravages of dis- 
 eases, but we must not forget that health and 
 happiness are partly purchased by their contin- 
 gency. Yet even here, that Providence which 
 orders all things well, has secured an alleviation ; 
 for when pain has reached a certain height, our 
 consciousness of it ceases. In diseases of long- 
 duration, suffering is diminished; while in those 
 that are acute, it rarely persists with intensity, 
 after sufficient warning has been given. 
 
 III. Pleasure arises from the performance of 
 every function, and from the satisfaction of every 
 appetite. Thus by attaching it to these, a pro- 
 
ON SENSATION. 19 
 
 vision has been made for the discharge of our 
 duties, and for securing our moral, no less than 
 our corporal well-being. Sensation is the pri- 
 mary form of consciousness and the origin of our 
 knowledge. Its object is obvious, but its cause is 
 unknown. Sensations accompany the mutations 
 of our organs, and we are thereby led to connect 
 the one with the other, but the process is inscru- 
 table. We perceive very well, that a certain 
 mechanism has been rendered essential, but why, 
 we cannot say. We walk, we stand, we run, 
 but we cannot tell how the will influences the 
 muscles, or how the latter act. We believe it to 
 be as natural that we should see with our eyes 
 and hear with our ears, as that a stone should 
 fall and so it is ; but it is clear that we can give 
 no more reason for one than the other. The 
 first links of the chain which connects these phe- 
 nomena, are hidden from our sight, but we know 
 that they ascend to God. Doubtless, we might 
 have been sent into the world with the same 
 powers united to a different organization, but as 
 it is, that with which we have been endowed, is 
 made a part of the great system of instruction by 
 which we are led to look from the creature to the 
 Creator, and to witness in the result, the evidence 
 of power divine. Without the manifestations of 
 design so conspicuously displayed around, we 
 could never have raised our souls to the concep- 
 tion of Him by whom we are made and preserved, 
 or attained to our existing happiness and intel- 
 ligence. We learn sufficient to secure our well- 
 
20 ON INSTINCT. 
 
 being, and if a greater insight into the secrets of 
 nature had been necessary, it would doubtless 
 have been imparted. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON INSTINCT. 
 
 MAN has not been provided with many in- 
 stincts, but they are numerous in the inferior 
 animals. In the former they are wholly organic. 
 Animals for the most part, are short-lived ; their 
 growth is more rapid than that of human beings, 
 and they are more quickly required to fulfil the 
 purposes of their creation. Without instinct 
 therefore, it would be impossible for them to se- 
 cure their preservation. The great majority 
 arrive at maturity in a few years, and are then 
 as well able to attend to their wants as at any 
 after period. Little information is handed down 
 to their offspring, nor do the latter require it, 
 since instinct secures them against every contin- 
 gency. We can modify the instincts of animals, 
 and in some measure, create new ones. The 
 puppy of the setting-dog wiU point as soon as it 
 can walk, and the young of domestic animals are 
 more amenable than wild ones of the same spe- 
 cies. In other respects, the chicken just out of 
 the shell will peck ; the duck, the crocodile and 
 
ON INSTINCT. 21 
 
 the turtle, under similar circumstances, will run 
 to the water; while the calf will hutt with its 
 hornless head, and the serpent writhe and bite. 
 Birds exhibit the same habits, sing the same 
 song, and build nests of the same material, from 
 immemorial time. Quadrupeds display simi- 
 lar peculiarities, with varying sagacity. The 
 newly-created insect will perform the elaborate 
 task, and manifest the same apparent evidence of 
 cunning and design, that were displayed from 
 generation to generation, with the same deficiency 
 of intellect, experience and instruction, by its 
 predecessors. It is impossible indeed, to witness 
 the actions of these minute creatures, evincing as 
 they do, the application of means to ends, and 
 that varying adaptation to circumstances, which 
 in human beings would be indicative of mental 
 culture, without emotions of silent wonder. 
 
 Though we know not the nature of instinct, it 
 is not more inscrutable than are other organic 
 phenomena. Hunger, the instincts of reproduc^ 
 tion, muscular motion and breathing, originate 
 in different organs; but there are a few, as the 
 desire of sleep and rest, which have no specific 
 locality. Of some processes we have no separate 
 consciousness; among these are the circulation 
 of the blood, innervation, nutrition, the re-inte- 
 gration of injured portions, and the recovery of 
 the functions and organization after disease. Some 
 instincts as hunger, breathing, sleep and the love 
 of warmth, come into the world with us; others 
 again, are not developed until the body has 
 
22 ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 arrived at some degree of maturity. The agen- 
 cies by which these phenomena are effected, lie 
 buried in obscurity : we are able to skim the sur- 
 face of things, but into their depths we cannot 
 penetrate. Yet we see enough to satisfy us as to 
 their admirable and all-sufficient tendencies, and 
 more than enough to induce us to look with reve- 
 rence to the great Contriver. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ON THE RELATIONS OF THE HUMAN FRAME WITH 
 THE MATERIAL WORLD. 
 
 1. THE relations of our corporeal fabric are 
 numerous and important : there is no particular 
 that has not reference to things without. It would 
 be impossible for beings much larger than man 
 and of the same construction, to tenant the earth's 
 surface: races of dwarfs on the other hand, are 
 equally incompatible with existing arrangements. 
 Not only are our physical relations regulated by 
 the actual condition of the animal, the vegetable 
 and the mineral worlds, but the latter are in per- 
 fect accordance with the organization and wants 
 of human beings. 
 
 I. The sensibilities of the skin are graduated 
 to the sun's heat ; those of the eye to the alterna- 
 tions of light, and those of the ear to the undula- 
 
ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 23 
 
 tions of the atmosphere. Gravity keeps us in 
 contact with the soil, and with the aid of muscu- 
 lar contraction, enables us to alter our position at 
 pleasure. The admirable arrangement of the 
 muscles permits the performance of acts of end- 
 less utility. By means of these ready instruments 
 of our volitions, we till the soil and cover it with 
 the evidence of our industry. How excellent the 
 structure of the human frame what grace, beauty, 
 strength and dignity, does it not display? The 
 stature, how erect and towering; the limbs, how 
 supple, and formed for progression ; the pliable 
 and well-knit joints; the ample basis of the feet, 
 plumb beneath the frame, and the fingers fitted 
 to so many diversified appliances. Then the 
 mutual proximity of the organs of sense ; the pro- 
 minence of all that is agreeable and attractive; 
 the concealment of every unavoidable defect; 
 the multiplied resources for preserving life and 
 well-being, and lastly, the unsparing profusion of 
 all that tends to health, strength and usefulness. 
 The hands alone, almost equal in importance the 
 organs of speech: without them, the arts and 
 sciences must have remained sterile and unculti- 
 vated, and their beneficial reaction unknown; 
 while the majestic edifice, the lofty ship, the glow- 
 ing canvass, the pealing organ, the flowing gar- 
 ment and the furrowed field, could not have been. 
 We do not indeed owe reason to the hand, but 
 the hand has been given to us because of our rea- 
 son. What do we not derive from its admirable 
 adaptations to our purposes? Without it, where 
 
24 ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 would printing be, and writing, those reflections 
 of the mind? Yet a single particular omitted, 
 and the hand had not been what it is. Behold 
 each finger with its nail, its varying length, its 
 joints all bending inward, and its sensitive extre- 
 mity an organ in itself. Yet without the thumb, 
 the hand would be nearly useless, since by its 
 apposition to the fingers, it forms a basis for their 
 respective efforts. Thus by its means, we make 
 use of pencil and pen, as well as of tools and im- 
 plements. The importance of the hand how- 
 ever, is vastly enhanced by the moveable wrist, 
 the elbow and shoulder joints, and indeed, by 
 every articulation in the frame, while the different 
 senses guide its efforts and augment its powers. 
 
 II. Our physical wants largely influence the 
 development of the mind. Were our relations to 
 heat and cold for example, other than what they 
 are, existence would be incompatible with the 
 change. Yet had ordinary temperatures not been 
 frequently too low, men in the infancy of civili- 
 zation would no more have thought of construct- 
 ing houses or of accumulating fuel and clothing, 
 than they would of turning up the soil to prepare 
 it for grain, had they been constituted to live 
 without food. To the painful impressions arising 
 from atmospheric vicissitudes, do we owe the ori- 
 gin of architecture, and incidentally, that of 
 sculpture and painting, no less than of the rich 
 brocade, the fleecy garment and the varied tracery 
 of the loom. Nor is it perhaps, too much to as- 
 cribe in part to the same source, the amenities of 
 
ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 25 
 
 the fireside, the numerous gratifications accruing 
 from artificial heat and light, as well as a multi- 
 plicity of discoveries, with the moral and intellec- 
 tual cultivation contingent on their prosecution. 
 
 III. Our relations to air and water so far as 
 gravity is concerned, are not less carefully regu- 
 lated than those which regard the earth. Were 
 air heavier, progression through it would be dif- 
 ficult or impossible ; respiration with the present 
 structure of the lungs, would be impracticable, 
 while our bodies would be unable to sustain the 
 pressure. The motion of a fluid so dense, would 
 sweep every thing before it, and a tempest would 
 tear the ocean from its bed. On the other hand, 
 a rarer atmosphere would be equally unservice- 
 able; we are hardly able as it is, to bear the 
 slighter variations that occur in diving-bells, or 
 during mountain ascents. Equal disadvantages 
 would accrue, were the gravity of water increased 
 or diminished. In the former case, it would no 
 longer serve as the vehicle of food, or for the va- 
 rious purposes of life. The atmosphere could 
 not impel vessels through it, nor would existing 
 materials suffice to construct them. 
 
 IV. There is a striking reference in the situ- 
 ation of the digestive and other organs, to out- 
 ward productions. The mouth so conveniently 
 placed for the reception of food, and the teeth so 
 well fitted for its comminution ; the stomach and 
 intestinal canal like roots turned inward, with an 
 apparatus so admirably adapted for the elimina- 
 tion of nutriment, and the rejection of waste and 
 
26 ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 superfluity. Lungs so constructed, that the slight- 
 est effort causes air to pass into their cells ; eyes 
 and ears so commandingly placed, as to yield the 
 earliest intelligence, and situated in a portion of 
 the body requiring no artificial covering; arms 
 so adjusted, as to render the frame co-extensive 
 with their grasp, and the nails and horny cover- 
 ing of the feet and hands, averting the lacerations 
 to which incessant collision with outward objects, 
 would otherwise render them liable. Every thing 
 indeed, has been arranged with consummate skill, 
 and with the closest adaptation to the exigencies 
 of our position. 
 
 2. The joint dependence of human beings has 
 led to the most beneficial results, inasmuch as 
 long experience has shown the inadequacy of un- 
 aided exertion. By so much as the highly culti- 
 vated individual is superior to the houseless sa- 
 vage, by so much is man in society and assisted by 
 his fellows, raised above those who dwell in iso- 
 lation and estrangement. Thus, human wants 
 promote the cultivation of human energies, and 
 evils at first sight irremediable, become the source 
 of refinement and intelligence. The solitary 
 wanderer may have few vices, but he can have 
 no virtues ; for the qualities that ennoble the heart 
 of man, and send his intellect careering through 
 the boundless fields of science and art, are to be 
 ascribed to the influence of association with his 
 fellows, on his mental, moral and physical capa- 
 bilities. The errors of society must be rectified 
 by itself; the breaking up of intercourse might 
 
ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 27 
 
 diminish, but could not increase human excel- 
 lence. 
 
 Sometimes the conqueror and sometimes the 
 conquered, man wages war with the elements and 
 turns them when he can, to his purposes, until by 
 the fiat of the Creator, his organization succumbs 
 to their irresistible assaults. Before this period 
 arrives however, he is subject to an unceasing 
 fluctuation of health and disease, and all nature 
 is ransacked for agents capable of prolonging ex- 
 istence. The origin of disease is to be ascribed 
 partly, to unavoidable outward influences, and 
 partly, to human ignorance and carelessness. To 
 the former however, do we also owe health and 
 physical welfare, advantages that could not have 
 been secured without the contingent imperfections. 
 The decay of the frame is necessary to the com- 
 pletion of our temporal destinies, and to make 
 way for a succession of being; while medical 
 science yields new fields for the cultivation of in- 
 tellect, and disease itself, furthers the expansion of 
 the better feelings and sympathies of our nature. 
 
 Passion and ignorance along with clashing in- 
 terests, have originated that scourge of our spe- 
 cies war. The conflict, though terrible, has not 
 been unmixed with good, since the intellect which 
 military operations elicit, extends our empire over 
 the physical world, while the eager striving of 
 man with man, has promoted patriotism and va- 
 riously exercised the higher energies of our being. 
 The sudden extinction of life, is war's most dreaded 
 aspect ; yet men are mortal, and must eventually 
 
28 ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 be swept off, if not by war, at least by age and 
 disease. The sacrifice on the battlefield has often 
 secured countless advantages to multitudes, thus 
 resembling the economy of nature, in yielding a 
 part for the whole. War however, must finally 
 cease by the contrivances to which it gives rise, 
 and which it would be destruction to resist. 
 
 2. The adaptations of outward objects to our 
 organization, are not less admirable than those of 
 the organization to outward objects. The nu- 
 merous purposes which every substance is made 
 to fulfil, overwhelm us with astonishment ; and first 
 as to the mineral world. 
 
 I. Air, partly from the water which it dissolves, 
 and partly from the carbon which enters into its 
 composition, proves a source of vegetable nou- 
 rishment ; while indirectly, by purifying the blood 
 through the medium of the skin and lungs, it con- 
 tributes in no small degree to the sustenance of 
 man and animals. Fishes breathe, and without 
 the air which water contains, would perish. This 
 fluid is the vehicle of various odours, some warn- 
 ing us of danger and disease, others promoting 
 pleasure and utility. The refrangibility of light, 
 and the diffusion of this singular substance in 
 directions different from the line of its emission, 
 add to the welfare of the animated creation. 
 Without refraction, there could be no twilight; 
 the heavenly bodies would shine in a sky of inky 
 darkness, and night would pervade the world 
 from the moment that the sun fell below the ho- 
 rizon. Air not only refracts light, but its ele- 
 
ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 29 
 
 mentary rays, each differently. To this in part, are 
 owing the tinted cloud, the gorgeous rainbow, and 
 the glorious rising and setting of the sun. Upon 
 the solution and precipitation of moisture, animal 
 and vegetable life depends ; and were this pro- 
 perty of air to intermit, rivers and lakes would 
 stagnate, rain would cease to fall, and nature 
 would expire amid the general drought. Air 
 bears up the moisture from the ocean, and by de- 
 positing it in fertilizing showers, supplies lakes 
 and streams, and maintains the universal anima- 
 tion. The mighty rivers which roll their volu- 
 minous waters to the sea, are thus kept flowing, 
 and what they deliver to the parent reservoir, is 
 replaced in a circle that has no end. It is obvi- 
 ous that the present amount of evaporation and 
 condensation, as well as the existing range of 
 temperature, would alone suit the requirements 
 of the soil. Were either greater or less on the 
 whole, than what it is, the earth would be parched, 
 or deluged with moisture; conditions equally at 
 variance with the continuance of animal and 
 vegetable life. Thus arise the solution of water, 
 as well as its precipitation in the form of snow, 
 hail, mist and rain; the chilling blast of winter 
 and the tempered summer breeze; the tremen- 
 dous hurricane not less than the gentle zephyr. 
 Aerial currents contribute largely to human com- 
 fort and civilization. Without them, the mill 
 would cease to turn and the trees would forget to 
 wave ; no lofty ship would leave her port : there 
 would be no intercourse between nations, and the 
 
30 ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 produce of distant soils would never be recipro- 
 cated. In a stagnant atmosphere, the impurities 
 produced by the various processes of life, would 
 so quickly accumulate, as to become incompatible 
 with its continuance; were it even otherwise, 
 every thing would wear the aspect of a dull and 
 sombre monotony. All the materials of the in- 
 organic world bear some relation to the animated 
 creation, and particularly to man. This is shewn 
 by their influence over his moral and mental de- 
 velopment. How strongly are these things cal- 
 culated to swell our hearts with love and joy, to- 
 wards the superlative skill which has arranged 
 them all? 
 
 II. The properties of water are not less stri- 
 king than those of air, and not less calculated 
 to promote human well-being. Its importance 
 with regard to animals and vegetables is obvious, 
 since it enters largely into their composition. 
 The greater proportion of flesh and of the pulp 
 of fruits, consists of this fluid. Persons subjected 
 to famine, survive longer when supplied with it. 
 Owing to the foregoing arrangement, sustenance 
 is facilitated, while decomposition is rendered more 
 rapid. Water constitutes an agreeable vehicle of 
 food, as in soups and vegetable infusions; while 
 milk and wine are largely indebted to it. Heated, 
 it affords a pleasant, and often a useful stimulus to 
 the stomach; and as a detersive, it promotes 
 bodily purity. The bath forms an admirable tonic. 
 The physical properties of water are equally 
 diversified. It is the medium of existence to a 
 
ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 31 
 
 multitude of creatures. Perpetual agitation puri- 
 fies it ; stagnant, it would be inimical to animated 
 being. Tides and currents subserve various 
 useful purposes, promoting human intercourse, 
 and enabling maritime nations to form reservoirs 
 for their shipping. The ocean indeed, is the 
 high road of nations, while rivers and canals fa- 
 cilitate communication and the transport of mer- 
 chandize. Hydraulic machines effect an enor- 
 mous saving of animal power. Without water, 
 chemistry could hardly have reached its present 
 eminence. As a receptacle of latent heat, its 
 utility in the economy of nature is unbounded. 
 Thus, when water freezes, a portion of caloric is 
 given out, and when it thaws, a quantity is re- 
 absorbed. In this way, these processes are tem- 
 pered and made more uniform, while the summer's 
 heat is treasured up against the winter's cold. 
 Without this amazing provision, water would in- 
 stantly become solid at the freezing point, to the 
 utter prejudice of animal life; while the slightest 
 elevation of temperature would flood the earth. 
 In the processes of art, the generation and con- 
 densation of steam afford analogous advantages. 
 When water is subjected to the operation of cold, 
 the surface sinks, and is replaced by a warmer 
 and lighter layer ; a process which continues until 
 the temperature is reduced to thirty-nine of 
 Fahrenheit. If the cold continue, ice will then 
 form, but the main body becomes no colder unless 
 by radiation, and consequently, remains fitted for 
 the abode of life. 
 
32 ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 III. The metals are the most numerous and 
 important of all substances. Combined or pure, 
 they compose the solids which surround us, and, 
 with the exception of carbon, the soil on which 
 we tread. Formerly, but a few were known, and 
 it has devolved upon recent investigators to de- 
 termine that clay, sand, silex, lime, magnesia, 
 soda and potash, are metals disguised by the 
 presence of oxygen. The precious gems, the 
 diamond excepted, are similarly constituted. 
 Nature, in all things, has a view to our well- 
 being ; her gifts however, are not earned without 
 desert; while the faculties by which we appre- 
 ciate her bounty, are precisely those by which we 
 best avail ourselves of it. Gold and silver are 
 remarkable as the imperfect representatives of 
 the produce of labour, and although of some use 
 in the arts, their value is nearly conventional. 
 Of all the metals, iron bears the palm. Its ad- 
 mirable properties have a clear reference to human 
 wants. And notwithstanding the implements of 
 destruction which it has served to fabricate, it 
 must be confessed, that without its aid in coercing 
 matter, civilization must have remained irretrie- 
 vably in arrear. We cannot think of the loadstone, 
 or contemplate the motions and the symmetry of 
 the steam-engine, without respect for human in- 
 tellect, and wonder at the vast utility of the metal 
 under consideration. Its properties indeed, are 
 worthy of the closest study, since they at once 
 exemplify the forecast of nature and the wide 
 range of our faculties. Independent of their in- 
 
ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 33 
 
 dividual applications, the metals form combina- 
 tions of diversified importance. Brass for e x ~ 
 ample, or the alloy of zinc and copper, is of sin- 
 gular utility in the arts ; while mercury separates 
 gold and silver from their ores, and transfers them 
 when required, to other metals. Without quick- 
 silver, we should want the luxury of mirrors, and 
 lose a medicinal agent of great power. Potash 
 and soda derive much of their interest from the 
 fabrication of soap, a substance in a manner in- 
 dispensable, to the preservation of health and 
 purity. The earths and clays, besides their agri- 
 cultural adaptations, serve for the construction of 
 fictile vessels, from humble crockery to costly 
 porcelain. Some, as lime, form in part the ce- 
 ment, whereby we unite the various stones and 
 marbles into permanent erections of splendour 
 and usefulness. Silicious earth or flint, when 
 fused with soda, constitutes glass, a product more 
 valuable than all the gems, and one, by means of 
 which we exclude wet and cold, while we enjoy the 
 luxury of light. It furnishes us with both micros- 
 cope and telescope, and helps to give existence to 
 chemical science. Minerals yield a vast assort- 
 ment from which to select materials advantageous 
 in medicine and the arts. One of these, nitre, 
 mixed with sulphur and charcoal, forms gunpow- 
 der the last resort, in so many cases, of tyrant 
 and slave. The immediate utility of salt, as it is 
 emphatically termed, in the waters of the ocean, 
 we do not fully know ; but its general employ- 
 ment in our food explains the final cause of 
 
 c 
 
34 ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 the vast deposits which exist in the bowels of the 
 earth. Perhaps no substance could be mentioned, 
 on first inspection so useless, and yet so essen- 
 tial to human well-being as this, or one in which 
 the kindness of Providence is more fully display- 
 ed. The prosecution of physical science has been 
 forced upon man by the destitution in which he 
 was designedly cast. Redeemed however, by 
 numerous compensatory facilities, and by the en- 
 dowment of extended faculties, it has not only 
 made his dwelling the centre of endless comforts 
 and amenities, but has also served to elevate his 
 conceptions to the great first Cause, and to imbue 
 his heart with wisdom and excellence. May we 
 not then, venture to hope that our progress has 
 not reached its term, but that we shall go on, 
 from generation to generation, in the completion 
 of our career, achieving new victories in science 
 and art, and securing additional enlargements of 
 that portion of our being which is to endure after 
 material possessions have ceased? 
 
 IV. The adaptations of animal substances are 
 equally wonderful. Supplies the most diversi- 
 fied, are thus afforded, while the concentrated 
 nourishment which they yield, enables us to sub- 
 sist on smaller portions of food, and to convey 
 provision with facility, by land or sea. The latter 
 alone, would perhaps sustain mankind, and the 
 fecundity of fishes bears an evident relation to 
 human wants. Herrings, shad, cod, salmon, 
 pilchards and sturgeon swarm in rivers, and in 
 the narrow seas; while the whale and the seal 
 
ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 35 
 
 supply the inhabitants of northern regions. Ani- 
 mal substances are not more varied than useful, 
 and we could hardly conceive the advance of ci- 
 vilization without their subserviency. Even me- 
 dicine, is not without its contributions; some of 
 them however, of doubtful efficacy. A few cen- 
 turies back, numerous therapeutic agents from 
 the same source the human frame not excepted, 
 were held to be the most useful. To the animal 
 kingdom the dyer's art is much indebted, as some 
 of our most brilliant and durable colours testify : 
 also chemistry at large, as in the case of phos- 
 phorus, one of the most wonderful of substances. 
 The remains thus derived, protect us from atmos- 
 pheric vicissitudes, and adorn our dwellings. 
 
 V. If the relations of the vegetable, do not 
 surpass those of the animal world, they are at 
 least not inferior. The cultivation of the various 
 families of plants tends to develop the moral sen- 
 timents of mankind, while the aspect of the green 
 fields, the turned-up sod and the pleasant flowers, 
 promotes the better feelings of our nature. There 
 is a music in the rustling of the yellow grain, that 
 lulls the attention and softens the heart. We 
 gaze with feelings akin to sublimity, on the gi- 
 gantic grass of the tropics, and on the enormous 
 fields of Indian corn, sighing and waving in the 
 wind. The natural influence of agricultural pur- 
 suits however, is so modified and perverted by 
 griping poverty, excessive exactions, over-exer- 
 tion, ignorance and disease, as to be very dif- 
 ferent from what it might, under a happier state 
 
36 ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 of things. By ensuring the easy accumulation 
 of food, and the consequent stability of abode, the 
 consumption of grain has accelerated the march 
 of improvement, and prepared for the refinements 
 and amenities of life. Nor is it possible to ad- 
 duce any advantages arising from the adaptations 
 of vegetables, so great as those which flow from 
 the cultivation of the cerealia. The nutriment 
 derived from plants is singularly diversified ; be- 
 sides grain, there are roots, tubers, piths, pulse 
 and legumens in profusion. How extraordinary 
 the supply of fruit, each adapted to its own loca- 
 lity: as the orange, the mango, the pine, the 
 peach, the sweet and water melons, the plum, the 
 apple, the fig, the date and the delicious grape? 
 Some of these are dried and laid by as food, while 
 others retain their succulence for months. How 
 numerous are the wonders of the vegetable king- 
 dom; some plants producing wine, others milk, 
 water, sugar, wax, butter and oil? And how 
 vast the store of dyestuffs, drugs and spices, which 
 we draw from the same source? One plant in 
 particular, the poppy, yields opium, a substance 
 often capable of allaying pain and of removing 
 disease with singular efficacy. The bark also, re- 
 lieves ague with ease and certainty ; a property, 
 the existence of which, can only be ascribed to 
 never-ceasing wisdom and goodness. Alcohol, 
 or the active principle of fermented liquors, is not 
 found in vegetable substances, though many may 
 be converted into it. From more than one, cloth 
 can be fabricated by a trifling manipulation, while 
 
ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 3? 
 
 from others, it is evolved by more complicated 
 processes. Flax and wool, along with silk and 
 cotton, form the clothing of mankind; they may 
 be tinged with vivid colours, and contribute 
 largely, to grace and dignity. The dense and 
 beautiful texture which distinguishes them, was 
 evidently predetermined to fit them for the pur- 
 poses to which our inventive industry has applied 
 them. Thus, means and end are secured in one, 
 and go hand in hand together. Hemp, flax, the 
 fibre of the aloes and pine, cocoa-nut husk and 
 other materials, suffice for cordage and cables, 
 without which, navigation could not have been. 
 The facility of adaptation, the strength, lightness 
 and durability of wood, render it of the utmost 
 service. Its combustibility, though a drawback 
 in one respect, is of use in another; a circum- 
 stance that has operated prospectively to our ad- 
 vantage, by the transformation of forests into beds 
 of coal. Mechanism owes much of its perfection 
 to this substance ; and wood and iron, so different 
 in appearance, have been closely associated, not 
 less by human wants and ingenuity, than by the 
 intention of nature. 
 
 " We have been placed under the necessity of 
 securing our well-being by unremitting exertion 
 of head and hand. Kind nature indeed, as if in 
 consideration of our weakness, and to secure ad- 
 ditional advances, has enabled us to take advan- 
 tage of accident. Chance doubtless, reveals facts 
 that might otherwise have escaped our cogni- 
 zance ; but it is not the less true, that the progress 
 
38 ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 of knowledge, is mainly owing to the incessant 
 scrutiny of superior minds. How often did the 
 phenomena which led to the discovery of gravi- 
 tation and the polarization of light, pass by un- 
 heeded, until Newton availed himself of them, in 
 the one case, and Malus, in the other ? If every 
 thing were supplied to the hand of man, there 
 could be no virtue, no knowledge, no feeling nor 
 any refinement of body or mind. Our higher 
 qualities the excellencies, the graces and the 
 amenities of life, are contingent upon our ori- 
 ginally helpless and destitute condition, and gra- 
 dually evolved by the influence of circumstances 
 on our capabilities. Were food for example, the 
 spontaneous produce of the soil, agriculture, ma- 
 nufactures and commerce could not exist, while 
 the energies which civilization calls into being, 
 and which are productive of so much happiness, 
 would slumber in inaction. In a word, we should 
 be possessed of the exterior, but not of the supe- 
 rior realities of our nature. The principle how- 
 ever, is not without its limitations ; for if some si- 
 tuations promote, others annihilate, not less morally 
 than physically, the expansion of our being. Yet 
 there is a certain medium a position in whidh 
 nature neither drowns our faculties by excess, nor 
 stints them by privation. On the whole, she acts 
 with a happy mixture of kindness and severity: 
 not like a harsh step-mother, but as a wise and 
 beneficent parent, duly tempering her corrections 
 with gentleness and love. 
 
 The earth has been gradually prepared for its 
 
ON THE HUMAN FRAME. 39 
 
 inhabitants. Inductive reasoning shews that at 
 a period long anterior to the present, there was 
 an arrangement with respect to sea and land, 
 climate, animal and vegetable productions, very 
 different from that which we now witness, and 
 that the composition of the atmosphere, 'and the 
 character of vegetation, were adapted to the crea- 
 tures then prevailing on the surface of the globe. 
 That there were different gradations of being, 
 also various mutations of the earth's surface 
 some of them contingent on the operation of 
 abysmal fires, others, on the motion of masses of 
 water, whereby continents and islands, with huge 
 chains of mountains, were defined and parcelled 
 out, the whole being eventually followed by the 
 actual state of things. It is difficult or impossible 
 to determine with accuracy, the precise duration 
 or the number of these changes ; but it is tolera- 
 bly well ascertained that each had its own rela- 
 tions and conditions, unfitted for any that pre- 
 ceded or followed, and that all were in due 
 subordination to existing arrangements, and to 
 the advent of human beings on earth. May we 
 not well ask whether there be anything within 
 the compass of observation, better calculated to 
 awaken our liveliest amazement, our sincerest 
 veneration, or our deepest love, than thus to learn 
 that a provident care was excited in our behalf, 
 for countless ages before the creation of man? 
 Such indeed, are among the demonstrations of 
 divine agency, as displayed in endless particulars 
 of unlimited wisdom and power, all alike arranged 
 
40 ON MAN'S MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. 
 
 to secure our moral, our intellectual and our 
 physical welfare. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON MAN'S PHYSICAL RELATIONS AND MUTUAL 
 DEPENDENCE. 
 
 SENSATIONS are the origin of our ideas and 
 feelings. This is the most important relation 
 that can connect the two ; and next to it, are the 
 associations which they form with each other. 
 Thus, when given emotions or ideas take place 
 for a certain period, in conjunction with sensa- 
 tions, the repetition of the one is sure to provoke 
 that of the other. Many of these associations are 
 fugitive others again, are indissoluble. Our 
 knowledge of the external world, accrues through 
 the avenues of sensation. We cannot perceive 
 the soul of man directly, but we are conscious of 
 the existence and operations of his material por- 
 tion. This is not the man himself; it is but the 
 husk or exterior the garment the means where- 
 by he communicates with his fellows, maintains his 
 relations with outward objects, and secures his 
 existence and the perpetuation of his race. The 
 revolutions of the human frame, which are only 
 interrupted when death liberates the spirit from 
 
ON MAN'S MUTUAL DEPENDENCE. 41 
 
 its earthly associate, clearly display its vehicular 
 nature. 
 
 The material relations between man and man 
 are very numerous. In the present condition of 
 society, no one not even the individual who re- 
 stricts his wants within the narrowest limits, re- 
 lies solely on himself for the necessaries of life; 
 while he who is debarred from human intercourse, 
 is destitute indeed. It is difficult for any one 
 who is habituated to it, to appreciate the depen- 
 dence of his position. Accustomed to the minis- 
 try of others, he calculates upon its continuance 
 as upon that of the phenomena which surround 
 him. Our physical energies are in subordina- 
 tion to our moral and mental impulses; the in- 
 fluence of man on man however, in modifying 
 his organization, is only inferior to that of nature 
 herself. Our command over outward agencies, 
 is prodigiously augmented by association, regu- 
 lated by intelligence. The winds and waters 
 have thus been pressed into our service, while 
 fire and earth are equally our tributaries. The 
 progress of machinery daily limits the amount of 
 human toil, and thereby promises a more ex- 
 tended scope for the cultivation of our energies. 
 As to the relations of the sexes, they involve the 
 permanence of our race, and the dependence of 
 offspring. 
 
42 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN WITH THE INFERIOR 
 ANIMALS. 
 
 OUR connexion with the lower animals is a 
 highly interesting one. Their striking infe- 
 riority, and our imperfect means of communica- 
 ting with them, render it difficult to appreciate 
 their real qualities. It has heen erroneously 
 supposed, that the superiority of man depended 
 on his organization ; we know not however, the 
 intrinsic nature of the thinking principle in man 
 or brutes, hut it seems impossible to deny the lat- 
 ter the possession of properties, in some measure 
 analogous to our own. The rapidity of their 
 growth, and the subsequent destination of these 
 singular beings, require their endowment with 
 instinct. Some indeed, have thought that their 
 impulses were immediately regulated by the 
 Deity; but this supposition is forced, and desti- 
 tute of proof. To refer them, on the other hand, 
 to reason and observation alone, is to betray little 
 acquaintance with their habits. There is nothing 
 more truly interesting, than are the adaptations 
 of the instincts of animals to their varying wants, 
 or better calculated to awaken conceptions of in- 
 finite goodness and power. They vary in dif- 
 ferent individuals ; and while capable of cultiva- 
 
ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN. 43 
 
 tion, are largely subservient to the well-being 
 of mankind. Reason and instinct, as united in 
 some, lead to a combination of qualities, wholly 
 beyond human attainment. The susceptibility 
 of cultivation in the brute, is far inferior to that 
 of man, so that it is justly considered marvellous, 
 when an animal can be trained to do something 
 beneath the average intelligence of a child. Some 
 exaggerate their claims to rationality, while others 
 deny them altogether. Truth lies in the mean. 
 Were their reasoning powers extinct, they must 
 perish: were they greater, man's supremacy would 
 cease. Does a futurity await the brute? Some 
 of the qualities of the lower tribes, by approxima- 
 ting them to man, would infer a continuance of 
 their being, while their numbers, and vast infe- 
 riority, point to a different conclusion. If the 
 Author of men and animals think fit to assign an 
 hereafter to the latter, he will do so; but the 
 solution of the question must be left to futurity 
 itself. 
 
 Though the part which animals perform, be 
 inferior to that which is allotted to man, it is not 
 the less indispensable in the economy of nature. 
 The meanest reptile is necessary, and were it 
 prematurely to disappear, might involve the ge- 
 neral well-being. The services of some how- 
 ever, cease to be required, and it is certain that 
 various species have become extinct. Thus, as 
 population advances, the lower races vanish : the 
 wolf has long since, ceased to infest Britain the 
 lion flees the face of man at the Cape, and the 
 
44 ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN. 
 
 tiger in the East. Some things indeed, are dif- 
 ficult to explain; mice for instance, and locusts, 
 occasionally increase to the destruction of vege- 
 tation: but such occurrences do not militate 
 against the general rule. The balance is pre- 
 served by the different portions of creation, 
 which, with few exceptions, prey and are preyed 
 on; so that living or dead, all serve as food to 
 countless others. Herbivorous animals would 
 perish from the excess of their numbers, were it 
 not for the intervention of human beings or that 
 of beasts of prey ; while the over-increase of the 
 latter is prevented by their usually inferior fe- 
 cundity, and the difficulty of obtaining subsistence. 
 Cruelty has been imputed to them for acts ne- 
 cessary to their support ; yet the tiger is perhaps 
 no more actuated by it in devouring the lamb, 
 than is the latter, in browsing upon the grass. It 
 is worthy of observation, that predaceous animals 
 strike their victims in a vital part, so that by a 
 benevolent provision, they quickly cease to suffer. 
 The instincts of animals guard them against un- 
 due destruction, while their inferior intelligence 
 prevents the anticipation of their final hour before 
 the moment of its arrival. Inevitable death 
 awaits them at last, and perhaps in becoming the 
 prey of others, they experience no greater pain 
 than what would accompany spontaneous disso- 
 lution. Without the mutual warfare of animals, 
 our resources would be curtailed, if not wholly 
 cut off. The feathered races destroy one another 
 as quadrupeds and insects do ; and a similar pro- 
 
ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN. 45 
 
 cess obtains in the deep. Many of the enjoy- 
 ments of animals arise from their exertions to 
 capture and to evade, in which they display in- 
 stincts and acquired habits of wonderful interest. 
 
 Some animals prey both on the living and 
 dead; while others, as the vulture, hyena, jackal, 
 land-crab, insect larvse and fly, confine them- 
 selves to the latter. Thus offal and carrion are 
 cleared away; numerous creatures are provided 
 for, and the effects of unrestrained putrescence 
 are averted. As population advances, and clean- 
 liness is better enforced, these animals disappear 
 with the necessity for their vocation ; while in 
 situations where moisture quickly exhales, as in 
 the sands of Africa and America, their services 
 are uncalled for. In the sea, the shark and other 
 creatures, perform analogous offices. Nature 
 makes every provision for the beings which she 
 brings into existence: wisdom and regularity 
 mark all her designs. No animal is gratuitously 
 noxious : all perform the ends for which they were 
 designed ; and all evince both in their habits and 
 organization, unceasing evidence of skill and 
 power. 
 
 The docility, fleetness and strength of animals 
 have admirably subserved the cause of civiliza- 
 tion. By means of the horse, we skim the sur- 
 face of the soil with an ease and facility until 
 lately, unattainable. He lends himself to all our 
 purposes ; bearing us to battle or the chase, and 
 toiling through the weary journey at our plea- 
 sure, never pausing while strength remains. By 
 
46 ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN. 
 
 his instrumentality, the tillage of the soil, the 
 transport of necessaries and human intercourse, 
 have been signally facilitated. The subordina- 
 tion of his powers to our wants and means of 
 controul, is strikingly apparent. Even the train- 
 ing of this noble creature has been no disservice 
 to human intellect. What shall we say of the 
 sagacity and faithfulness of the dog, which only 
 cease with his life, and which have been so great 
 a source of pleasure and profit ? How numerous 
 the animals which assist us with their strength, 
 or enable us to resist the inclemency of the at- 
 mosphere ? The universality of the cow and her 
 copious supply of milk, shew that extra uses were 
 designed for this delicious fluid. How remark- 
 able that contingent states of the earth's surface 
 should be provided for? Without the camel, 
 its yielding foot and powers of abstinence, the 
 sandy desert would remain untrod. Can we 
 doubt that the quill which bears the bird aloft, 
 and the marshy reed, had not a prospective re- 
 ference to the art of writing? Means must exist 
 with a view to their eventual application ; and no 
 one has yet summed up the various purposes 
 which the different parts are destined to accom- 
 plish in the great circle of creation. 
 
 We cannot doubt that animals are instrumental 
 in the progress of humanity. We witness their 
 unconscious concurrence on every side, in the 
 furtherance of purposes beyond their powers to 
 fathom, and with an efficiency, unattainable by 
 any effort of their will. Though capable of im- 
 
ON THE RELATIONS OF MAN. 47 
 
 provement, there is a limit, beyond which the 
 most sagacious cannot pass. A dog, or an ape, 
 enjoys a fire, but neither brings fuel of its own 
 accord. Some species are more tractable than 
 others; it seems impossible for instance, to in- 
 duce a cat to do that which is performed by a 
 dog. Their capacity appears to be in the ratio 
 of the acts necessary for their preservation, and 
 of the services which their organization enables 
 them to render to man. The qualities of the dog- 
 would be out of place in the horse. It would be 
 useless to render the cat as sagacious as the ele- 
 phant; while the physical powers of the one, 
 would be out of keeping with the limited endow- 
 ments of the other. 
 
 The perfections of animals afford perpetual 
 scope for reflection and improvement. We can 
 gaze, with unsated admiration, on the fleet 
 hound, the graceful colt, the frolicksome kitten, 
 the soaring eagle, the far-seeing hawk, the ma- 
 jestic elephant, the brilliant peacock, the gentle 
 fawn, the strutting cock and the stately war- 
 horse. Every individual of the vast host of ani- 
 mated creation, whether bird, beast, fish, or in- 
 sect, displays qualities fitted with unerring pre- 
 cision, to its wants. It fills us with amazement, 
 to discover such a variety of adaptation to the 
 external world and to ourselves, and to find that 
 creatures so limited, should be able to main- 
 tain their place amidst a scene of such conflicting 
 interests. Instructive as the spectacle is how- 
 ever, it becomes still more so, when we reflect, 
 
48 ON THE ORDER OF SENSATION. 
 
 that the Deity has thus arranged it ; that it is He 
 who has adjusted the different parts to each other, 
 and to the whole, and that to Him they owe their 
 order, their utility, and their existence. Most 
 thinking minds have speculated on what they 
 should feel, were they permitted to witness the 
 scenes of other worlds; yet how many pass 
 through life without being once awakened to a 
 perception of the vast expanse, the magnificence 
 and the variety of that in which they dwell ? 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ON THE INVARIABLE ORDER OF SENSATION. 
 
 IT was formerly a general persuasion, that 
 there were some who could controul the per- 
 ceptions of the senses, inflict pleasure or pain, and 
 produce illusions at variance with ordinary phe- 
 nomena. Such were styled necromancers and 
 sorcerers, names that could have no meaning in 
 a civilized community. They were supposed to 
 command the elements, and to produce changes, 
 to an extent, and by means, impracticable to the 
 rest of the species. The consequences must have 
 been harrowing, when men and women believed 
 that the affections of their partners could be 
 spirited away; that enmity could blast their 
 health, or wither their frames, and that ill fortune 
 
ON THE ORDER OF SENSATION. 49 
 
 and death, without any infringement of their own, 
 awaited them at the command of others. It is 
 only recently, that the human mind has been able 
 to free itself from this incubus, and that blood has 
 ceased to be shed by the judges and legislators 
 who laboured under it. Hundreds of thousands 
 have been sacrificed, and by a peculiar fatality, 
 in those parts of the world deemed most enlight- 
 ened. These things are dreadful in the aggre- 
 gate, but horrible when we come to picture the 
 victim in the hands of the executioner, writhing 
 in the anguish of strangulation, or undergoing the 
 torments of the stake. It is harrowing to peruse 
 the record of the atrocities, the torture and the 
 bloodshed which have taken place ; and we can- 
 not do so, without blessing the better times in 
 which we live. The village indeed, is still haunted 
 with ghostly rumours, but ere a few centuries 
 elapse, these superstitions will have expired for 
 ever. This change can only become universal 
 by a knowledge of the fact, that our fellow- 
 creatures can have no means of influencing us, 
 save through the ordinary channels of sensation. 
 The laws by which the physical world is regu- 
 lated, are adequate to the well-being of mankind ; 
 for it will not be denied that the Deity is able so 
 to govern it, as to render the incessant re-con- 
 struction of these laws unnecessary. To assert 
 that he could not, would be to place limits to the 
 exercise of his power. His foresight includes 
 every contingency, and the most distant events 
 are as minutely regulated as those which are near 
 
 D 
 
50 ON THE ORDER OF SENSATION. 
 
 at hand. Some may ask why not save the 
 drowning mariner, or raise a useful member of 
 society from the languor of mortal disease ? To 
 this it may be replied why should there be 
 death ? All must eventually die, and this by the 
 operation of laws which none can evade laws, 
 disobedience to which, is pain and suffering, and 
 compliance, happiness and well-being. Multitudes 
 filling the different relations of life, and possessed 
 of all the virtues of humanity, yearly perish ; the 
 patriot, the man of science, the philosopher and 
 the virtuous parent not less than the affectionate 
 husband, the tender wife, and the obedient child. 
 Were the laws of nature, which are but another 
 name for the will of God, subject to suspension, 
 there would be a diminution of the zeal with 
 which we cultivate a knowledge of them, and a 
 cessation of our confidence in their invariable 
 efficacy. As it is, the necessity under which we 
 have been placed of regulating our conduct by 
 them, leaves us no alternative but the elevation 
 of knowledge or the degradation of ignorance. 
 The determinations of the Deity must doubtless, 
 be better than any substitute proposed by man ; 
 and we can hardly avoid concluding that the 
 government of the universe by unalterable, be- 
 cause perfect laws, is most in accordance with 
 the views which we are able to frame, of superior 
 goodness and power. 
 
51 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON THE ORGANIZATION OF MAN AND BRUTES. 
 
 1. THE organization' of animals is wonderful; 
 the lowest in the scale even, are in some respects 
 not less worthy of admiration than the highest. 
 One naturalist has written a copious treatise on 
 the structure of a single caterpillar, but without 
 exhausting the subject : nor is there perhaps, any 
 insect that would not afford equal scope for ex- 
 patiation. Yet there are more than a hundred 
 thousand species ; but this number, or indeed any 
 number of volumes, would be inadequate to de- 
 scribe them. The human frame however, as the 
 instrument of superior moral and intellectual de- 
 velopment, is more elaborate, and endowed with 
 adaptations more numerous, than that of any other 
 creature. Yet not being intended for lasting 
 duration, its parts are made up of temporary ap- 
 propriations from surrounding materials, the con- 
 nexion of which, would perhaps be apparent to a 
 being a little superior to man, and unfettered by 
 his limited vision and immutable associations. 
 
 I. To an ordinary observer, the organization 
 in one sense, presents a greater unity of com- 
 position than to an anatomist, inasmuch as the 
 latter is apt to dwell on the separate intention of 
 the different divisions. These comprise the organs 
 
52 ORGANIZATION OF MAN AND BRUTES. 
 
 of nutrition, reproduction and relation, of which 
 the first two are subservient to the last. Those 
 of nutrition, are for the prehension and elimina- 
 tion of food, and as the others are dependent on 
 them, may be seen in full integrity even after de- 
 crepitude has set in. Nature employs all her re- 
 sources in their construction, and the necessity 
 under which we labour oi* eating and drinking, is 
 at once unceasing and imperious. The preser- 
 vation of the species was her next concern, and 
 it has been secured by an apparatus of means, 
 only inferior in energy and amount to the pre- 
 ceding. Organs of relation, or the senses, mus- 
 cles, oral apparatus and nerves, are superior to 
 the rest, inasmuch as they convey intelligence to 
 and from the mind, and place us in any desired 
 position with regard to outward objects. The 
 muscles constitute the larger portion of our 
 bodies a circumstance not remarkable, seeing 
 the multiplicity of motions which by means of 
 their innumerably diversified contractions, they 
 enable us to perform. Their varied and sur- 
 prising arrangement conduces to symmetry and 
 strength; the latter however, being less an ob- 
 ject than beauty and grace. Muscles are the de- 
 positories of animal heat ; they protect and retain 
 vital parts; they also serve as vehicles for nerves 
 and blood-vessels, and constitute with the bones, 
 the mechanism of the frame. The organs of 
 speech are partly muscular and partly otherwise : 
 the resonance of air in the windpipe produces 
 voice, and further modified by tongue, lips, teeth 
 
ORGANIZATION OF MAN AND BRUTES. 53 
 
 and palate speech. Modulation and tone result 
 in part, from muscular contraction and expansion 
 at the chink of the glottis. Time and use have 
 led to the same diversity in the application of 
 these organs, as with regard to those of locomo- 
 tion and prehension. Speech is the result of 
 reason, since organization alone, would not suffice 
 to give rise to it. Birds may be taught to speak 
 indeed, but the little they say, is destitute of mean- 
 ing. This superlative gift enables man to affix 
 names to thought and feeling, to register them 
 in his memory, and to reciprocate them with his 
 fellows a contrivance worthy of Almighty power, 
 and one without which we should be truly destitute. 
 Some languages are closely allied, while between 
 others there is little affinity. A small number of 
 monosyllables composes them all. This circum- 
 stance contributes largely to their acquirement; 
 for were there as many sounds as words in each, 
 the intercourse of nations in so far, would be im- 
 practicable. Even the Chinese characters are 
 resolvable into a few primary elements. 
 
 II. The organs of which I have spoken, derive 
 their energy from the nerves, which in their turn, 
 are supported by the organs of nutrition. Upon 
 the integritv of the brain, nerves and spinal mar- 
 row, all the functions and life itself, depend. For 
 if the communication be interrupted, or if the 
 nerves cease to act, partial, if not total loss 
 of function, ensues. As to what this nervous 
 energy consists in, we do not know : like gravity 
 or electricity, it is a name for certain ultimate 
 
54 ORGANIZATION OF MAN AND BRUTES. 
 
 phenomena. Some nerves regulate muscular 
 motion; others are the medium of sensation in 
 general, while many serve specific purposes. The 
 action of the heart, diaphragm, intercostal and 
 intestinal muscles is for the most part, involun- 
 tary. Its continuance being essential to life, 
 could not be wholly left to our uncertain atten- 
 tion. The manner in which the nerves act, as 
 well as the functions of many of them, are un- 
 known. 
 
 2. So long as two views obtain on the origin 
 of thought, the subject on which I now enter, will 
 be one of importance. The brain, nerves and 
 spinal marrow have no uses save those already 
 particularized, or others analogous. It is an old 
 supposition that the brain was the organ of mind, 
 and that mental faculties and the functions of the 
 brain, were convertible terms. That to think, to 
 remember, to anticipate, to love and to hate, were 
 as truly cerebral acts, as vision was an act of the 
 eye, hearing, one of the ear, and the secretion of 
 bile one of the liver. More recently, a former 
 view has been revived, and individual portions 
 of the brain are referred to, as the special organs 
 of the different faculties. Yet, if the brain be not 
 the mind, nor its functions those of mind, neither 
 can the functions of its parts be identified with 
 the several mental faculties. The divisions of 
 Gall, and the uses which he has assigned to them, 
 in so far as they refer to alleged organs of thought, 
 are equally imaginary. 
 
 It is sometimes urged, that if the brain be not 
 
ORGANIZATION OF MAN AND BRUTES. 55 
 
 the mind nor the organ of mind, how does it hap- 
 pen that we habitually refer the one to the other. 
 This however, is a case of association, the head 
 being the receptacle of the leading organs of 
 sense. Were these situated elsewhere, the mind 
 would be referred to the altered locality. It is 
 also asked, if the brain be not identical with the 
 mind, how it is, that injuries of this organ lessen 
 or destroy intelligence. The soul, such objectors 
 say, grows with the body, becomes diseased with 
 the body, and with the body decays and dies. It 
 is however, evident, that as the action of the 
 senses from birth, stores the mind with know- 
 ledge, so disease, by the decay and diminution of 
 organic energy, must not only limit or do away 
 with the acquisition of knowledge, but indepen- 
 dent of moral causes, suspend or impede the out- 
 ward manifestations of the mind itself. The na- 
 ture of those states, which are called delirium, 
 dotage, stupor and insanity, we do not know; 
 but are they to be explained by calling the brain 
 mind ? It is said to be absurd to ascribe insanity 
 to an immaterial substance; but where is the 
 analogy between insanity and an organic or func- 
 tional disease ? The mind is liable to many hal- 
 lucinations and diseased impressions, the explana- 
 tion of which, must ever remain beyond the reach 
 of our faculties, but it does not therefore follow 
 that the mind is material. It seems incongruous 
 to identify brain with a knowledge of German 
 or Greek, as a certain hypothesis compels us to 
 do. There are instances of persons losing the 
 
56 ORGANIZATION OF MAN AND BRUTES. 
 
 remembrance of one or more languages, some- 
 times after disease in the head, and sometimes 
 not. Occasionally, the language most recently 
 acquired is forgotten, while that first learned and 
 long disused, is recalled; but are these to be ex- 
 plained by materialism? Gall and others refer 
 the faculty of language to an artificial segment of 
 the brain, one in each hemisphere, and assert that 
 our knowledge and capability of acquiring lan- 
 guage, diminish commensurately with the de- 
 rangement of the organ in question ; but there is 
 no such specific faculty, inasmuch as the whole 
 mind acts, and no such organ. But granting the 
 supposition for a moment, how does it happen 
 the organ being injured, that one language only, 
 is lost: why not all? Does the larger organ 
 comprise organs for every language; for the 
 seven or eight hundred that are spoken ; for those 
 that are lost, and for those that remain to be 
 formed? It is needless to comment upon the 
 difficulties into which materialists plunge them- 
 selves, by making the organ, the faculty and the 
 acquirement, one and the same thing. 
 
57 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ON ORGANIC CAUSATION. 
 
 1. PHYSIOLOGY, strictly speaking, embraces 
 all the laws of nature, though usually confined to 
 the investigation of those which regulate the pro- 
 cesses of life. It is a subject of vast interest, as 
 revealing the wonderful economy of our organiza- 
 tion. Much of this however, is inaccessible, and 
 ever must remain so ; yet our faculties are able 
 to appreciate all that is necessary to our well-being, 
 and more than able, to demonstrate the power, the 
 wisdom and the goodness of the Creator. What 
 we know, has resulted from the labour of a long 
 series of inquirers, who had to contend with 
 apathy, ignorance and neglect. With existing 
 facilities, a child were children so taught, might 
 gain information on subjects the circulation of 
 the blood for example, that required all the in- 
 tellect of a Harvey or a Servetus to throw light 
 upon. 
 
 I. The laws of nature are invariable and im- 
 perturbable. They are the source of order and 
 regularity. Without them, there would neither 
 be summer nor winter, plant nor animal; the 
 earth would cease to revolve in its orbit, or whirl 
 on its axis. Every form of creation is equally 
 under their dominion ; the sea and air, not less 
 
58 ON ORGANIC CAUSATION. 
 
 than the vast orbs of heaven. In the considera- 
 tion of these laws, our attention is peculiarly at- 
 tracted by the invariability of their recurrence ; 
 thus, day and night, summer and winter, youth 
 and age, succeed each other with unswerving 
 precision. The revolutions of some phenomena 
 indeed, include periods so vast, as to be regis- 
 tered with difficulty, yet the course of all that are 
 of importance to our well-being, is sufficiently 
 observable. Any uncertainty in their recurrence 
 or in the order of succession, would lead to end- 
 less confusion, misery and dread; while their 
 suspension would be the signal of death to all. 
 It is not therefore just to blame their operation in 
 some cases, when their general tendency is bene- 
 ficial. The devastation arising from fire is only 
 conformable to laws, of which the observance is 
 productive of good, and the interruption, of in- 
 tolerable evil. When a vessel founders, we have 
 oftener to reproach our neglect, than the winds 
 and waves. The same results cannot accrue 
 from inattention, as from caution and forecast. 
 A gale indeed, will sometimes beat the tempest- 
 driven ship to pieces on the strand, and drown 
 the crew; but we cannot always have the wind 
 off shore. The causes which produce the breeze 
 also occasion the hurricane ; and were the weather 
 ever moderate, our ships would be weaker and 
 perhaps not less exposed to destruction than be- 
 fore. Strength enough has been given to the 
 stubborn oak to resist the storm ; while the energy 
 and skill which the latter calls into being, more 
 
ON ORGANIC CAUSATION. 59 
 
 than counterbalance the injury of which it is the 
 source. The husbandman at one time wishes for 
 dry weather, and at another for rain, but it is his 
 duty to accommodate himself to the vicissitudes 
 of the seasons. Events cannot always be squared 
 so as to suit individual interests. Rather let 
 us be persuaded that the phenomena of nature 
 are best on the whole, and that it is our part to 
 anticipate them, and abide by them as we are 
 able, without desiring that which cannot be. 
 
 II. It is our duty to avert disease by attending 
 to the laws of our organization : if these be violated, 
 we cannot calculate on the continuance of health. 
 Some of the maladies of childhood indeed, though 
 they may be mitigated, it seems impossible to pre- 
 vent; but we have it in our power to controul, 
 if not to annihilate those of ordinary occurrence. 
 The latter develop our social virtues and intel- 
 lectual energies, while the former strengthen pa- 
 rental love. Mankind inveigh against disease, 
 but if the laws whose infringement is productive 
 of it, were set aside, our race would perish, since 
 they are precisely those, by whose observance we 
 secure health, strength and length of life. Pain 
 and disease are the monitors which guard the in- 
 terests of our organization. Were the former 
 
 o 
 
 not to accompany our neglect, or the aggressions 
 of others, destruction would be comparatively 
 frequent ; we should perish without being aware 
 of it, and the purposes of existence would cease 
 to be accomplished. The symptoms of disease 
 are warnings given to prevent fatal organic 
 
60 ON ORGANIC CAUSATION. 
 
 change : thus the sufferings induced by wet, cold, 
 hunger, over-exertion and intemperance, tend to 
 secure life from the further operation of agents 
 incompatible with its continuance. Instinct pro- 
 vides for the inferior animals; when domesti- 
 cated indeed, they come within the range of 
 artificial relief. As to ourselves, the Deity is 
 merciful and good. When disease becomes in- 
 veterate, or when it has not been early arrested, 
 the pain and incapacity which attend it, are di- 
 minished. These however, still mark its pro- 
 gress, to incite us to its removal ; yet even when 
 recovery becomes impossible, they may be still 
 further lessened. That pain should occur under 
 circumstances in which it can prove of no imme- 
 diate utility, is explained by the necessity of our 
 organization, which does not permit advantages 
 to be secured without the contingency of evil. 
 Disease and pain on the whole, are sources of 
 good, and the instances wherein they are not di- 
 rectly so, but strengthen the general rule. When 
 indeed, they have gone their utmost length, and 
 when their longer continuance would be but an 
 aggravation of misery, life is cut short by that 
 kind Power which wills the existence of no use- 
 less suffering. 
 
 2. The invariable succession of the pheno- 
 mena which surround us, is evident to every one 
 who observes with attention, and who reflects on 
 what he sees. It is equally apparent in all the 
 divisions of nature: in the organic, no less than 
 in the inorganic world; in the vegetable, no less 
 
ON ORGANIC CAUSATION. 61 
 
 than in the animal kingdoms ; in the human mind, 
 no less than in the human frame. Some assert 
 the series of cause and effect to arise from an in- 
 scrutable origin, and to tend to a no less inscru- 
 table end; one change necessarily leading to 
 another, in perpetual succession. Others affirm 
 that the phenomena of nature, however con- 
 nected, have their beginning in the wisdom of 
 God; that their continuance depends upon him; 
 and that they are directed to beneficial and de- 
 terminate ends. It is difficult for those who hold 
 the latter doctrine on rational grounds, to con- 
 ceive how any one could maintain the former; 
 the circumstance however, has led to the advo- 
 cacy of truth with so much the more energy and 
 determination. Temporary error seems an in- 
 gredient in the progress of moral discovery, and 
 can hardly be cleared away without contrast and 
 collision. The votaries of opposing doctrines 
 wage the war of opinion with varying success, 
 and must continue to do so, till truth gains her 
 gentle and lasting ascendency. She reigns with- 
 out force, and claims no instruments save persua- 
 sion and conviction: every one however, should 
 seek her for himself, nor rest satisfied with the 
 nullity of a blind belief. 
 
 I. How far in the order of succession, events 
 are contingent, it is impossible to know. When 
 one set of phenomena are continually observed 
 to precede another, it is usual to style the one, 
 cause; and the other, effect. We can demon- 
 strate nothing on the subject of causation inde- 
 
02 ON ORGANIC CAUSATION. 
 
 pendent of reasoning and experience ; it is certain 
 however, so far as the evidence of these extends, 
 that a moral connexion links the phenomena of 
 the universe ; that they have their origin in the 
 Deity, and that he has determined their course 
 and the objects which they are to fulfil. We em- 
 ploy the term, physical causation, when we would 
 speak of the succession and invariability of the 
 laws of matter, without any reference to the im- 
 mediate nature of that causation, which we cannot 
 know. The providence of the Deity, the inces- 
 sant dependence of all things on his power, and 
 the impossibility of a single occurrence without 
 his permission and ordinance, have been admi- 
 rably set forth by Nieuwentyt, Derham, Ray, 
 Boyle, Swammerdam, Paley and many others. 
 It is a subject upon which the wise and good of 
 all ages have been fond of expatiating, and thus 
 must ever be, so long as the world endures. How 
 incongruous is the doctrine which affirms the self- 
 production of the changes which we see going on 
 around us, and by which means and end, cause 
 and effect, are equally confounded together ? To 
 him who has intelligence and a grateful heart, 
 the moral evidence which all creation displays, 
 demonstrates in terms the most conclusive, the 
 most convincing, that heaven and earth are made 
 and ruled by the Deity; while it overwhelms, 
 irrecoverably and for ever, the sad doctrine 
 which would deprive us of God, providence and 
 futurity. 
 
 3. With the final causes of our organization 
 
ON ORGANIC CAUSATION. 63 
 
 we are acquainted, but as to the efficient, we are 
 ignorant. We are aware of no links between the 
 phenomena which surround us, short of the will 
 of the Creator. Our bodies, which, in one sense, 
 are outward objects, form no exception, since of 
 the springs of organization we know nothing. 
 If we say that the contraction of the heart causes 
 the circulation of the blood, we have to inquire 
 what gives rise to the former. We reply, the 
 advent of the fluid just named, and thus we rea- 
 son in a circle. The slightest impulse of the 
 will causes muscles to act, of which perchance, we 
 know not the existence or the name ; yet quick 
 as thought, the desired motion is performed. 
 Occurrences the most wonderful, take place with 
 such regularity, that we cease to think them re- 
 markable. The study of efficient causes has been 
 a perpetual barrier to the progress of the mind, 
 and ever will remain so, until men shall cease 
 their attempts to pass beyond the boundaries of 
 reason and experience. Scope enough has been 
 given for the business of life, and any further in- 
 sight into the nature of things, as it could only 
 prove a source of useless, and perhaps injurious 
 distraction, has been withheld. 
 
64 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 ON THE ORGANIC LAWS AND THE NECESSITY OF 
 OBEYING THEM. 
 
 1. As we have the inclination or the means to 
 observe the laws of our organization, so will be 
 our health and well-being. Many inherit consti- 
 tutions so defective, that no ordinary care serves 
 to exempt them from disease; yet some even 
 among this class, enjoy better health than those 
 for whom nature has done more. The occupa- 
 tions, habits and cares of mankind are often 
 highly injurious, while too many are destitute of 
 the information .and mental energy, that would 
 enable them to struggle successfully against the 
 deteriorating influences which surround them. 
 The truth of what is here stated, appears from the 
 fact, that the great majority perish at an early 
 age, and that the average duration of human life 
 does not extend beyond eight and twenty years. 
 Nature could never design the premature destruc- 
 tion of so large a portion of our species. May we 
 not then be permitted to believe, that it arises 
 from an aggression of her laws, and that it would 
 be averted by returning to that just obedience 
 which she only requires for our good ? The ex- 
 ertions of individuals alone, are inadequate to 
 lead to so desirable a result. Whole communi- 
 
ON THE ORGANIC LAWS. 65 
 
 ties must associate to secure it; commerce and 
 manufactures must 4 alter their regulations, while 
 knowledge must be universally disseminated. It 
 is not desirable, were it possible, that men should 
 live for ever; but it is highly so, that no one 
 should be cut off before the natural term of his 
 career, and that while all enjoyed its advantages, 
 each should perform his share of the duties of life. 
 
 2. The acts of our organization acquire with 
 time, a singular facility of performance. Our 
 gestures, language, tones and general habits, 
 though gained with difficulty, are repeated with 
 ease. The drunkard seems often to lose the 
 power with the inclination, to discontinue his vice ; 
 the rustic is unable to throw off his clownishness, 
 while the orator and the musician cannot cease 
 the display of their ordinary peculiarities. Bad 
 habits it is true, become inveterate, and with 
 whatever difficulty they were contracted, are 
 eventually attended with none. This is in con- 
 formity with the general law, by which a great 
 good is secured at the expense of a small evil. 
 We would be desirous that every link were forged 
 with the same difficulty as the first, but this could 
 not be done without altering the constitution of 
 our nature, and forfeiting the advantages which 
 accrue from it. 
 
 I. We are so formed, that we cannot indulge 
 in extremes with impunity. This is equally the 
 case, whether we turn to the side of over rigid 
 abstinence or to that of intemperance. The 
 structure of society debars many, not only from 
 
66 ON THE ORGANIC LAWS. 
 
 the comforts, but the luxuries of life, while to 
 others, it permits indulgence in every superfluity. 
 Undue repetition of any gratification, leads to a 
 diminution of its intensity, and even to pain, while 
 excess, exhausts not only the functions imme- 
 diately implicated, but the whole organic fabric. 
 Thus, the bodily strength and capabilities of a 
 debauchee, rarely equal those of other men. The 
 palate of the epicure acquires a kind of artificial 
 discernment as to the mixtures which it encoun- 
 ters. Our food however, undergoes but few 
 changes, and the ingenuity displayed in disguis- 
 ing it, is wholly thrown away. The peasant boy 
 who earns his simple fare by laborious exercise 
 in the open air, enjoys it with a relish which the 
 refinements of cookery are not made to yield. 
 Whilst we avoid excess however, let us shun a 
 useless and pernicious asceticism useless, be- 
 cause it promotes no moral or physical good, and 
 pernicious, because it incapacitates the body, and 
 indirectly the mind, from realizing the energies 
 of our nature. 
 
 II. The advantages of exercise are very great, 
 especially if taken in the open air. In the latter 
 case, the blood is purified; the secretions and 
 excretions are stimulated ; the muscular mass is 
 invigorated; the appetite is improved, and the 
 entire frame is refreshed and renewed. Indepen- 
 dent of what is done out of doors, handicrafts and 
 gymnastics afford useful occupation within. It is 
 not requisite to make young people athlets, but 
 it is desirable that they should enjoy the vigour 
 
ON THE ORGANIC LAWS. 6? 
 
 incident to their age. The practices of some 
 schools those for females in particular, and the 
 aspirations of anxious parents, are calculated to 
 produce imbecility and disease, rather than 
 mental proficiency and bodily health. A kind 
 of ignominy, not less absurd than injurious, has 
 been cast upon labour. Most rich men would be 
 ashamed to drive the wholesome plough or ply 
 the axe, yet nature did not give muscles to lan- 
 guish in inaction. Labour, both intellectual and 
 physical, should be undergone by all who would 
 secure a sound mind in a sound body, indepen- 
 dent of the irrational trammels of society. The 
 Very poor however, have no choice ; unremitting 
 toil is their portion: hence, one cause among 
 others, for their inferior moral condition. The 
 pleasures arising from sufficient, yet not excessive 
 exertion, are very great ; there is a glow, a vigour 
 and a cheerfulness, that redound not less to the 
 well-being of the moral, than to that of the phy- 
 sical man. 
 
 III. Excesses of sex at all periods, but parti- 
 cularly in youth, are productive of the worst 
 results. Independent of moral degradation, they 
 lead to premature exhaustion and decay. Nothing 
 tends so much to barrenness, or the production of 
 an unhealthy rickety offspring, as the absence of 
 chastity. The habits of society rather incline to 
 indulgences of sense. Marriage is forbidden un- 
 less to those who are able to continue their ac- 
 customed comforts, thus stifling by a questionable 
 morality, the purest source of human happiiiess. 
 
68 ON THE ORGANIC LAWS. 
 
 It is a grievous error that would render marriage 
 less frequent; the alleged advantages are rarely 
 realized, while it is certain that unchastity is in- 
 creased. The public opinion must be unsound, 
 that would promote a searing institution to the 
 prejudice of the marriage tie. Assuredly, the 
 general prevalence of celibacy, falsely so styled, 
 is in so far, incompatible with purity. Can we 
 justly call that prudence, in him who refrains from 
 marriage, till he can support an expensive es- 
 tablishment, when the omission is secured by 
 another's misery? These wretched principles 
 have kept thousands apart, who by marriage 
 might have promoted each other's happiness. It 
 would doubtless, be most unwarrantable to enter 
 into this sacred contract, without the means of 
 support; but who that is possessed of a sound 
 mind and a healthy organization, could not pro- 
 cure them by honest industry ? The earth affords 
 a boundless range for human increase tracts 
 where the joys of independence and of married 
 life may be secured, without incurring the un- 
 natural and criminal union, of celibacy and pros- 
 titution. In fine, chastity is essential to the 
 maintenance of happiness, while its absence is 
 productive of moral, no less than of physical 
 misery and impurity. It is the duty of those to 
 whom marriage is impracticable, to maintain this 
 virtue by the force of temperance and moral re- 
 straint; but I would gainsay, by the test both of 
 reason and feeling, those doctrines that would 
 enforce its nominal observance, by the sacrifice 
 
ON THE ORGANIC LAWS. 69 
 
 of such a countless mass of human well-being. 
 Chastity must be seated in the heart and mind, 
 without which, outward observances alone, are 
 insufficient. 
 
 IV. Cleanliness, if not a virtue, is at any rate 
 the promoter of virtue ; and we cannot well con- 
 ceive its absence consistently with the mainten- 
 ance of the latter. The baths and ablutions of 
 various nations, bespeak the general conviction on 
 the subject, founded indeed, on the wants of our 
 organization. In some countries, cleanliness has 
 been the object of an almost fanatical observance 
 the end being made subservient to the means; 
 but it is obvious, this extreme apart, that it must 
 equally redound to health and moral purity. 
 
 V. Our physical habitudes enhance or aggra- 
 vate each other. Air, exercise, temperance and 
 early rising, promote the appetite and digestion, 
 while they secure the well-being of the great in- 
 strument which supplies our physical wants, re- 
 tains external nature in subjection, and is the 
 common agent of our moral and intellectual pur- 
 poses. An unhealthy individual, while he is apt 
 to entail disease and premature destruction on his 
 offspring, is in so far, unable to serve society or 
 himself. The unchaste, the luxurious, the indo- 
 lent and the unclean, disqualify their moral nature 
 for the advance of which it is capable. How is 
 it possible for such, to be actuated by the superior 
 energies of an intellectual being ; to become in- 
 dependent, temperate and self-denying ; just to 
 themselves and to others? There are gradations 
 
70 ON THE ORGANIC LAWS. 
 
 however, since it is not a necessary consequence 
 that a man with some vices, should have no virtues. 
 Of two evils, it is better that an individual should 
 have some defects and many excellencies, than 
 that he should be bound up and frozen, by a heart- 
 less and icy indifference to all interests, human 
 and divine. As the improvement of the moral 
 and intellectual man, is the great end of our mortal 
 existence, it follows, that all corporeal pleasures 
 and pursuits, beyond what are necessary to keep 
 our organs in health and vigour as instruments, 
 are to be looked upon as secondary and inferior, 
 while they should be so ordered as not to impede 
 by their corrupting influence, the interests of our 
 better nature. 
 
 VI. Correct ideas and cheerful virtuous feel- 
 ings, ought ever to be associated with the duties 
 of which the exigencies of our being demand the 
 performance. This is peculiarly desirable with 
 regard to children, since impressions made upon 
 them, exert an enormous influence on their after 
 life. The artisan, the labourer, the soldier in the 
 defence of his country, and the mariner on the 
 stormy sea, should all, as a matter of primary im- 
 portance, endeavour to connect pleasant thoughts 
 with the toils and the dangers, which they are re- 
 spectively called on to encounter. Such have 9, 
 right to feel, that while they are earning an 
 honourable subsistences they are at the same time 
 performing their parts as virtuous members of 
 society. It is incumbent on those to whom the 
 charge of bringing up youth to such occupations 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 71 
 
 devolves, that they should not only avoid useless 
 severity, but that they should render joyous and 
 happy, so far as in them lies, the brief period 
 that precedes the entrance upon the arduous 
 career of life. Similar observations apply to all 
 who are concerned in promoting the comfort of 
 masses of men; to naval and military com- 
 manders ; to tradesmen, masters of manufactories 
 and others; since by so doing, they will lighten 
 numerous privations, advance the well-being of 
 those committed to their care, and kindle the 
 flames of gratitude in many a happy heart. It 
 fortunately happens however, that the reward of 
 industry is not solely intrusted to accident or 
 caprice for labour brings its own reward. Tired 
 and sated with luxury, its votaries will often 
 court the gratifications that fall to the lot of the 
 industrious ; thus yielding an unconscious tribute 
 to the supremacy of nature. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES ON HUMAN 
 ORGANIZATION. 
 
 1. IN conformity with the fiat of the Creator, 
 dissolution, sooner or later awaits us. It is de- 
 sirable however, to know what accelerates and 
 what retards this period, as well as what things 
 
72 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 are capable of modifying the organization between 
 birth and the grave. These indeed, are not a 
 few. According to the conditions to which our 
 physical constitution is subjected, there will be 
 health or disease, strength or weakness; early 
 death or advanced age ; and to a certain extent, 
 even mental sanity or decay. TTie habits of 
 parents, their health, age and employments, as 
 well as the peculiarities of their organization, 
 exert an extensive influence over their offspring. 
 The children of the aged, other circumstances 
 alike, are less robust than those of persons earlier 
 in life. Intemperance, over-exertion of mind and 
 body, as well as violent passions, prejudice the de- 
 scendants of those who are addicted to them. The 
 children of parents who inhabit close and filthy 
 dwellings, and whose employments are deteriora- 
 ting, must be defective accordingly. Gout, 
 scrofula, insanity, rickets, consumption, or a dis- 
 position to them, are often hereditary. When 
 both parents are unhealthy, a sound offspring 
 cannot follow. The union of many unfavourable 
 circumstances leads to corresponding results. 
 Correct living will do much to modify, and irre- 
 gularity to aggravate, the consequences of a faulty 
 organization. Thus, many enjoy tolerable health, 
 in whom latent disease awaits but an opportunity 
 to develop itself. Multitudes perish during the 
 first few years of life. In some cases, the mor- 
 tality is owing to a defective organization; in 
 others, to the unfavourable position into which 
 the subjects are cast. Many bring the germs of 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 73 
 
 fatal disease into the world with them, while others 
 cease to exist at birth, or at varying periods of 
 their uterine career. A proclivity to disease may 
 be gradually destroyed by successive marriages : 
 by the converse of this process, it is obvious that 
 other results will follow. The disposition to a 
 malady may be so slight, as not to be easily gene- 
 rated, or so strong, as to require no concurring 
 aid. Diseases styled hereditary, must have other 
 sources, or we arrive at the absurd conclusion 
 that they originated in the first parents of man- 
 kind. It is obvious that nature sets up different 
 processes for the reintegration of our physical 
 well-being: when these fail, the feeble and dege- 
 nerate, make way for the strong and energetic. 
 Thus, disease wears itself out by the restoration 
 of the parties affected, or their removal by death ; 
 precautions without which, the propagation of 
 organic evil and progressive degradation, would 
 be inevitable. 
 
 I. Much depends on the bodily training of 
 children, and on the proper regulation of air, 
 exercise, food and clothing. Like plants, they 
 require the heat and light of the sun, otherwise, 
 they languish and deteriorate. Inadequate nou- 
 rishment, foul air, want of exercise, deficient 
 warmth and clothing, along with depressing 
 moral influences, lead to scrofula, rickets, mesen- 
 teric and pulmonary consumption, as well as other 
 results not less disastrous. The nutriment of 
 children at the breast, is affected by the poverty 
 of the parent; by sorrow, violent passions and 
 
74 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 excess. There is no substitute for a mother's milk 
 or a mother's care, and children brought up by 
 hand, are apt to perish even under the parent's 
 eye. In foundling hospitals, the mortality is pro- 
 digious. Any one who visits the institutions in 
 which poor deserted children are maintained, will 
 be struck with the cheerless aspect which they 
 present. The happy relations of domestic life, 
 ajnd above all, that of mother and child, are sadly 
 absent. Undue restraint proves highly detri- 
 mental. When habits of repletion and indolence 
 are fostered, they act injuriously on the develop- 
 ment of the frame ; while excessive or premature 
 exertion stunts the growth, and leads to imbecility 
 and disease, if not to early death. Children are 
 yearly destroyed by the improper exhibition of 
 drugs. The infliction of bodily injury is one of 
 so barbarous a nature, that it is difficult to believe 
 that any could be guilty of it. The laws do not 
 permit an adult to be assaulted with impunity, 
 and why a child? Young people are often mer- 
 cilessly beaten by cruel or passionate teachers, 
 so that independent of the production of misery 
 ?tnd disease, the temper is broken and destroyed 
 for ever. Education, for various reasons, should 
 not be wholly committed to public schools; 
 the most zealous teachers cannot well equal the 
 care and attention of enlightened parents. Do- 
 mestic affections are cut off, while the influence 
 of improper companionship is increased. It 
 would be desirable if men of cultivated minds 
 and feelings, could be more generally induced by 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 75 
 
 increased consideration, to take charge of schools. 
 Such would best supply the parent's place, and 
 neutralize the disadvantages contingent on public 
 instruction. 
 
 II. Numerous agents modify the organic fabric : 
 the most prominent, are heat, cold and moisture, 
 with their contraries. Poor or insufficient food, 
 along with over-exertion, break down the strength, 
 and render those subject to them, squalid and 
 diminutive, as well as hinder the development of 
 feeling and intellect. The effects of the same 
 climate, vary with the station and the exposure of 
 the individual. Injurious results are subdued 
 with regard to those who can choose the amount 
 of their labour, and whose frames are strengthened 
 by nutritive food, warm clothing and comfortable 
 habitations. The judicious application of the 
 means within our reach, go far to obviate the 
 agency of climate. It is owing to this, that the 
 rich in all countries, are less liable to pestilential, 
 as well as to most other maladies. The privileged 
 classes indeed, are everywhere among the hand- 
 somest and best formed, which results would be 
 much more frequently the case, did early and 
 suitable marriages, as well as a more rational 
 mode of living, prevail among them. A kind of 
 leprosy, produced by hard work and exposure, is 
 common in some parts of Italy; and a malady 
 yet more wretched, since both body and mind are 
 overwhelmed by it, exists among the inhabitants 
 of alpine v allies. Warm climates hasten the ap- 
 proach of manhood, and consequently, that of 
 
76 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 age : girls become women sooner, and sooner lose 
 the attractions of youth. In temperate regions 
 the greater economy of nature, leads to increased 
 exertions, and to a proportionate influence on the 
 organization. The position of the poor in all 
 countries, by depriving them of various neces- 
 saries, as well as of adequate instruction, renders 
 them more subject to injury and disease. This 
 is the plague-spot the moral evil of our race. 
 A consummation so unhappy, by which the ma- 
 jority are deprived of the advantages of life, might 
 assuredly be obviated by the better diffusion of 
 knowledge, and by institutions whereby the good 
 of the whole might be secured, without prejudice 
 to any. 
 
 Climate is a name for the heat, the cold and 
 the moisture of a given locality. The nature of 
 the soil, the alternations of the seasons, the sup- 
 ply of water and the temperature, lead to cus- 
 toms which modify the condition of the inhabi- 
 tants. In some countries, excessive heat or cold, 
 suspends vegetation for a portion of the year; 
 while in others, the emanations from animal and 
 vegetable remains, are inimical to human life. 
 Though Europeans have colonized the coasts of 
 central Africa, for more than two hundred years, 
 they have been unable to engraft their race on 
 the soil, and were it not for the negroes, these 
 vast regions would remain untrodden by the foot 
 of man. Hybrids indeed survive, but individuals 
 of white descent never. The conditions of func- 
 tion suited to a burning sun, are not adapted to 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 77 
 
 temperate climates : black men die of phthisis in 
 the country of the whites, and the latter of fever, 
 in the homes of the former. In some countries 
 the inhabitants are supported by the chase, and 
 in others, by corn and vegetables ; while in a few, 
 the reliance is on the sea. Were it not for the 
 wide range of sustenance, many districts would 
 be uninhabitable. The difficulties occasioned by 
 the search after food, while they influence the 
 organization, also tend to the culture of the mind. 
 None of these circumstances however, act singly ; 
 they are met and modified by many others; so 
 that the mean result is one, in which numerous 
 causes operate. 
 
 III. Those important modifications of the func- 
 tions and organization which we call disease, are 
 produced, partly by climate partly, by prevailing 
 customs, and partly, by causes unknown. Their 
 influence on the animal economy and on the 
 moral man, whether directly or through the 
 changes which they induce in society, are very 
 great. Our race has ever been liable to epide- 
 mics. These carry off the weakly and defective 
 without contaminating the survivors, w^hile the 
 loss is quickly repaired. They are contingent 
 on the state of society, and have ever displayed 
 their violence among the poor, the ill-fed and the 
 wretched. Were such to disappear, epidemics like- 
 wise, would vanish. This expectation however, 
 must be qualified with respect to diseases which 
 attack their subjects only once, as small-pox and 
 some others. Tropical fevers also, affect the 
 
?B ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 most vigorous; but habitude suspends or lessens 
 the liability. Thus> the hand of Providence tem- 
 pers the evils to which we are exposed, and by 
 cutting off their sources, enables us to make them 
 the means of bettering our condition. 
 
 The ordinary causes of fever, are cold, exces- 
 sive exertion and contagion^ but its progress by 
 the latter, is frightfully accelerated, when men's 
 minds and bodies are lowered and weakened, by 
 famine, hopelessness and despair. Some diseases, 
 as leprosy and scurvy, are less frequent than for- 
 merly, while others, as the cholera, appear foi* 
 the first time. Most, are contingent on neglect 
 of the laws of our organization, whether it be 
 owing to ignorance, carelessness, or the dictates 
 of sad necessity. The ravages of consumption, 
 from helpless childhood to decrepit age, are al- 
 most incredible. Its assaults however, are most 
 frequent and fatal at that period in which the 
 heart and understanding yield the richest pro- 
 mise of a happy maturity. It is often connected 
 with scrofula, itself of such frequency, as to be 
 styled the evil. Time and a complication of 
 means, would be required to do away with both ; 
 among these, a superior physical education, and 
 the due regulation of air, exercise and clothing^ 
 the avoidance of undue cold and moisture, late 
 hours, crowded rooms, depressing passions andpre^- 
 mature, or excessive exertion of body or mind, would 
 stand prominent. Thus the prodigious sweep of 
 yearly destruction, from causes almost purely ar- 
 tificial, would be mitigated, if not removed. 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 79 
 
 IV. Besides diseases of the body, the mind is 
 liable to the absence and perversion of its facul- 
 ties in a word, to idiotcy and insanity. The 
 first of these, arises from the imperfect develop- 
 ment of the faculties, and from their sudden or slow 
 suppression ; the two however, may run into each 
 other, by insensible gradations. Fatuity is en- 
 tailed by imperfect cerebral development, which 
 in some way unknown, prevents impressions on 
 the senses from being correctly transmitted to the 
 mind; it may also supervene upon insanity, and 
 even on mental health. In this deplorable con- 
 dition, the mind has few means, and those imper- 
 fect ones, of communicating with the external 
 world, whether to receive or to transmit impres- 
 sions. There is a blindness worse than that of 
 sense, which nothing can alleviate, save that final 
 change which is to open out new faculties, and 
 other means of perception to the souL 
 
 Between insanity and morbid alterations of the 
 brain, there seems no necessary connexion. It 
 is common to discover them after death, without 
 any preceding mental disturbance, as well as to 
 witness the brains of the insane, without any ap- 
 preciable lesion. The changes in the organ in 
 question, are of the most variable nature, and it 
 is obvious that no inference can be drawn from 
 those, that are the equal accompaniment of lunacy 
 and other diseases. If indeed, the brain were 
 the mind, and its functions the faculties of the mind, 
 we might arrive at the conclusion that its disease 
 or destruction, was equivalent to insanity in the 
 
80 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 one case, and to the cessation of mental existence 
 in the other; but this is an admission which can- 
 not be granted. The organic chain between the 
 mind and outward objects, may be imperfect or 
 perverted, hence fatuity or insanity; this how- 
 ever, does not prove the identity of organization 
 and mind, but merely the subserviency of the one 
 to the other. Thus, disease whether acute or 
 chronic, by deranging the connexion, may induce 
 an irregular display of the phenomena of intel- 
 lect; but there are cases, as in the insanity or 
 idiotcy produced by painful intelligence, in which 
 we do not recognize corporeal change. To say 
 that the functions of the brain are those of the 
 mind, and that they are suspended or destroyed, 
 is to take for granted that which has to be proved. 
 2. Effects arise from numerous causes, and 
 lead in their turn, to numerous results. The 
 numbers, wealth, enterprise and intelligence of 
 a community, influence government, and con- 
 versely. Individuals may do much, but go- 
 vernments by a single act by the facilities or the 
 obstacles which they interpose with respect to 
 knowledge and liberty, can alter the relations of 
 a whole people. Their power for working good 
 and evil never ceases, and is almost commensu- 
 rate with that of nature herself. In Turkey, 
 blessed as it is with a fruitful soil and genial cli- 
 mate, the exactions of rulers leave the people 
 miserable. The French peasantry anterior to 
 the revolution, in order to support nature, were 
 accustomed it is said, to secrete a portion of the 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 81 
 
 produce of their farms in caves under ground. 
 Owing to insufficient employment, absenteeism, 
 the imperfect circulation of capital, the low state 
 of education, and the want of a provision for the 
 poor, a considerable section of the British empire 
 exhibits a state of destitution which it would not 
 be easy to parallel. It devolves upon govern- 
 ments, were they adequately to discharge the 
 trust, to secure a good education for the working 
 classes, to attend to the interests of productive 
 industry, and to elevate the condition of the poor. 
 I. Some occupations retard the development, 
 or distort the structure of the human frame, while 
 others, induce disease and premature decay. 
 When children are sent to employments too la- 
 borious or too unintermitting for their tender 
 years; before their joints are knit, or their bones 
 and muscles are developed; confined perhaps, in 
 a close and tainted atmosphere, and debarred 
 from the instruction, relaxation and enjoyment 
 required at their age, how can we expect that 
 their physical comformation or their moral purity 
 should remain unaltered? They become pale, 
 rickety, distorted and thin; lose the grace and 
 symmetry of youth, and at the same time, imbibe 
 the seeds of disease and decay. Should they 
 grow up, they do not attain the vigour or health 
 of manhood, while their offspring are still more 
 enfeebled than themselves. The population of 
 manufacturing towns and districts has visibly de- 
 generated. Unwholesome employment, foul air, 
 deficient or vitiated nutriment and debauchery, 
 
 F 
 
82 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 lay the foundation of various and destructive ma- 
 ladies. Pin-making, dry-grinding, stone-cutting, 
 and the like, too often induce such, with fatal 
 certainty. An occupation, in itself not positively 
 unwholesome, becomes so, when persevered in to 
 the exclusion of exercise and recreation. Tailors, 
 weavers, milliners and shop-keepers, are often 
 over-tasked, and their hours of rest sadly en- 
 croached on. Every one should have a little 
 time to devote to the society of his family and 
 friends, to the preservation of his health, and to 
 the cultivation and enlargement of his moral and 
 intellectual nature. The life of man is sacrificed 
 to the unrelenting spirit of gain, yet the services 
 which human beings owe to each other, need 
 never prove the source of misery or oppression. 
 Moderate exertion is advantageous, but excessive 
 toil is not less morally, than physically injurious. 
 Thus, the well-being of multitudes is done away 
 with, while the life-springs of existence are tainted 
 at their source. 
 
 II. Physical depravation is the result of con- 
 tinued war, inasmuch as the most robust are 
 chosen to carry it on. This would be partly ob- 
 viated, were soldiers permitted to marry ; but the 
 term of service is unlimited, or if the soldier be 
 restored to his home, it is with maimed limbs and 
 a ruined constitution. Such a state of things 
 precludes marriage, and renders those childless, 
 who under happier arrangements, might have been 
 the parents of a healthy offspring. As the sexes 
 by a wonderful provision, are born nearly equal, 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 83 
 
 it follows that for every unmarried man, there 
 must be an unmarried woman ; so that the naval 
 and military force of a country, cuts off nearly 
 twice the number from parentage. The existence 
 of soldier-craft by land or sea, adds to that un- 
 happy class, doomed by their position to moral 
 perdition, barrenness and disease. Many belong- 
 ing to it, are persons of superior attractions, and 
 in so far, an indirect source of physical degene- 
 ration. Under other circumstances, such women 
 would enjoy a vigorous and healthy offspring; as 
 it is, they are childless. 
 
 III. Emigration, while it gives free scope to 
 human increase, diffuses science and art with all 
 their contingent advantages. We are so re- 
 stricted, that the existing population is no criterion 
 of the capabilities of the soil ; but we are not con- 
 fined to domestic resources. Regions yielding a 
 prodigious outlet, lie open to us. New Holland 
 alone, were the world's inhabitants congregated 
 in it, would not be more thickly peopled than are 
 some parts of Europe at present; yet the latter, 
 are far from having arrived at their maximum. 
 A circumstance like this, is well calculated to en- 
 large our conceptions as to the capacity of the 
 globe, and to fill us with deep regret, that defec- 
 tive arrangements should condemn so many to 
 needless poverty. The time may perhaps arrive, 
 when the life-supporting earth shall be tilled to 
 the utmost; but the necessity which may then 
 arise, to limit human increase, regards our suc- 
 cessors alone. There is no existing tendency, so 
 
84 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 far as nature is concerned, in population to sur- 
 pass the means of subsistence: artificial checks 
 are the only ones. Hence, we must refer to ig- 
 norance and mismanagement, the misery and 
 want so erroneously ascribed to another source, 
 in equal opposition to the dictates of the heart 
 and understanding. The increase of our species 
 is a blessing. It calls into being creatures gifted 
 with boundless capabilities, and destined to immor- 
 tality. It is a duty to avail ourselves of the 
 bounty of our Maker; to improve our faculties 
 to the utmost, and to exult in the extension 
 of our race over the surface of the soil, with 
 whatever is good and great in humanity. 
 
 Without the impetus derived from emigration, 
 we may well doubt whether science and civiliza- 
 tion could have attained their present eminence. 
 Colonists among the ancients were doomed to 
 few of the evils of exile ; they went encircled by 
 friends and relatives, carrying with them the ap- 
 pliances of knowledge and civilization, and tole- 
 rably secure of the enjoyments of life. Why 
 forfeit these advantages: why not establish colo- 
 nies on a liberal scale, with a due adjustment of 
 the sexes and social callings : why not prepare 
 the soil, and human habitations beforehand, and 
 transplant the institutions of civilized society? 
 Penal or ordinary slavery, settlers barbarized by 
 spreading over the soil, with isolated and help- 
 lessly dependent establishments, are bad preli- 
 minaries to successful colonization. With proper 
 management, nothing need be lost, and men 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 85 
 
 might change their abode as easily as their dwel- 
 lings. Above all however, estrangement is to be 
 avoided; for if our vices flow from society, so do 
 our moral and intellectual energies. It is a con- 
 dition for which we are born, and in which our 
 progress is to be achieved. Man, by himself, is 
 a unit, but associated with his fellows, his powers 
 are multiplied. Science, art, and all the virtues 
 spring up in society, while in solitude, they be- 
 come extinct. The best form of colonization may 
 be difficult to compass, yet assuredly, it might be 
 made the instrument of enormous, and hitherto 
 ill-realized advantages. 
 
 3. The power of man for good and ill is very 
 great; we might wish it otherwise, but the one 
 cannot be without the other. If we are the in- 
 struments of greater good than harm, we cannot 
 condemn the arrangement, yet men have been 
 guilty of miserable inflictions on their fellows. 
 Every form of torture that perverted ingenuity 
 could devise, has been employed to rack human 
 sensibilities; death itself, that seeming climax of 
 evil, has been perpetrated, with every accompani- 
 ment of physical and moral suffering. The fagot, 
 the halter, the rack, the dungeon, the axe and 
 the chalice, bespeak the one; while persecution, 
 slander, exile, present taunts, and denunciations 
 of future misery, attest the other. How many 
 have been sacrificed to avarice, superstition, envy 
 and revenge, or to the necessities, real or sup- 
 posed, of justice? Yet man owes kindness to 
 man ; and it is not chimerical to hope, that the 
 
86 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 time may come, when none shall dare to antici- 
 pate the natural period of our dissolution. 
 
 I. Superstition has variously degraded the 
 character of our race. In the East, it has led to 
 self-torture and immolation, and in different parts 
 of the earth, to human sacrifices. Countless vic- 
 tims have been destroyed, for the imaginary 
 crimes of witch-craft, heresy and Judaism. In 
 many places, a tribunal was established, for the 
 express purpose of detecting these ; while its nu- 
 merous victims, torn without a moment's warning 
 from the bosom of their families, were cruelly in- 
 carcerated, tortured, or burnt. Wars of opinion, 
 in which the conquered received little mercy, 
 were carried on with ruthless violence. Thirty- 
 five thousand, according to Mezeray, of all ages 
 and both sexes, met a cruel death at the massacre 
 of St. Bartholomew. Rites of a highly degrading 
 character at one time prevailed, and even yet, 
 charms are employed to restore lost health, and 
 avert disease. The extent to which superstition 
 has retarded human progress, it is impossible to 
 calculate, as the enlightened have been its uni- 
 form victims. All who dissented from the do- 
 minant creed, were promiscuously consigned to 
 destruction, as infidels, heretics and atheists; 
 while malice, iniquity and debauchery, too often 
 ran riot under the semblance of religious zeal. 
 Is it not dreadful to think, that age after age, so 
 many of the most virtuous members of the com- 
 munity, should have been successively immolated 
 on the altars of intolerance? Persecution went 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 8? 
 
 to sap the foundations of morality : parents, and 
 their children, brothers, sisters, friends and rela- 
 tives, were encouraged and commanded by the 
 satellites of the Inquisition to denounce each 
 other with what success, let the records of that 
 dreadful institution say. Different sectarians 
 were cruelly slaughtered by their merciless 
 brethren; while each, as it became successful, 
 too often retaliated the cruelties of its oppressors. 
 Almost everywhere indeed, the votaries of op- 
 posing doctrines treated one another with a bar- 
 barity, the recital of which, sickens the heart. 
 The alternative of Mahometanism was conversion 
 or death : a means that succeeded over a great 
 part of the earth, India excepted, where a firm- 
 ness that bloodshed could not quell, compelled 
 the persecutor to desist. Myriads were sacrificed 
 for imaginary offences ; and it is but recently that 
 British statutes have ceased to be disgraced by 
 enactments against them. Juridical murders, on 
 the score of heresy and witch-craft, form a length- 
 ened and an appalling list. It is a crime to per- 
 secute a fellow-creature, because his views re- 
 specting his Maker differ from our own. As to 
 who is right, and who is wrong, God alone can 
 truly know. We trust that he will be merciful 
 to those who err and when He is so, shall we 
 poor creatures prove intolerant? 
 
 II. The infliction of death is more common in 
 some countries than in others : assuredly, its fre- 
 quency is a very equivocal evidence of civiliza- 
 tion. In all despotic and demoralized states 
 
88 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 wherever knowledge and improvement languish, 
 this extreme penalty will be found most summary 
 and frequent, as well as attended with the most 
 cruel accompaniments. In the East, a messenger 
 with the fatal bowstring, has long been at once 
 the announcement, and the expiation of the dis- 
 pleasure of the sovereign. To treat a political 
 offence, of which the criminality is often a matter 
 of mere convention, with the same severity as 
 murder and other outrages against human na- 
 ture, is to confound the distinctions of right and 
 wrong. If crimes, which involve the well-being 
 of the community, are only to be arrested by the 
 destruction of the offender, then are capital pun- 
 ishments unavoidable ; but if this be not the case, 
 they are at once immoral and unnecessary. The 
 most enlightened and virtuous members of every 
 civilized community are against their perpetra- 
 tion; and it is easy to foresee thanks to the 
 unanswerable arguments of a Beccaria, a Living- 
 ston and a Bentham, that at no distant period, 
 the shedding of human blood will cease to be 
 connected with the judgment-seat. Tuscany for 
 a time, and Russia under the Catherines, pro- 
 scribed the infliction altogether ; while elsewhere, 
 philanthropists have essayed its suppression, with 
 varying success. The inhumanity of the prac- 
 tice is most conspicuous with regard to women. 
 In this country, a year hardly elapses, in which, 
 by a peculiar unhappiness, some are not exe- 
 cuted. Whence this necessity are our women 
 more depraved than elsewhere? The infliction 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 89 
 
 of capital punishment on a woman perhaps too, 
 some poor penitent creature, is nothing less than 
 an outrage against the sex and against humanity. 
 Is the bosom whence we draw the life-springs of 
 existence, on which we rest in affliction, and in 
 the communings of affection is that bosom to be 
 convulsed by the agonies of a violent death? 
 Public executions demoralize the spectators, and 
 render them callous to the shedding of human 
 blood. Independent of the mental anguish and 
 physical tortures of the sufferer, the pain that is 
 inflicted on the better portion of the community, 
 is enormous : the guilty and the unfeeling are in- 
 different, while the humane and the innocent, are 
 wrung with anguish and commiseration. The 
 disproportion of the punishment to the offence, 
 creates a sympathy for the criminal, anything but 
 favourable to the interests of justice. These 
 things afford us the strongest incentives to search 
 into the causes of crime, and, by diminishing its 
 amount, to lessen the frequency with the neces- 
 sity, for the harrowing exhibitions of human de- 
 struction. 
 
 III. War is one of the most copious sources of 
 violent death. It does not always indeed, make 
 men savage and blood-thirsty, inasmuch as the 
 best have often been forced to engage in it ; but 
 the ignorant and uninstructed, and such consti- 
 tute the majority of warfaring men, are almost 
 necessarily rendered so. War is a hideous evil. 
 Whether we survey it in ancient or modern 
 times, under any of its hydra-headed aspects, it is 
 
90 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 everywhere the same. North, south, east and west, 
 its brutalizing tendencies remain unaltered. What 
 ravages does not history reveal? The intermi- 
 nable contests of Asiatics and Europeans; of 
 Greeks and Romans ; of nations styled civilized, 
 and those acknowledged barbarous, have the one 
 degrading character. Whether in the open field 
 or the walled-in city, bloodshed, misery and de- 
 solation are equally conspicuous. It is little in 
 comparison, for a man to die with arms in his 
 hands: he hardly feels the smart. If he strike 
 with the edge of the sword, he is stricken again 
 the terms are equal. When a town however, is 
 captured ; when its defenceless inhabitants when 
 old men, women and children, are put to death, 
 and when excesses are committed that disgrace 
 humanity, what can we say but that war is the 
 most awful of calamities, and its pursuit the most 
 demoralizing to which mankind are addicted. 
 Thus, for example, when we read of the sacking of 
 Rome when we hear in imagination, the shrieks 
 of victims undergoing the merciless inflictions of 
 boundless cruelty, avarice and lust when we see 
 the streets reeking with gore, and strewn with 
 the bodies of the dead and dying youth, beauty, 
 infancy and age, alike dishonoured and disre- 
 garded, our hearts within us, thrill with horror. 
 At Magdeburg, soldiers amused themselves with 
 beheading women, casting children into the flames, 
 and spearing infants at their mothers' breasts, 
 the whole being wound up with public rejoicings 
 and thanksgivings. How frightful were the scenes 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 91 
 
 at Badajos, and more latterly, at Scio. At Zara- 
 gossa, a pestilence broke out during the bombard- 
 ment, which together with the usual agents of 
 destruction, left the bones of forty thousand per- 
 sons of every age and sex, in the streets. Such 
 are the horrid particulars, which during every 
 war and every siege, are freshly repeated. Thus, 
 millions upon millions have perished, and the 
 earth has become one vast field of blood. It is 
 dreadful to think that the evil energies of multi- 
 tudes, should be awakened at the nod of some ca- 
 pricious despot, ruthless fanatic, or unprincipled 
 intriguer. No pen could trace the miseries accru- 
 ing from the wars that ambition, hatred and reli- 
 gious rancour, have kindled. Who shall recount 
 the hardships of the victims, or the complicated 
 agonies to which this wretched pursuit has led? 
 Could we inspect the battlefield and see the floods 
 of gore, the corpses of the slain and the writhings 
 of the wounded; could we visit the relatives of 
 those who have perished the lonely parent, the 
 widowed wife and the forsaken child: could we 
 witness the ruined city, the ransacked territory 
 and the desolate home, or enter into the hearts 
 whose peace has been for ever lost and broken, 
 then, should we form some conception of the ra- 
 vages of war. Happy is it for us, that the voice 
 of reason and humanity, aided by the increasing 
 perfection of the machinery of destruction, pro- 
 mises at no distant period its utter extinction. 
 Yes, the time will come when the hand of man 
 shall no longer be directed against his fellow, and 
 
92 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 when the spread of knowledge and the cultivation 
 of the heart, shall unite our race in the bonds of 
 an everlasting peace. 
 
 IV. The duel is a practice of modern times. 
 It places the innocent and the guilty upon equal 
 terms. Frivolous motives generally lead to the 
 contest; but even where grievous injuries have 
 preceded it, where lies the propriety of subjecting 
 the sufferer to additional mischief? Duels how- 
 ever, do not answer the purposes assigned to 
 them, since insults may be conveyed with such 
 studied malignity, as to yield no scope for redress. 
 Many accept challenges through the dread of 
 ridicule. Numbers, the most exalted in the pos- 
 sessions of the heart and understanding, have 
 thus been lost to themselves, to their friends, and 
 to society. It must be admitted, that the duel, 
 with every appeal to brute force, is indefensible: 
 the objects of such, will be better realized by the 
 reprobation of society. Instructed public opinion, 
 will be a more efficient agent in repressing and 
 chastising the ordinary results of passion, malig- 
 nity and brutality, than any other that could be 
 devised. 
 
 V. Murder is a crime of so deep a die, that its 
 frequency bespeaks the greatest insecurity, and 
 the lowest condition of morality. It presents 
 shades of guilt however. The man who after 
 experiencing atrocious villany, destroys its author, 
 cannot be put on the level of one who plies the 
 assassin's trade for hire, or who acts under the 
 influence of malice and hate. Murders from po- 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 93 
 
 litical enmity, or grinding misrule, are of a lighter 
 hue ; but every attempt against life and property ; 
 every act of brute or personal violence; every- 
 thing in fine, that diminishes individual security, 
 lowers and degrades our nature. 
 
 VI. The self-extinction of life, by sudden vio- 
 lence or continued mortification, has never been 
 placed on a level with murder. Asceticism has 
 long been practised in certain European com- 
 munities; by Mahometan fakirs and dervishes, 
 and by the motley sects that abound in Hindos- 
 tan. Strange, that men could hope to propitiate 
 the Deity by torments, or suppose that excellence 
 could accrue from excessive self-denial or secret 
 austerities. Asceticism is far removed from tem- 
 perance. The latter, is reasonably regarded as 
 a source of moral purity, but pushed to an ex- 
 treme by the unhappy recluse, the means are 
 converted into the end. In Europe, some clothe 
 themselves in the coarsest garments, scourge their 
 naked flesh, and consume the poorest food. The 
 founders of various sects, interdicted flesh and 
 even fish, to which some added periodical blood- 
 letting. In the East, the victims of ignorance 
 and fanaticism pierce their flesh, retain their 
 limbs in constrained positions till they become 
 powerless, or prostrate themselves beneath the 
 crushing chariot-wheels of frightful idols. It 
 gives one a lively conception of the spirit of asce- 
 ticism, when we find that it could lead men to 
 seclude themselves in caves and desert solitudes, 
 or perch themselves for years, on the summits of 
 
94 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 lofty pillars. The severities of monastic life have 
 destroyed numbers: the monks of La Trappe 
 rarely reached the age of fifty. At Paris, a con- 
 vent is spoken of, which even now, is said to 
 change its young inmates every few years by 
 death. All such practices, whether they lead to 
 summary loss of life or protracted decay, are ab- 
 surd and indefensible. As to suicide, the inse- 
 curity which prevailed among the ancients, lent 
 a colour of defence to an infliction that might tend 
 to avert a cruel death, or lingering wretchedness. 
 At present, while justly proscribed, we have not 
 been able to banish the evils and the vices which 
 lead to it. The practice has sometimes become 
 epidemic, from a kind of sympathetic madness, to 
 which ill-constituted minds are liable; but who 
 would say that a Lucretia, a Cato, or an Arria, 
 was insane ? Would it be just to style that woman 
 so, who to avoid the mercies of pirates, should 
 destroy herself; or the man, who preferred self- 
 destruction to the lingering torments of an Auto 
 da fe ? Yet, while we denounce suicide in terms 
 the most decided, instances will occur in which 
 we shall have to pity more than condemn, the 
 victims of boundless passion, or hopeless misery : 
 and even those whom crime has driven to this 
 last sad act, should not be wholly denied the tri- 
 bute of our compassion. 
 
 VII. Slavery has festered in the bosom of so- 
 ciety for thousands of years; and though able 
 minds and feeling hearts have opposed it, still 
 maintains its ground. The appropriation of the 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 95 
 
 persons of our fellows is a usurpation as iniqui- 
 tous, as any by which tyranny and injustice have 
 ever heen characterized. It is so wholly inde- 
 fensible that we might well wonder that any could 
 attempt to justify it, were we not aware that men 
 who profit by a wrong, are slow to acknowledge 
 it. Such cannot bear the contemplation of any 
 arguments, save those which favour their sinister 
 interests. The growth of the human mind is 
 slow, and it seems to require generation after 
 generation to bring it to the appreciation and the 
 practice, of the commonest principles of justice 
 and morality. What can be said, but that slavery 
 is the aggression of the strong against the weak; 
 the most glaring of the infringements that figure 
 in the long catalogue of crime and folly. By the 
 British until lately, and by the Brazilians and 
 Americans still, this dreadful institution was, and 
 is, extensively maintained. The hideous atroci- 
 ties of the slave-trade by sea; the separation of 
 friends and relatives; the embarkation in the 
 filthy and crowded hold ; the chains, the morta- 
 lity and the violent death; the sale of human 
 flesh, and the unremitting toil, are known to all. 
 Not less horrible is the trade by land. In the 
 United States, the unhappy victims collected in 
 the north, are sent to perish in the rice-swamps 
 of the south. In the regions of central Africa, 
 multitudes are procured and disposed of, to Moor- 
 ish and European traders. The route by which 
 they pass, is marked by the dead of every age 
 and sex. Of these, the skeletons and mangled 
 
96 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 remains, lie scattered in every direction; some 
 clasped in each others arms as they fell, others 
 dissevered and destroyed by the elements. 
 
 Though the labourer on the soil is rarely the 
 property of the owner, his condition largely calls 
 for amelioration. His freedom, where it exists 
 however, is a step gained, and the prelude to far- 
 ther improvement. It has at least, tended to 
 loosen prejudice, since the slave, whether black 
 or white, is ever looked upon as an inferior being 
 by his master. Thus, the negro is said to be 
 smitten with a natural incapacity ; the perpetra- 
 tors of injustice always defending its continuance, 
 by alleging as reasons, the results which they have 
 produced. Yet, still the labourer is in some sort 
 the slave of society, as it only devolves in part 
 upon himself, to determine whether he shah 1 work, 
 and consequently, whether he shall eat. As- 
 suredly, all who are willing to earn them, should 
 enjoy the comforts of life, and not be left to a 
 fortuitous demand for their exertions. Some in- 
 deed, conceive that the working-classes are not 
 entitled to physical, moral or intellectual eleva- 
 tion. It is certain however, that this prejudice 
 must one day cease, and that the time will come, 
 when all shall feel surprise that obstacles could 
 ever have been thrown in the way, of the well- 
 being and improvement of any portion of our 
 race. 
 
 4. The influence of literature, science and art, 
 is among the most beneficent in existence. All 
 three enhance the dignity of human nature, but 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. <)7 
 
 the last two have an especial reference to our 
 wants. Medicine for example, alleviates or re- 
 moves, and often averts disease. Mathematics, 
 chemistry, geology, astronomy, natural philoso- 
 phy and natural history, conduce to the well- 
 being and permanence of the frame. The appli- 
 cations of science are of inexhaustible variety; 
 they multiply our conveniencies, and by condu- 
 cing to the elegancies and refinements of life, 
 promote the interests of virtue and happiness. 
 Our race however, is assisted in its progress by 
 a concurrence of circumstances, and has not been 
 solely left to the meritorious, though too often 
 fruitless efforts of legislators and philanthropists. 
 The improvements in arts and manufactures, 
 must eventually lead to alterations the most im- 
 portant, in the condition of mankind ; and it will 
 one day be admitted, that those who are willing 
 to earn them, have a right to share in the advan- 
 tages which flow from the energetic and well 
 directed application of the powers of body and 
 mind, with which nature has gifted us. 
 
 5. The influence of mind on body is great. It 
 is matter of common observation, that excitement 
 will cause the heart to throb, and the blood to 
 rush to the face. Many sensations are awakened 
 or rendered intense, by directing the attention to 
 them ; thus, painful or pleasing emotions, and thrills 
 of horror or delight, dart over the frame, and shocks 
 arise, which occasion instant death. Paralysis, 
 grey hair and temporary suspension of the facul- 
 ties, have been similarly produced: the terms, 
 
 G 
 
98 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 transfixed with terror, rooted to the spot with 
 surprise, are expressive of such occurrences. In- 
 dividuals actuated by strong emotion and fixity 
 of purpose, go through exertions to which under 
 other circumstances, they would be wholly un- 
 equal. The soldier will make efforts in the 
 hour of victory, of which he would be incapable 
 during the languor of defeat. Maniacs, and those 
 in the delirium of disease, often overpower the 
 most robust : and persons whose strength is ap- 
 parently exhausted, become comparatively vigo- 
 rous after the receipt of pleasant intelligence. 
 Sportsmen and men of science, afford instances of 
 people so pre-occupied, as to be almost insensible 
 to fatigue. The watching and the toil of which 
 a devoted woman is capable, by the couch of sick- 
 ness, have been the theme of eulogy in every age. 
 Depression renders disease fatal, that might have 
 been otherwise ; while recoveries ensue in des- 
 perate cases, in which the patient has displayed 
 unshaken fortitude. Under the worst combina- 
 tion of events, equanimity will dimmish the evils 
 of sickness, and enable us to bear the approach 
 of death with calmness and resignation. 
 
99 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 ON THE ADAPTATIONS OF THE HUMAN FRAME; 
 ITS UNCEASING MUTATIONS, AND THE ARGUMENT 
 THEREBY DERIVED, FOE THE SEPARATE NATURE 
 OF THE SOUL; ALSO, ON ORGANIC DECAY AND 
 DEATH. 
 
 OUR functions and organization are only cal- 
 culated for the present; the least alteration in 
 either, would be tantamount to a total change in 
 our physical nature, as well as in the outward 
 world. On the other hand, the slightest varia- 
 tion in things external, would lead to an equiva- 
 lent one in the organic structure. In the world 
 as it is, every object has a fixed relation to every 
 other; all are connected by indissoluble links. 
 Hence, sickness and accident, pain and death, 
 not less than life, and pleasure, and motion, with 
 all energy of body and mind, are equally neces- 
 sary in our mortal existence. Without light, the 
 eye would have been superfluous, and another 
 mode of perceiving objects must have been called 
 for. The absence of air would have rendered 
 the organs of hearing and respiration useless, and 
 the renewal and circulation of the blood imprac- 
 ticable. Had gravity been otherwise, the mus- 
 cular apparatus and bony structure would have 
 been thrown out of play ; there would have been 
 
100 ADAPTATIONS OF THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 no adhesion to the earth's surface, and no pro- 
 gression. Were it not for the teeth to masticate, 
 the saliva to moisten, and the stomach and intes- 
 tines to elaborate our food, the nutritive qualities 
 of animal and vegetable substances would have 
 been thrown away. Without the adaptations of 
 our senses to outward objects, and the property 
 which these possess, of making impressions in re- 
 turn, there could neither have been pleasure nor 
 pain, knowledge nor ignorance. It is needless 
 to pursue the parallel farther. The power, the 
 wisdom and the goodness, conspicuous in the in- 
 stitution and regulation of these wonderful parti- 
 culars, could with equal facility, have ordered 
 them otherwise ; but as it is, they afford a never- 
 sleeping evidence of the stupendous providence 
 of the eternal Architect of all created things. 
 
 The alterations in the organic fabric, from 
 birth to the grave, are unceasing. It is through 
 their instrumentality, that old particles are re- 
 placed by new; that the body alters in size and 
 stature; that the changes ensue between youth 
 and age, and that organs are repaired after injury 
 or disease. Thus, the nails and hair grow, and 
 the scarf-skin is renewed, while every internal 
 part undergoes a similar mutation. The weight 
 and solidity of the bones even, form no exception ; 
 hence, in young animals they are soft and juicy, 
 in old ones, hard and dry ; in the one, smooth and 
 round, in the other, notched and irregular. Si- 
 milar observations apply to other structures the 
 brain for example : so that if the latter, as some 
 
ADAPTATIONS OF THE HUMAN FRAME. 101 
 
 contend, be the specific organ of thought, and its 
 mechanism, the source of our passions and facul- 
 ties, personal identity becomes a dream. Thus, the 
 food of to-day would become mind to-morrow, and 
 be converted into knowledge or ignorance, love or 
 hate. Consciousness is the peculiarity and the 
 evidence of mind; but if organized matter can 
 become conscious, a separate mind is superfluous. 
 Never-ceasing changes are everywhere taking 
 place: old materials are wrought up into new; 
 out of decay and disease, come beauty and no- 
 velty ; nothing is lost or thrown away. It is ap- 
 parent, if this were not the case, that that which 
 was once made use of, could be made use of no 
 more; that nature would be exhausted, and the 
 soil encumbered with worn-out remains. Young 
 animals could no longer increase in size, nor adult 
 ones in vigour; there would be no restoration 
 after disease, nor any of that wonderful accom- 
 modation to circumstances, which is manifested 
 by our frames through life. The means of exist- 
 ence would be taken away, and the beautiful 
 spectacle of incessant renovation, would be dis- 
 played no more. Not less surprising is the di- 
 versity of our sustenance, made up as it is, by 
 appropriations from almost every form of animal 
 and vegetable life. The process is incessantly 
 active : each moment we gain and lose an infinity 
 of particles. What shall I say our bodies are 
 a tissue of wonderful mechanism, conceived by 
 supreme wisdom, and adapted by boundless power 
 to the varied purposes of our earthly being. 
 
102 ADAPTATIONS OF THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 Every organized fabric sooner or later, decays. 
 Man enjoys no exemption. As he is born, so he 
 dies, and without this consummation, his existence 
 could not have been. If our race had been made 
 to endure with the globe, there could be no suc- 
 cession of generations, none of the relations of 
 paternity or childhood, brother or sister, husband 
 or wife. There would neither be infancy nor old 
 age, man nor woman, since these conditions could 
 only be contingent on a limited period of dura- 
 tion. There would be no increase, and no di- 
 minution of our numbers; none of the diseases 
 and accidents to which we are now liable, much 
 less any uncertainty on the score of subsistence; 
 while the occupations of mankind, inasmuch as 
 they arise from the pursuit of this, would be cut 
 off. The energies flowing out of the transient 
 tenure of existence, with the affections accruing 
 from the actual position of humanity, could not 
 ensue; while the hopes, the fears, the pleasures 
 and the pains in fine, the vicissitudes which 
 yield so great a zest to life, would cease. Instead 
 of the multitudes which come into being, there 
 would be the same permanent few ; and in place 
 of endless accessions to the regions of eternity, 
 there would be a limited number of creatures with 
 imperfect sympathies, equally destitute of hope or 
 fear. In such a state of things, there would be 
 little progression in science or art; men without 
 the impulses of interest or pleasure, would soon 
 arrive at the utmost verge. But it is impossible 
 to conceive the endless prolongation of human 
 
ADAPTATIONS OP THE HUMAN FRAME. 103 
 
 life, without a total revolution in our faculties and 
 outward relations : it has not been intended, nor 
 can it ever be. The duration allotted to us, is 
 sufficient for every useful purpose; were it in- 
 creased, it is not likely that we should be satisfied, 
 or make a better use of our time. If indeed, the 
 premature destruction of multitudes, were the 
 direct ordination of nature, there might be subject 
 for complaint, but this is owing to causes that are 
 wholly artificial, and consequently, susceptible of 
 mitigation or removal. 
 
 We are so constituted, that existence beyond 
 a given period, is impossible. An impulse has 
 been furnished, and means imparted ; by the union 
 of both, we achieve a certain duration r beyond 
 which, the utmost attention, and all the resources 
 of human skill, are inadequate to convey us. 
 There is no fact better determined within the 
 range of our experience, than that one day we 
 must die. The most thorough-going sceptic, the 
 atheist, the disbeliever in Divine providence and 
 human virtue^ yield an unhesitating assent to this. 
 Every one has died, and they never doubt, that 
 they themselves, shall die likewise. The means 
 which nature has provided to secure a consum- 
 mation so important, infallibly fulfil their end. 
 Infancy, manhood and decrepitude, come the one 
 after the other, with a certainty that nothing can 
 evade. No human being has been known to re- 
 main stationary at any of these periods, and live. 
 They succeed each other with unerring precision, 
 as deatk itsel> follows life. 
 
104 ADAPTATIONS OF THE HUMAN FRAME. 
 
 It would be trite to enter into a detail of the 
 changes that precede the termination of our mor- 
 tal career ; I may observe however, that they are 
 imperfectly known, and that the immediate cause 
 is wholly so. Some physiologists with little foun- 
 dation, have separated the functions into two 
 classes the animal and the organic ; one of which 
 they state, perishes before the other. It is erro- 
 neous however, to say that the intellectual, dies 
 before the physical man. Our intellectual nature 
 cannot die ; it is in truth, our only real existence. 
 We are conscious to the last. Our moral and 
 intellectual manifestations often languish before 
 the approach of death, as they sometimes do at 
 an earlier period; but this does not always hap- 
 pen, much less is it a necessary condition. It 
 would seem to arise from the absent cultivation 
 of the powers, as much as from the influence of 
 body on mind. A thousand instances prove, that 
 unintermitting energy will do much to secure the 
 continuance and increase of our faculties, far be- 
 yond the period which some would condemn to 
 an ever-recurring imbecility. 
 
 Death is a necessary part of the economy of 
 Providence ; but it would shock our sensibilities, 
 were it to come upon us without the existing pre- 
 paratives of sickness and infirmity. Thus, the 
 benevolence of the Deity is continually mani- 
 fested, and his arrangements brought in some 
 measure, within the compass of our conceptions. 
 Death succeeds life, as wave follows wave as 
 sunshine follows the shower, or as light comes after 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 105 
 
 darkness. When our organization has performed 
 its part when the soul has fulfilled its appren- 
 ticeship, and when the dismantled machinery is 
 cast away it comes. Death should be calm and 
 tranquil, for the struggle is brief, and the pain, 
 if any, but of the moment. We fall as if asleep, 
 but our slumbers are of short duration, and when 
 we wake, it is still in the hands of Him who is 
 the equal dispenser of our immortal, as of our 
 mortal destiny. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ON THE BEST MEANS OF SECURING THE PHYSICAL 
 WELL-BEING OF MANKIND. 
 
 1. PHYSICAL education is of equal importance 
 to every class; yet the children of the wealthy 
 are often delicate, while those brought up in the 
 road-side cottage, commonly bloom with health 
 and vigour. As age advances, the comforts of 
 the former, and the hardships and destitution of 
 the latter, cause the picture to be reversed. A 
 healthy organization and pure blood, are necessary 
 as a foundation for superior physical training: 
 ambition, avarice and ignorance however, as well 
 as better motives, hinder people from perceiving 
 that marriage to those with blighted constitutions, 
 
106 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 
 
 as tending to the production of a diseased and 
 short-lived progeny, is forbidden. The inter- 
 marriage of persons of the same stock, is apt to 
 lead to a similar result, and the admixture of 
 different races to an opposite one. 
 
 I. Atmospheric vicissitudes require in-door 
 seclusion, but this is carried too far- The light- 
 clad peasant child and the sailor-boy, bear storm 
 and shower with comparative impunity. Young 
 people should be much in the open air, as it ani- 
 mates and strengthens all the functions of the 
 frame. Wet and cold will seldom do injury if 
 proper clothing be made use of, and undue expo- 
 sure be avoided. Atmospheric vicissitudes, while 
 they harden the frame, prepare the individual for 
 the storms of life ; physical, leads to moral endu- 
 rance, and the evils of existence impart a higher 
 relish to its goods. Over-exertion is to be depre- 
 cated at all times. The bath is productive of 
 vigour, but cold is to be employed with caution. 
 Clothing is sometimes in excess; often alas,, too 
 scant ! Parents under the idea of strengthening 
 their children, sometimes make use of too little. 
 Artificial coverings are not graduated to the sea- 
 sons ; hence, the frequency, and in part the fatal- 
 ity, of pectoral diseases. Every article of food, 
 bread in particular, should be the best of its kind. 
 The purity of this important substance, upon 
 which, the well-being of so many young creatures 
 depends, should be zealously enforced. If the 
 palates of children be unduly stimulated, gluttony 
 and dcancMraliization most ensue. Proper food 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 10? 
 
 without excess, and judicious exposure, operate 
 beneficially through life. 
 
 II. When children have access to the open air, 
 they generally take sufficient exercise; in bad 
 weather however, gymnastics, calisthenics, dan- 
 cing and the various handicrafts, may be substi- 
 tuted. It is needless to cultivate the bodily 
 powers, beyond what is necessary for the preser- 
 vation of health, and the acquisition of ordinary 
 dexterity. Feats of strength and sleights of hand, 
 are equally to be deprecated. Employments ap- 
 propriate to the age and sex are permanently 
 useful : they impress the young with the value of 
 industry, and form them to habits of order and 
 regularity. Those which, with bodily exertion, 
 involve the acquisition of knowledge, are pecu- 
 liarly worthy of cultivation. It can never be 
 reckoned superfluous to turn attention to the 
 works of God, and to lead the child to find plea- 
 sure, health and occupation in the pursuit. 
 
 Physical exertion is often modified, so as to 
 correct the various results of muscular debility. 
 The distortion however, which arises from disease, 
 demands different measures. Those who grow 
 rapidly, or who from any cause are enfeebled, 
 require graduated exertion, longer rest, and ad- 
 ditional supplies of food. Too much time is de- 
 voted to sedentary occupations. Every young 
 person health and weather permitting, should 
 be at least four hours daily, in the open air. The 
 intellect would be more quickly developed, were 
 attention directed to fewer pursuits at once. The 
 
108 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 
 
 forcing system can but lead to premature exertion 
 of body and mind, arrested development, de- 
 formity or disease, for which superficial acquire- 
 ments, and a disrelish for real information, are 
 often the only compensation. A graceful carriage 
 is not to be secured by attitude, independent of 
 unconstrained muscular effort. Steel collars, 
 back-boards, and reclining planes, are bad sub- 
 stitutes for capacious play-grounds, good food, 
 cheerful occupation, and frequent exercise in the 
 open air. 
 
 2. Hygienic measures involve a multitude of 
 particulars essential to the preservation of health ; 
 but the labouring classes, from the vicissitudes 
 incident to their position, their ignorance, intem- 
 perance and improvidence, are least able to attend 
 to such. What more painful spectacle than to 
 see them overwhelmed with indigence on a fertile 
 soil : or what more miserable, than that a creature 
 endowed with the attributes of humanity, should 
 be compelled to beg from door to door, or to con- 
 sume the meanest refuse? Every working man 
 ought to be well supplied with wholesome nourish- 
 ment, clothing and fuel, as well as with clean and 
 cheerful habitations. Eight hours daily, should 
 be the maximum of severe bodily labour ; the re- 
 mainder might well be devoted to relaxation and 
 mental improvement. It is difficult for those not 
 engaged in it, to imagine the consuming nature 
 of excessive toil, or how hard it is for those who 
 are exposed to it condemned to ignorance, and 
 perhaps to discomfort, sickness and privation, to 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 109 
 
 gain that expansion of intellect, and the enlarged 
 benevolence, that would enable them to recognize 
 their own best interests, and to look with sym- 
 pathy on the progress of their fellows. Did the 
 poor man's dwelling abound with the comforts for 
 which he has a right to look; were he provided 
 with instruction and recreation, he would be less 
 inclined to seek the haunts of idleness and low 
 debauchery. Why not have gardens, libraries, 
 museums, lecture-rooms, picture-galleries, con- 
 certs, baths and public grounds ? Frequent des- 
 titution, cold, wet and hardship, render the 
 working- classes liable to diseases of every kind. 
 They are indeed, the peculiar victims of plague, 
 pestilence and famine ; and I fear that hygienic 
 measures will prove of inferior efficacy, until so- 
 ciety can be subjected to such modifications, as 
 will lead to the supply of all, contingently on their 
 own exertions, with a sufficiency of the material 
 comforts of life, and more especially, with moral 
 and intellectual culture. For this it is, which 
 elevates the condition of man, and without it, 
 his position is degraded and defective. Human 
 beings are not to be moulded at will, like the in- 
 ferior animals ; nor can they be raised to the sta- 
 tion to which they should aspire, until they can 
 comprehend the measures by which it is to be 
 realized, and participate in their fulfilment. 
 
 3. It would be a libel on the Divine govern- 
 ment, were the exercise of our faculties inade- 
 quate to the supply of our wants. The lowest 
 orders of creation are able to procure every thing 
 
110 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 
 
 that is necessary to their sustenance; and shall 
 the noblest of earth's denizens, be inferior in this 
 respect to the rest? Shall he who can command 
 the elements, and turn them to his purposes, be 
 unfit to secure his physical well-being ? This in- 
 deed, is not so: man does possess every ne- 
 cessary requisite. If he suffer distress, it must 
 arise from the absent cultivation, or the misdirec- 
 tion of his faculties. Were we provided for like 
 the inferior animals by instincts, then, would our 
 development cease. Our mental and bodily 
 powers, and the capabilities of the various objects 
 presented by nature, are unexhausted and inex- 
 haustible. Who then, shall place a limit to the 
 improvement of our species who shall say, when 
 the fruit-bearing earth shall produce no more ? 
 
 Assuredly, every human being is entitled to 
 support, when willing to make exertions equiva- 
 lent to what he consumes; and as surely, the 
 world is more than equal to the sustenance of its 
 present inhabitants. The capabilities of the soil 
 are commensurate with those of human beings; 
 while the difficulties attendant on its cultivation, 
 are adapted to the powers of our race ; neither 
 opposing insuperable obstacles, nor yielding a 
 harvest that has not been duly earned. The in- 
 crease of population so far from adding to dis- 
 tress, tends to multiply our resources. These 
 again, can have no limit save the total occupation 
 of the earth's surface. If mankind then, will 
 confine themselves to localities where production 
 has gone its utmost length, or if they will clog 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. Ill 
 
 it with improper restrictions, is it wonderful if 
 misery result? No extensive district is perhaps 
 fully cultivated, and if population press upon the 
 means of subsistence, it must arise from artificial, 
 and consequently remediable causes. This is a 
 conclusion which cannot be evaded, and sooner 
 or later, men must arrive at principles which rea- 
 son and observation dictate. 
 
 I. The circumstances which have led to exist- 
 ing destitution, are connected with the progress 
 of society, with regard to which, individuals how- 
 ever prominent their position, are but as links in 
 the long chain of cause and effect. If it be granted 
 that the exercise of our mental and bodily powers, 
 ensures a supply of the goods of life, it follows 
 that they should be cultivated in all, to the utmost, 
 inasmuch, as we thereby best fulfil the intentions 
 of nature, and avert the evils which press upon 
 our race. Ignorance, ill-directed competition 
 and opposing interests, lead some to avail them- 
 selves of the services of others, without any fur- 
 ther reference to their well-being, than what is 
 sufficient to enable them to continue their toil. 
 It is difficult to calculate the degradation ensuing 
 from a relation, by which individuals are enabled 
 to command the exertions of their fellows, with- 
 out any adequate return ; yet this is a position to 
 which most, if not all, aspire. Nurtured in pre- 
 judice as we are, we do not perceive that no hu- 
 man being, morally speaking, is entitled to live 
 at the expense of another. Every one is bound 
 in equity, to make a return for what he consumes. 
 
112 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 
 
 To reciprocate benefits is an obligation that can- 
 not be violated with impunity. Body and mind 
 are insufficiently cultivated, while the remunera- 
 tion of labour is inadequate. The capabilities of 
 all should be developed to the utmost, while every 
 kind of useful labour should be duly rewarded. 
 Why subject any one to hardships not contin- 
 gent on his calling why curtail mental cultiva- 
 tion or rational enjoyment? Until the crying 
 injustice of underpaying, and above all, of under- 
 educating working men, shall wholly cease, neither 
 can the misery to which it leads, be remedied. It 
 is an error to suppose that mental and moral 
 training should create any disinclination to useful 
 industry. The more clear-sighted our under- 
 standings and our moral faculties, so much the 
 more obvious will our duties become. Labour 
 has been degraded by ignorance and vice: let 
 this unnatural union cease, and the ignominy will 
 continue no more. In itself, it is purely virtu- 
 ous, nor has it ever been regarded in an improper 
 light, when allied with education or elevated sta- 
 tion. Were well-directed exertion of body and 
 mind united, the erroneous associations by which 
 the former is lowered, would for ever cease. 
 
 The artisan unacquainted with useful know- 
 ledge, feels the evils of his lot, but knows not how 
 to remedy them. Superior feelings, and the refine- 
 ments of humanity, are not adequately awakened 
 in his breast; he is consequently, too often 
 improvident, thoughtless and sensual in a word, 
 subject to the vices and the miseries of which in- 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 113 
 
 sufficient mental and moral culture proves the 
 source. When an individual goes into the labour 
 market to purchase the powers of his fellows, 
 he gives the conventional price, generally the 
 smallest on which the seller is able to subsist. 
 The latter is in his employer's hands, and has no 
 resource but to work or starve : if he do not ac- 
 cept the proffered award, another fills his place. 
 Yet the rational well-being of any portion of the 
 community, can never prove injurious to the rest. 
 Well-meaning persons are sometimes apprehen- 
 sive, as to the results that might accrue from the 
 better education of the working-classes, but their 
 anticipations are unfounded: it is ignorance and 
 sensuality, not knowledge or refinement, that we 
 have to dread. 
 
 II. Every one is anxious to obtain labour on 
 the lowest terms, since whatever adds to the cost 
 of production, tends to the diminution of profit. 
 The competition of merchants hinders the rise of 
 wages; it has therefore, become the pecuniary 
 interest of the former to bring them down to the 
 
 o 
 
 lowest pitch. Labour may procure the meanest 
 necessaries, but nothing beyond. Its price is 
 everywhere depreciated, and any nation that 
 should attempt to raise it, would in so far, be ex- 
 cluded from the commerce of the world. This 
 however, is a small matter; the supply of do- 
 mestic, being of much more importance than that 
 of foreign consumption. The competition of 
 masters and men, has led to the introduction of 
 machinery so perfect, as much to lessen the de- 
 
 H 
 
114 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 
 
 mand for manual labour. Thus, the earnings of 
 the operative are farther reduced, while his situa- 
 tion is rendered still more precarious. With 
 every improvement in machinery, and every in- 
 crease of the supply beyond the mercantile de- 
 mand, numbers are pitilessly thrown out of 
 employment. To abolish machinery however, 
 is neither practicable nor desirable. With better 
 arrangements, by relieving us of painful and mo- 
 notonous drudgery, it would leave time for moral 
 and intellectual improvement. Its present agency 
 is of a mixed nature ; but we may hope, that in 
 time, the good will increase, and that the evil will 
 diminish and die away. 
 
 III. The instrument of exchange need possess 
 no intrinsic value : paper may be made to answer 
 every useful purpose. Produce indeed, could not 
 be reciprocated so far, had the precious metals 
 been the only medium. The advantages how- 
 ever, hitherto accruing from a paper currency, 
 are inferior to those that would result from its 
 more general introduction. I do not speak of a 
 banking system, with an exclusive reference to 
 private interests, but of a guarded circulation of 
 paper money, subordinate to production and ex- 
 change. Under every aspect, a bullion currency 
 is imperfect, costly, and ill suited to the wants of 
 a civilized community. 
 
 IV. National debts are among the anomalies 
 of modern finance; in no country however, has 
 this device been carried so far as in our own. By 
 many, it has been looked upon as replete with 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 115 
 
 ruin, but this is an error. The equity of a na- 
 tional debt is one thing, its financial working 
 another ; and though rarely to be justified, its in- 
 fluence on commerce and industry is often bene- 
 ficial. Production is in the ratio of the demand 
 of those who have the means to purchase. The 
 producer intervenes between the distributor and 
 the consumer, bearing the orders of the one to 
 the other, and encouraging production, not so 
 much in the ratio of its powers, or with regard to 
 the actual wants of the community, as with refe- 
 rence to those who can pay for what they con- 
 sume. A national debt, as well as taxation in 
 general, by placing funds in the hands of those 
 who would otherwise be destitute of them, en- 
 courages both production and consumption, just 
 as any other agent, that would occasion a further 
 demand on the exhaustless powers of labour and 
 capital. The nominal cost of the poor man's ne- 
 cessaries is increased by taxation. Different 
 causes keep down the price of labour to the lowest 
 that is adequate to the support of nature. The 
 operative must receive his pittance, whether corn 
 be taxed or not; and as bread is dear or cheap, 
 his wages rise or sink accordingly. The tax falls 
 not so much on him, as on the capital that would 
 remain in so far unturned, in the coffers of the 
 merchant. Thus, undue taxation, though de- 
 serving of reprobation, by placing funds in the 
 hands of those, who render no specific service in 
 return, is not so directly injurious to the labourer, 
 as some have been led to suppose. So far as 
 
116 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 
 
 foreign commerce indeed, is concerned, taxes, by 
 increasing the price of manufactured articles, 
 throw the balance against the trader. We shall 
 not be able to produce so economically, as nations 
 who have cheaper bread ; the merchant in so far, 
 is mulcted of his profits, but the condition of the 
 labourer will remain much as before. Although 
 unnecessary taxation is utterly to be deprecated, 
 the mere abolition of a national debt, no other 
 substantial relief accompanying it, would but de- 
 press the workman still farther in the social scale. 
 If ever the bulk of mankind is to be elevated if 
 ever the producer is to rise above his present de- 
 graded state, it must be by different, as well as 
 much more comprehensive measures. 
 
 V. The occupation and cultivation of the soil 
 are matters of extreme inportance. As we derive 
 our sustenance from it, so the title to its produc- 
 tions, has everywhere been the object of a multi- 
 tude of enactments. Strictly speaking indeed, 
 we can no more appropriate the surface of the 
 earth, than we can the winds of heaven, or the 
 waters of the sea. If existing arrangements con- 
 stitute any criterion, it must be admitted, that the 
 accumulation of land in the hands of a few, does 
 not seem on the whole, well adapted to the pro- 
 motion of human well-being. Lasting improve- 
 ments however, are only to be effected by the 
 general consent, matured and directed by know- 
 ledge and experience. Time alone, can demon- 
 strate the practicability of any proposed plans, for 
 the better distribution of the earth's produce. 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 117 
 
 The progress of society is ever onward, and it is 
 pleasant and profitable, to speculate on the mea- 
 sures that are calculated to promote the happiness 
 of posterity, if not to increase our own. 
 
 VI. The property which characterizes capital 
 of lending itself any number of times, to facilitate 
 production, does not appear sufficiently appre- 
 ciated. Were it adequately turned to account, 
 production, distribution and consumption, would 
 acquire an impetus that must otherwise remain 
 unknown. This is the real problem of political 
 economy, hitherto so exclusively occupied in the 
 solution of the intricacies of commerce, as almost 
 to have taken it for granted that they required no 
 fundamental amendment. Until it is solved, a 
 correct theory of production and consumption 
 cannot be realized; nor can political economy 
 assume that station among the sciences, which it 
 is entitled to occupy. 
 
 4. Relief for the working-classes may be di- 
 vided into the imperfect and temporary, and the 
 perfect and permanent. Among the first, are 
 poor laws, poor colonies, commercial and manu- 
 facturing arrangements, reduced taxation, emi- 
 gration and savings. Poor laws have long existed 
 in England: to the destitute they afford inade- 
 quate relief, while they sometimes extend it to 
 those who are not in need. Poor colonies nnVht be 
 
 o 
 
 useful among an ignorant and ill-supplied popu- 
 lation. The waste lands of these countries, might 
 thus furnish employment for very many years to 
 come. The produce however, should be expended 
 
118 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 
 
 on the workers, as it would otherwise, deprive 
 just so many of employment as it would relieve. 
 I. Few things are more sanguinely believed, 
 than that the extension of commerce and manu- 
 factures would be a sufficient remedy for public 
 distress. This however, is to take a part for the 
 whole ; and the concurrence of poverty with ex- 
 tended commerce, shews that the latter is not the 
 remedy for which we are to seek. While the 
 profits of capitalists have increased, the wages 
 of labour have diminished: national prosperity 
 however, must extend to all, and not to a part. 
 It is for the interests of the community, that as 
 many as possible should be engaged in production ; 
 hence, the employment of multitudes in a mere 
 money traffic, is in so far injurious. The pro- 
 duce of labour cannot indeed, find its way to the 
 consumer without hands : but would it not be de- 
 sirable that there were fewer distributors, and 
 more producers, and that the profits and comforts 
 expended on the superfluous numbers of the 
 former, should remain in the possession of the 
 latter? The same may be said of those engaged 
 in the fabrication of luxuries; for although the 
 production of corn and other necessaries is thereby 
 indirectly stimulated, it is certain that this would 
 not be less so, were useful employments substi- 
 tuted. Taxes, however great, sink into insigni- 
 ficance when contrasted with the drafts made 
 upon productive industry by bankers, merchants, 
 shop-keepers and money-dealers generally. Pro- 
 duction is doubtless increased, but this would be 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 119 
 
 equally the case, were those whose services are not 
 required as distributors, engaged in useful labour 
 of body or mind. Wages absolutely, as well as 
 relatively, are less than formerly, and no longer 
 procure the same amount of the necessaries of 
 life : high, during the war, the artisan, while he 
 enjoyed comparative comfort, was able to meet 
 the foreign and domestic demand with ease. 
 Afterwards, these enormous capabilities no longer 
 found a vent ; applications of machinery before 
 unknown, could not be relinquished, and much to 
 the distress of the working-classes, the circulation 
 of capital, and the remuneration of labour, under- 
 went a remarkable diminution. If means could 
 have been devised to maintain production and 
 consumption at the war level, these results would 
 not have ensued. This is the problem, which 
 theoretically and practically, has to be solved, 
 before the condition of the operatives can be 
 placed upon a basis of permanent prosperity. 
 Until then, relative over-production will be fol- 
 lowed by gluts and general distress, in a long 
 revolving series. Industry, commerce and manu- 
 factures, cannot otherwise lead to their naturally 
 beneficial results. It is a home-market that we 
 require, and not one merely at the Antipodes. 
 One that is unbounded exists close at hand, in 
 the necessities of numberless individuals, able and 
 willing, under proper arrangements, to yield the 
 fullest return for all that they require. 
 
 II. Taxation is not the greatest source of pub- 
 lic distress, its diminution therefore, is but an 
 
120 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 
 
 imperfect remedy. That which is most oppres- 
 sive, is the taxation contingent on an imperfect 
 system of production, distribution and consump- 
 tion. As to emigration, it may prove a collateral, 
 but not a fundamental means of relief. Another 
 expedient is saving. The recommendation is 
 excellent, but insufficient to meet the evil : good 
 to a certain extent, but impotent beyond. Than 
 temperance, economy and industry, nothing can 
 be more excellent ; but how has the labourer been 
 fitted for these virtues? Driven perhaps, to his 
 calling at an early age ; unprovided with moral 
 or intellectual culture; his faculties repressed, 
 and perhaps, exposed to an atmosphere of vice, 
 who has taught him sobriety and forecast, or that 
 rigid self-denial, without which he cannot rise in 
 the social scale? The practice of these, under 
 depressing circumstances, involves superior moral 
 excellence, and no sufficient provision has been 
 made for imparting it? With respect to the 
 great body of the working- classes, the remunera- 
 tion is so inferior, and the exposure to ill health, 
 accident, and want of employment, so frequent, 
 that the daily pittance is often insufficient to pro- 
 cure the meanest necessaries, much less to afford 
 scope for saving. It is a rigid economy that 
 would practise it, and support a family, pay for 
 education, rent and clothing, on a shilling* a day. 
 Saving however, is but a choice of difficulties, 
 since it were better for the labourer to expend 
 judiciously, the greater part of what he could 
 earn. The principle seems in a measure, to have 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 121 
 
 been perverted, and a matter of necessity repre- 
 sented as one of choice. It is not intended how- 
 ever, to condemn these precautions, but only to 
 urge their insufficiency. Would that working 
 men could be incited to act upon them ; that they 
 would practise industry, economy and forethought, 
 and strive to better their condition by the means 
 within their grasp. Mechanics and others, might 
 undoubtedly, hoard a portion of their earnings 
 against days of adversity, sickness and old age ; 
 but unhappily r what from deficient education, 
 corrupt example, and other causes, they omit 
 doing so. I am the more disposed to dwell upon 
 these laudable recommendations, imperfect though 
 they be, inasmuch as they involve precepts equally 
 available in every condition, whether adverse or 
 prosperous precepts, the practice of which, is no 
 less necessary in the depression of poverty, than 
 in any conceivable elevation which the friends of 
 humanity have ventured to anticipate. 
 
 III. Without dwelling on friendly societies, 
 insurances, tontines, and other expedients, I shall 
 enlarge on some, that promise a better prospect 
 of success. Writers on political economy, have 
 with much acuteness, unravelled the intricacies 
 attendant on the production and distribution of 
 wealth, but they do not in general, propose any 
 adequate remedy for existing evils, save the ac- 
 cumulation and circulation of capital. These, 
 doubtless, are good; but the defective position, 
 limited education, and inferior remuneration of the 
 labourer, exclude him in a great measure, from 
 
122 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING* 
 
 their adoption. The reward of labour is all too 
 small, and the means of increasing it, should oc- 
 cupy a larger share of attention than they have 
 hitherto done. 
 
 IV. It was long since proposed to remodel so- 
 ciety on the principle of joint possessions; and a 
 noted Greek writer has advocated it, with the 
 absurd and unnatural addition of a community 
 of women. It is not difficult to conceive a state 
 of things in which money in its present form, 
 might prove unnecessary; but it must be long 
 indeed, ere this method of noting the produce of 
 industry, and the amount of exchanges, can be 
 dispensed with. Community of property, to an 
 extent that does not now subsist, and so far as 
 the necessaries of life are concerned, appears 
 very compatible with a high degree of civiliza- 
 tion. A partnership could be extended to a town 
 or a village, as well as to a company of merchants ; 
 and the social arrangements of united masses, 
 might be as readily formed as those of an ordinary 
 family. The principle seems peculiarly applicable 
 to working men, and to persons with limited 
 means, while it would secure a supply of comforts 
 which the expenditure contingent on isolated 
 establishments, forbids. A judicious application 
 of the various resources opened out by modern 
 discoveries as the records of some public insti- 
 tutions shew, would singularly diminish the outlay 
 to which individuals are subject. The division 
 of labour would cause business to be better done, 
 while the members of communities would ensure 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 123 
 
 each other against avoidable casualties, and yield 
 a support to orphans, widows, and those disabled 
 by age, accident or disease. Superior facilities 
 would exist for education, adult instruction and 
 rational education, as well as fewer appliances for 
 licentious indulgence or unwarrantable superfluity. 
 The pleasures of social intercourse aid, consola- 
 tion and advice, would be multiplied, to an extent 
 that now subsists for none : in fine, there are no 
 advantages, that with intelligence and moral 
 energy, would not be attainable by all. People 
 however, may draw their food and clothing from 
 a common store, or they may divide and possess 
 them individually, but all this is of small moment, 
 compared with being able to obtain enough of the 
 necessaries of life. In the enjoyment of these, it 
 is of little importance whether food is consumed, 
 by twos and threes in family apartments, or by 
 companies of hundreds in ample halls the great 
 thing is to have enough. A supply adequate to 
 all the wants of human beings, might be achieved 
 by a better arrangement of production and con- 
 sumption, as connected with an improved system 
 of currency. The realization of this is of vastly 
 more importance, than that of all the plans which 
 have ever been issued, could possibly be without 
 it. The best measures indeed, will be liable to 
 abuse ; those however, which include as an in- 
 gredient, the cultivation of the higher qualities of 
 humanity, cannot be essentially defective. It 
 only imports us to know whether they be correct, 
 and if so, practicable and desirable. 
 
124 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 
 
 V. If we look around, we perceive multitudes 
 in want of the comforts, and in many cases, of 
 the necessaries of life: we also find the busy 
 classes imperfectly employed, or occupied with 
 pursuits that do not promote production. Every 
 one desires a competence, but in place of trying 
 to produce it directly, engages in the mere pur- 
 suit of money under the disadvantages of a pain- 
 ful competition. Persons in every profession are 
 anxious for employment, and the means of sup- 
 port, too often without obtaining either. The 
 lawyer, the clergyman, the physician, the clerk, 
 the shop-keeper, the artisan and the labourer, cry 
 out with one voice for employment. Yet, since 
 all would obtain what each is able to yield, how 
 does it happen that so many are destitute? The 
 answer is short it is owing to the present form 
 of production, distribution and consumption. This 
 state of things is universal, for in no single spot 
 are the necessities of human beings fully satisfied. 
 The powers of man to minister to his wants are 
 prodigious, yet imperfect commercial regulations, 
 and above all, a defective education, prevent their 
 being anywhere properly exerted. Whence this 
 degradation in the midst of enormous capabili- 
 ties capabilities that may vary, but which can 
 never be exhausted in any clime ? Faulty arrange- 
 ments can be the only origin. Could production 
 be made the measure of demand, industry would 
 receive a boundless impetus, and supplies would 
 flow in, commensurately with the utmost range 
 of consumption. The creation of comforts and 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 125 
 
 necessaries at present, is incalculably repressed, 
 inasmuch as individuals cannot and will not exert 
 themselves without the prospect of a return. 
 Without custom, the artisan need not work, or if 
 he do, the produce of his industry meets a linger- 
 ing sale. This ought not to be : society should 
 be so organized, that every one might be certain 
 of a return. The inadequacy of a metallic cur- 
 rency is acknowledged by the introduction of 
 paper; but the advantages accruing from this, 
 have been lessened by making the paper the re- 
 presentative of the stored-up gold. On the con- 
 trary, it should directly represent the produce of 
 labour, increasing or diminishing with production 
 itself. It should come into circulation on no other 
 terms, and for no other object. A currency thus 
 regulated, would serve all the purposes of distri- 
 bution : many of the evils connected with the pre- 
 sent framework of society would be cut off; im- 
 poverished industry would exist no more, nor the 
 sale of virtue by those, who too often barter it to 
 obtain a morsel of bread. The power of riches 
 to do good would be increased, while their capa- 
 bilities for working evil, would be diminished. 
 
 VI. A method has been recently proposed, 
 which, if it could be realized, would seem to pro- 
 mise many of the advantages contingent on a 
 superior system of exchange. Receptacles are 
 to be formed in every town, village and district, 
 for the reception of produce whether agricultural 
 or commercial. Connected with these, are to be re- 
 tail establishments, abounding with every thing 
 
126 ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 
 
 that the wants of purchasers suggest. A central 
 directory is to secure the reciprocation of foreign 
 and domestic produce. Bullion in coins or ounces, 
 is to be an article of commerce, but not a specific 
 medium of exchange. This is to be effected by 
 means of a paper currency alone. When pro- 
 duce is bought or sold, such a per-centage is to 
 be charged on each transaction, as will serve to 
 cover expenses. The money is to have no intrin- 
 sic value beyond that of the paper composing it, 
 and no contingent or representative one, until it 
 has been issued; while the nominal value of the 
 notes is to be governed by the current value of 
 the different commodities, and the increased or 
 diminished facilities which exist for producing 
 them. Such notes are to be applied to all the 
 existing purposes of money, such as distribution, 
 savings, and the maintenance of families. Pro- 
 duce would find a sale commensurate with pro- 
 duction itself, while the market would be ready, 
 and employment unlimited. The amount and 
 the quality of goods would be regulated by public 
 opinion as now, without any derangement of the 
 habits of mankind. A provision would be made 
 for a home market, to an extent hitherto unex- 
 ampled, and every facility for foreign exchanges ; 
 while production would surpass the war level, but 
 without the evils of war, or the formation of a 
 national debt. 
 
 It would appear difficult to secure the advan- 
 tages derivable from an increased circulation of 
 capital, short of some alteration, more or less 
 
ON PHYSICAL WELL-BEING. 127 
 
 analogous to that above mentioned. Human ca- 
 pabilities operating on the materials existing in 
 nature, only require judicious training to entail 
 boundless prosperity. The prevailing system 
 permits many advantages, but it does not exclude 
 poverty, nor frequent and miserable distress. In 
 every direction, we behold mankind in a state of 
 prostration, infinitely below the condition which 
 has been left open to them ; yet there are endless 
 discussions, and a wasting of the noblest energies, 
 in behalf of useless, if not equivocal expedients. 
 While politicians dispute, the poor perish. As- 
 suredly, when measures that tend to benefit all, 
 and to injure none, are proposed, they should 
 meet with attentive and dispassionate considera- 
 tion. The reward of labour is insufficient to pro- 
 cure the comforts and necessaries of life to guard 
 against contingencies to provide for a family, or 
 to ensure the means of mental and moral culture. 
 Most of the plans afloat, do not promise to in- 
 crease it ; yet unless this be done, how is civiliza- 
 tion to advance? The rich are able to secure 
 their own interests, but the operative classes pass 
 their lives in an alternation of vicissitudes, any- 
 thing but favourable to reflection and moral 
 energy. The desiderata which their situation 
 demands, are steady employment, the conversion 
 at pleasure of the fruits of their industry into 
 equivalent produce, a superior education for their 
 children, and their own elevation in the scale of 
 humanity. Artisans of every country, should 
 form themselves into a moral association, for the 
 
128 ON PHYSICAL PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 promotion of their just rights. It is impossible 
 for intellectual or moral excellence to ask any- 
 thing that shall be incompatible with either, or 
 that the real interests of the working classes and 
 their peaceful prosecution, should ever be at 
 variance with the well-being of society at large. 
 They must assist themselves : they must be honest, 
 frugal and laborious; confiding in the justice of 
 their cause, and well assured of the sympathy and 
 support, of every thinking mind, and rightly con- 
 stituted heart. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 ON THE PHYSICAL PERFECTIBILITY AND IMPROVE- 
 MENT OF MANKIND. 
 
 THE physical perfectibility of which our race 
 is capable, is a question of deep interest. If we 
 scrutinize the organizations of those around, we 
 find it in many cases, unhealthy and defective. 
 Some give way under circumstances that occasion 
 no change in others. Many pass through life, in 
 the enjoyment of considerable health and strength, 
 who nevertheless transmit to their offspring, a 
 constitution that yields to morbid influences. The 
 advance of civilization, by causing a better supply 
 of the necessaries of life ; by lessening hardship, 
 exposure to cold, damp, want, foul air and the 
 
ON PHYSICAL PERFECTIBILITY. 129 
 
 influence of depressing passions, as well as by 
 securing a sufficiency of warm clothing, fuel, 
 food, drink, shelter, and early medical attendance, 
 leads to a beneficial change in the material fa- 
 bric. Any thing that diminishes the frequency 
 of disease that promotes temperance, cleanli- 
 ness and forecast, perfects the organization. 
 Sufficient exposure to atmospheric vicissitudes; 
 a certain alternation in food, and varied, yet mo- 
 derate exertion, conduce to the preservation of 
 health and vigour. If exposure however, be 
 protracted beyond physical endurance; if the 
 supply of food be scanty and bad, or if there be 
 excessive bodily effort, disease inevitably results. 
 Grief and wretchedness diminish, while cheer- 
 fulness and hilarity promote our powers. In 
 childhood and youth especially, injurious moral 
 and physical agents operate with the greatest 
 force. It is then, before the joints are knit, or 
 the constitution fully formed, that the causes 
 just mentioned, produce their worst results. Any 
 one who visits the narrow courts and lanes that 
 abound in large towns, will witness the cheerless 
 aspect which infancy there presents. He will 
 see little children, stunted, rickety, pale and ema- 
 ciated ; affected with glandular enlargements, and 
 almost necessarily doomed, to a miserable, sickly 
 existence, and to premature decay. We cannot 
 doubt, that if a knowledge of the structure and 
 functions of the human frame, and of the different 
 injurious and beneficial agents by which we are 
 surrounded from birth to the grave, made a part 
 
 i 
 
130 ON PHYSICAL PERFECTIBILITY. 
 
 of early instruction, it would vastly redound to 
 the increase of health and happiness. A supe- 
 rior moral and intellectual education, would 
 prove contingently useful, by the introduction of 
 refined gratifications in place of sensual excesses. 
 It would teach people to make a better provision 
 for their wants, both immediate and prospective, 
 as well as open out a multitude of resources that 
 are now overlooked. Can we doubt that the 
 continued operation of superior agencies, would 
 effect the most salutary changes in the condition 
 of our race, and that what the few now are 
 healthy, vigorous and robust, all might eventually 
 become ? We need not expect that the corporeal 
 attributes of our successors, should much exceed 
 the present standard of health and strength, or 
 that the longevity of our race should be indefi- 
 nitely protracted. Doubtless, the mean duration 
 of human life shall hereafter be prolonged ; but 
 then, as now, the healthiest organization will 
 measure its time, and if not so frequently cut 
 short by accident and disease, must nevertheless 
 arrive at its term, by the wearing out of the ma- 
 chinery, and the exhaustion of the powers of life. 
 
 The different points most closely connected 
 with our physical constitution and well-being, 
 have now been gone over the nature of sensa- 
 tion and its various divisions ; the relations of our 
 senses with the phenomenal world; the wonder- 
 
ON PHYSICAL PERFECTIBILITY. 131 
 
 ful structure and functions of our frames ; organic 
 causation ; the influence of circumstances on our 
 organization its incessant mutations and final 
 dissolution ; the best means of supplying animal 
 wants, and lastly, the tendency of our organiza- 
 tion to progressive improvement. It therefore, 
 remains to treat in succession, of the nature and 
 relations of our intellectual and moral being. 
 
 END OF PART I. 
 
PART II. 
 
 HUMAN NATURE IN ITS INTELLECTUAL 
 RELATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ON THE MIND, AND ON THE ORIGIN AND NATURE 
 OF OUR IDEAS AND FACULTIES. 
 
 1. WHAT the mind is, its seat and nature, are 
 questions that have been often asked, and va- 
 riously replied to. Of the mind in itself, we can 
 know nothing beyond what consciousness teaches 
 us. The eye of the anatomist has not detected 
 it, and never shall. It is not an object of sense, 
 and it is vain to look for it as such. If the mind 
 of man eludes the search, need we feel surprised 
 that we cannot directly perceive the intellectual 
 nature of a higher order of beings, or that of the 
 Supreme Ruler of all ? Him we cannot see, nor 
 hear but his wonderful, his precious works be- 
 speak his power, his wisdom and his goodness. 
 
 Mind, soul and understanding then, are names 
 for our various states of consciousness, as well as 
 for the thing which undergoes them. Sensation 
 
134 ON THE MIND. 
 
 is a mental act, but it is not the same as an idea 
 or an emotion. The former is sometimes called 
 an objective, the latter, a subjective form of con- 
 sciousness. How these phenomena take place, 
 and by what means the soul is able to distinguish 
 between them, we do not know. We may ru- 
 minate on our intellectual faculties, and record 
 their operations, but we cannot tell the manner 
 of their performance. Let it not be imagined 
 that metaphysics therefore, are nugatory: all 
 science is useful, but a knowledge of the ope- 
 rations of the human soul, is supremely so. The 
 science of mind forms the basis of education, 
 legislation and morals : it is the criterion of truth 
 in numerous matters of vital importance ; it in- 
 volves the consideration of the being and provi- 
 dence of the Deity, and of all that is good and 
 great in humanity; it is the invincible and never- 
 ceasing opponent of ignorance and error, and 
 under God, the guarantee of man's advance in 
 wisdom, knowledge and happiness. 
 
 Ideas are derived from the operation of the 
 senses, whether internal or external from all 
 the organs in fine : those by which our existence 
 is preserved, and those by which we maintain our 
 relations with the phenomenal world. Indepen- 
 dent of the passive reception of ideas, we have 
 it in our power to recal our previous knowledge, 
 and to repeat the experience of others. To de- 
 rive the greatest advantage from conventional 
 marks however, as in written or spoken language, 
 we must have gained a sufficient stock of elemen- 
 
ON THE MIND. 135 
 
 tary ideas. Were it not for this, the information 
 of others would in some measure, be lost to us. 
 Thus, the inhabitants of warm countries find it 
 difficult to conceive the idea of ice, or persons 
 who have not been to sea, to understand mari- 
 time affairs. Mix our ideas as we may, we can 
 but combine and recombine the copies of our 
 sensations. Our primary sensations though nu- 
 merous in themselves, are few compared with the 
 ideas of which they are the source. Most of the 
 former perhaps, are experienced before the age 
 of twenty; hence, in part, the oneness and the 
 communicability, of human feeling and informa- 
 tion. Without this arrangement, men would be 
 as effectually estranged, as if each were the in- 
 habitant of a different planet. Thus, the com- 
 mon constitution of our nature, while it secures 
 the intercourse and the very existence of human 
 beings, enables us to reciprocate our knowledge 
 and our emotions. 
 
 I. The idea of space is derived from extension. 
 If we reflect upon the latter, as common to all 
 bodies, it becomes an abstraction ; but if we think 
 of a given body as extended, the term is a con- 
 crete. Abstract or concrete, as we look upon 
 extension as the attribute of an individual body, 
 or of bodies in general. By association, we 
 transfer the abstraction extension namely, to 
 the space which bodies occupy. Without expe- 
 rience of matter, we never could have framed the 
 idea of room or space. When once, we arrive 
 at the conception of the latter, as co-existent with 
 
136 ON THE MIND. 
 
 the dimensions of body, we easily proceed to the 
 supposition that worlds without end, might be 
 piled together; hence, the idea of infinite space. 
 
 II. The ideas which we derive from vision, are 
 very important. A sensation of colour, with the 
 inseparably associated idea of extension, is one 
 modification of consciousness, while the recollec- 
 tion of it, is another. We cannot conceive how 
 two forms so similar, yet so distinct, are produced. 
 To confuse them, would be insanity or disease. 
 The vast utility of vision, the multiplication of 
 our being to which it leads, its amazing union 
 with the recollecte'd perception of touch, and the 
 revelation which it makes of countless worlds, 
 place the ideas which we derive from it, in a very 
 conspicuous light. Hence it is, that they are so 
 incessantly floating in the chambers of the mind, 
 as in the recollection of written words, of books, 
 food, plants, flowers, animals and men. If the 
 imagination convey us to some distant region, or 
 far-off city, visual ideas are the agents. We wit- 
 ness the vegetation, rocks and mountains, in 
 the one case, and the towns, streets and busy 
 throng of men, in the other. And even with re- 
 gard to that future, which we hope and trust to 
 reach, the glad fancy delights to trace the immea- 
 surable fields of ether, the glowing stars, the gor- 
 geous clouds of heaven, and the glorious congre- 
 gation of happy intelligent existences. 
 
 III. The countless varieties of tone to be 
 found in nature, are accurately appreciated by 
 the ear, and taken cognizance of by the mind. 
 
ON THE MIND. 137 
 
 Thus, the latter recals the organ's peal or the 
 cannon's roar, the hum of the bee or the rapid 
 transitions of the human voice. The wide range 
 of memory with regard to sound, is attested in 
 the acquisition of languages. A perpetual recur- 
 rence of the same sounds, is secured by the si- 
 milar constitution of the organs of speech: a 
 beautiful provision, and one, by which the inter- 
 course of human beings is largely facilitated. By 
 means of conventional marks, the utility of the 
 ear is marvellously enhanced. Reading is a lux- 
 ury a refinement, but speech is indispensable. 
 We see intelligent mutes indeed, but such have 
 been instructed by those who could speak. The 
 exhaustless wisdom and goodness of the Deity, 
 are shewn by making the same organ an agent of 
 secondary, as well as of primary instruction. 
 
 IV. Sensations of smell and taste appear to 
 possess very imperfect mental representatives ; in 
 other words, we find it difficult to remember them. 
 When the sensation is present however, we recol- 
 lect with ease, whether we have felt it before. 
 The epicure recurs with pleasure to his favourite 
 dish ; for although in one sense, he cannot recal 
 the flavour, he does not forget the satisfaction 
 which it afforded him. In ill-health, we often ex- 
 perience disagreeable, and sometimes pleasant 
 odours and savours, when no object is present to 
 excite them. During our dream-life also, we pos- 
 sess a faculty of which we are destitute when 
 awake. The famished man then partakes of 
 costly viands, and relishes his imaginary fare 
 
138 ON THE MIND. 
 
 with not less keenness, than if he actually en- 
 joyed it. Other sensations also, are re-awakened 
 with a distinctness that seems reality while it 
 lasts ; ravishing harmonies enchant the ear, while 
 widely-extended landscapes float before the eye. 
 The sensations under consideration, do not fur- 
 nish much food for intellectual life, except as ve- 
 hicles of agreeable associations. The perfume of 
 flowers, recals many a varied emotion of the past, 
 while the pleasures of the table are connected 
 with those of social life. Sensations of smell and 
 taste are innumerable ; most organic, and many 
 inorganic substances exciting them. 
 
 V. Touch, though perfectly distinct, is usually 
 consentaneous with muscular motion; hence, the 
 one is apt to be mixed up with the other. This 
 sense resides in the whole cutaneous surface; in 
 the mouth and fauces, and perhaps, in the inter- 
 nal surface of the intestinal canal. There is also 
 a general sentiency, more or less referable to it. 
 The remembrance of sensations of touch is not 
 very copious. Even the perception of heat or 
 cold, and the pain attendant on laceration or dis- 
 organization, leave no distinct traces in the me- 
 mory. Our mental constitution, our pleasures 
 and our pains, are made up of comparatively few 
 particulars, and do not appear to involve the re- 
 collection of the sensations of every organ. Hence, 
 when we would refer to such, we do it by names 
 individually applicable, but which do not relate 
 to any mental analogues. If a given sense be 
 wanting, so are the ideas of which it is the ordi- 
 
ON THE MIND. 139 
 
 nary source. The consciousness of one who is 
 blind, is deficient in ideas of vision ; but as the 
 phenomena involved in the motion of light, re- 
 semble some which come under the scrutiny of 
 other senses, there will be a knowledge of various 
 facts of which the eye is the usual inlet. Thus, 
 Saunderson could lecture with precision on op- 
 tics, and Euler continue his occupations to an 
 advanced age. Organic impressions are more 
 or less convertible, while deficiencies are lessened 
 by the kind offices of our fellows. The absence 
 of one or more senses, proportionably incapaci- 
 tates the mind. This, still exists with all its glo- 
 rious capabilities, but the means of improvement 
 are wanting. The incurably deaf, dumb and 
 blind, have no hope in this world: their sun of 
 knowledge is eclipsed, and cannot reveal its 
 splendour, till the hand of death has torn away 
 their shackles for ever. 
 
 We could form no conception of time, inde- 
 pendent of the phenomena which come within the 
 range of our experience. We take a given action 
 as unity, and measure others in relation to it. 
 If we consider duration apart from any particu- 
 lar act, we arrive at the abstract idea of time. 
 Our idea of infinite time, is derived from that of 
 the unlimited prolongation of any of the pheno- 
 mena which come under our cognizance. Thus, 
 if we conceive the revolutions of the earth round 
 the sun, say a million of times, we find no diffi- 
 culty in imagining their continuance a million of 
 times longer, and so on, in a perpetually increas- 
 
140 ON THE MIND. 
 
 ing series without end. Without periodicity, we 
 could form no conception of time. The idea of 
 a measure, is forced upon us in every direction, 
 and in every possible way. Organic growth and 
 decay; the "revolutions of the heavenly bodies; 
 summer and winter; day and night, and the ebb 
 and flow of the sea, are phenomena that could 
 not fail to fix the attention of mankind from the 
 earliest period. Hence, the universal expedient 
 of marking occurrences, by the revolutions of the 
 moon, and the diurnal and annual motions of the 
 earth. The idea of time, is one of the most interest- 
 ing connected with our mental constitution. It 
 enters into our calculations from the earliest dawn 
 of intelligence, to its latest display. Human labour, 
 and the value of all earthly possessions, as well as 
 of existence itself, are regulated by it. Duration is 
 the attribute of eternity, and its absence, the evi- 
 dence of the transitory and perishable nature of 
 life. Time is alike the measure of sorrow and of 
 joy, enhancing the one and aggravating the other. 
 Dwell upon it as we may, it is impossible to esti- 
 mate its importance with sufficient earnestness, or 
 adequately, to sum up its mighty influence. 
 
 VII. Of the errors which have arisen from 
 ignorance of our mental constitution, the most 
 remarkable is the belief in innate ideas. It was 
 supposed impossible for conceptions so abstract 
 and complicated, as time, space, eternity, power, 
 virtue and justice, to be derived from sensation ; 
 and it was only after long-continued observation 
 and painful induction, that their real nature was 
 
ON THE MIND. 141 
 
 detected. We experience surprise when we re- 
 view the subtilties of the schoolmen, or the bitter 
 quarrels of realists and nominalists, and regret 
 that so much talent and erudition, should have 
 been thrown away. The question of innate ideas 
 has been agitated up to a recent period, and even 
 yet, finds adherents. It would be fruitless to enter 
 into their history, from the time of Plato until 
 that of Kant. The groundless entities with which 
 both have peopled the mind, render their writings 
 very imperfect vehicles of instruction : and if we 
 subject their views to the searching scrutiny of 
 modern analysis, we shall find their dimensions 
 considerably curtailed. An explanation of the 
 phenomena of consciousness was intrusted to 
 human sagacity; which, although it has often erred, 
 and still errs, returns like a baffled hound on the 
 track, till the knowledge sought for, is traced to 
 its sacred lair. Though the philosophy of the 
 human mind the noblest and best, has not suc- 
 ceeded in casting off its fetters, it must eventually, 
 like the other sciences, in virtue of its very pro- 
 gress in the face of opposing obstacles, effect its 
 entire, and never after to be invaded freedom. 
 
 2. Of all the faculties with which we have 
 been gifted, association is the most comprehen- 
 sive. It multiplies our existence to an immea- 
 surable extent, and could only have been devised 
 and made a part of our being, by the power which 
 governs all things. The advantages which we 
 derive from the union of sensations, ideas and 
 emotions, could not otherwise have been expe- 
 
142 ON THE MIND. 
 
 rienced. We know not how the process is ef- 
 fected, but we have ample evidence of its results. 
 Exaggeration is here at fault, since it is impos- 
 sible to overrate its importance. The utility 
 of language both written and spoken, is to be 
 ascribed to association; while to it also, taste, 
 imagination, judgment, memory and anticipation, 
 owe their peculiar forms, and often their existence. 
 Customs, prejudices, opinions and creeds, derive 
 much of their force and permanence from its in- 
 fluence. The difference between man and man 
 in various countries, ages and stations, is largely 
 to be referred to the operation of this prevailing 
 principle. Even the choice of our pursuits, and 
 the energy with which we attend to them, are 
 largely biassed by previous association. This 
 faculty however, will combine, but it cannot cre- 
 ate; it must have a foundation upon which to 
 erect its wonderful superstructure. 
 
 Repetition, recency and vividness, are things 
 which strike us with regard to association. Their 
 bare enunciation indeed, calls up the conviction 
 of their influence. By repetition, any given idea, 
 and to a certain extent, sensations and emotions, 
 are rendered comparatively permanent, and easier 
 of recurrence. We may repeat, if with indiffer- 
 ence, a passage any number of times, without re- 
 membering it; let the attention however, be 
 strongly directed, and the subject is ri vetted in 
 the memory. The formation of an association is 
 amazingly facilitated by the vividness of the in- 
 cluded circumstances. An individual rarely for- 
 
ON THE MIND. 143 
 
 gets the spot which has been consecrated by the 
 confession of his first affections; the soldier can- 
 not lose the remembrance of the battle-field, or 
 the sailor, the place where he escaped shipwreck 
 and death. One of the reasons why we recol- 
 lect so readily, the events of early years, is their 
 interesting character ; yet how numerous the in- 
 cidents of this very period, which wholly escape 
 the memory? Children and old people are heed- 
 less for a similar reason; awaken the attention, 
 and the faculty just named, forthwith performs 
 its part. Independent of daily occurrences, we 
 enjoy the satisfaction of retrospective, as well as 
 of prospective association. Pleasure however, 
 is not the only basis of immutable associations, 
 since it often happens in this chequered life, that 
 pain, both moral and physical, leads to their for- 
 mation. It falls to the lot of few indeed, to ac- 
 complish their career, without the occurrence of 
 events too painfully interesting, ever to be forgot- 
 ten or erased. 
 
 Recency of occurrence, has a very great in- 
 fluence. Our maternal tongue is so gradually 
 acquired, and so constantly present to us, that we 
 consider it next to impossible to forget it ; never- 
 theless, nothing is more certain, than when an in- 
 dividual is placed in isolation or exile, that he 
 will lose it, wholly or in part. Our acquirements, 
 whether in science or language, without repeti- 
 tion, are almost sure to be forgotten. It does 
 not merely suffice to know a thing; if we would 
 preserve, we must repeat it. This is the source 
 
144 ON THE MIND. 
 
 of that curious anomaly, whereby men sometimes 
 lose the greater part of their knowledge, and be- 
 come immersed in a mechanical routine. 
 
 In the consideration of association, the con- 
 nexion in the order of time, and that, in the order 
 of space, claims our especial attention. In the 
 one case, it is successive, in the other, synchro- 
 nous. In point of fact however, successive asso- 
 ciation must connote a succession of synchronous 
 associations, since our sensations, our ideas and 
 our emotions, are all more or less complex. It 
 has been observed that ideas follow the order of 
 the sensations, of which they are the analogues; 
 reason and imagination however, are perpetually 
 creating new associations. How infinitely lim- 
 ited would existence become, were the succession 
 always identical with the corresponding sensa- 
 tions ? This however, through an all-wise Provi- 
 dence, has been differently ordered. 
 
 The permanence of the links which bind our 
 ideas, feelings and sensations, is essential to our 
 well-being. Were our knowledge as difficult to 
 retain as to gain, it would preclude its utility. 
 It would be productive of boundless degrada- 
 tion, were it necessary to form afresh, our judg- 
 ments, feelings and moral impulses, each time 
 that they were required. To association then, 
 must be ascribed the faculty of calling up the 
 ideas and feelings, with which it has pleased God 
 to endow us. They follow each other with an 
 ease and a rapidity, well calculated to rouse emo- 
 tions of wonder and gratitude, towards the wisdom 
 
ON THE MIND. 145 
 
 and power which has originated them. It is thus, 
 that we are enabled to refer in a moment, to our 
 intellectual stores. We have only to avail our- 
 selves of any of the contrivances by which our 
 knowledge is perpetuated, and straightway, it 
 flows in upon us with a copiousness, only bounded 
 by our information. Our feelings however, are 
 not to be renewed without reverting to the ideas, 
 the objects or the situations, with which they are 
 connected. Thus, the orator when he would 
 awaken a given passion in the bosoms of his au- 
 ditors, pours forth a flood of eloquence, and raises 
 such ideas as are best calculated to effect his pur- 
 pose. The musician also, fills the ear with strains 
 of gushing harmony, until feelings start forth, 
 which eventually lead his hearers captive to the 
 sorcery of his lyre. And when we hang over the 
 pages of the philosopher, while he delineates the 
 charms of virtue, and the ineffable advantages of 
 knowledge, probity and truth, our hearts glow 
 within us, and we resolve to pursue the illumi- 
 nated path. 
 
 3. There are no simple ideas ; one and all, are 
 complex. If weight, extension, colour and sound, 
 be so, how can the ideas formed from them, be 
 otherwise? The alliances which our ideas form 
 with each other, are of the most diversified de- 
 scription. How many do the terms man, coun- 
 try and world, respectively designate ? The same 
 words however, are apt to stand for different 
 sums of ideas in different individuals ; they also, 
 vary in vividness, correctness, and in the amount 
 
 K 
 
146 ON THE MIND. 
 
 of collateral associations. As individuals are 
 never placed exactly in the same circumstances, 
 it is impossible for any to become wholly alike. 
 Nature indeed, has taken unerring means to pre- 
 vent a monotony that would be fatal to the best 
 interests of our species. 
 
 Some minds display multitudes of complex 
 ideas, closely associated with the terms which re- 
 present them. Thus, the practised orator is able 
 to pour forth volumes of eloquence with ease and 
 rapidity. His auditory however, are rarely aware 
 that the faculty which excites their admiration, is 
 generated in some measure, by the art itself; and 
 that endless combinations of winged words, lie 
 latent in the memory of the speaker. This talent 
 is exemplified in the improvisatore, who emits the 
 well-trimmed line and measured rhyme, with sin- 
 gular facility. Few who are in the habit of com- 
 mitting their thoughts to paper, know how much 
 their seeming originality is but the echo of the 
 sentiments of others ; how frequently they repeat 
 themselves, and to what an extent, the words, the 
 ideas and their very combinations, exist ready 
 formed in the memory. 
 
 Complex ideas succeed each other in trains, 
 from an early period of consciousness, until the 
 close of our career. Life is a name for the three 
 great classes of phenomena sensations, emotions 
 and ideas, which are ever going on. Mental 
 activity intermits during the day, and always in 
 deep sleep ; it is not probable however, that con- 
 sciousness in some form, every wholly ceases. 
 
ON THE MIND. 147 
 
 As at present constituted, the repose of sleep is 
 necessary to arrest the wear and tear of the 
 frame, and to yield peace and quiet to the soul. 
 Sleeplessness quickly exhausts, and if long pro- 
 tracted, induces disease of body or mind. After 
 rest, our mental energy is lighted up by the asso- 
 ciations connected with daily pursuits and sur- 
 rounding objects. Are we capable, it has been 
 asked, of thinking about two or more things at 
 once ? If the complexity of our ideas be any cri- 
 terion, we are not only capable of doing so, but 
 we cannot do otherwise. And if there be grades 
 of intelligences successively rising, as they ap- 
 proach at measureless distances, the great first 
 Cause, we may venture to suppose, that one of 
 the most prominent distinctions, will be the pro- 
 gressive enlargement of the field of consciousness. 
 As to that Almighty Being, whom we qannot 
 name without reverence, His consciousness, must 
 include a knowledge of all the doings of the in- 
 finite universe, past, present and to come. 
 
 It was once supposed, that numerous ideas 
 were insusceptible of decomposition, an error 
 that barred the way to further progress. What 
 could be expected, when such names as time, 
 space, power, virtue and justice, were considered 
 to refer to so many entities inherent in the mind, 
 and bearing no necessary reference to things 
 without? The utility of intellectual analysis is 
 no where more conspicuous, than in relation to 
 complex ideas. How wonderful the diversity of 
 the human mind, and of the human heart, arising 
 
148 ON THE MIND. 
 
 as it does, from the combination and recombina- 
 tion of a small number of elementary ideas and 
 emotions, themselves referable to sensation ? By 
 means of analysis, principles, before supposed to 
 be simple and innate, are demonstrated to be 
 compound and derived. Thus, modern chemistry 
 shews the elements of the philosophers, to be made 
 up of bodies still more elementary, and which, 
 though few in number, produce the admirable 
 variety of the material world. In the study of 
 the human character, in morals, metaphysics, and 
 in the daily intercourse of life, intellectual analysis 
 is throughout indispensable. How few there are, 
 who, to sufficient discrimination, add the calmness 
 and singleness of purpose, without which, the 
 obstacles cannot be put aside, that oppose a suc- 
 cessful scrutiny into the recesses of the soul? 
 How difficult the task of self-inquiry; how nu- 
 merous the errors, the delusions and the passions, 
 that stand in the way ? And if these exist, even 
 in the intelligent and the good, how strongly must 
 they operate in the ignorant, the immoral and 
 the unjust? A tendency to them is apt to be 
 generated by promiscuous intercourse with our 
 fellows, unbroken by self-communion, and un- 
 corrected by pursuits, that would convert the mere 
 man of the world into the man of science and 
 letters, the patriot and the philosopher. The 
 habit of analyzing, not only our trains of con- 
 sciousness, but our complex ideas and emotions, 
 is of the greatest advantage in the study of man 
 and of self. He who can weigh the force, and 
 
ON THE MIND. 149 
 
 estimate the origin of his reasonings who can 
 measure his motives, his feelings and his impulses, 
 is no ordinary being. In the analysis of the 
 ideas which pass current in society which are 
 common to the species, or peculiar to the indi- 
 vidual, will be found endless scope for occupation 
 and improvement. 
 
 As there is an endless difference between dif- 
 ferent minds, some excelling, as much as others 
 are deficient, so there is an equal variety in the 
 number and complexity of the trains with which 
 each is stored. Where are they where are the 
 hidden recesses of the soul, which contain the 
 numberless emotions, and endlessly diversified 
 combinations of ideas, which lie latent in the me- 
 mory ? The strength and beauty of the outward 
 man are quickly revealed, but what is to declare 
 the proportions within? We cannot indeed, dis- 
 cern the lurking passions, the secret emotions and 
 the stores of knowledge, through their vesture of 
 clay, but if patient and observing, we may appre- 
 ciate them by means of their manifestations. 
 Here, I speak of man as man, and apart from the 
 distinctions, which sometimes right and often 
 wrong, mark the estimation of society. Were we 
 to search the wide range of nature, we should 
 find nothing more distinct, than is one man from 
 another, and at times, from himself. Polar snow 
 or Etna's fire the sterile desert or the fertile 
 plain beauty or deformity salubrity or insalu- 
 brity, are often not more opposed. 
 
 4. Abstraction, generalization and classifica- 
 
150 ON THE MIND. 
 
 tion, are analogous, but not identical processes. 
 By the first, we isolate a given property from the 
 things which exhibit it. Thus, greenness is 
 colour, viewed apart from the bodies which dis- 
 play it. The term green, connotes the coloured 
 body, while greenness indicates the colour alone. 
 All epithets are concretes ; they connote the body 
 of which they affirm a quality; the latter how- 
 ever, by itself, is an abstraction. The words 
 which denote action and passion, or the verbs 
 namely, may be employed in an abstract or con- 
 crete sense : examples are superfluous. 
 
 Generalization is the act by which we associate 
 insulated conclusions under a common head. A 
 physician for example, asserts that inflammatory 
 diseases require bloodletting. We are informed 
 by a geologist, that certain structures never pre- 
 sent organic remains. One politician affirms 
 that the people are unfit to exercise self-govern- 
 ment; another, that they are the sources of all 
 legitimate power. We are told by one class of 
 theologians, that individuals are incapable of 
 thinking correctly on moral or religious subjects; 
 while another, arrives at the conclusion, that they 
 are precisely those, on which all should think and 
 decide for themselves. Some metaphysicians are 
 of opinion, that men are endowed with peculiar 
 dispositions from birth ; others, that such have no 
 existence. These generalizations are both true 
 and false, and involve a multitude of particulars : 
 some however, are mixed or conditional. No 
 mental process requires greater care to avoid 
 
ON THE MIND. 151 
 
 falling into error. The ingenious, the hasty and 
 the superficial, are prone to erroneous generali- 
 zation ; but the profound and reflecting, are cau- 
 tious how they chain down the multifarious, and 
 frequently inscrutable operations of nature. 
 
 Classification is a singularly useful process. 
 The multitude of objects is so great, that the me- 
 mory would otherwise, be incapable of registering 
 them. We therefore, isolate them into families, 
 each embracing a number of common particulars. 
 The subdivision is continued on the same prin- 
 ciple, until we arrive at two or more individuals 
 exhibiting the same qualities. A contrivance 
 like this, is prodigiously favourable to the acqui- 
 sition and retention of knowledge. 
 
 5. By induction, we determine particulars from 
 certain premises. It is not a mere verbal act, 
 since many excel in it, who are hardly able to 
 dress up their conclusions in words. The pro- 
 cess may be direct or indirect. We may arrive 
 at the fact by the determination of what is true, 
 or the rejection of what is false. Our reasonings 
 may embrace a chain of demonstrations, the pre- 
 miss of the one, hinging on the conclusion of the 
 other, or they may be confined to one or two 
 particulars. The more copious and correct the 
 data, the more certain, other circumstances alike, 
 will be the inference. In some cases, a single 
 datum will suffice ; a crucial argument is of this 
 description. When Lavosier and others, recom- 
 pounded water from oxygen and hydrogen, the 
 induction that this fluid was composed of these 
 
152 ON THE MIND. 
 
 elements, was complete. Sometimes, a large in- 
 duction is necessary to establish a given fact. 
 The possession by the human race of similar 
 capabilities, is determined by a multitude of ob- 
 servations: God's moral government is ascer- 
 tained by others, still more numerous. Induction 
 involves the exercise of all our faculties, and of 
 every process of investigation. It has been sup- 
 posed that analysis, or the determination of the 
 elements of things, and synthesis, or their recon- 
 struction, were more peculiarly called for; but 
 however indispensable, it does not appear that 
 they are more so, than other intellectual opera- 
 tions. Many propose to substitute the Baconian 
 method of induction, for the syllogistic one of 
 Aristotle; but as Whately has observed, these 
 methods are not opposed, since every induction 
 and every argument, may be stated syllogistically. 
 In determining the correctness of the premises 
 from which our induction must proceed, we have 
 indeed, nothing to do with the syllogism, which 
 leaves the truth or falsehood of the former, as it 
 finds it. 
 
 6. The origin of language is wrapt in the night 
 of time. Philology at best, is a conjectural 
 science : language is incessantly changing, but we 
 are imperfectly acquainted with the causes of its 
 mutations. To trace all languages to a few radi- 
 cals, as some have attempted, is doubtless to fall 
 into an error; their mechanical origin however, 
 is intelligible enough. The process of respira- 
 tion creates voice instinctively, and the position 
 
ON THE MIND. 153 
 
 of the organs of speech, alters the articulation 
 with every utterance. Pleasure and pain lead 
 to varied sounds, and one individual imitates 
 another. The occurrences of nature the rushing 
 of the winds, the rustling of the trees, the roar 
 of the sea, and the voices of animals, along with 
 innumerable casual sounds, prove sources of in- 
 struction. In no long time, the whole is con- 
 nected by mutual consent, with the wants, the 
 wishes, the feelings and the knowledge of man- 
 kind. Language however, improves by slow 
 degrees; and it would probably, require cen- 
 turies, before the least cultivated dialect, could 
 reach the lowest pitch of perfection that has been 
 anywhere attained. Music, of which all the 
 melody,, and perhaps all the harmony, exist in 
 nature, was long indeed, in arriving at its present 
 condition. There is a language of signs, of ex- 
 pression, of attitude and of tone, each of which, 
 yields a meaning of its own. I need not insist 
 on the utility of language, or on the provision 
 which it constitutes for the development of our 
 faculties. It is trite to say, that man could not 
 have arrived at his present eminence, had he not 
 been gifted with this singular means of conveying 
 his feelings and ideas to his fellows, as well as 
 of maintaining them in himself. Among the 
 first things which strike us, are the properties 
 of words; some of these are names, others in- 
 dicate feelings, acts, relation, transition and 
 quality. A multitude serve no purpose, save 
 that of modifying other words. As the objects 
 
154 ON THE MIND. 
 
 which surround us, as well as our intellectual 
 conditions, are of endless diversity, so language 
 evinces in its construction, every form of classi- 
 fication and abstraction. It would have been 
 otherwise impossible, for any language or any 
 memory, to contain a sufficient number of corres- 
 ponding terms. Abstractions, by adding inten- 
 sity to thought, may be said to prolong life itself. 
 Abstract terms however, are abstracted, and we 
 are able by a few words, to refer to multitudinous 
 particulars. We must not forget that they are 
 merely a verbal artifice. Thus, when we say the 
 public, the human race, antiquity, posterity, we 
 refer to the individuals who live, who have lived, 
 or who may live hereafter. Conscience and the 
 moral sense, are abstractions of certain mental 
 states, but not any separate power or faculty, 
 much less any innate or underived quality. The 
 properties which characterize language as an art, 
 whereby we impress others with our ideas and 
 feelings, and receive impressions in return, are 
 fully detailed in treatises on grammar, rhetoric, 
 logic and philology. 
 
 7. There are two conditions important as re- 
 lated to each other, and to the operations of the 
 intellect generally the active and passive states 
 of the mind, namely. In one sense indeed, both 
 are active, as is every condition of consciousness ; 
 but one is more so than the other. Few rise in 
 intellectual activity above the demands of their 
 respective occupations; by these they are kept 
 in a condition of limited excitement, infinitely 
 
ON THE MIND. 155 
 
 beneath their actual capabilities. The intellec- 
 tual effort which enables us to understand writ- 
 ten composition, varies from that which takes 
 place when we ourselves are engaged in the act. 
 The difference in fact, is that between active and 
 passive mental occupation; and it is impracti- 
 cable to compass the good effects of the one, by 
 means of the other alone. Human beings are in- 
 capable of never-sleeping activity, but without 
 more or less, it is impossible to realize desirable 
 results. The dullest minds even, when subjected 
 to some urgent impulse, will exhibit surprising 
 impetuosity, but when the former has died away, 
 they lapse into their habitual torpor. What we 
 call genius, is the possession of highly developed 
 activity. In most however, the latter sleeps and 
 wakes in a series of oscillations, that last through 
 life. How few manifest the elevation of mind, 
 which true to its purpose, sustains them with un- 
 flinching firmness to the end of their career? 
 
 8. Reason, judgment and reflection, are names 
 for analogous mental operations. When an in- 
 dividual pursues a particular train of investiga- 
 tion when he examines, compares and draws 
 conclusions, he is said to reason. In every men- 
 tal operation we refer to our past judgments; 
 and the more accurately these have been recorded, 
 so much the more easy does the formation of every 
 additional one become. How abortive are the 
 reasonings of the child, until they have been 
 strengthened by age and exercise ? Our memory 
 and our associations however, are not less called 
 
156 ON THE MIND. 
 
 upon perhaps, with respect to sensible objects, 
 than with regard to those which are purely in- 
 tellectual. The correctness of our judgments, is 
 influenced by that of our observation ; when we 
 generalize, we reason, not less than when we 
 classify, examine, analyze, compare or infer. 
 Reason is not so much a particular faculty, as 
 the sum of all our faculties. It is the characte- 
 ristic of human beings, not because animals do 
 not reason, but because their reasoning powers 
 are so far beneath our own. Reason is variously 
 possessed by mankind; in some, it is so highly 
 developed, and in others so defective, that we can 
 hardly believe the instances to occur in similarly 
 constituted individuals. High moral and imagi- 
 native, though not identical with intellectual de- 
 velopment, necessarily presupposes more or less 
 of the latter. The intellects of the great majority 
 however, slumber in comparative inaction; they 
 toil and they suffer, but they reflect little. As 
 reason is the most remarkable, so it is the most 
 durable of human possessions. We retain it 
 through every change of fortune, from birth to 
 the grave. It is our unalienable birthright, and 
 cannot be forfeited, unless through misconduct or 
 disease. Reason is no man's gift; it is the appa- 
 nage of poverty as of wealth. When duly culti- 
 vated, it requires no extraneous influence to urge 
 it forward; it asks a certain degree of develop- 
 ment however, before it can assert its rights. 
 The minds of millions now lie torpid and asleep 
 who shall rouse them who shall cast off their 
 
ON THE MIND. 157 
 
 heavy shackles and bid them be free? Who 
 shall place them in a condition to claim, and to 
 secure for ever, those precious possessions, com- 
 pared to which, all others fade? 
 
 9. Imagination though not confined to the poet, 
 is usually supposed to refer to the power of com- 
 bining ideas of a certain order. Prior associa- 
 tions are called up by the memory, while new 
 ones, some of a permanent, others of a fugitive 
 nature, are created. Passion of some kind, is in 
 truth the moving power, and men are never so 
 imaginative as when they are under its influence. 
 It is obvious that the character of the different 
 trains on which we bestow the term, will depend 
 on the age, the station and the habits of the indi- 
 vidual. The school-boy thinks on his prizes and 
 his pastimes; the youth on the mistress of his 
 affections, and on scenes of wild adventure ; while 
 the adult dwells on projects of ambition, philan- 
 thropy or wealth. The faculty varies in different 
 individuals ; some being imaginative to an extreme, 
 while others are so with difficulty. As in every 
 other case, exercise yields facility; while the in- 
 ducements are various talent, passion and neces- 
 sity. We look upon Homer, Milton and Shake- 
 speare, with justice, as men of a highly imaginative 
 order, and possessed of superior intellectual at- 
 tainments. It does not follow indeed, that culti- 
 vated individuals should be poets, though the 
 converse is necessary. Talent however elevated, 
 cannot without assiduous exercise, constitute a 
 poet, and the rule extends to every act in which 
 the imagination finds scope. 
 
158 ON THE MIND. 
 
 Imagination is the source of numerous gratifi- 
 cations. How often are we made happy by the 
 fascinations of our day dreams ? Thus, by means 
 of this magic faculty, we realize pleasures in ad- 
 vance: joy indeed, quickly passes away, but ex- 
 pectation is limitless. How often are hardships 
 and wearing toil how often are the exertions of 
 the patriot and philanthropist, cheered and com- 
 forted by the anticipation of good ? Imagination 
 aids the upright man to associate with his trials 
 and crosses, the joyful end which is to accrue 
 from them. Surely, it is no mean agent, which 
 thus enables us to connect even pleasurable emo- 
 tions, with immediate pain. How limited in truth, 
 would our intellectual existence prove, were our 
 ideas and feelings, merely to follow the order of 
 their production? Our faculties however, are 
 multiplied, and we are able to create endless 
 combinations of beauty and magnificence, ex- 
 tending to all things earthly and heavenly ; even 
 to that great Being, who, great and wise as he is, 
 has framed us thus to minister to our well-being. 
 He has not indeed, permitted us to form definite 
 conceptions of the final condition of man, whether 
 as regards this world, or that to which all alike are 
 bound; but he has given us imagination where- 
 with to create a world of probabilities, and by 
 placing us in the midst of difficulties and doubts, 
 has sharpened our moral and mental vision, and 
 incited us to its vigilant and unceasing cultivation. 
 Imagination is a good in proportion to the use 
 which is made of it. Well-regulated, it is the 
 source of innumerable pleasures and advantages 
 
ON THE MIND. 159 
 
 the contrary, it leads to countless evils. It is 
 the duty of every one to keep it in subordination 
 to reason; and those in whom it is not governed 
 by the probabilities and contingencies of life, 
 create for themselves an endless tissue of misery 
 and disappointment. 
 
 10. Memory is the most wonderful of the fa- 
 culties with which we have been gifted. It would 
 be little to experience sensations, if we had not 
 the power of recalling them. We retain the 
 feeling or the idea which arises from a sensation, 
 long after its origin is forgotten. Repetition and 
 vividness are sources of permanency. Thus it 
 is with the greater part of mankind; they re- 
 member or forget as circumstances dictate. Nu- 
 merous contrivances, such as language written 
 and spoken, pictures, statues and edifices, are 
 used to aid and assist the memory. The Mexicans 
 employed knotted cords, and the Egyptians hiero- 
 glyphics, while the Chinese and Japanese use a 
 complex system of arbitrary marks, by which 
 ideas and objects alone, are represented. There 
 are numerous varieties in memory, both in power 
 and in kind; some recollecting places, others 
 words best. We remember more speedily from 
 having learned to control our attention ; while 
 we recal most readily, the things with which we 
 are conversant. A grammarian will recollect 
 the analogies of language, better than a mathe- 
 matician will do ; but the latter will excel him at 
 a problem. A physician will retain medical de- 
 tails more easily than a lawyer, and conversely. 
 
160 ON THE MIND. 
 
 How important the part which memory performs, 
 whether with regard to science or the details of 
 life? Quickness of recollection is created and 
 perfected by exercise : presence of mind is a mo- 
 dification of this invaluable power. How re- 
 markably is this faculty evinced in the practised 
 debater and hardy veteran : what coolness in the 
 midst of danger, and what fertility of resources, 
 do they not respectively exhibit? Our know- 
 ledge remains latent till memory calls it forth. 
 Where it reposes meanwhile, and how it is re- 
 tained, are not to be explained. When the 
 wonder-working wand of association is waved, it 
 enters upon the stage of consciousness. Some 
 things vanish, while other things are too deeply 
 graven ever to be erased. Whence this is, we 
 do not know. Yet there are events which seem 
 to leave no trace behind, until some talismanic 
 chord being struck, the forgotten theme starts 
 forth afresh. Our pleasures and our pains, after 
 being felt with vividness for a time, melt away 
 and are forgotten. Our joys and our sorrows 
 deluge us with emotion while they last, but sub- 
 side at length, into calmness or indifference. 
 
 11. Futurity is a name for all forthcoming 
 events prescience for those which we anticipate. 
 We have so often witnessed a certain succession 
 of occurrences, that an immutable association 
 connects them together. Summer has so long 
 followed spring, and spring winter, that we arrive 
 at the conclusion that they will ever continue to 
 do so. We affirm that we know that the sun will 
 
ON THE MIND. 161 
 
 rise to-morrow, but all that we really know, is 
 that it has been so heretofore. Our knowledge 
 as to the continuance of this phenomenon, as of 
 all others, relates wholly to the past. The sun 
 has set and risen so often, within the compass of 
 our experience, that we cannot help believing 
 that it will do so, to-morrow and to-morrow, 
 through succeeding ages. Thus, is prescience 
 produced, and admirably does it serve our pur- 
 poses. Less was not to be expected from the de- 
 vice of an unerring and all- wise Contriver. How 
 deplorable would the condition of humanity be- 
 come, without a knowledge of the future ? The 
 mariner would cease to ply the deep, and the 
 husbandman to till the soil : all productive occu- 
 pation, with hope and fear, would equally cease. 
 With the certainty of a future however, every- 
 thing is pursued with alacrity and success. Had 
 more specific information been necessary, the 
 means of acquiring it would have been imparted : 
 yet, when certainty as to the dim and distant 
 future fades, we have been gifted with imagina- 
 tion, and blessed hope, by means of which, under 
 the control of reason, we image forth that which 
 is good and desirable. Knowledge more perfect, 
 would have been incompatible with the economy 
 of existence. Even as regards this world, pre- 
 science is desirable ; but it soars beyond time and 
 space, and carries our delighted hearts into the 
 regions of futurity. Such overflowing evidence 
 of the wisdom and goodness of God, is furnished 
 to us in this life, that by an association still more 
 
 L 
 
162 ON THE MIND. 
 
 binding than in the case of material events, we 
 trust and believe, that they will be exercised for 
 ever, better and more abundantly than we are 
 able to conceive. As to the prescience of that 
 great Being on whom our dependence rests, it 
 must be infinite, for He knows all things. There 
 can be no past, no future, to One, from whom all 
 knowledge, excellence and order, emanate, and 
 in whose hands is the fulness and the origin of 
 existence. 
 
 12. Motive may be defined as a state of con- 
 sciousness that precedes a given act, and by which 
 we are inclined to perform it. Motives may be 
 sensual, intellectual, moral, or mixed. Our ob- 
 jects and efforts through life ; the conduct of the 
 ignorant, the vicious, the wise and the good, come 
 equally, but how differently, under their influence. 
 All men, the insane and idiotic excepted, are re- 
 gulated by them. The murderer has a motive, 
 execrable though it be, along with the man of 
 sublime virtue. Actuating motives are not 
 always the only ones : a man may be governed 
 by numbers in succession, to the force of one or 
 more of which, he eventually yields. How fre- 
 quently are the painful struggles to which the 
 human breast is subject, to be ascribed to the 
 collision of conflicting motives; and how often 
 does the heart heave and labour with agonizing 
 throes, before it can come to a decision? The 
 motives which influence us at one time, are in- 
 operative at another : their proper regulation em- 
 braces the just appreciation of everything that 
 
ON THE MIND. 163 
 
 conduct involves. Praise and blame stand in 
 close relation to them; hence it is, that we are 
 so much on the alert to detect the motives of 
 others; an inquiry however, in which we often 
 fail. Success will be contingent on our know- 
 ledge of the human heart, and on the degree in 
 which our faculties are matured by the intercourse 
 of life. Men of the world rarely make a suffi- 
 cient allowance for the different springs of con- 
 duct. Political rancour and sectarian animosity, 
 largely contribute to erroneous interpretations: 
 other causes operate, but none on a scale so un- 
 remitting, or so gigantic as these. The regulation 
 of motives by principles of truth, equity and mo- 
 deration, is among the highest and best endea- 
 vours of human virtue. 
 
 13. The subject on which I now enter, has 
 occasioned more stormy discussion, than perhaps 
 any other within the range of metaphysical in- 
 quiry. I speak of that state of the human mind 
 which bears the name of will. It was once sup- 
 posed that virtue and moral obligation, were 
 affirmed or denied, according to the manner in 
 which it was explained; just as if truth could 
 be unfavourable to the interests of virtue, or as 
 if men's knowledge and practical experience, 
 could be neutralized by their conclusions on at- 
 stract topics. Much of the confusion on the sub- 
 ject of will, has been occasioned by inattention to 
 the meaning of words, or by accepting them in a 
 variable sense. Were this previously determined, 
 it is probable that many noisy controversies 
 
164 ON THE MIND. 
 
 would not have occurred, or that they would have 
 been conducted in a different manner. 
 
 Doubtless, we possess the power of willing, but 
 not apart from motive or impulse. I desire to 
 trace these lines, but the association of the act 
 of writing, with words: these, with the ideas 
 which suggest them, and these again, with a suc- 
 cession of trains, involving not only all that I 
 have written, but the motives which led me to 
 undertake the task, and consequently, more or 
 less of my past intellectual and moral existence, 
 must have preceded the determination. When 
 I try to recollect, the mind pauses on the different 
 associated circumstances, until perchance, the 
 wished-for idea makes its appearance. Yet, how 
 is it that we dwell longer on one train than upon 
 another; by what inscrutable process is it, that 
 ideas and feelings succeed each other to such an 
 endless extent, and that the mind acts upon the 
 organs, and constrains the performance of its 
 will ? Long trains follow, the one after the other, 
 of which the order though similar, is not identi- 
 cal with what we have experienced before. Here, 
 the great principle of association presents itself 
 in a peculiar light, modifying by an admirable 
 economy, but not deranging the uniformity of 
 our mental trains. This is effected by calling up 
 collateral links, which are connected with others 
 without end. Thus, we perceive that nothing 
 can come into our consciousness independent of 
 the great bond of association, or without some 
 preceding cause, motive, or impulse, whether ori- 
 
ON THE MIND. 165 
 
 ginating in the mind itself, or derived from with- 
 out. We receive an idea or feeling in the first 
 instance, from sensation ; but once received, it is 
 instantly annexed to some leading cluster of ideas 
 or feelings, and thenceforth, is governed by the 
 laws of association. As to the power however, 
 by which these acts of association and volition 
 are performed, we are wholly in the dark. 
 
 It is well determined that we cannot will any 
 thing, without some previously impelling motive. 
 If any one think that he can do so, let him try the 
 experiment. Whether we turn to the right hand 
 or to the left, rise or sit down, converse with 
 other men, or commune with ourselves, there 
 must in every case, be a motive. Even in gues- 
 sing, there is a casual association, that inclines us 
 in one direction, rather than in another. We say 
 that we can execute a certain action, or refrain 
 from it true, but there must be some impelling 
 cause. If by free-will, is meant that we can act 
 independent of circumstances, it is a nonentity ; 
 but if we mean that we have the power of choice, 
 in subordination to motive, the name and the 
 definition may be equally assented to. 
 
 The power which association possesses in the 
 regulation of the will, is strongly evinced by the 
 circumstance, that we cannot recal our emotions, 
 or even our ideas, without having recourse to it. 
 Do we want to review what is known on a given 
 subject, we search the repositories of science; we 
 go from point to point, and from link to link ; the 
 memory pours forth its stores, and the task is 
 
166 ON THE MIND. 
 
 done. As to feeling, when we think of the words 
 and actions of the beloved, but absent object of 
 our affections ; when we contemplate the apart- 
 ment which he occupied, or even the garments 
 which he wore, our hearts overflow with bursting 
 emotion. Much of the ambiguity prevailing on 
 the subject of will, motive, and action, appears 
 to have been created by the circumstance, that 
 they may be described as occurring, either ac- 
 tively or passively. Whichsoever phraseology 
 we employ, it is obvious that the facts remain 
 unaltered. We say with equal convenience, that 
 an idea arose, or that it has been awakened. 
 There is nothing ambiguous in the occurrence, 
 though the language into which we translate it, 
 may be so. When this is properly explained, 
 every thing becomes intelligible, and we may 
 retain the form of expression which pleases us 
 best. That however, which designates an active 
 power, has been so long in use, and is so con- 
 formable to the prejudices and opinions of man- 
 kind, that it is not likely to be discontinued. 
 
 14. The great principle of association is con- 
 nected with every form of consciousness, belief 
 not excepted. To know a thing, and to believe 
 it, as Mill has tersely remarked, is one and the 
 same thing : we cannot know, without believing 
 it, nor believe, without knowing it. The two 
 states of mind are identical, and the terms by 
 which we designate them, convertible. Belief 
 however, is not always regulated by truth, for it 
 is certain that we can believe a falsehood not less 
 
ON THE MIND. 167 
 
 firmly than its opposite ; but no one can do so 
 knowingly. Belief then, follows all the errors 
 of our minds, and all the illusions of our senses. 
 Feelings will often remain, when belief has ceased, 
 and even sometimes re-awaken it. Thus, re- 
 conversions are perhaps oftener caused by the 
 heart than the head. We are aware however, 
 that some things are not true, yet we sometimes 
 find it difficult not to believe them. It is hard 
 to think that the heads of the antipodes are 
 placed opposite our own ; that the sun does not 
 move round the earth ; that colour does not re- 
 side in bodies, and that we do not see extension. 
 Our belief in the future, is a case of immutable 
 association, generated by the repetition of trains 
 of events. Continuance and futurity, in this 
 case, are convertible terms ; but if the reasonings 
 of Hume, were admitted to the extreme to which 
 he attempts to push them, we could believe in 
 nothing that did not come within the immediate 
 range of our observation. Yet doubtless, this writer, 
 in the face of his own principles, made a provision 
 for the future, and perhaps believed that the 
 works to which he consigned his opinions, might 
 survive him. Testimony relates to things past 
 or absent ; and we have sufficient evidence to 
 shew, that it will lead us to believe in what is 
 false, as well as in what is true. The readiness 
 of belief, is contingent on our knowledge and 
 intellectual activity : the ignorant will embrace 
 the most repugnant absurdities, and reject the 
 most certain truths, just because the former are 
 
168 ON THE MIND. 
 
 in accordance with their prejudices, while the 
 latter are otherwise. 
 
 It is a question often agitated, whether we can 
 believe at pleasure. One party affirms, that 
 opinions lie wholly at our discretion, while another 
 asserts the contrary. Neither of these categories 
 however, involves the truth; both are partly 
 right, and partly wrong. It is the interest of all 
 to believe what is true, yet it cannot be contended 
 that all men do so. Going upon the first hypo- 
 thesis, how does this happen, since the matter 
 lies at our disposal ? Probably, some cause 
 will be assigned ; this, therefore, is only what is 
 required to overthrow the hypothesis in question. 
 For without denying the power, if hindrances be 
 once admitted, it shows that it is subject to modi- 
 fications. The other view is also wrong ; for 
 although belief is controlled by circumstances, it 
 errs in stating, that it is in no respect within our 
 power. If those who assert such doctrines, really 
 entertain them, why do they try to propagate 
 them ? It is not less certain indeed, that every 
 one has a power over his opinions, however 
 modified by circumstances, than that it is every 
 one's duty to search after truth. It will now 
 be proper to inquire what the power is, which 
 man has over his belief; what the circumstances 
 are which restrict it, and lastly, the nature of 
 the responsibility which is attached to the exer- 
 cise of it. 
 
 Every one must admit that we can employ our 
 senses within certain limits, as we please : we pos- 
 
ON THE MIND. 169 
 
 sess a similar power over our mental faculties. 
 Both are placed under the control of motives, ema- 
 nating from ourselves, or coming from without. 
 Those which influence the educated and moral, 
 are inoperative with regard to the ignorant and 
 depraved, and conversely. A temptation to steal, 
 or to commit murder, could not act upon the 
 first, though it might upon the last. One man 
 may refrain from an immoral act, from a convic* 
 tion of its injurious consequences, and another, 
 from an aversion to it ; the most moral character 
 however, will unite the love of virtue and the 
 contempt of vice, with a keen discernment of the 
 advantages of the one, and the evils of the other. 
 Where knowledge and feeling do not lend their 
 sanction, the individual so circumstanced, must 
 be highly defective. Knowledge defines our du- 
 ties, and aids the heart in their appreciation. An 
 ignorant man is prepared to entertain the most 
 flagrant absurdities, and perhaps, to perpetrate 
 the most revolting crimes. Could the wretched 
 barbarian or ruthless fanatic, rejoice round the 
 body of a human victim, reeking in blood or 
 writhing in agony, were his heart alive, or his 
 head instructed, as to the duties incumbent on 
 the virtuous and intelligent ? In every condition 
 of life, the influence of the motives which regu- 
 late belief, will operate according to the amount 
 of moral and intellectual cultivation, the habits 
 and predilections of the individual. These will 
 cause the admission or the rejection of given 
 tenets ; stimulate inquiry or repress it, and lead 
 to the adoption of error or the advocacy of truth. 
 
170 ON THE MIND. 
 
 The circumstances which regulate belief are 
 numerous : the condition in which a man is born ; 
 his rank and estimation in society ; his profession, 
 and above all, his education, are very influential. 
 What prospect has one who is bred in an atmos- 
 phere of barbarism and superstition, of acquiring 
 correct information, or virtuous principles; or 
 how is it possible to present motives to his mind, 
 sufficient to promote inquiry, or to further the detec- 
 tion of error? Were he even so fortunate as to 
 escape the general contamination, he cannot ven- 
 ture with impunity, to denounce the opinions and 
 the practices of others. Numerous passions and 
 prepossessions, as Bailey has remarked, serve to 
 influence opinion. When honour, fame, pecuniary 
 profit, and early association, are connected with 
 belief, they must swerve inquiry, and lead to the 
 accumulation of partial evidence. How few have 
 the firmness to act in opposition to such con- 
 siderations, and by resolute investigation arrive 
 at truth? Yet is this moral courage necessary 
 to him, who would prosecute the search under 
 unfavourable circumstances. The governments 
 of some countries, interpose their sanction in be- 
 half of particular views, to the prejudice of others. 
 It is needless to observe how much this must 
 serve to bias inquiry. There are also other arti- 
 ficial sanctions of time and place, that lead to a 
 similar result. 
 
 The man who directs his mental efforts in one 
 direction, without adequate reference to the con- 
 clusions of others, must be unaware of the injus- 
 tice which he exercises towards himself. He 
 
ON THE MIND. 171 
 
 becomes unable to appreciate the evidence in 
 behalf of the opinions of others, or to detect the 
 errors that lurk in his own. Of the various creeds 
 professed on earth, how numerous are the indivi- 
 duals who entertain the firmest conviction with 
 respect to each, yet it is morally evident, that all 
 cannot be true. Doubtless, many profess what 
 they do not believe ; hence perhaps, the deplor- 
 able error, that people, circumstances remaining 
 the same, can believe as they please. A man's 
 profession may be altered by allurement or in- 
 timidation, but it is impossible by any such means, 
 to change his belief. Profession and belief are 
 distinct ; they may or may not be in accordance, 
 but they should not be confounded. Many have 
 treated this subject in a manner, that reflects equal 
 credit on their hearts and understandings; yet, 
 until an error so baleful is rooted out, enlighten- 
 ment and rational tolerance cannot well exist. 
 What indeed, would the advocate of the fallacy 
 alluded to, reply, were he asked to change his 
 opinions for a single hour? Could the individual 
 who should refuse so conclusive a test, really ad- 
 mit the delusion which he professed to believe? 
 An anomaly still more startling, exists in the 
 conduct of those who claim tolerance towards 
 themselves, yet refuse it to others. These how- 
 ever, are among the weaknesses perhaps inevit- 
 able, which adhere to human beings, m a condition 
 of imperfect moral and intellectual progression. 
 
 The discussion of the natural sanctions and 
 prohibitions, founded by the Author of our nature, 
 
172 ON THE MIND. 
 
 and connected with belief, comes more fitly 
 under the head of moral causation. I shall 
 merely observe, that such sanctions and prohibi- 
 tions do exist, and that disease of mind, misery, 
 ignorance, and vice, as certainly attend the vio- 
 lation of the laws which regulate our intellectual 
 and moral being, as disease and death result from 
 the infraction of those, which have been instituted 
 for the well-being and preservation of our animal 
 frames. Mental health and activity, with the 
 ennobling qualities that adorn the heart, are not 
 less certainly ensured to those who obey the one, 
 than are bodily health and strength to those, who 
 conform to the other. It is the duty of every 
 one to seek truth and moral excellence to the 
 utmost of his ability, and to resist obstacles, 
 obloquy and threats, whenever they would inter- 
 fere with these invaluable acquirements. This 
 is alike incumbent on all, and no base expedi- 
 ency, no love of gain or dread of injury, should 
 induce us to part with our birthright the ac- 
 quirement of as great a sum of knowledge and 
 excellence, as our faculties and opportunities 
 will permit. 
 
 15. Numerous disputes have taken place on 
 the subject of identity. It may be defined as the 
 perpetuity of body or mind through life. Bodily 
 identity, absolutely speaking, cannot exist unless 
 for a moment, since the materials of our frames 
 are incessantly and rapidly changing. The case 
 as to form, is different ; this alters more slowly 
 than the substance : the materials are cast in the 
 
ON THE MIND. 173 
 
 same mould, and the resemblance continues after 
 every original atom has disappeared. Thus, we 
 call many outward objects the same, because the 
 forms and relative localities remain. We con- 
 sider a rainbow the same, from minute to minute, 
 though the drops of water and rays of light, flit 
 away each moment : we do not perceive the mu- 
 tations of the parasitic cloud, and the river of 
 yesterday, is the river of to-day. According to 
 the material hypothesis, identity in one sense, is 
 out of the question, mind and body being of one 
 substance, and changing from day to day, with 
 the food which composes them. We do not 
 know, and probably could not comprehend the 
 substance of the mind ; we are aware however, 
 that it is not matter. We have no grounds for 
 believing that it ceases to be the same, and con- 
 sequently, are entitled to conclude that the mind 
 persists unaltered. The order and the amount 
 of our sensations, feelings and ideas, are continu- 
 ally varying, but this affects in no respect, the 
 sameness of their vehicle. But consciousness 
 only reveals the operations of the mind, and these 
 can never shew the nature of the thinking prin- 
 ciple. The phenomena of mind and matter are 
 distinct ; they have nothing in common, and 
 to confound them, is to assert that sensations 
 and the external sources of sensation, are one 
 and the same. To sum up the question 
 bodily identity, though not absolute, continues 
 long enough both as to substance and form, to 
 isolate the individual from his fellows, and to 
 
1?4 ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 
 
 create an indissoluble association between its 
 outward manifestations, and the inward and un- 
 changeable mind. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 ON THE RELATIONS AND ADAPTATIONS OF THE 
 HUMAN MIND. 
 
 1. THE relations and adaptations of the human 
 mind, are both numerous and important. They 
 include the varied concerns of society; of HVMI 
 with man, and of nation with nation. Our vices 
 and our virtues relate to human intercourse, and 
 are generated by it. This consideration places 
 in a striking light, the influence of man on his 
 fellows; for if the misconduct of the profligate, 
 and the philanthropy of the benevolent, are 
 occasioned by the institutions of society, they 
 lead to an important inference as to the obliga- 
 tion under which it labours, of making a provision 
 for the intelligence and morality of all its mem- 
 bers. The influence of governments on the 
 governed, of nation on nation, and of individual 
 on individual, is enormous. How much of our 
 happiness, and how many of our sorrows and 
 our sufferings, are occasioned by the conduct of 
 others ? When we descend to particulars ; when 
 we contemplate the multiplied relations of man 
 
ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 175 
 
 with man, and enumerate those which subsist 
 between members of the same family, the same 
 community, and the same era; when we reflect 
 on the influence of the dead and gone, on the 
 living, and on the prospective influence of exist- 
 ing races on posterity, we are struck with the 
 magnitude of these relations. How many of our 
 physical, but how very many of our moral and 
 intellectual gratifications, depend on the co-ope- 
 ration of others? Governments control a mul- 
 titude of pleasures. In taxation, and in the 
 application of its proceeds ; in war and in peace ; 
 in the administration of justice, and in the 
 appointment of honest and able functionaries ; in 
 political and religious impartiality or the reverse ; 
 and in the absence or the existence of restrictions 
 on the diffusion of knowledge, their influence is 
 boundless. Mankind are mutually dependent ; 
 the evils of society are great, but they are only 
 incidentally contingent. An isolated human 
 being is a fraction ; man may be miserable in 
 society, but without it, he cannot be happy. It 
 is the birth-place of his virtues, as well as of the 
 moral and intellectual energies, that dignify and 
 adorn his nature. Although not constituted as 
 it should be, it is the element and the agent of his 
 moral and intellectual advancement ; the equal 
 instrument of enormous good as of prodigious 
 evil. Yet, were society regenerated ; were men's 
 habits, manners, feelings and thoughts, placed 
 under the abiding influence of universal know- 
 ledge and benevolence ; were our intellectual, 
 
176 ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 
 
 moral, and physical capabilities, cultivated from 
 infancy, I cannot see how it should originate evil, or 
 anything in short, save unmixed good. There is 
 no innate or gratuitous malignity in the human 
 heart : if inspired with knowledge and benevo- 
 lence, beneficence must result ; or if with igno- 
 rance and malevolence, vice. Whence our good 
 or our bad qualities, if not from education, effort, 
 and example, and the manner in which these are 
 directed ? Man cannot be happy alone ; nor 
 can he realize the fruition of enjoyment of which 
 he is capable, independent of others. The 
 Deity has willed it so, for the best of purposes, 
 and his design has been secured by the constitu- 
 tion which he has imparted to us. 
 
 I. The relations of man with man in matters 
 of morality, are of vital importance. Science and 
 literature however, as complements of morality, 
 and as branches of intellectual culture, afford 
 numerous advantages; they refine the imagina- 
 tion, and to a certain extent, purify the heart. 
 How often have they assuaged the tedium of sick- 
 ness and sorrow, as well as prevented the intole- 
 rable incursions of mental weariness? Besides 
 yielding a multitude of cheap, and easily accessible 
 pleasures, they humanize the feelings, and pave 
 the way for the reception of the better qualities 
 of our nature. By approximating the humble in 
 station to the affluent, they break down the un- 
 natural trammels of society, and create a bond 
 of union between nations and individuals. They 
 furnish additional resources to meritorious in- 
 
ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 177 
 
 dustry, and in a word, enhance and increase the 
 pleasures of existence. Every one should be 
 acquainted with the elements of science ; it would 
 yield untiring recreation, promote health and 
 moral well-being, lessen superstitious credences, 
 and facilitate the production of the comforts of 
 life. Scientific discoveries have economized time 
 and labour, and virtually lessened the intervals 
 of space. These things involve relations of the 
 greatest moment between man and man, and 
 without human intercourse, could never have 
 been compassed. We have been intended for 
 communion : this is proved by the mode of ac- 
 quiring, and of communicating knowledge. An 
 ample field of contemplation and instruction is 
 left free to all; all are endowed with equal wants, 
 and with equal, or nearly equal capabilities. Our 
 intellectual and moral, no less than our physical 
 necessities, impel us to rest upon each other for 
 assistance and support. The fine arts, as music, 
 painting, sculpture and architecture, are allied 
 with literature and moral science on the one side, 
 and with physical science on the other. They 
 heighten the amenities and the pleasures of life ; 
 they improve the intellect, and judiciously di- 
 rected, advance our whole nature. They at once 
 allay the evils, and multiply the advantages of 
 our earthly probation. Yet unquestionable as 
 these benefits are, they sink into insignificance 
 contrasted with those accruing from moral culture. 
 This it is, which aggrandizes our being, and which 
 renders all other endowments subordinate. 
 
 M 
 
178 ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 
 
 The relations of governors with the governed, 
 and conversely, yield ample scope for extensive 
 disquisition. Such, embrace the sciences of poli- 
 tics and legislation, and numerous details in 
 political economy. The best form of govern- 
 ment, and the means of securing it, have caused 
 bitter controversies for ages. A single individual 
 rarely possesses sufficient information and dis- 
 cretion, to undertake the exclusive and uncon- 
 trolled charge of a nation. The most valuable 
 results attendant on self-government, are the 
 enlargement of understanding which the pro- 
 cesses of deliberation and action induce. Never- 
 theless, in countries wherein moral and intellec- 
 tual enlightenment does not pervade the mass, a 
 despotism of some kind is almost inevitable. 
 When the people at large, are unable to appre- 
 ciate the more solid features of human character, 
 adventurers of superior energy and reckless da- 
 ring, often succeed in grasping power. Even when 
 chance or succession under such circumstances, 
 places a man of sterling qualities on the throne, 
 his will becomes inoperative, through the preju- 
 dices of an ignorant and debased community. 
 The progress of knowledge is slow, and cannot 
 be forced. Improvements in governments, are 
 contingent on those among the people ; beneficial 
 changes seldom precede the intellectual capacities 
 of either, and it cannot be too much regretted 
 that the energies that might be devoted to the ad- 
 vancement of both, are fruitlessly consumed in 
 bloodshed and war. The best form of government 
 
ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 179 
 
 is that which secures the good of the whole ; ar- 
 rangements that only consult that of the minority, 
 are indefensible. If existing governments be 
 tried by this test, they fail, since the members of 
 every community are in a condition with respect 
 to comforts and enjoyments, far inferior to their 
 requirements and their capabilities. Will any 
 one contend that the existence of defects fur- 
 nishes grounds for their continuance ? There is 
 indeed, ample scope for the efforts of the philan- 
 thropist, the legislator and the moralist. Men 
 are everywhere more or less unhappy : even the 
 favoured few, are not exempt; for if there be 
 misery or injustice anywhere, all must reap the 
 consequences. If governments are able to pre- 
 vent so many unhappy results, why do they not? 
 They have singular, though in a measure, dor- 
 mant powers of doing good. If further perfection 
 await mankind, it must accrue from the joint 
 cultivation of hand, head and heart, of all : now, 
 it is amply in the power of governments to ensure 
 this in young and old, in both sexes, and in every 
 station. The wisest and best should be selected 
 for the performance of legislative duties ; surely, 
 talent and moral probity afford a better criterion, 
 than mere wealth and station ? Until they are 
 better informed, the people will not exert the 
 necessary discrimination. From the obstructions 
 which have been thrown in the way of know- 
 ledge, it is evident that legislatures in general, 
 have been anything but anxious to secure its pro- 
 pagation. What should we think of a government 
 
180 ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 
 
 that were to attempt to canopy out the light of 
 heaven, and grant its admission to those alone, 
 who could pay? Now this is what is too often 
 done with regard to knowledge. Surely, a 
 wiser and a happier posterity will hardly believe 
 that such restrictions could ever have existed? 
 Knowledge moral and intellectual, is the light 
 of the soul, and they who exclude it, are guilty 
 of sinning against human nature. When it is 
 more widely diffused, the people will become 
 better acquainted with their rights, and better 
 prepared for their temperate enforcement. The 
 exaggerated and senseless partisanship which we 
 too frequently witness, would be replaced by re- 
 solute and sober inquiry, and the appointment of 
 public functionaries would no longer be the sig- 
 nal for outrage and violence. Were enlighten- 
 ment general, would any man dare to sway the 
 voices of the people by threats, or sinister influence? 
 Talk of the expense contingent on the general 
 diffusion of knowledge rather let us speak of that 
 which is connected with the jails, the bridewells 
 and the penitentiaries, the enforcement of a san- 
 guinary code, and the loss of property and life ; 
 let us talk of the insecurity, the dread and the 
 suffering, which attend the commission of crime, 
 with all the countless evils that spring from igno- 
 rance. Why should rulers seek any power 
 beyond that of doing good? The better edu- 
 cation of the mass; increased facilities for ac- 
 quiring information, with the knowledge and 
 exercise of political rights, would go far to ame- 
 
ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 181 
 
 liorate the condition of mankind. When these 
 advantages are secured, people will unite for 
 rational purposes, and not merely to celebrate 
 the orgies of intemperance, fanaticism, or party- 
 feeling; while warned and instructed by the ca- 
 lamities of the past, they will seek their happiness 
 in the exercise of the means which supreme be- 
 nevolence has placed at their disposal. 
 
 II. Man's intellectual relations to the pheno- 
 menal world have already been insisted on. It 
 was repeatedly urged that a multitude of ideas 
 were thus generated, and that our faculties were 
 thereby stimulated to a high degree of activity. 
 Outward objects have been placed in part, under 
 human control, and in making a provision for our 
 wants, our capabilities are developed. Thus, 
 while we till the ground, or pursue the ocean 
 track in a word, while we bend the stubborn 
 energies of nature to our purposes, they re-act 
 upon ourselves, and produce modifications the 
 most favourable to our advancement. Is it not 
 a sublime provision by which it is enacted, that 
 human faculties shall be eliminated in the ratio 
 of their action on outward objects, and on them- 
 selves ? It would be superfluous to enter into the 
 varied details involved in the influence of the 
 arts and sciences; suffice to say, their operation 
 is endless. The action of mind on mind how- 
 ever, is greater than that of all the powers of 
 nature put together. Even the controversies, the 
 battles and the agitation, with which the discus- 
 sion of a multitude of topics has filled the world, 
 
182 ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 
 
 stimulate inquiry, and by rousing the mind from 
 the torpor of ignorance, prepare for the universal 
 reign of equity and truth. Assuredly, when we 
 reflect on the manifold operation of mind on mind, 
 and on the influence of external nature, evolving 
 our powers in the most systematic and orderly 
 manner, it yields us a sublime example of Al- 
 mighty Providence, and leads to the unavoidable 
 conclusion, that a scene still more diversified, 
 awaits us hereafter. 
 
 III. The relations that exist between the human 
 soul and its divine Creator, are of measureless 
 importance. If the magnificent spectacle of the 
 starry sky, the broad earth, and all the wonders 
 displayed around us, is calculated to raise hosts 
 of ideas respecting each class of phenomena, how 
 vast is the inference which we are thereby entitled 
 to draw, with regard to the wisdom and power of 
 the great Framer of all? Can it be supposed 
 that he intended us to have a knowledge of them 
 alone, or that his productions should be more wor- 
 thy of consideration than himself? Great and va- 
 luable as is the immediate knowledge which we 
 derive from the works of God, it is vastly inferior 
 to that which we also gain from them, as to his 
 existence and sublime providence. The phe- 
 nomena of creation could have no value without 
 a Creator. Were it possible to arrive at the 
 conclusion that this fair and wondrous world had 
 no head, I could only wish to die. Existence 
 would be priceless without a belief in God, and 
 in the continuance of our being in a better world. 
 
ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 183 
 
 I could sooner suppose a corpse to have never been 
 fraught with life, a statue to have been hewn 
 without hands, or a work of genius and intellect 
 to have originated without a soul, as arrive at the 
 conclusion that the universe had no God. As 
 for those who can believe that an overruling wis- 
 dom and an untiring benevolence, do not preside 
 wherever there is light, and life, and being, we 
 must grieve for their delusion, but rejoice that 
 they are mistaken. It is exalting to acquire 
 knowledge, and to imbue our hearts with the dic- 
 tates of virtue, but it is elevating to the utmost, 
 to know that there is One who is goodness and 
 truth unalloyed. The phenomena of creation 
 are valuable in themselves, but they are infinitely 
 so, when viewed in relation to their Author. 
 How cold and dry are the pursuits of science, 
 when enlivened by no reference to Him, to whom 
 science and truth alike owe their origin? 
 
 The world is not God, nor any of the things 
 which it contains nor yet the mind of man, nor 
 the stars of heaven, great and glorious though 
 they be. Where then, does he reside, and on 
 what do we found our belief in his being? The 
 existence of our own minds is assured to us by 
 consciousness, but as to the existence of those 
 of others, we can only be indirectly aware. There 
 is nothing uncertain however, in this assurance. 
 No disbeliever ever doubted, that other men 
 possessed the privilege of thought and feeling; 
 their words and actions produce an unswerving 
 conviction. His belief on this head, is the joint 
 
184 ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 
 
 result of sensation, testimony and reflection ; the 
 conclusion is irresistible, and nothing can root it 
 out. As the works, the words and the actions 
 of man, indubitably prove the possession of 
 thought and feeling in a word, of a soul, so the 
 world and all that it contains, man himself, with 
 all animate and inanimate objects, demonstrate 
 in a manner the most forcible, that there is an 
 all-pervading principle which thinks and wills, 
 and on which we bestow the name of God. The 
 works of the Deity yield endless evidence of con- 
 trivance and adaptation, harmony and variety; 
 while they urge in terms, of which language is 
 but a feeble transcript, his existence, his power, 
 his knowledge and his goodness. Can there be 
 power, where there is no one to exert it ; contriv- 
 ance, without a contriver; or goodness, where 
 there is no one good? Whether we survey the 
 phenomena of creation through the medium of the 
 heart or the understanding, they afford equal evi- 
 dence of wisdom, goodness and power. 
 
 The thoughtless and the unfeeling have said 
 we cannot see God; but can we see the human 
 soul, and do we believe the less firmly, that it 
 feels and thinks? The spirit of man is not ma- 
 terial, nor is the spirit of God ; how then, can we 
 expect that either should come within the scrutiny 
 of our senses? It is with the mind's eye that we 
 must see God ; it is with the heart that we must 
 feel him. We learn to contemplate his wisdom, 
 his excellence and his supreme power, in his pro- 
 vidence and wonderful works. These discourse 
 
ON THE RELATIONS OF THE MIND. 185 
 
 of him incessantly; these display in language 
 that cannot be mistaken, his being, his wisdom 
 and his might. It is vain to deny the inference. 
 If the human mind can discern wisdom, power 
 and excellence, in the great creation around us, 
 there must be a Being who is all power, all wis- 
 dom and all excellence. To gainsay this evi- 
 dence, is only less deplorable than to ascribe 
 qualities to the Deity, at variance with all the 
 conceptions which we are able to frame, of su- 
 perlative goodness and power. 
 
 The habitual contemplation of the excellencies 
 of God, and the practice of referring all things 
 to his might, and their regulation to his provi- 
 dence, besides the beneficent influence which they 
 exercise on the heart, elevate and purify the 
 reason itself. The man who has a firm convic- 
 tion of the power and wisdom of the Deity, is 
 saved from the contamination of a multitude of 
 errors. He cannot admit anything that is dero- 
 gatory to supreme wisdom and goodness ; he will 
 perceive that every arrangement immediately or 
 prospectively, is perfection, and he cannot be- 
 lieve in any inadequate or inferior contrivance, 
 or in any pernicious or unnecessary agency. 
 All the laws of nature are recognized as bearing 
 the Divine impress. In fine, by referring all 
 things to God, and by ascribing wise and useful 
 ends to everything within the sphere of our ob- 
 servation, we come to possess the most intimate 
 and unswerving conviction, of his majesty, wis- 
 dom and truth. 
 
186 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ON THE PRIMARY EQUALITY OR INEQUALITY, AND 
 ON THE PECULIAR TENDENCIES OF THE HUMAN 
 INTELLECT. 
 
 SOME of the individuals by whom Homer, 
 Milton, Dante and Newton, are in a manner 
 deified, would look upon it as a kind of desecra- 
 tion, were it asserted that equal capabilities 
 existed undeveloped in multitudes of other men. 
 Yet, if Locke, Tasso, Pascal or La Place, had 
 been natives of Caffraria, could they possibly have 
 acquired their respective eminence? If it be ad- 
 mitted that they could not, everything is granted 
 that the adherents of opposite views could desire. 
 Individuals vary both in acquirements and mental 
 activity, but we are not entitled to ascribe this 
 disparity to innate peculiarities, unless we fail in 
 assigning an adequate external cause. The 
 efforts of the mind itself, have a powerful influence 
 in the production of mental and moral inequali- 
 ties, but their primary impulse and direction, are 
 derived from without. 
 
 Is there an inborn tendency to any peculiar 
 pursuit, science or art? We know nothing of 
 the structure of the mind, much less are we able 
 to discover any original bias to one occupation 
 more than to another. We do indeed, witness 
 
ON PRIMARY EQUALITY OR INEQUALITY. 187 
 
 the utmost diversity, but we cannot assign this to 
 original tendencies, unless we fail in deriving it 
 from the operation of outward agencies. It is 
 not to be denied, that we possess wonderful ca- 
 pabilities, but these are the attributes of our 
 species at large ; and it is fallacious to assert, that 
 an individual is destitute of them, when they have 
 never been sought for, or cultivated. How enor- 
 mous the mental and moral powers of mankind, 
 and how inadequate their development? The 
 genius of one generation too frequently becomes 
 the pigmy of the next. In every age, individuals 
 of superior energies and acquirements, have been 
 looked upon as different from the rest of their 
 species, not so much in virtue of those energies 
 and acquirements, as from the belief to which 
 their possession led, that their owners were beings 
 of a different mould. The prejudice in favour of 
 peculiar powers, has been injurious to the in- 
 terests of education and of intellectual culture. 
 Why should a man persevere, when he is per- 
 suaded beforehand, that he cannot succeed? If 
 the conviction were general, that each might 
 shape his course and measure his progress for 
 himself, it would prove a powerful incentive to 
 steady exertion. People believe that they may 
 proceed a certain length, but that the heights of 
 science are barred against them ; as if a farther 
 progress should be less practicable than one al- 
 ready achieved, and as if all progress did not re- 
 sult from a conviction, however partial, in the 
 efficacy of perseverance. If greater attention 
 
188 ON PRIMARY EQUALITY OR INEQUALITY. 
 
 were paid to the influence of mental energy, and 
 to the impulses of feeling and passion, less cre- 
 dence would be yielded to the doctrine of innate 
 peculiarities, whether as to power or kind. Un- 
 swerving energy, continually bent in a given 
 direction, urged by passion, overcoming every 
 obstacle, and casting aside all distractions, is 
 doubtless, adequate to the performance of any 
 task within the compass of human abilities. It 
 may be urged, that I am taking for granted the 
 point at issue, and that this energy, and this pas- 
 sion, are innate. If we examine into them, how- 
 ever, we shall arrive at the conclusion, that they 
 arise from the progressive action of outward 
 agencies. The exertions of the lawyer, the sol- 
 dier, the man of science, and the poet, take dif- 
 ferent directions, and proceed with equal force, 
 from the operation of different motives. Had it 
 not been owing to the general amount of know- 
 ledge, and to their individual position, those ad- 
 mirable individuals who have adorned humanity, 
 would not have appeared as such ; others would 
 have filled their places, and names now unknown, 
 would have gained the reverence of mankind. It 
 is still urged however, that Newton and Milton 
 would have distinguished themselves, though in a 
 lesser degree, had they been born among sa- 
 vages. We can hardly however, concede any- 
 thing to the force of a hypothetical argument, 
 founded on the possible occurrences of a circum- 
 stance, to which reason and observation ar,e alike 
 opposed. We have no proof of any innate pecu- 
 
ON PRIMARY EQUALITY OR INEQUALITY. 189 
 
 liarities whether mental or moral, or of superior 
 or inferior capabilities, as regards literature, 
 science or art. Men indeed, may be born blind 
 or idiotic; but the latter is not to be ascribed 
 to intellectual, but to defective corporeal or- 
 ganization. How far the influence of bodily 
 structure extends, we do not know, but we have 
 reason to believe that in ordinary cases, it is 
 quite inferior to that of mental and moral cul- 
 ture. If superior qualities were hereditary, the 
 wise and good would have children like them- 
 selves, which assuredly is not the case. Let 
 people however, place no feeble confidence in 
 well-directed training; in strenuous attention, 
 and in an increasing love for knowledge, virtue 
 and truth. 
 
 The examples of eminent persons are continu- 
 ally brought forward, and it is asked, could 
 others become such as these? Yes, if they 
 will make use of similar exertions, and if they 
 enjoy equal opportunities. The estimate of hu- 
 man talent however, is very variable ; information 
 that would once have conferred eminence, no 
 longer secures distinction. Millions have never 
 heard of our greatest men; and thousands per- 
 haps, of superlative attainments, members of 
 distant communities, have gone to the dust un- 
 known to us. How local is reputation ; to how 
 many accidents is it subjected, and how few are 
 the individuals whose claims are generally ad- 
 mitted? The facility with which cultivated 
 minds make fresh acquirements, is given as a 
 
190 ON PRIMARY EQUALITY OR INEQUALITY. 
 
 proof of a naturally elevated intellect; but it 
 is not just to compare persons of superlative 
 energies, with others in whom they have not been 
 developed. Superior capabilities are the attri- 
 bute of human nature, but not the exclusive 
 prerogative of individuals. The opinion here 
 adopted, may be true or it may be otherwise, 
 but it is certain that continual efforts can never 
 lose their value, as powerful agents in the de- 
 velopment of the human mind. 
 
 There is no sex in the mind. When circum- 
 stances have permitted it, the female intellect has 
 shone forth as brightly, in every department, as 
 that of man. Female education however, is less 
 attended to than it ought, and too soon discon- 
 tinued. Superficial acquirements fill the place 
 of solid instruction, so that the admirable capa- 
 bilities of our common nature, have no adequate 
 scope in one half the species. Even with its 
 limited opportunities, what do we not owe to 
 female intellect, and what might we not gain, 
 were the cultivation of our common heritage 
 attended to as it deserves? As for the sable 
 race, it is hard to say when their intellectual 
 emancipation is to be accomplished. Plunged 
 in barbarism in their native regions, despised 
 and degraded elsewhere, the dawn of their civi- 
 lization seems remote. Educated negroes alone, 
 are adequate to the work : the climate of central 
 Africa is destructive to Europeans. A few thou- 
 sand blacks annually distributed over Europe, 
 usefully and practically educated, and furnished 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 191 
 
 with sound moral and religious instruction, would 
 effect changes the most beneficial in the condition 
 of their countrymen. The natives themselves, 
 so far from throwing obstacles in the way, are 
 desirous of obtaining the information of the whites. 
 We can hardly hope however, to witness a phi- 
 lanthropy so exalted, until the people of these coun- 
 tries shall themselves, more fully enjoy the bles- 
 sings of knowledge and civilization. The alleged 
 inferiority of African intellect, is a prejudice so 
 barbarous, as to be unworthy of refutation. Those 
 who entertain it, have contracted it from the 
 spectacle of slavery, as if the human mind, whether 
 in blacks or in whites, would not languish in bon- 
 dage. If ever the hand of benevolence shall ex- 
 tend itself to the task, a rich and grateful harvest 
 will be reaped in the glorious spectacle of hearts 
 and intellects, glowing and awakening, under the 
 radiance of the sun of knowledge and of truth. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART, AND ON THE BEST 
 MEANS OF ACQUIRING A KNOWLEDGE OF THEM. 
 
 1. LANGUAGE, both spoken and written, is a 
 case of association ; yet, we are so intimate with 
 our mother tongue, that we find it difficult to be- 
 lieve that there was a time when we were wholly 
 
192 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 ignorant of it. The connexion of a meaning with 
 spoken or written words, is purely conventional. 
 When we find natural objects however, to exhibit 
 indications of wisdom and benevolence, we trans- 
 fer to them the associations which the works of 
 man have previously enabled us to form, though 
 heightened by the vastly increased display which 
 we are called upon to witness. It were erroneous 
 therefore, to conclude, that language affords the 
 only expression of reason and feeling. The works 
 of nature bespeak as strongly, the wisdom and 
 goodness of an over-ruling Providence, as if they 
 were impressed with a written legend. A lan- 
 guage may be lost or misinterpreted, but the 
 productions of Divine power can never be mis- 
 taken, by a grateful heart or a willing mind. 
 Language is fluctuating and imperfect, but the 
 manifestations of nature are unchangeable. The 
 testimony of creation as to the attributes of God, 
 is more faithful than that of language alone, which 
 is but the transcript of a fact, and liable to alte- 
 ration, error and decay. One is uncertain, the 
 other is certain; one is fallible, the other is in- 
 fallible; the one is from man, the other is from 
 God. How great then, is the demonstration 
 which the Deity thus yields us of himself, and 
 what an unspeakable declaration does it not afford, 
 of his power, his wisdom and his goodness, to the 
 successive generations of men ? 
 
 Language, as expressive of feeling, opinion and 
 prejudice, may be from man to man, or through 
 the instrumentality of books and other contri- 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 1 ( J3 
 
 vances. The reception of truth, or its rejection 
 from these sources, will depend upon our pre- 
 vious discrimination and acquirements. The 
 uninstructed listen to the fictions of imposture 
 with eagerness, and perhaps treat with scorn and 
 incredulity, the person who would disabus'e them. 
 Were ignorance replaced by knowledge, the 
 blighting superstitions, and the unhappy practices 
 which desolate the world, would disappear for ever. 
 Men would dwell in the shadow of truth they 
 would be wise, they would be intelligent, they 
 would be virtuous, and they would be happy. 
 
 The process of acquiring language, science and 
 art, is tedious and laborious. In well constituted 
 minds indeed, there is associated with the task, 
 an anticipation of good which lessens the drudg- 
 ery, until by a beautiful provision, the pleasure 
 overcomes the pain. We should err were we to 
 complain of the toil attendant on mental indus- 
 try, inasmuch, as it enables us to appreciate the 
 knowledge which we gain, and to value it in 
 others. Information will not come by intuition, 
 nor unsought be won. It is co-ordinate with the 
 application by which it has been secured. This 
 in itself, is a good; it realizes in part, the end 
 which we have in view, and by the satisfaction 
 associated with it, is an ever-growing source of 
 delight. Thus, exertion realizes knowledge, as 
 well as peace, and joy, and satisfaction with- 
 out end. 
 
 The acquisition of knowledge embraces many 
 particulars. The grand problem however, is to 
 
194 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 determine the means of acquiring the greatest 
 sum, within a given period. Our physical and 
 our moral well-being nevertheless, must not be 
 sacrificed in the pursuit: the knowledge that 
 should involve this, would be a vain acquirement. 
 The organization imposes certain limits; there 
 are boundaries which the utmost application will 
 not enable us to pass. If we would attempt more ; 
 if we would labour for a longer period, our efforts 
 languish, and finally pause. The body has 
 claims which cannot be slighted ; the heart like- 
 wise, requires culture. 
 
 The first great division with respect to the 
 acquisition of knowledge, is that into immediate, 
 and derived. There must be a balance between 
 the two. If we devote exclusive attention to 
 books, we heap our memories with mere verbal 
 formularies ; while we err not less egregiously, if 
 we place too much reliance on our limited per- 
 sonal observation. We must study nature in her 
 various forms with assiduity and attention ; refer 
 to faithful records in order to gain facts which 
 have not come before us; repeat the discoveries 
 of others, and if possible, extend the great field 
 of knowledge itself. Thus, in language, we 
 should study the best models; learn the vocabu- 
 lary of our mother tongue ; acquire a fund of the 
 choicest expressions and ideas, and lastly, addict 
 ourselves to the steady and careful practice of 
 composition. In science, we ought to select the 
 best and most copious repertories of facts ; learn, 
 and verify them by referring to nature ; compose 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 1Q5 
 
 scientific tracts, and finally, try to add to the sum 
 of what is known. In art also, we should select 
 the best models; copy and analyze them inces- 
 santly ; study the origin of art in nature, and test 
 the works of artists by the same unerring stan- 
 dard and by each other ; compose for ourselves, 
 and add to the dominion of art itself. 
 
 I. The process by which we acquire the mo- 
 ther tongue, is at once curious and interesting. 
 We witness the performance of given actions 
 along with certain expressions, until eventually, 
 the two are connected in the mind. Names of 
 persons and things are incessantly uttered around 
 us, so that in time, we come to acquire a multi- 
 tude of expressions with their uses. The titles 
 of actions and feelings also, are learned by con- 
 tinual association. Children do not begin to 
 speak until they have acquired a considerable 
 stock of information ; the faculty would be super- 
 fluous at an earlier period. When we consider 
 the number of associations that must exist be- 
 tween sounds and the forms of words, before a 
 child can read, it yields a high conception of the 
 ductility of our organs, as well as of the powers 
 of the human mind. The first thing is the utte- 
 rance of individual sounds; then, their proper 
 sequence and rythm, and lastly, the connexion 
 of the meaning with words and their combina- 
 tions. Language, is of such importance as a 
 means of information, that anything by which its 
 acquirement is facilitated, becomes of consequence. 
 In place of commencing with the usual elemen- 
 
1 96 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 tary works, it has been proposed to make use of 
 one abounding with ordinary difficulties, and to 
 pronounce, spell and learn by heart, the words 
 syllables and letters, sentence by sentence, in suc- 
 cession. When the first fifty or hundred pages 
 are committed to memory, and gone over in por- 
 tions, daily, it serves to lay the foundation of a 
 good supply of words and phrases. Great stress 
 is laid on an acquaintance with the syllables, and 
 with their separate meanings and powers ; for as 
 every language however copious, is made up of 
 comparatively few of the former, the after pro- 
 gress is thereby, materially facilitated. It is de- 
 sirable to inquire the signification of everything 
 that is learned, as it forces the pupil to think, 
 and prepares the way for further acquisitions. 
 Explanations of every kind, since they have an 
 opposite tendency, so far as it is possible, are to 
 be avoided. Ready-made questions and answers 
 are absurd, and to commit to memory, unless 
 when learning one's own or another language, is 
 a fruitless consumption of time and labour. The 
 various facts of history and science, can be ac- 
 quired without storing up useless formularies of 
 words. Choice passages of prose or poetry may 
 form exceptions, but few things are more calcu- 
 lated to weary and disgust, than perpetually 
 learning by rote without end or object. 
 
 Were a child habitually placed in the best and 
 most rational society, every one can imagine 
 the advantages that would accrue. Now, this is 
 in some measure secured, by making him learn 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 197 
 
 by heart, and repeat daily, for a considerable pe- 
 riod, a portion of some good author. Whatever 
 enables us to learn language quickly and well, 
 adds further duration, and fresh powers to our 
 being. It fortunately happens that we cannot 
 gain possession of it, without obtaining more or 
 less information at the same time, so that it is in 
 a manner, both means and end. How rapid is 
 the progress of one who is familiar with his mo- 
 ther tongue; and how slow and painful, that of 
 one who is ignorant of it ? Many advantages are 
 justly alleged to flow from the study of other lan- 
 guages, but these in most cases, might be secured 
 without going so far in search of them. What- 
 ever benefit may thus accrue, nothing can excuse 
 inattention to our own language, since our intel- 
 lectual advancement is mainly based on its culti- 
 vation. 
 
 When the child has fairly committed his author, 
 or a portion of it, to memory ; when he can spell, 
 punctuate, and write it from memory, with accu- 
 racy, and reply to any question however involved, 
 that relates to its contents, he may proceed, al- 
 ways continuing the repetition, to the next stage. 
 He will commence the portion which he has not 
 got by heart, and read a few pages several times 
 carefully over; the book being then closed, he 
 will relate the substance of these, and write it 
 down. This will be imperfectly done at first, but 
 practice will give expertness. Important parti- 
 culars should be made the subject of habitual 
 interrogation. When the book has been thus re- 
 
198 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 lated, its contents will become the foundation of 
 a variety of themes and exercises. A list of se- 
 lect works may be subsequently perused; the 
 number to be regulated by the circumstances of 
 the case. Grammar may now be attended to, 
 and not before, inasmuch as language gives rise 
 to grammar, and not grammar to language. It 
 should be read, and not committed to memory, 
 while illustrative examples may be quoted from 
 the initiatory work. A year or two of such a 
 process, would be highly useful to the children of 
 the working classes ; it would also, answer admir- 
 ably in adult schools. The mother tongue must 
 be the leading instrument in civilization. Ma- 
 terials are cheap and accessible, and any intelli- 
 gent person a parent or otherwise, with patience 
 and a willing mind, is adequate to their employ- 
 ment. Only let the intelligence be firmly and 
 mildly awakened, and kept steadily turned in the 
 proper direction. 
 
 When a tolerable familiarity has been gained 
 with the mother tongue, collateral studies, such 
 as logic, rhetoric and metaphysics, may be pur- 
 sued with advantage. The best work is to be 
 selected on each, and not given up, until its con- 
 tents have been thoroughly mastered. During 
 the whole period of study, habits of composition 
 and revision are to be sedulously maintained. 
 The advantages thereby derived, are so great, 
 that it is difficult to exaggerate them. Until our 
 knowledge is placed in this objective form, we 
 are not aware of what we know, or what we can 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 199 
 
 do. Language is so closely interwoven with our 
 thoughts and feelings, that a happy command of 
 it, is an unceasing source of profit and pleasure. 
 Written composition brings our knowledge afresh 
 before us, while it causes us to ponder upon, and 
 to examine it, in all its bearings. Oral composi- 
 tion, though tending less to correctness, has some 
 physical advantages, in which the former is defi- 
 cient ; it may be practised in the open air, by the 
 mountain side, or by the sea shore. Composition 
 stimulates and promotes that invaluable possession, 
 in which so many are deficient mental and moral 
 energy. It also lights up the ardour so necessary 
 to successful intellectual effort. Some may ask 
 why this labour, why this toil? It will not in- 
 deed, promote the gratifications of sense, but it 
 will serve the interests of our hearts and under- 
 standings, as beings who look forward to futurity. 
 II. The time which we devote to language, is 
 so much abstracted from the active pursuits of 
 life, and the cultivation of more solid attainments. 
 Our native tongue however, is an exception, since 
 it paves the way for every other branch of know- 
 ledge. There can be no excuse for extending a 
 preference to dead languages, to the neglect of 
 living. It is absurd to write good Latin or Greek, 
 to the prejudice of correct English. Boys will 
 often have read a number of the ancient classics, 
 when perhaps, they may not have studied one of 
 their own. Vicarious, though inferior advan- 
 tages, may doubtless, be obtained from the former ; 
 but it should be held as inviolate, that the mother 
 
200 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 tongue is to occupy the first place. If after this, 
 there be sufficient leisure, from the pursuits of 
 science, and the business of life, a portion of time 
 may be usefully devoted to ancient and modern 
 literature. 
 
 The evils arising from an over-addiction to ob- 
 solete dialects, have been aggravated by the man- 
 ner in which they are taught. Seven years are 
 not an uncommon period to spend at a grammar 
 school: at college, four more are taken up, per- 
 haps without attaining to the requisite familiarity. 
 The intricacies, the abstractions, and the philoso- 
 phy of language, should be attended to after the 
 latter itself, is substantially gained. With labour 
 and time indeed, we learn, let the process be what 
 it may; but the question is, not what may be 
 done merely, but by what means the greatest and 
 most permanent acquirements, are to be realized 
 in a given period, and with a given amount of 
 labour. The acquisition of knowledge is slow 
 and laborious ; but it is wrong to chain down the 
 attention of a poor child to half a dozen subjects, 
 any one of which, would demand the vigorous 
 exertion of adult intellect. Most languages con- 
 tain from sixty to eighty thousand words each, 
 radicals and compounds inclusive, besides nume- 
 rous idioms ; now it is far from uncommon to see 
 young people of both sexes, studying two or more 
 at once. What useful result can be anticipated, 
 when the mind is permitted to waste its powers 
 over such a surface : fleeting and superficial at- 
 tainments, are but a poor return for ruined health 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 201 
 
 and jaded powers. The acquisition to which so 
 many are condemned, made only to be forgotten, 
 excites a feeling of regret that their capabilities 
 were not turned in a more useful direction. 
 
 In learning a dead language, any good author, 
 with an accurate, yet not literal translation, is to 
 be selected. The powers of the letters are stated 
 in every grammar, while the pronunciation ac- 
 cording to the practice of every nation, follows 
 that of the mother tongue. Classical writers 
 should be read just as they are written; custom 
 will reconcile us to their inversions and pecu- 
 liarities. Difficulties seemingly insurmountable, 
 will be smoothed over ; new passages will inter- 
 pret the old, and our knowledge and facility will 
 augment as we proceed. Exertion is required at 
 first, yet children learn their mother tongue 
 without translations or explanations of any kind. 
 A continual repetition must be kept up from the 
 beginning, dividing the book into daily portions 
 so as to suit convenience. Singular facility is 
 thereby imparted, and the learner is so familia- 
 rized with the language, that he can no more for- 
 get it than his own. Patience, industry and 
 intelligence, are the leading requisites, and with 
 these, the pupil will learn surely and well, though 
 the director of his studies may not himself, be 
 conversant with them. Thus, the anxious parent 
 may readily superintend the progress of a willing 
 child, without interfering with the efforts which 
 are necessary for the evolution of his faculties. 
 
 When the text-book, whether Greek or Latin, 
 
202 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 has been completed, and when the student can 
 peruse it with the fluency with which he would 
 read his mother tongue, let him select other 
 works, and master them in the same efficient man- 
 ner. As he goes on, he will find his task become 
 gradually lighter, and experience less and less 
 occasion for his translations, until he is able to do 
 without them altogether. This is self-evident, 
 because the words and idioms in any language 
 are limited, and because authors must repeat 
 themselves and one another incessantly, not only 
 in words and phrases, but in thoughts also. If 
 the pupil however, from any motive, should wish 
 to compose in these ancient tongues, let him fol- 
 low in all respects, the counterpart of the pro- 
 cess already laid down. Let him translate and 
 closely analyze, the first fifty or one hundred 
 pages of his author, also learning them by heart, 
 and repeating them in daily portions. Let him 
 be able to write them correctly from memory, 
 and let him be minutely and successively ques- 
 tioned over the whole, replying in the words of 
 the text. When this has been accomplished, let 
 him proceed to the next portion ; translate a little 
 carefully; shut the book; relate, and then write 
 down the substance of what he has said, in the 
 language of the original. He should go through 
 the whole work in this manner, repeating daily, 
 a half or a fourth of what he has committed to 
 memory. He may now commence a new series 
 of exercises, such as parallels, comparisons and 
 descriptions. It will be impossible to employ 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 203 
 
 improper terms, or worse language than that of 
 the model; while practice will confer every de- 
 sirable facility. 
 
 III. As to modern languages, the process is 
 altogether analogous; it is better however, to 
 commence with a prose author; while the pro- 
 nunciation, if possible, is to be learned from one 
 who is practically acquainted with it. The in- 
 tellectual advantages accruing from their cultiva- 
 tion, are equal, while the contingent ones are 
 greater, than with respect to obsolete dialects. 
 The ablest imitators of the classics are neglected 
 or forgotten. It is trifling to urge the study of 
 Greek or Latin, as a means of facilitating the ac- 
 quirement of the languages derived from them 
 as if the converse were not equally true. Were 
 the principle followed up, we should have to trace 
 their ramifications from the beginning. To any 
 one who has paid attention to the structure of 
 language, it will be evident, that we cannot be- 
 come intimately acquainted even with one, with- 
 out much time, and considerable exertion; it is 
 certain however, that the more the process is 
 approximated to the one by which we learn our 
 native tongue, and recedes from the absurd and 
 barbarous practice of making the abstractions of 
 grammar the only inlet, with so much the more 
 ease, speed and certainty, shall we arrive at the 
 wished-for result. 
 
 2. The acquisition of science reposes on similar 
 principles; the general cultivation of the mind 
 however, should go before, or the progress made, 
 
204 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 will otherwise be imperfect. It is not absolutely 
 necessary that the teacher or director should be 
 a scientific man, but it is quite so, that the ad- 
 vance of the pupil should not be marred by over 
 explanation. The apparent progress will be 
 slower at first, but the zeal will be greater. The 
 learner should be so conducted, that the solution 
 of each succeeding difficulty is facilitated by 
 the facts previously acquired; and, the atten- 
 tion, without being over excited, kept ever on the 
 alert. Our estimate is to be grounded, not so 
 much on the apparent attainments, as on the de- 
 velopment of the faculties ; this is the real pro- 
 gress, the rest is a delusion. What spectacle can 
 be more painful, than that of a herd of children 
 urged forward, almost wholly ignorant of what 
 they are supposed to acquire? Books are not 
 always drawn up, so as to suit the wants of 
 learners. How few resemble Euler's Algebra, 
 of which the arrangement is so simple, and the 
 details so perspicuous, that the mere dictation of 
 it to a poor shoemaker, enabled the latter, it is 
 said, to acquire the art? It is not proper to write 
 in such a manner, as to require an interpreter. 
 The learner should explain to the teacher; but 
 the converse is hurtful, inasmuch as it leaves the 
 faculties of the former in disuetude. How is it 
 indeed, that the ablest proficients are often those, 
 who have had little or no extraneous assistance ; 
 or how has science itself, been pursued from dis- 
 covery to discovery, through untrodden paths ? 
 The best and most perspicuous work having 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 205 
 
 been chosen, the pupil will apply himself to the 
 first section. He must write out summaries of 
 the rules; analyze the principles on which they 
 repose, and invent questions for solution. He 
 should also, be able to explain everything circum- 
 stantially, and reply to any questions to which 
 his subject may involve answers. Every detail 
 may not be intelligible at first, but difficulties will 
 gradually unravel themselves. Science, in one 
 sense, is a circle, and it is hardly possible to com- 
 mence with principles so elementary, as not to 
 include several admissions. The first section 
 having been thoroughly mastered, the second is 
 to be gone over in the same effective manner, and 
 so on, till the work is completed. Rules and 
 facts recur continually; hence, the necessity, in 
 order to secure an indelible impression, of fre- 
 quent repetition, as well as of a perfect knowledge 
 of each succeeding portion.. The pupil should be 
 thrown as much as possible, on his own resources, 
 and every proper means made use of, that will 
 stimulate exertion and attention. The only real 
 progress is that which is founded on the de- 
 velopment of the faculties; powerful and often 
 reiterated impressions, like inscriptions hewn in 
 granite, acquire a permanence that is not to be 
 eradicated. Thus, the student will ascend from 
 subject to subject, and from science to science, 
 by steps duly subordinate to each other, until his 
 acquirements reach the term which his position, 
 his ambition, or his time warrants. When the 
 text-book is concluded, the pupil may scan the 
 
206 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 contents of other leading works, to acquire such 
 facts and general views, as may not previously 
 have come before him. It is difficult to urge in 
 terms sufficiently forcible, the importance of at- 
 tention, repetition, composition, revision, and 
 analysis. Until an individual is able to extem- 
 porize, orally or in writing, without error or 
 omission, the principles of science, he cannot be 
 said to be perfectly acquainted with them. 
 
 3. Our progress in art is founded on rules 
 analogous to those already laid down; inasmuch 
 as the advance of the human mind, and the mode 
 of its operation, are in every case alike. The 
 study however, is complicated with additional 
 influences, and he, who to a sound and cultivated 
 taste, adds the softer impulses of the heart, will 
 best succeed. When I speak of art, it is in the 
 most enlarged sense, as comprising the principles 
 and practice of poetry, music, painting, statuary 
 and architecture ; as they relate to the intellect, 
 the imagination, and the feelings, and as con- 
 nected with the phenomena of nature, and the 
 usages of human life. Its relations with know- 
 ledge at large, must be duly cultivated, to which 
 must be added a familiar acquaintance with its 
 canons and visible results. Without imagination, 
 we must confine ourselves to bald imitations of 
 what has been done by others ; without feeling, 
 a man may be a correct and frigid copyist he 
 may be industrious nay indefatigable, but he 
 cannot be an artist. If discrimination and in- 
 formation however, be wanting, the feelings are 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 207 
 
 apt to be misdirected; and without practical 
 ability, an individual may be a good judge, but 
 he will be unable to realize his own conceptions. 
 Mere mechanism is not sufficient, but it is the 
 necessary complement of other acquirements. 
 Great stress is to be laid on passion and intel- 
 lect; these supply the impulses and the motives 
 for that immense series of exertions, without 
 which, no one need hope to attain mediocrity, 
 much less arrive at excellence. The mind should 
 be saturated with forms of truth and beauty, which 
 it should be a continual effort to embody in the 
 productions of our industry. Though we cannot 
 realize all our conceptions, we should ever strive 
 to do so. The imaginings of the artist however, 
 are not wholly lost; they furnish endless themes 
 wherewith to occupy the mind, and to delight the 
 heart. But if there be one truth in nature more 
 certain than another, it is, that without feeling, 
 it is impossible to become an artist of the right 
 stamp. A portion of the knowledge, as well as 
 of the feelings of every superior artist, will be 
 peculiar to himself, and to a certain extent, in- 
 communicable. No one however, need hope to 
 exhaust the subject; and though it should be our 
 highest effort to combine as many of them as we 
 can, we shall find the prototypes of nature, of 
 endless variety. 
 
 I. The mind itself, is the ultimate vehicle of 
 every kind of emotion, whether pleasurable or 
 painful; the satisfaction produced by music how- 
 ever, is owing partly to association, and partly 
 
208 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 to the structure of the ear. How could the gra- 
 tification which is yielded by delightful melody, 
 or full rich harmony, be ascribable to the former 
 alone ? Nothing can render the discord in itself, 
 pleasing ; the distinction is marked out by nature, 
 and cannot be invaded. Whatever instrument 
 be selected, the great requisites are execution, 
 expression, and lastly, scientific knowledge. Me- 
 thod may direct, but cannot create feeling ; yet, 
 without this, no one can be a musician. There 
 may be execution, but the soul of music the 
 quality, without which, the art is but the husk or 
 shell, is wanting. Faultless execution is neces- 
 sary to do justice to feeling, imagination and 
 judgment: for of what avail is it to feel, if we 
 cannot reproduce our emotions? Without the 
 foregoing requisites, the most admirable com- 
 positions fall dead upon the ear: with them, 
 indifferent, and even imperfect productions, tell. 
 Some instruments are provided with an auto- 
 matic harmony and melody ; others derive these 
 from the performer. The great principle should 
 be held sacred in music, as in every other intel- 
 lectual manifestation the learner should be left 
 as much as possible to his own resources, and 
 encouraged to cultivate them to the utmost. We 
 can only learn by the exercise of our own ener- 
 gies, and gain expression by the dictates of our 
 own hearts. The prototypes of art exist in na- 
 ture, or how could art have sprung from nothing ? 
 All the tones which human skill has produced, 
 reside in the former. Artificial models are not 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 209 
 
 to be neglected, but we should revert from time 
 to time, to their real source. The productions 
 of art to the archetypes of nature, are as one to 
 infinity ; shall we confine ourselves to the limited 
 stores of the one, when we can have access to the 
 countless treasures of the other ? 
 
 The instrument and the instruction-book having 
 been selected, the pupil will commence an air at 
 once. All the marks indicative of base, treble 
 and time, should be learned consentaneously. 
 The first air should not be quitted, until it is per- 
 fectly mastered ; and it should be made the basis 
 of a rigid interrogation, in all respects, the coun- 
 terpart of what has been laid down for language. 
 Others, in succession, should be acquired, repeat- 
 ing the whole, or portions of them, each day, from 
 the beginning. As the pupil proceeds, his skill 
 and knowledge will increase progressively; he 
 will learn the various artifices of music, and the 
 wonderful combinations of the octave. For a 
 mere performer, it is enough to play the contents 
 of the instruction-book, and to continue the assi- 
 duous practice of selected pieces. To be a com- 
 poser, it is necessary, not only to know these by 
 heart, but to be able to write them correctly from 
 memory ; to be aware of the different forms of 
 notation, and to analyze the structure of musical 
 phrases and passages. The pupil will therefore, 
 take an overture, and practise a page or two, till 
 he can perform it at sight; then, shutting his 
 book, he will improvise or relate on his instru- 
 ment, in correct rythm and harmony, the leading 
 
210 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 ideas which the portion contains. This will be 
 done imperfectly and hesitatingly at first, but 
 time and practice, will confer confidence and 
 ability. When the improvisation has been 
 finished, let it be carefully committed to paper, 
 and so on in succession, until the overture is com- 
 pleted. A number of pieces, involving the beau- 
 tics and the difficulties of the art, must now be 
 played over, and improvised in the same manner ; 
 the exercise-book being habitually repeated. It 
 is said that execution, and a facility of playing at 
 sight, have been acquired by means of the fore- 
 going process, within the year. Surely, anything 
 that smooths the acquisition of knowledge, adds 
 power and duration to human existence. Con- 
 tinued analysis, and the appreciation of the emo- 
 tions connected with certain combinations of 
 sounds, prepare the pupil for original composi- 
 tion. Practice will confer ease, and it will not 
 be difficult to attach accompaniments to poetical 
 passages, as well as to produce pieces of music in 
 every line of composition, that shall express the 
 varied emotions of the human heart. The theory 
 may be studied in appropriate works ; but it is a 
 prejudice that would insist upon an acquaintance 
 with it, as indispensable. Were the authors of 
 those beautiful airs which abound over the world, 
 and which are handed down from generation to 
 generation, as talismans of joy and happiness, 
 familiar with the theory of music? Science 
 alone, will not make a composer, and without ex- 
 pression, music is but noise and jargon. Were 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 211 
 
 it rendered more accessible, this admirable art 
 would gladden and purify more generally, the 
 habits and the feelings of mankind. 
 
 II. Painting, statuary, and architecture, come 
 under the same category ; the principles on which 
 they repose are alike, and the mode of studying 
 them is the same. Statuary surpasses architec- 
 ture, inasmuch as the representation of beauty, 
 intellect, and passion, must be more interesting, 
 as well as more difficult, than that of inanimate 
 forms. Painting, again, includes nearly all that 
 is of importance in statuary, with the addition of 
 a greater multiplicity of objects, and all the de- 
 tails of colouring and perspective. The student 
 should bring a high degree of intellectual and 
 moral culture to the task; he should acquire a 
 keen perception of truth and excellence, and 
 finally, he should be indefatigable in the pursuit. 
 He must analyze details, and lay up a store of 
 facts ; and these, he should be assiduous in build- 
 ing up in new forms. Without mental cultiva- 
 tion and general information, there can be no 
 adequate appreciation of the numerous relations 
 by which the principles of art are connected with 
 each other, and with science at large. And 
 without a taste for nature, which contains the 
 archetypes of all art, the student cannot verify 
 its truth, much less profit by the appropriations 
 which have been effected during so long a series 
 of years. Art is ever progressive, and if we do 
 not avail ourselves of what has been done by 
 others, we are in the position of the individual, 
 
212 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 by whom art itself, was first cultivated. If the 
 artist be without feeling, his works will be defi- 
 cient in grace, loveliness, and verisimilitude; 
 they may have the form indeed, but they will be 
 destitute of soul and expression. Yet, without 
 prodigious industry, the preceding requisites are 
 useless. This is a condition to which all are sub- 
 ject. Nothing short of long-continued practice 
 can confer excellence. 
 
 The importance of practice being so great, the 
 student should begin with it at once. He should 
 imitate line sketches, continually repeating them, 
 and comparing the copy with the original. Shaded 
 sketches, busts, statues, and pictures in oil, may 
 follow; studying, repeating and revising them 
 incessantly, until every defect disappears. In 
 this way, the pupil will gain a practical know- 
 ledge of light and shade, colouring and perspec- 
 tive. The study of the theory of art, and of the 
 related sciences, optics and anatomy, as well as 
 of the poetry of art, should be pursued conjointly. 
 The best initiation will be the study of good 
 models, and their incessant imitation with chisel, 
 pencil, and the hand of the modeller. The 
 relative proportions of architectural monuments, 
 should be deeply graven on the mind. When 
 the student can copy approved models with ease 
 and accuracy ; when he is familiar with their de- 
 tails, he may proceed to original compositions of 
 his own, and to the imitation of nature. From 
 first to last, the artist must be no less assiduous 
 in the study of nature, than in that of the works 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 213 
 
 of the best masters. He must begin by indefati- 
 gably copying these, and end by habits of origi- 
 nal composition, not less indefatigable. Unless 
 furnished with a copious flow of ideas from every 
 source, how can he hope to compose anything 
 worthy of admiration, or even to realize his own 
 conceptions ? 
 
 Art is exhaustless, but life is short. Eminence 
 is not to be attained without time and energy; 
 and even after the devotion of a life, how rarely 
 do we witness the union of many excellencies? 
 When we reflect on the advantages derivable 
 from art, and on the applications of which it is 
 susceptible to some of the best interests of man- 
 kind, we cannot but regret that so great a source 
 of human happiness, should not be better and 
 more generally cultivated. With reference to 
 music, whether in the solemn chaunt, the choral 
 voices of numbers, the thrilling accents of pas- 
 sion, and the varied delights of instrumental har- 
 mony; painting and statuary, whether they em- 
 body the beauty and the admirable details of the 
 human form, or express the lineaments of thought 
 and feeling ; and architecture, whether it trans- 
 form the rude dwellings of the savage, into edi- 
 fices of surpassing grandeur and magnificence 
 they yield increased scope, as well as further hap- 
 piness, purity and joy, to our moral and intellec- 
 tual being. 
 
 III. The arts involve the general cultivation 
 of the mind; the study of the best models; the 
 analysis of their merits and defects; a minute 
 
214 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 acquaintance with rules, and their incessant ap- 
 plication. These particulars are more especially 
 true with regard to poetry, which if possible, de- 
 mands intellectual efforts still more extended, a 
 purer taste, and longer practice. It is almost 
 needless to urge again, the necessity of cultivated 
 feelings ; the most lively imagination cannot sup- 
 ply their place. A commanding intellect is re- 
 quisite to comprehend the subtle changes of the 
 human heart, and without it, no one need hope 
 to be a poet or to relish poetry. An assiduous 
 perusal of "the master-pieces of every age and 
 country, a minute familiarity with the rules of 
 criticism, and incessant practice, are all superla- 
 tively necessary. The student should almost 
 know the*se master-pieces by heart; his mind 
 should be saturated with their excellencies, the 
 graces of their diction, and the harmony and per- 
 fection of their rythm ; while he should be deeply 
 imbued with the superior emotions, and elevated 
 sentiments which they are intended to call forth. 
 His knowledge must not be merely verbal, but of 
 the heart ; unless the student can feel, as well as 
 understand, what the masters have said and sung, 
 he need never hope to become one. There are 
 numerous aspirants, and but few proficients: 
 people will not, or cannot take the pains; yet 
 nature has implanted capabilities in all. A facility 
 in writing correct rhyme or blank verse, is easily 
 obtained ; it is but a mechanical adjunct how ever, 
 and may be exercised without a particle of feeling. 
 When we reflect upon the necessity of correct 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 215 
 
 thought and feeling, we shall not wonder at the 
 difficulties which must be met and conquered, 
 before poetry can be successfully cultivated. An 
 ill-directed enthusiasm, in which people essay 
 flights beyond their powers, must be fruitless. 
 They would reap the harvest before the seed has 
 been sown, or the ground prepared for its recep- 
 tion. The Muses cannot be taken by storm; 
 they must be approached by slow degrees, and 
 long-continued toil. If those who court their fa- 
 vour, will bring cultivated intellects and feeling 
 hearts to the task, they may hope, if they possess 
 unflinching industry, to wear the golden crown. 
 How few however, exhibit these requisites; and 
 of those who do, how many are cut short in the 
 midst of their career, chilled by the hardships, 
 the slights, and the consuming cares, which are 
 the heritage of this mortal coil? The individual 
 who would succeed in this glorious art, must 
 energize his whole being in the pursuit. He 
 should study the works of the masters, with un- 
 relaxing ardour ; he should practise composition, 
 with the utmost care, and the most unrelenting 
 self-correction ; he should mix with his fellows in 
 every gradation of society, and in every condition 
 of life, and he should commune with nature in all 
 her aspects whether on the mountain side or 
 by the grassy mead the gentle rivulet or the 
 roaring cataract the calm lake or the stormy sea. 
 Every collateral means should be employed, that 
 will improve his taste and judgment, and purify 
 his moral feelings. He should study human na- 
 
216 ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 ture in every form; in the page of history, and 
 in the current of passing events; in the records 
 of revolution and violence, and in the privacy of 
 domestic life ; in the fierce passions that threaten 
 empires, the tumults of fanaticism, bigotry and 
 intolerance, and in those superior aspects in which 
 the better feelings develop themselves in deeds 
 of devotion, benevolence and love. He should 
 endeavour to scan the heart and intellect in all 
 their phases, and to appreciate alike, the sleeping 
 and the impassioned soul, its hidden thoughts and 
 outward manifestations ; and above all, he should 
 recollect, that the art which he cultivates, can 
 only be worthily exercised in promoting the well- 
 being and the elevation of humanity, and in the 
 decoration and support of virtue and excellence, 
 in opposition to ignorance, misery and vice, and 
 all the ills that lord it over the best interests of 
 mankind. 
 
 4. It is a baneful error which asserts that the 
 adult intellect, when actuated by sufficient mo- 
 tives, is less equal to the acquisition of knowledge 
 than that of the young. Men are unconscious of 
 their actual capabilities ; overwhelmed with indo- 
 lence and distraction, they are not less averse to 
 energetic efforts, than they are destitute of the 
 incitements which lead to them. They are re- 
 pressed by want of confidence, and by the arduous 
 nature of continued exertion. How is their at- 
 tention to be turned aside from their passions, 
 their prejudices, their misfortunes, their animosi- 
 ties, and their love of ease; or how are we to 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 217 
 
 paint, in sufficiently glowing terms, the glories 
 and the delights of knowledge, and the infinite 
 exaltation of the instructed moral man? Not- 
 withstanding the feats of industry for which some 
 have been conspicuous, it is probable, if we con- 
 sider the grandeur and immensity of human 
 powers, that the most energetic individuals who 
 ever lived, have not performed all that they were 
 capable of doing. Even of those who have dis- 
 tinguished themselves in early life, how many 
 have swerved from the onward path ? No boun- 
 dary can be placed to the acquisitions of him who 
 wills with energy, and executes with decision. 
 Let him, years of whose life have passed away 
 unimproved, reflect, that with resolution and in- 
 dustry, he may accomplish everything to which a 
 reasonable ambition can aspire ; let him consider 
 that no one can set a term to his efforts, or to his 
 acquirements, and that the domain of knowledge 
 is open to all. Additions to great attainments 
 are slowly made, and it is perhaps less easy for 
 the possessors of such, to advance farther, than for 
 beginners to fill up an equal measure. 
 
 I. In the education of facts, the great object is 
 to make children observe and reflect; without 
 this, previous acquisitions are but matters of rote, 
 well enough as a means, but worthless as an end. 
 They may be brought into frequent contact with 
 instructive prints, interesting plants, minerals, 
 animals, and the ordinary productions of human 
 industry. The attention must not be distracted, 
 or the memory fatigued, by too much variety; 
 
218 - ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 
 
 the great thing is to create a lively interest, and 
 by judicious repetition and interrogation, to secure 
 the retention of what has been learned. It is ob- 
 viously better, to bring things directly under the 
 operation of the senses; description merely, is a 
 subsidiary process. The world around, is full of 
 wonders; every situation is replete with objects 
 of interest. The metals with which our dwellings 
 abound; their origin in the bowels of the earth, 
 and their conversion, by human skill, into articles 
 of ornament and utility ; the transparent stone in 
 the windows ; the wood, and the materials from re- 
 mote quarters of the globe; the varied stuffs; 
 the stained paper, and the pitchy coal that gives 
 out light and heat, constitute a fund of copious 
 instruction. Why not make the child acquainted 
 with the names, uses and structure, of everything 
 that he sees ; how contributions have been levied 
 on all the kingdoms of nature, and how the Deity, 
 through his infinite wisdom, goodness and power, 
 has furnished so many appliances, for the promo- 
 tion of human comfort, and human happiness. 
 
 The systems, as they are styled, of the different 
 benevolent individuals, who have turned their at- 
 tention to early education, have not been examined. 
 Any system, so far as it is correct, must be 
 founded on the capabilities of the human mind, 
 and on the adaptation of general principles to 
 particular circumstances. There is but one 
 system, and that is the system of nature, and any 
 one, that is not in accordance with it, must be 
 erroneous or superfluous. The individual who 
 
ON LANGUAGE, SCIENCE AND ART. 21Q 
 
 approximates us to this, and enables us to know 
 more of it, is entitled to our reverence and esteem. 
 It is thus, that Fellenberg, by seizing every op- 
 portunity during work, meals and play, to com- 
 municate useful knowledge, to draw valuable 
 inferences, and to form habits of reflection and 
 exertion ; Pestalozzi, by addressing himself to the 
 affections of his pupils, and leading them, not 
 only to knowledge, but to the love of God and 
 man; Jacotot, by shewing the enormous utility 
 of self-exertion, repetition, -interrogation, and 
 composition ; Bell and Lancaster, by the united 
 instruction of numbers; Wood, by dwelling on 
 facts and rational interrogation; and Owen, by 
 founding infant schools, and by shewing how the 
 heart and intellect may be cultivated from an 
 early period not to mention other benevolent 
 men, have claimed, and won the approbation of 
 every well-wisher of his species. Let us avail 
 ourselves of the efforts and instruction of all, but 
 let nature be our leading guide. 
 
 II. The pursuit of information should ever be 
 subordinate to its general utility and importance ; 
 the absence of this precaution has led to an infi- 
 nity of disastrous results. Assuredly, it is a sa- 
 cred duty not to neglect the manner in which a 
 young person spends his time, or how he may 
 best prepare for the business of life. Some are 
 occupied with ancient, when they should be ac- 
 quiring modern languages, or attend to language, 
 when they should be occupied with science. In 
 every pursuit, unless we would mar the useful- 
 
220 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 ness, or blight the happiness of after life, we 
 should look well to the end. Human faculties, 
 and the limited duration of youth, will not permit 
 every acquisition ; a selection must be made, and 
 well it behoves us not to err in the choice. 
 While there are some things in which we may 
 exercise an option, there are others, in which we 
 can have little or none. A man may or may not 
 be a linguist, but it is incumbent on every one to 
 become conversant with his mother tongue. All 
 should be familiar with the general principles, and 
 easily accessible facts of science. These, in one 
 sense, arc the language of nature, the knowledge 
 of which, is not less essential than that of our 
 earthly parents. Every one should observe and 
 reflect with accuracy every one should be well- 
 grounded in the business of life in industrious, 
 energetic and virtuous habits in the duties which 
 he owes to himself and to his fellows, and in the 
 relations which he holds to the universal frame 
 of nature, and its divine Author. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES ON THE 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE MIND. 
 
 1. THE influence of circumstances on mental 
 and moral development in a word, on the for 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 221 
 
 mation of character, is one of the most extended, 
 as it is certainly one of the most interesting and 
 important subjects of human consideration. It 
 has long been disputed how far individual charac- 
 teristics are thus formed, or to what extent they 
 are owing to inborn peculiarities. We know in- 
 deed, nothing of the mind in itself, and can only 
 fathom its properties, by the manifestations of our 
 consciousness and the conduct of others. Cir- 
 cumstances may be separated into two great 
 classes the one internal, and involving the con- 
 dition and the operations, of body and mind ; the 
 other external, and including the condition and 
 the operations of outward agents. As the action 
 of the human soul is the most energetic of the in- 
 ternal circumstances, so the conduct of our fellow- 
 men is the most powerful of the external. These, 
 next to the constitution of nature itself, are the 
 most influential of all the agencies that act 
 upon us. 
 
 I. We bring nothing into the world with us, 
 save body and mind; and upon the constitution 
 and condition of these, must character in so far, 
 depend. Though we know of no original diffe- 
 rence between mind and mind, the body varies 
 considerably at birth. It is constructed after a 
 common type, but beyond this, there is every 
 variety. To the approximation, not approaching 
 to identity, in our bodily structure and functions, 
 is owing the similarity of the impressions arising 
 from outward objects. A harmony of action is 
 thus created; for it is obvious, that if there had 
 
222 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 not been a common bond, the great mass would 
 be more at variance, than they actually are. 
 Even at birth, the infant germ is modified for 
 good or for ill ; it may be blighted in the bud, or 
 come diseased into the world. This however, 
 may take place to a considerable extent, without 
 entailing any intellectual disqualification. If the 
 organs of relation be affected, the result is other- 
 wise. When any given portion of the nervous 
 system is injured, there is a corresponding loss 
 of function. In these cases, correct impressions, 
 if any, cannot be received from without ; nor can 
 the mind command the healthy services of the 
 organs in return. It will be obvious then, how 
 much the transmission of knowledge is involved 
 in the healthy action of these important parts. 
 We cannot explain the instrumentality of the or- 
 ganization; the nervous system doubtless, is the 
 bridge between outward objects and the mind, 
 but how, we know not. It does not make the 
 matter clearer, to say that the brain is mind, or, 
 what is the same thing, the organ of mind. Look- 
 ing upon the nerve as a link between body and 
 mind, it is no more difficult to conceive that one 
 extremity should be diseased, than the other. 
 Under such circumstances also, the impressions 
 received or communicated, must be at once defi- 
 cient and incorrect. This appears to be the case 
 with regard to idiots, in which enormous con- 
 genital deficiency in the anterior portions of the 
 brain, is generally visible. Here, there is loss of 
 parts, and consequently, loss of function ; but the 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 223 
 
 latter may ensue from various causes in after life, 
 without the former. Though the outward organs 
 should continue perfect, the individual is cut off 
 from the acquisition of knowledge, and is shut 
 out, as by a screen, from the perception of ex- 
 ternal phenomena. The preceding explanation 
 involves no violent hypothesis, and is more con- 
 formable to the analogy of our moral and intel- 
 lectual nature, than the views which would go to 
 identify matter and mind. 
 
 II. The formation of character depends upon 
 numerous contingencies, many of them beyond 
 the reach of ordinary calculation. How often is 
 it swayed by the different casualties and events, 
 which take place in the course of human life; 
 many of them unforeseen, and perhaps, never 
 recurring again ? Next to the influence of others, 
 the most powerful agent is mental and moral 
 energy. This cannot be created short of the ope- 
 ration of external circumstances, but once it is so, 
 it becomes paramount. It is that, by which the 
 Indian braves the torments of his enemies, and 
 dies without a groan : it accompanies the martyr 
 to the stake, and the patriot to the block; nor is 
 there any situation so miserable, under which this 
 admirable principle will not enable us to bear up. 
 In the troubles, temptations and perplexities of 
 life, it is equally efficacious. It ensures perse- 
 verance, and if it is to be obtained, success. 
 What multitudes of common minds common, 
 because superior impulses have not been created 
 in them, retreat from every attempt that promises 
 
224 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 the slightest impediment; but the energetic are 
 turned aside by no obstacle that it is possible to 
 surmount. The powers of such, grow with every 
 obstruction, and are never so great as when 
 difficulties multiply. It is then, that the man of 
 energy bursts through all opposition, and shews 
 us the resources of the human mind. No lan- 
 guage is adequate to pourtray this wonder-work- 
 ing power, or to depict its enormous influence. 
 It is no detriment to it to say, that bad men have 
 possessed it, for the best gifts of humanity may 
 be abused; the wise and good however, will try 
 so to mould their energies, as to derive the great- 
 est sum of advantages from them. Such feel and 
 know, that they add fresh powers to the mind, 
 and facilitate the performance of things, which, 
 without the precious impulse, would slumber for 
 ever in the torpid inanity of good intention. The 
 energetic achieve realities, which to the unener- 
 getic, seem placed in the regions of frozen im- 
 possibilities. Energy, moral and intellectual, is 
 created by the active cultivation of the heart and 
 understanding, and by encouraging their mani- 
 festations in every desirable form. The individual 
 who would improve it, will represent to himself 
 the wide range of his duties, desires and expecta- 
 tions, and continually recur to the motives best 
 calculated to stimulate him to exertion. Energy 
 has but the one onward path ; there is no devia- 
 tion, no retardation, no pause: if it slacken its 
 pace, the individual is under its impulse no more. 
 Every one however, is subject to lapses and re- 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 225 
 
 missions : the energy of some is stupendous, while 
 that of others, is little or none. 
 
 2. As the most powerful of the internal cir- 
 cumstances, is the influence of man on himself, 
 so the most powerful of the external, is that of 
 other men. In early life, we rely on others for 
 our knowledge, our prejudices, and the good or 
 bad direction of our feelings; as we grow up 
 however, we acquire an independent fund of 
 action. The leading external circumstances by 
 which character is formed, are education, govern- 
 ment, religion, literature, science, art, human 
 passions and wants, commerce, society, rank, 
 habits, climate, age and sex. Education may be 
 divided into physical, intellectual and moral. 
 This potent agent leads to the most striking re- 
 sults. It may make a man healthy or unhealthy, 
 wise or ignorant, base-minded and wicked, or 
 philanthropic and good. It is education, that 
 gives to an Englishman his particular feelings 
 and opinions, and which leads him to believe that 
 his country is superior to all others; yet this is 
 true, not so much of England and Englishmen, as 
 of the earth and human beings. It causes a Chi- 
 nese to become an adherent of Eo or of Confu- 
 cius, and leads him to look upon the rest of the 
 world, as the abode of ignorance and barbarism. 
 The eccentricities and intolerance of Budhism, 
 Hindooism and Mahometanism, are equally pro- 
 duced by it. Education may be perverted; but 
 this is a contingency that cannot be avoided, 
 without also forfeiting enormous good: to have 
 
 p 
 
226 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 been under the necessity of choosing but one 
 path, would be wholly inconsistent with reason 
 and volition. A choice is necessary, and with- 
 out overcoming obstacles, and cultivating our 
 discrimination, there could be no excellence. 
 An automatic virtuous man would be as great a 
 solecism in morals, as a being who perceived, re- 
 collected, and reflected by means of mechanism. 
 
 I. The influence of government comes next to 
 that of education itself. The state of the people 
 is reflected on the government, and conversely. 
 Governments too often, are the organs of parti- 
 cular parties, whose interests are served at the ex- 
 pense of the community; yet there can be no 
 question, that its only legitimate existence is for 
 the good of the whole. What is, however, is one 
 thing; what ought to be, another. Beneficial 
 changes must be preceded by present efforts. 
 We have a right to work for posterity, as well as 
 for ourselves; there is a pleasure in doing so, 
 that rewards the toil. The old man who plants 
 the acorn, is not less beneficially employed, than 
 the young one who cuts down the lofty oak. It 
 is the characteristic of barbarous nations, to leave 
 an inferior mental and moral heritage to their 
 descendants. How strikingly varied is the in- 
 fluence of government: how different the rude 
 despotism that exhausts the blood and treasure 
 of the subject, from the beneficent administration 
 that economizes the resources, and promotes the 
 interests of the people? It is marvellous to see 
 the influence of a wise and good rule extending 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 227 
 
 to every quarter, producing peace, happiness and 
 contentment without end. When a pernicious 
 and partial government on the other hand, gains 
 the ascendency, it is painful to witness the uni- 
 versal multiplication of injustice and fraud. Offi- 
 cials copy the vices of their superiors; men of 
 trust are no longer preferred, and the villany 
 that firmness and wisdom would awe into impo- 
 tency, stalks forth unabashed and unrestrained. 
 The enormities which political and sectarian ani- 
 mosity have produced, are unspeakable. Blood- 
 shed, persecution, oppression, loss of property 
 and liberty, and the immolation of innocence, 
 have been among the frightful results. The evils 
 cannot be calculated, which have been occasioned 
 whenever tyranny, whether under the regal scep- 
 tre or the civilian's robe, the soldier's dagger or 
 the priest's cowl, has succeeded in repressing the 
 voice of liberty and truth, and in crushing free 
 inquiry, and the expression of opinion. Irrespon- 
 sible power never was, and never will be exer- 
 cised without abuse, unless by the eminently 
 virtuous and enlightened, who, unfortunately, are 
 rarely or never in possession of it. Depotism is 
 equally execrable, whether in the mob or in the 
 single ruler: in the former however, it is brief, 
 since even the most savage, are quelled by their 
 necessities. Until the mass are educated, and 
 until knowledge circulates freely, we cannot hope 
 to witness sound legislation, undemoralized by 
 partisanship or sectarianism, and acting calmly 
 and energetically for the good of the whole. This 
 
228 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 consummation once realized however, nations 
 would become a brotherhood of intelligence and 
 peace; their intercourse would be marked by 
 philanthropy and good-will, without the horrors 
 of war, or any interruption to the blessings, which 
 Providence has showered down on the family of 
 mankind. 
 
 II. If the influence of government is great, 
 what shall we say of religion? The former is 
 limited by time and place, but the latter extends 
 from region to region, and from generation to 
 generation. A political despotism may be over- 
 thrown, but superstition subjugates the very ener- 
 gies by which we may hope to 'effect a change. 
 The influence of religion is in the ratio of its 
 character, or to speak more properly, of its 
 existence; how many acts of elevated magna- 
 nimity, as well as of surpassing cruelty, have been 
 wrought in its name ? Martyrdoms, persecutions, 
 oppression and death, on the one hand, and hu- 
 manity, benevolence and devotion, without bounds, 
 on the other. The sentiment that unites man 
 with his Maker ; that prompts him to love, reve- 
 rence and submission ; to the acquisition of moral 
 knowledge, and the practice of his duty this is 
 religion. And I fear, that without the conscious- 
 ness of this sentiment, the love, the knowledge, 
 and the conduct, which it should inspire, no zeal, 
 and no profession of opinion, will suffice. Cha- 
 racters of a cast so exalted, as to embody the ex- 
 cellencies of religion, are rarely to be met with ; 
 a Fenelon, a Benezet, a Neff, or an Oberlin, is 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 22Q 
 
 not of daily occurrence. Just principles must be 
 toiled for, before they can be won: to wbat fatal 
 error is it owing, that people can suppose that 
 moral knowledge, feeling or conduct, can come 
 unsought? The acquisition involves means 
 means to an end means to be employed, if we 
 would realize the result. Moral superiority, any 
 more than intellectual, cannot be gained without 
 labour, toil, and pains. 
 
 If religious excellence has been productive of 
 much good, fanaticism, superstition, and religious 
 error, have led to enormous evil. The tyranny 
 that would reach beyond the grave, is the most 
 intolerable of any. From worldly ills men may 
 hope to escape, but what is to liberate them from 
 those that have no term ? A life of benevolence 
 and beneficence must entail advantages hereafter, 
 as it does here. It is not for us to know the dis- 
 cipline ordained for the final extirpation of sin 
 and ignorance ; its efficacy however, will doubt- 
 less, be commensurate with infinite power, and 
 boundless love. It is presumptuous to anticipate 
 the arrangements of our Creator, and to denounce 
 an eternity of misery, even on the sinner's head ; 
 but it is lamentable, that fallible creatures should 
 dare to launch endless condemnation for mere 
 differences of opinion. We are but the beings of 
 a day, and can see but a small way into the fu- 
 ture, and shall we venture, in the plenitude of 
 our presumption, to cut away all hope from the 
 erring companions of our mortal pilgrimage? 
 Who made thee, rash mortal, infallible? Strive 
 
230 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 assiduously, and hope humbly for thyself, but do 
 not measure with thy narrow prejudices, goodness 
 inexhaustible, and wisdom divine. When we turn 
 from the bloody massacres and dreadful persecu- 
 tions, that sects and individuals have perpetra- 
 ted against each other, to those pure bright names 
 and precious influences, which have shed such a 
 lustre on mankind, we cannot forbear wishing, 
 that the one were universal, and that the other 
 had never been ; and that poor, troubled humanity 
 might rest quietly at last, in the deep-rooted con- 
 victions and happy feelings, which are produced 
 by untiring confidence in God's wisdom and 
 goodness, and by the knowledge, the practice, and 
 the love of our everlasting duties. 
 
 III. Without a direct impulse from others, our 
 minds would act with comparative difficulty ; and 
 without vigorous mental exertion, this external 
 impulse would remain without fruits. The en- 
 nobling results of literature, science and art, 
 afford an earnest of what they might effect, were 
 the pursuit once become general. The student 
 however, will prejudice his usefulness, and even 
 science itself, unless his conduct and sentiments 
 be of unsullied purity. Science adds fresh lustre 
 to morality, which in its turn, does honour to 
 science. Literature, science and art, elevate the 
 intellect, and refine the heart. The acquisition 
 of knowledge, and the art of composition, though 
 painful and tedious at first, come to be performed 
 with ease and pleasure. The subject matter of 
 habitual composition, occasions a difference in 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 231 
 
 individual character; and if the same cause 
 operate on numbers, the results will be co-exten- 
 sive. Although every variety may be observed 
 among artists, as among literary and scientific 
 men, still we witness certain approximations, in 
 virtue of their pursuits. The influence of lite- 
 rature, science and art however, is of most impor- 
 tance, with regard to the intellect at large. How 
 vast the interval between one who is imbued with 
 mental culture, and one who is wholly destitute of it? 
 How liberal and how enlarged is the intellect, in 
 which knowledge and excellence reign supreme? 
 To superstition, tyranny, false pride, and all 
 iniquity, how much opposed? What glorious 
 communion does not knowledge enable us to hold 
 with the works of the Deity ; of what utility and 
 what happiness to others, is it not the instrument, 
 and how infinitely does it not elevate us above the 
 gross passions, and the baser alloy of humanity? 
 The man of science is admitted to the spectacle 
 of the universe; he stands equally free from stupid 
 wonder or debasing terror, the enlightened be- 
 holder of the mighty works of Providence. He 
 witnesses the wonderful phenomena of nature, 
 whether they concern the stupendous revolutions 
 of the heavenly bodies, or the motions of the in- 
 sect at his feet, with dignified equanimity. He 
 enjoys life, but he is not afraid of death; and, 
 living or dying, he knows that he is equally in the 
 hands of boundless wisdom and power. 
 
 The influence which knowledge exerts on the 
 heart, is eminently great and beneficial. While 
 
232 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 it controuls the baser passions, it also regulates 
 the good. It teaches us not to place our affec- 
 tions on low or unworthy objects, inasmuch as it 
 is impossible for knowledge and energy, to con- 
 sort with baseness and depravity. Were the in- 
 tellect of woman cultivated, should we witness 
 the unhappy spectacle, of the union of their better 
 feelings with error, or behold them a prey to 
 villainy and vice ? And were knowledge univer- 
 sal, should we incur the humiliation of seeing the 
 human heart rivetted on the grossest and most 
 monstrous superstitions ? Knowledge and intel- 
 lectual energy, guide the passions and the feelings, 
 and confine them to the path of duty, excellence 
 and truth. 
 
 IV. No one however slightly acquainted with 
 the history of human nature, can overlook the 
 mighty agency of the passions. They are the 
 incitements to action, and the mainsprings of con- 
 duct. Without them, men would be automatons. 
 They are no less essential than the purely intel- 
 lectual part of our nature, and most assuredly, 
 human happiness could have no existence without 
 them. We might enjoy the pleasures of sense, 
 but the refinements of life, and the multiplied de- 
 lights of consciousness, would be no more. When 
 I speak of the passions, I include the various 
 emotions and affections of which our being is sus- 
 ceptible, and which in figurative language have 
 been centred in the heart. 
 
 V. Human wants powerfully affect the forma- 
 tion of character. They are so numerous and 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 233 
 
 diversified, that although their general tendency 
 is sufficiently obvious, it is not easy to measure 
 their individual influence. We complain of the 
 pressure of our wants, yet do not sufficiently re- 
 flect, that if they lead to some privations, they are 
 likewise, the source of numerous enjoyments. 
 The efforts which we employ in providing for 
 our necessities, strengthen our energies, and aug- 
 ment our powers. It is no paradox to ascribe 
 the primary development of the heart and intel- 
 lect to this cause. Superior principles could not 
 eventually come into play, unless our mental and 
 moral faculties had been evolved and stimulated, 
 by the coarser scaffolding of our wants. The 
 history of our race displays this fact in the strong- 
 est light. The poor savage derives his suste- 
 nance from the spontaneous produce of the soil; 
 its deficiency forces him upon the chase, and 
 finally, upon the tillage of the soil. It is not un- 
 til necessaries abound, that men have either leisure 
 or inclination to turn their attention to higher 
 pursuits. Human wants acting on human capa- 
 bilities, gradually eliminate various arts, among 
 which agriculture holds the highest place. Max- 
 ims relative to their practice, accumulate in time, 
 and a progressively increasing expertness, is trans- 
 mitted from generation to generation. The lux- 
 ury of the rich sated with ordinary enjoyments, 
 gives rise to different discoveries, and war itself, 
 has served to develop the resources of mankind. 
 Heart and understanding come to be cultivated 
 to an extent before unknown, and a happier futu- 
 
234 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 rity dawns upon our race. The admixture of the 
 baser passions however the ignorance, the su- 
 perstition, and the inferior addictions of the 
 many, prevent these beneficial tendencies from 
 taking the best direction. It is only by degrees, 
 as the intellect and feelings are cultivated, 
 that our fortunes arrive at their term, and that 
 the mind attains to a position from which it can 
 never recede. 
 
 It is evident to any one who looks with discri- 
 mination on the successive phases of society, that 
 man is a progressive being, and that from a con- 
 dition only raised by superior capabilities above 
 the brute, he arrives at one so elevated, as to seem 
 no longer the same. The contrast in truth, is 
 striking in the one case, a creature caring for 
 nothing save the satisfaction of his animal wants, 
 and in the other, possessed of a range of intellect 
 and feeling, comparatively stupendous. If we 
 look around, we perceive that with few excep- 
 tions, wealth whether inherited or acquired, is 
 devoted to objects .of sense, which, gorgeous 
 though they be, are as nothing contrasted with 
 the mighty empire of the heart and mind. In 
 this, there is range without bounds, and scope 
 illimitable, for the most arduous and indefatigable. 
 It is an empire which is not confined to earth, 
 since it reaches to heaven ; nor to time, since it 
 ranges through eternity. The objects of sense 
 are excellent and good; they yield us pleasure, 
 and are the instruments of instruction, but their 
 place is subordinate to feeling and reflection. As 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 235 
 
 our race advances, the priceless excellence of the 
 latter, will be better appreciated. They will be 
 known to be the only true riches riches which 
 are increased by diffusion which we cannot lose, 
 and which experience no decay. Hereafter, 
 the boundaries of both, will be better discrimi- 
 nated. Intellectual and moral worth, not mere 
 material possessions, will be the criterion of ex- 
 cellence ; while every human being will be abun- 
 dantly supplied with that, which must ensure the 
 greatest prosperity to all. 
 
 The affairs of nations are but partially regu- 
 lated by the convictions of inteUectual and moral 
 men ; nor are the majority well able to appreciate 
 the motives, which lead to the conduct of such. 
 The result is witnessed in sanguinary wars; in 
 brutal persecutions ; in the unnatural support of 
 some sectarians at the expense of others; in re- 
 strictions on the diffusion of knowledge ; in the 
 low state of general education, and in the insuf- 
 ficient provision for the poor. When the mass 
 of the community shall be better instructed, this 
 state of things must wholly disappear, and an- 
 other succeed, which is as pleasing even in the 
 anticipation, as the former is the contrary. Every 
 thing points out the adaptation of outward agen- 
 cies to our actual wants, and the advent of a con- 
 dition of society, in which human beings shall be 
 liberated from the thraldom of their physical ne- 
 cessities. The task of providing for these, might 
 be rendered light and easy ; yet many are ground 
 to the dust, by toil so excessive, as to leave 
 
236 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 little time and less inclination, for moral and in- 
 tellectual culture. Yet why is this, unless from 
 the inferior influence, of men of superior worth 
 and intelligence? If the Deity did not intend 
 the development of our capabilities, why were all 
 provided with them? The continual action of 
 our wants on our numerous and wonderful en- 
 dowments, has by a sure and steady progression, 
 brought us to our mixed condition of good and 
 ill, from which, by the continuance of the same 
 process, we shall arrive at a state of things as 
 much above the present, as the present is above 
 the past. This progression has not been intrusted 
 to the feeble and uncertain guidance of human 
 intelligence alone, but to agencies that must cer- 
 tainly secure their objects, since they have been 
 put in operation by over-ruling wisdom itself. 
 
 VI. Anything that increases energy, is in the 
 main, useful: commerce is of this description. 
 It sharpens the faculties, and leads to additional 
 exertions. How many arts, and even sciences, 
 are subservient to its vigorous prosecution ? The 
 different races of mankind are brought in con- 
 tact; prejudice is dissipated; a beneficial rivalry 
 is lighted up, and the experience of one nation, 
 finds its way to the rest. Commerce is not to be 
 proscribed, because its pursuit is attended with 
 occasional hardship. It is not continual repose 
 and security, that most promote our happiness, 
 but their alternation with danger and uncer- 
 tainty. Rest is purchased by exertion, and secu- 
 rity is best relished, when it is the fruit of energy. 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 237 
 
 If mankind shall ever arrive at a period, when 
 the necessaries of life shall be procured without 
 anxiety, the satisfaction of their mental and moral 
 wants, will then engage their unremitting atten- 
 tion. Who does not perceive that the discipline 
 of human life, tends to this result ? The faculties 
 are first sharpened by our physical necessities, 
 and the improvement remains, when the causes 
 which lead to it, no longer act. Like many 
 other agents, commerce exerts a good or a bad 
 influence, according to the persons who are 
 operated on. Continual struggles with the ele- 
 ments the vicissitudes of climate and foreign 
 intercourse, confer additional strength on culti- 
 vated minds; while they superadd ruggedness 
 and insensibility, in the ignorant and unenlight- 
 ened. Commercial nations, though conspicuous 
 for considerable intelligence, are addicted to the 
 mere pursuit of wealth and material enjoyments ; 
 hereafter however, commerce will be productive 
 of the best results for all. 
 
 VII. It is common to hear observations on the 
 dissimilar characters of children, reared in the 
 same family, and educated at the same school. 
 The fallacy consists in denominating variable 
 elements, by the same terms, and consequently, 
 in regarding them as identical. There will in- 
 deed, be a certain sameness of position, which in 
 so far, engenders like results. The inhabitants 
 of a given country will resemble each other, more 
 closely, than they do those of another; and the 
 observation holds good of a district, a village, 
 
238 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 and a family. There is no peculiarity in the 
 conduct of an individual, that may not be traced 
 to its source. The eldest born is differently cir- 
 cumstanced from those who come after; these 
 again, are not placed alike with the first. The 
 former has his separate bodily organization; he 
 is brought in contact with different scenes, ser- 
 vants and play-fellows, and is perhaps sent to a 
 different school. Even the same occurrences, 
 operate differently on different individuals. What 
 is called the same family, is indeed, a name for 
 very variable elements. Such is the nature of 
 human existence, that the position of every one 
 is constantly changing. In how many cases, is 
 the conduct of parents regulated by circumstances, 
 over which they have no control? The condi- 
 tion of society is such, that even the energetic 
 and the exalted, are subjected to conditions, which 
 they cannot wholly evade. How different arc 
 the characteristics of children, reared in different 
 countries, where families have emigrated? To 
 how many contingencies is a child exposed, from 
 disease and other events, from which another is 
 exempt? The less the mind and heart are 
 operated upon, the less difference will be ob- 
 served ; savages for example, present little range 
 of character, and during the dark ages, whole 
 nations were nearly alike. Children, at a certain 
 age, resemble each other, as do persons who pur- 
 sue the same occupations. The working-classes 
 approximate closely in their conduct, and the 
 same observation extends to the higher. It is 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 239 
 
 among the instructed portions of society, that 
 there is the most extended moral and intellectual 
 development, and that the greatest diversity pre- 
 sents itself. The intellect is endowed with ex- 
 haustless capabilities, and nothing widens the 
 results arising from their cultivation, so much as 
 this cultivation itself. Once, there is a moral and 
 intellectual point of departure, who can say where 
 it shall terminate: the least difference in this 
 respect, occasions the utmost variety in the 
 results. It is true, that superior minds, in some 
 respects, approximate; they will have much in- 
 formation, and many sympathies in common ; but 
 their knowledge, their feelings and their ener- 
 gies, are endlessly diversified. The principal 
 source of variety of character, so far as society is 
 concerned, depends on the injurious or beneficial 
 development of the heart and understanding. 
 From the degree in which this development takes 
 place, and the direction in which it flows, cha- 
 racter from the most enlightened and benevolent, 
 to the most malignant and debased, will be the 
 result. Parents and teachers are too frequently 
 apathetic ; and the heart, alas, is still less gene- 
 rally cultivated than the intellect. The great 
 difficulty is to create mental and moral energy, 
 and to turn it in a proper direction. When this 
 however, has been secured, it becomes at once, 
 a maintaining, and an impelling power, and an 
 uninterrupted career of virtue and excellence, is 
 ever afterwards continued. 
 
 It is incumbent on the community to protect 
 
240 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 the individual from deteriorating influences, 
 whether of body, heart or mind, and to enable 
 him to proceed in the best direction, from motives 
 evolved in his own bosom. This is the duty of 
 society, in all its diversified relations. Most of 
 the good, which we enjoy however, and the evils 
 over which we repine, are its produce. And 
 what a mixture does it present, of magnanimity 
 and meanness, generosity and avarice, enlighten- 
 ment and ignorance, feeling and apathy, indo- 
 lence and energy, fanaticism and true religion, 
 candour and duplicity, sensuality and continence, 
 indolence and industry, refinement and coarse- 
 ness, virtue and vice? All these form a com- 
 pound, to which every human being is more or 
 less exposed, and which presents every aspect, 
 from the brightest and most serene, to the dark- 
 est and most polluted. Happy are they who 
 suffer least, in their progress through the laby- 
 rinth. 
 
 VIII. The influence of rank on character, is 
 very considerable. Members of the lowest por- 
 tion of the social scale, are shut out from the ad- 
 vantages of a superior education. Children 
 among the higher classes, receive a limited early 
 instruction; the distractions of wealth and rank, 
 operate seriously to their prejudice. The edu- 
 cation of the middling classes, though far from 
 what it ought, is in some respects, superior to 
 that of the other two. The great thing is to in- 
 duce in both sexes, correct and energetic powers 
 of reflection, good feelings and correct principles. 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 241 
 
 If this be not done, science, language and accom- 
 plishments, are gaudy, but worthless acquire- 
 ments. Rank affects character, by bringing the 
 individual within a given sphere of society, and 
 thereby, leading him to adopt opinions which in 
 after life, may operate beneficially or the con- 
 trary. Their introduction is so insidious and 
 progressive, and they are so confirmed by habit 
 and repetition, as not to be easily obliterated. 
 When the feelings are associated with them, the 
 difficulty is increased. Mental and moral energy, 
 is the highest principle that can actuate the indi- 
 vidual, in whatever class he may be placed. The 
 depressed condition of the working classes how- 
 ever, produces a principle the converse of this, 
 which tends to hinder the proper assertion of the 
 dignity of human nature, and which consequently, 
 acts as a degrading agent. The influence of rank 
 is often injurious, conferring elevation without 
 sufficient reference to personal merit. It will pro- 
 bably, be a considerable period before attention 
 shall be abstracted from adventitious circum- 
 stances; yet nothing can be more obvious, than 
 that the only rational distinction between man 
 and man, is intellect and moral worth, 
 
 IX. Mental habits are part of character, and 
 in some measure, character itself. It is not easy 
 to over-rate their importance. Bad ones, are 
 strongest in weak minds ; good, in those that are 
 energetic. Some however such as the belief in 
 our erect position ; that we can see form ; that 
 colour and hardness reside in objects ; that space 
 
 Q 
 
242 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 has a termination, and that the sun moves round 
 the earth, owing to the force of indissoluble asso- 
 ciation, are difficult to eradicate. It is singu- 
 larly desirable, that every one should form correct 
 habits at an early period. The difference is 
 remarkable, when we compare the finished pre- 
 cision of the educated, with the bungling efforts 
 of the beginner. Individuals in whom a long 
 succession of accurate conclusions has been asso- 
 ciated with the choicest language, will improvise 
 with ease and rapidity, the most just and lumi- 
 nous observations, in the most appropriate phra- 
 seology. The magnificent results which habit is 
 capable of achieving, are not easily appreciated 
 by the common observer, who in witnessing the 
 ability flowing from a long series of acts, does 
 not reflect upon the process by which it has been 
 gained. Hence, the popular prejudice in favour 
 of genius, of which the uncommon results are not 
 ascribed to time, labour and passion, but to a 
 peculiar and inscrutable power. It was thus, 
 in bygone ages, that individuals who had gained 
 a little familiarity with the phenomena of nature, 
 were denominated sorcerers and magicians, as it 
 was conceived impossible that their acquirements 
 could be realized by ordinary means. Habits 
 indeed, have the disadvantage of lending invete- 
 racy to defectiveness, as well as permanence to 
 excellence, but this is the abuse of a principle 
 good in itself. 
 
 X. Climate is an indirect agent in the forma- 
 tion of character. The influence of circum- 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 243 
 
 stances on the universal capabilities of the human 
 mind, is variously modified; none are absolute. 
 Some which are of small importance in combina- 
 tion, become powerful when they are not nulli- 
 fied by the intervention of others. But the 
 strongest of all, are the awakened energies of the 
 human mind, in relation to the development 
 which they have undergone, and the obstacles 
 which they have been called on to surmount. 
 Now, no peculiarity of climate, can suppress the 
 powers of energetic individuals. There may be 
 moments of weariness, lassitude and inability, but 
 the might of the human soul cannot be perma- 
 nently overcome. From the foregoing it will 
 appear, that the influence of climate is princi- 
 pally remarkable, with regard to men in an infe- 
 rior stage of civilization. On such, the quality 
 of the soil, its fertility or the contrary, the num- 
 ber and value of its spontaneous productions, the 
 vicissitudes of the seasons, and the salubrity or 
 insalubrity of the water, must largely operate. 
 When human nature has undergone a certain 
 range of cultivation, it controls external circum- 
 stances; up to this point, it is controlled by them. 
 If we cast our eyes over the world, we see 
 inferior minds inferior as to education and 
 training, governed by circumstances which to 
 superior ones, are paltry and insignificant. On 
 the other hand, we also behold men of energy 
 constraining the elements, and bending the powers 
 of nature to their purposes. If we survey the 
 progress of some ancient and modern races, in 
 
244 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 the formation of colonies, or in expeditions of con- 
 quest and discovery, we cannot but feel astonished 
 at the invincible firmness by means of which they 
 withstood, and overcame obstacles, to others wholly 
 insuperable. 
 
 Climate sometimes deteriorates the whole phy- 
 sical structure, and contingently, the organs of re- 
 lation; hence, in so far, by hindering their de- 
 velopment, it is able to overwhelm our mental 
 powers. With regard to the production of ne- 
 cessaries, it is a more powerful agent. A soil of 
 extreme sterility, or one of great productiveness, 
 by taking away the means, or by obviating the 
 necessity of exertion, tends to annihilate it. When 
 human powers however, have risen to a superior 
 pitch, the most ungrateful soil cannot suspend 
 their efforts, nor the most fruitful supply their 
 wants. The Deity has secured our advancement, 
 by placing us in a situation wherein it was incum- 
 bent to exert our faculties. Thus, the supply 
 of our wants is made the means and the end; 
 and man by ministering to his necessities, realizes 
 at the same time, both mental cultivation and the 
 reward of exertion. It is a glorious attribute of 
 our nature, that it is thus able to neutralize and 
 overwhelm, every sinister and evil influence. 
 
 XI. The operation of age is imperfectly appre- 
 ciated. Time is required for perfecting our 
 attainments. As age advances, our knowledge 
 enlarges, and we exercise our faculties with in- 
 creased facility. Age then, intellectually speak- 
 ing, is a contingent condition. Still, there are 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 245 
 
 limits to human powers, however well directed; 
 nor can we expect in youth, the result of years 
 of matured exertion. Adults, especially in ad- 
 vanced age, sometimes cease to display the talents 
 for which they were once remarkable. Does the 
 mind then, lose the power of retaining its know- 
 ledge, or of manifesting its faculties ? At no pe- 
 riod of life, is this to be effected, unless efforts 
 be made for the purpose. Without repetition 
 and exertion, knowledge cannot be maintained 
 or increased. The organs of relation, the brain 
 and nerves, may experience disease, so as to un- 
 fit them for their functions, but this is not pecu- 
 liar to old age. It might be said that the fibres 
 of the brain became rigid and obtuse, but as this 
 organ is not the mind, the explanation cannot be 
 granted. So many brilliant examples have been 
 recorded, of talent and acquirement in advanced 
 age, as to furnish abundant collateral proof, in 
 favour of the position here taken up. The cares, 
 the sorrows, and the vicissitudes, to which men 
 are subject, are so numerous and importunate, 
 that we cannot feel surprise if so few acquire 
 sufficient firmness to withstand their influence. 
 Assuredly, we are called on, as we thread the 
 devious path of life, not only to lose no know- 
 ledge, and no faculty, but to add fresh stores, and 
 other powers, to both. Thus, our years shall not 
 pass away without fruit, nor shall we enter another 
 and a higher sphere, unprepared. 
 
 Age, imparts varying changes of direction to 
 our habits, desires, and modes of action. The 
 
246 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 wishes of the child, are not those of the youth, 
 and still less, the objects of adult life. As we 
 advance in years, we come to entertain different 
 views, and what was once desirable, perhaps 
 wholly ceases to be so. The young man looks 
 forward to a long career; the old man is con- 
 scious of the rapid close of every earthly pursuit. 
 The powers, the passions, and the affections, vary 
 at every period, though, when duly cultivated, 
 perhaps equally excellent in all. Filial and fra- 
 ternal affection animates the child; the passion 
 of sex, the love of country and of kind of off- 
 spring, and of the great first Cause, distinguish 
 the man. Everything indeed, is beautifully 
 adapted to the different relations of our mortal 
 career from the active and impassioned ener- 
 gies of youth, to the dispassionate contemplative- 
 ness of wise old age. 
 
 XII. It is not easy to weigh the influence of 
 sex. It is usual to look upon man as the stan- 
 dard, and to consider the varieties of the female 
 intellect as the peculiarity. When both sexes 
 however, receive equal culture, it is not found 
 that there is any difference, whether speculative 
 or practical. The influence of sex then, mentally 
 speaking, is a collateral one, of a purely artificial 
 nature, and involving the barbarous prejudice 
 which allots an inferior education to women. It 
 is not necessary that the latter should exhibit an 
 exclusive addiction to science or literature, but 
 it is imperatively so, that they should possess a 
 certain amount of general knowledge, and that 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 24? 
 
 they should be perfectly acquainted with their 
 mother tongue, with moral, and with the elements 
 of physical science. The cultivation of female 
 intellect is limited, both in amount and in dura- 
 tion. Young men continue years at college ; the 
 business of instruction however, ceases when girls 
 leave school. When we reflect on the superior 
 impulses which a well-informed mother, is able to 
 communicate to the minds and hearts of her 
 children not to insist on the comfort, the utility, 
 and the self-respect, which knowledge ensures, it 
 affords an unanswerable argument in favour of 
 the highest degree of cultivation, that it is possi- 
 ble to bestow. 
 
 It cannot be denied, that the absence of in- 
 struction tends to create anomalies of character ; 
 the ill-informed youth is apt to grow up rude and 
 unfeeling, as the ignorant girl probably turns out 
 imbecile and unenergetic, the victim of passion 
 and prejudice, in whatever guise they may present 
 themselves. If we refer, as we are entitled to do, 
 the crime, the misery, and the bloodshed, which 
 inundate the world, to the absence of moral and 
 mental culture ; to misdirected and ill-developed 
 feelings, and to inferior habits, the stupendous 
 importance of early training becomes strikingly 
 apparent. If there be one truth more certain 
 than another, it is, that upon the proper develop- 
 ment of the heart and understanding, and upon 
 the formation of good and energetic habits, the 
 well-being of mankind must mainly depend. We 
 have been granted the means of securing our 
 
248 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 moral dignity and excellence ; but these attributes 
 of our better nature, cannot be evolved in either 
 sex, without strenuous and incessant exertion. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HUMAN MIND. 
 
 1. THE physiology of the mind, embraces every 
 particular relative to its laws and operations, that 
 observation has been able to unfold. Sensations, 
 feelings and ideas, demand equal consideration. 
 The first, are those primary states of conscious- 
 ness, which arise from the immediate exercise of 
 our bodily organs ; the second, are the direct or 
 indirect remembrance of painful or pleasing sen- 
 sations, and the third, and by far the greater 
 number, the remembrance of sensations which 
 are wholly indifferent. When the term moral, is 
 made use of, in relation, or in opposition to our 
 physical and intellectual being, not merely the 
 facts comprised under the head of moral know- 
 ledge, but the feelings combined with it, are 
 alluded to. The importance of mental physio- 
 logy is extreme. Nothing is so eminently calcu- 
 lated to prove subversive of the errors which 
 have crept into moral science, as well as of the 
 evils which beset the mutual commerce of man- 
 
ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 249 
 
 kind. It would indeed, be surprising, if the study 
 of the noblest work of God the human mind, 
 could have any other tendency. 
 
 The desire of explaining that which is inex- 
 plicable, has led the students of intellectual 
 science into numerous errors. We experience 
 consciousness in all its magnificent and diversi- 
 fied forms, but we know nothing of its cause, any 
 more than of its vehicle. One of the jnost dis- 
 tinguished of the errors above alluded to, and one 
 that has been most frequently renewed, is mate- 
 rialism. It was perhaps natural for imperfect 
 observers, to identify the -growth, maturity, and 
 occasional derangement of the mind, with paral- 
 lel changes in the frame, and to assert the destruc- 
 tion of the former, with the evident dissolution 
 of the latter. Bodily decay however, is but the 
 preliminary of the renovation of the material, in 
 some other form. Our relations with this world, 
 are effected through the medium of our organi- 
 zation ; we have no means of witnessing the after 
 condition of the soul, although our conviction of 
 the unlimited wisdom of the Deity is such, that we 
 feel assured that that condition, must be better re- 
 gulated, than anything which we are able to con- 
 ceive. When I say that the soul is immaterial, I do 
 not predicate anything of its substance, for of that 
 we can know nothing ; I would merely affirm a nega- 
 tion of the material hypothesis. This, is not only 
 destitute of support, but opposed to what we know 
 of the phenomena of the human mind. The last 
 most prominent body of materialists, affirm that 
 
250 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 they have been the first to declare the true na- 
 ture, structure, and functions of the mind ; but if 
 materialism falls, phrenology which is only its 
 more elaborate expression, falls likewise. There 
 is no evidence that the brain is mind, or that it 
 performs the functions of mind; consequently, 
 there is no evidence that the parts of the brain, 
 perform the functions of mind. The former, is 
 simple materialism, the latter, materialism, as 
 modified by phrenology. If materialism be 
 erroneous, then is phrenology elaborately so. 
 Excellent views indeed, have been combined with 
 both, of which however, they form no necessary 
 part ; let us then, select what is true, and abandon 
 what is otherwise. I would oppose materialism 
 and phrenology, because they make sensation, 
 thought, and passion, mere organic acts ; because 
 they identify the brain and its functions, with the 
 mind, and because, by annihilating the structure of 
 the body, and contingently, that of the mind, at 
 death, they cut away, so far as reason is able to de- 
 monstrate them, the hopes of a futurity. Doctrines, 
 so pregnant with error and false consequences, 
 cannot justly be looked upon as an Avatar in 
 philosophy. Some affirm, that the brain is not 
 the mind, but its organ merely : this however, is 
 a distinction without a difference; if the brain 
 perform every function of mind, it is the mind, 
 and it is needless to look for anything farther. 
 The most zealous materialist can only desire that 
 his system should stand or fall, by its own merits 
 or defects. Truth is the interest of all; and 
 
ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 251 
 
 truth, from the continual accumulations of indi- 
 vidual observation, must finally prevail. 
 
 We inquire into the condition of perished and 
 barbarous nations; we examine their laws and 
 customs, with untiring assiduity, while mental 
 science is comparatively neglected. All the 
 operations of the human mind, however diver- 
 sified, are placed under the operation of unswer- 
 ving laws. The demonstrations of ignorance, and 
 of drivelling folly, alike bear their impress ; nor 
 could our reasonings on human nature have any 
 weight, without their existence and universality. 
 It is remarkable, that while individuals have 
 argued against these laws, the proofs are 
 drawn from instances, that actually involve their 
 truth. They comprise within their range, every 
 condition of mental existence ; nor is it possible 
 to imagine any manifestation of intellect, exempt 
 from their influence. The only cases in which 
 they seem to suffer a partial interruption, is during 
 deep sleep, and madness. In the former they 
 cease, in the latter they are distorted. Yet, the 
 afflicting malady just named, affords ample, al- 
 though indirect evidence of the existence of these 
 laws, as well as of their necessity to our perma- 
 nent well-being. 
 
 2. No stronger instance of the unsettled state 
 of our knowledge, on the present important sub- 
 ject, could be afforded, than the disputes which 
 have prevailed on the questions of liberty and 
 necessity. These, were the shiboleths of two 
 ieading parties, which, so far as opinion went, 
 
252 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 f 
 
 waged a war of extermination. Neither side en- 
 tertained uniform views ; there was indeed, every 
 range, from an approximation to truth, to a license 
 in error, that might be almost deemed fanatical. 
 Some contended for the uncontrolled freedom of 
 human actions, while others reduced us to the 
 level of machines. Each exulted in the strong- 
 holds of the question, and reflected on the weak- 
 ness of his opponents. When the necessarians 
 urged the pre-existence of motives, they were 
 right; but they erred, when they denied the 
 existence of a state of mind, which we call choice, 
 and in the determination of which, the strongest 
 motives prevail. There was truth on both sides ; 
 there must be motive, also choice or volition. 
 The term philosophical necessity, has been used 
 to designate this conclusion ; perhaps, moral cau- 
 sation would be a better one. 
 
 3. As mankind become enlightened, and as 
 the blessings of education are diffused, the impor- 
 tance of a knowledge of the laws whieh regulate 
 our feelings, and ideas, will be more generally 
 recognised, and acted on. It is precisely this 
 knowledge, which draws our attention from ex- 
 ternals, not because they are worthless, but be- 
 cause there are concerns of higher interest 
 concerns, which are to elevate mankind, on the 
 broad platform of virtue and intelligence; not 
 giving a suffrage to individuals because of outward 
 possessions, or mere professions of opinion, and 
 uniting all, not by conventional, and too fre- 
 quently, worthless relations, but by those which 
 
ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 253 
 
 are eternal as they are excellent. It would be 
 difficult to say in what condition of our being, this 
 knowledge is most necessary, since it is equally 
 so in all. Considered with reference to educa- 
 tion, its importance becomes stupendous, as it not 
 only points out the acquisitions which are most 
 valuable, but the manner in which they are to be 
 realized. Enormous advantages would accrue, 
 were it practically and theoretically inculcated, 
 from the earliest period. Yet we must love, 
 as well as appreciate moral truth. The head is 
 a dull prompter without the heart ; united, their 
 impulses glorify and ennoble our nature. If 
 moral and intellectual knowledge be important 
 in the intercourse of society, it is eminently so in 
 that which we maintain with our Creator. We 
 glorify God not only with our hearts, but with 
 all the diversity of our intellectual faculties. We 
 concentrate our being in all its manifold relations, 
 in the contemplation of his attributes; for we 
 cannot worship him with a part, when he is worthy 
 of the whole. Without some acquaintance with 
 his infinite works without an intimate conviction 
 of their connexion with our well-being, how can 
 we tender him the adoration which is his due? 
 It is a knowledge, without which, devotion lan- 
 guishes, or degenerates into a ceremonial, devoid 
 of life and feeling. In the intercourse of nations, 
 and in the transactions of governments, ignorance 
 of the moral and intellectual law leads to results 
 the most deplorable . It substitutes an attention 
 to the interests of the few, instead of those of the 
 
254 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 many; to externals, independent of internals ; and 
 to a particular community, in place of the great 
 family of mankind. The well-being of all, is in- 
 dissolubly bound together, and whether by omis- 
 sion or commission, the unhappiness of any por- 
 tion of our fellows, is sure to be reflected on the 
 rest. In fine, the importance of moral and intel- 
 lectual science, extends to every condition of ex- 
 istence, whether with regard to social intercourse, 
 or to that of nation with nation ; in the adoration 
 of the Deity, or in the silent communings of our 
 secret hearts ; in the hurry of life, as in the quiet 
 hour of death. It should be known to all, studied 
 by all, and felt by all. It should be the ground- 
 work of education, the subject of contemplation, 
 and the guide of our daily practice. More can- 
 not be said to shew the overwhelming the ines- 
 timable importance which is to be attached to it. 
 The mischiefs arising from ignorance of the 
 physiology of the human mind, spare no one ; but 
 extend from the highest to the lowest, and are 
 connected with every transaction that involves 
 the exercise of our faculties. It is a deplorable 
 error in governments, to promulgate laws after a 
 fashion, that renders it impracticable for the mass 
 of the community to become acquainted with 
 them. General principles are not sufficiently 
 disseminated, to enable individuals to act in anti- 
 cipation of, and in conformity with legislative 
 enactments; for these it is obvious, should be 
 based on human nature, and involved in the dic- 
 tates of morality itself. Why not communicate 
 
ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 255 
 
 along with a superior education to all, succinct 
 and perspicuous notions on jurisprudence, to- 
 gether with general information on the existing 
 statutes, and on the common law? It is a mon- 
 strous abuse in the history of nations, that indi- 
 viduals, whether by appointment, or hereditary 
 prescription ignorant not only of the science of 
 legislation, but even of human knowledge at large, 
 should ever be made law-makers. Were the 
 people generally enlightened as to their real in- 
 terests; were they acquainted with the nature 
 and workings of their faculties, such baneful ano- 
 malies would no longer exist. 
 
 The consequences of ignorance as to our men- 
 tal and moral powers, are equally conspicuous in 
 the ordinary relations of life. In families, it too 
 often leads to the substitution of a grinding mis- 
 rule, for the rational exercise of parental control. 
 Masters and servants, husbands and wives, bro- 
 thers and sisters, parents and children, are ex- 
 pected by each other, to be models of perfection, 
 when they respectively, make use of no sufficient 
 efforts to secure such a result. And thus, it is 
 with all; people are perpetually desiring occur- 
 rences for which they have made no rational pro- 
 vision. Our influence over others, compared 
 with that which we exercise over ourselves, is in- 
 deed, limited : why then, neglect that which lies so 
 much in our own power, and hope for that, which 
 depends on others? How could such a result 
 ensue, were it not for the perversion of our de- 
 sires, and the prevailing ignorance, as to the 
 
256 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 nature of our faculties ? An evil of perhaps higher 
 moment, is the deplorable intolerance which exists 
 with respect to political and religious tenets. A 
 merit is made of opinion, as if there could be any, 
 in that which revolves so much upon accident, 
 and imperfect impulses. Even when we have 
 tried to arrive at just conclusions, it confers no 
 right to trample on others, who have not enjoyed 
 equal opportunities, or who have not been placed 
 under the influence of the same motives. If our 
 exertions have merely had the effect of strengthen- 
 ing us in error, there can be room, for nothing but 
 humiliation : if indeed, we have been so happy as 
 to arrive at truth, we can only have reason for 
 regret, that others have been less fortunate than 
 ourselves. But who has the patent of infallibility ? 
 When we reflect on the multitudes who differ 
 from us, and consider that their faculties are fre- 
 quently as well, if not better cultivated, than our 
 own, ought it not to inspire a little doubt, if not 
 as to the certainty of our own conclusions, at 
 least, as to the propriety of condemning those of 
 others? The wise and good indeed, display a 
 tolerance which none others evince, for they ex- 
 hibit it towards those whom they know to be in 
 error, and by whom they are often spitefully, and 
 wickedly used. This in truth, is the test of wis- 
 dom and goodness ; and he who cannot feel com- 
 passion and forgiveness, towards malignity and 
 vice, even when exercised towards himself, may 
 rest assured that his heart and his head, are equally 
 defective. This is said without prejudice to the 
 
ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 257 
 
 measures of defence, and it may be of offence, 
 which we may be compelled to practise towards 
 the vicious. It were imbecility to submit to the 
 mercy of the wicked: moral resistance with re- 
 gard to all iniquity, is among the highest of our 
 duties. 
 
 In education, defective moral and intellectual 
 training, is productive of peculiar evil. The 
 employments of childhood are not always well 
 regulated, and results are obtained far inferior 
 to what might otherwise be realized. Our men- 
 tal and moral powers are sufficiently great for 
 every useful purpose ; but they are too frequently 
 overtasked, or erroneously directed. It is enough 
 to awaken sorrow and indignation, when we con- 
 sider what the human mind is capable of, and 
 what it is actually made to accomplish. Thus, 
 one child with imperfectly awakened faculties, 
 has his attention chained down to a task, which, 
 to another farther advanced, hardly costs an 
 effort. Compositions are dictated, which involve 
 a stock of words and phrases, to instil which, no 
 adequate means have been taken. Mathematical 
 and arithmetical details are entered into at a 
 period, when the knowledge of life should be 
 communicated ; the learner's time is occupied 
 with dead languages, when he should be busied 
 with living ones, and above all, mental and moral 
 science is neglected. Too many things, the 
 majority of them useless with regard to the indi- 
 vidual, are communicated, none of them perhaps 
 effectually. Every thing is taught except the 
 
258 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 art of thinking correctly, that of all others, the 
 most to be desired. Plain, unaffected good 
 sense, based upon sound moral and intellectual 
 instruction, through the medium of the mother 
 tongue, and adapted to the contingencies and 
 casualties of life, is what is most needed. Other 
 acquirements are trash in comparison, yet it is 
 precisely that, which is least frequently instilled. 
 If the requisite just named, be possessed, there 
 can be no objection to additional knowledge; 
 but if it be deficient, nothing can fill its place. 
 It is gross ignorance of the physiology of the 
 human mind, which leads to excessive mental 
 exertion, to the prejudice or ruin of the organs 
 of relation, by which our acquirements are ef- 
 fected. This observation holds good, whether it 
 be applied to tender childhood, ardent youth, or 
 veteran manhood. With imperfect cultivation, 
 the faculties must be imperfectly eliminated, or 
 take an injurious direction. Indeed, it only re- 
 quires us to cast our eyes around, to be aware of 
 the melancholy truth, that the intellects of the 
 great majority, lie waste and barren. How dif- 
 ferent would the earth appear, if this were other- 
 wise; how different must it become, when this 
 condition shall cease? Few would then be the 
 evils, with which human beings are now afflicted, 
 in consequence of their folly, their ignorance, and 
 their immorality. In vain shall the legislator 
 and the moralist, cry up the advantages of 
 knowledge and energy, until education, and the 
 communication of truth at large, be made com- 
 
ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 mensurate with the powers, and the capabilities of 
 mankind. It must not be partial, or one sided 
 there must be no reserve, otherwise moral de- 
 formity must result. How imperfect for example, 
 is the individual who is merely a linguist, a ma- 
 thematician, or in fine, in the possession of any 
 single branch of knowledge? To excel indeed, 
 we must devote ourselves to a few subjects, but 
 not so as to exclude a general acquaintance with 
 the rest. In no case however, should anything 
 be permitted to supersede an intimate knowledge 
 of moral and intellectual truth, of our maternal 
 tongue, and of the practical duties of life. 
 
 It is highly necessary, that that part of the 
 physiology of the mind, which relates to the ac- 
 quisition of knowledge, should be properly un- 
 derstood by parent and teacher. Learning, in 
 the first instance, is attended with painful labour. 
 This, the pupil has to surmount, principally by 
 his own exertions, and partly, with the assistance 
 of others. It will not do to superadd natural, to 
 artificial obstacles, or to make the task, one of 
 additional pain and terror ; he who does so, must 
 have mistaken his vocation. The continual effort 
 of the instructor, should be to raise the moral 
 tone of the pupil; to lessen his repugnance, and 
 to furnish motives for exertion. The certainty 
 of future pleasure and advantage, from present 
 toil, should be strenuously inculcated, and every 
 appliance furnished, that kindness and experience 
 can supply. Above all, moral incitements should 
 be created, but this is the work of time. Once 
 
260 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 however, the natural reward of labour and of 
 treasured knowledge has been realized, little more 
 will be necessary than to direct the awakened in- 
 tellect. Great patience and enlightened firmness, 
 are necessary to the successful control of the 
 tender, but complicated powers of the youthful 
 mind. How many have been doomed to irre- 
 claimable dulness, by the ignorance, the incapa- 
 city, and the cruelty of teachers ? 
 
 A powerful element is habit. Do not give the 
 pupil too much, nor yet too little to do; exact 
 the accurate performance of his task, and allow 
 no remissson, except in the event of sickness or 
 accident. Rest days, and holidays, have generally 
 an inferior tendency, by inducing the pupil to 
 look upon idleness as a pleasure. On the con- 
 trary, every day in which something is learned 
 something redeemed from the gulf of ignorance, 
 and fleetly-passing time, should be counted a 
 holiday. With proper treatment, young people 
 would be satisfied with the relaxation that each 
 day afforded ; but then, they should not be over- 
 tasked, nor have their exertions associated with 
 disagreeable occurrences. The act of acquiring, 
 or of communicating knowledge, is pleasant to a 
 well-trained mind. There is something in the 
 progressive changes of an enlarging intellect, that 
 every highly-principled, and highly-endowed in- 
 dividual, must contemplate with delight. One 
 who has been habituated to steady, but not ex- 
 cessive exertion, will rarely be turned in after 
 years, from the duty of acquiring, and usefully 
 
ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OP THE MIND. 261 
 
 applying knowledge. If indeed, the understan- 
 ding, whether relatively or absolutely, be over- 
 tasked, it is apt to sink into a languor, from 
 which it slowly, or perhaps never emerges. The 
 great maxim should be to hasten slowly, since this 
 is to secure the greatest progress in a given time. 
 Appeals to brute force are wholly to be depre- 
 cated ; nothing but extreme cases can justify them ; 
 and it is questionable whether such can ever occur, 
 in the hands of enlightened teachers. Too fre- 
 quently, they are but the evidence of ill temper 
 or incapacity. Corporeal punishment brutalizes 
 the obdurate, and breaks down the spirit of the 
 gentle and innocent; it should be wholly pros- 
 cribed as a remnant of barbarism. The unlimited 
 licence of verbal abuse, is hardly less reprehen- 
 sible. Every means should be taken to conciliate 
 and foster the self-respect of the pupil, sometimes 
 alas, for ever torn and blighted, by cruelty and 
 ignorance. Open rebuke and mortification should 
 not be resorted to, until private remonstrance has 
 failed, and even then, sparingly. In fine, the 
 instructor should insist on the ignominy of igno- 
 rance and imbecility, while he should dilate on 
 the endless advantages that accrue from intellec- 
 tual and moral culture. 
 
 3. It is to be regretted, that familiarity should 
 dull our perceptions, as to the wonderful nature 
 of occurrences. What for example, can be more 
 so, than that our physical and mental energies 
 should be nearly suspended by sleep, for so large 
 a portion of every four and twenty hours? If 
 
262 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 we inquire into this phenomenon, we are able to 
 see no reason when we wake, why we should not 
 always wake, or when we sleep, why we should 
 ever cease to sleep. The final cause is involved 
 in the incapacity of our organization, to continue 
 its exertions unremittingly, but the efficient, we 
 do not know. Sometimes, sleep is sound and 
 unbroken; at others, we are affected not only 
 with sensations, but ideas and feelings. A few 
 it is said, never dream. What these peculiarities 
 depend on, it is not easy to know. In febrile 
 complaints, and during every kind of excitement, 
 dreams are more frequent. These phenomena 
 have long been the subject of observation, but 
 never of explanation. Striking events or emo- 
 tions of any kind, that have taken place during 
 the day, but more especially, before the hour of 
 rest, are apt to be reproduced in sleep. One, 
 out of the many singular occurrences in this 
 state, is that of being wholly unaware of our 
 situation; a provision that was necessary to se- 
 cure the continuance of uninterrupted rest. Every 
 thing during sleep, wears the aspect of reality ; a 
 sensation is referred to some exterior cause, and 
 we hold seeming converse with things without. 
 The mind appears to act in some way unknown, 
 on the organs of relation. Thus, we see as if 
 with our eyes, and hear as if with our ears. 
 Sometimes indeed, the mind goes a step farther, 
 and the remarkable condition called sleep-walk- 
 ing, is produced. Some during sleep, manifest 
 considerable mental acumen; they will compose 
 
ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 263 
 
 poetry, utter jests, and even solve intricate prob- 
 lems. These exertions however, bear a close 
 relation to the waking powers: the man of ge- 
 nius is never dull, even in his dreams. We are 
 also capable of emotions, which rival in intensity 
 those of waking life. They may be connected 
 with real events, or with others wholly imaginary. 
 These however, are never suspected to be so, 
 until the dreamer awakes to the nothingness of 
 his sorrow, or the emptiness of his joy. The 
 good will repeat the beneficence, and the bad, 
 the evil of the preceding day ; while occasionally, 
 acts are performed which have no waking ana- 
 logues. As the judgment, owing to the absence 
 of realities, is often feeble, so the most fantastic 
 compounds are created. Instructed and orderly 
 minds, are less liable than others, to the delusions 
 of the night ; and he did not err, who asserted 
 that we should not be entirely indifferent to the 
 tenor of our dreams. 
 
 We cannot occasion sleep by the immediate 
 fiat of the will, though we can often do so, by in- 
 direct means. A variety of substances induce 
 it, we know not how. In the arch imposture 
 styled animal magnetism, we are told that by 
 certain manipulations, a magnetic sleep is in- 
 duced. In this state, the subject is said to hear 
 with the pit of the stomach: to see with the 
 eyes shut ; to foretel events, and to perform other 
 feats, equally marvellous, revolting, and incredible. 
 This jugglery has spread to a considerable ex- 
 tent, although the early exposure of its real 
 
264 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 nature by Franklin and others, might have proved 
 sufficient to extirpate it for ever. There are a 
 number of nervous affections, such as catalepsy, 
 hysteria, convulsions, nightmare, and sleep-walk- 
 ing, upon which the animal magnetists have laid 
 considerable stress ; as if these conditions, suffi- 
 ciently obscure and difficult in themselves, could 
 be further elucidated by fraud and imposture, or 
 at all events, of error and delusion. It was once 
 supposed, and still is by a few, that dreams had 
 some reference to the future; but it is obvious 
 that they are a case of irregular association, and 
 can have no such reference, any more than the 
 ordinary anticipations of waking moments. 
 
 4. Not less remarkable is insanity. Beyond 
 a certain point, its physiology is unknown. This 
 however, is equally true of all disease, and of 
 every condition of existence. The subjects of mad- 
 ness, observe, feel, and reflect, differently from 
 the rest of mankind, as well as from each other. 
 Not to preserve our moral and intellectual rela- 
 tions, is to become insane. The remote causes 
 of insanity are numerous, but with the proximate 
 ones, we are unacquainted. Some appear par- 
 tially aware of their situation, while others are 
 wholly unconscious of it. The latter never sus- 
 pect their condition, until they either recover, or 
 till the dream of life itself, is over. There are 
 many gradations, from those in which slight men- 
 tal aberrations librate with perfect reason, to those 
 in which the latter is entirely lost. It has been 
 proposed to call some of these, by the term mono- 
 
ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 265 
 
 mania; the title however, is imperfect. People 
 to all appearance, are insane during paroxysms 
 of rage and drunkenness, as well as in some 
 diseases. Other passions besides the former, 
 serve to induce it for the time: the dancing 
 mania of the middle ages, religious wars, and the 
 deadly ebullitions of fanaticism, afford examples 
 on a grand scale. Materialists have endeavoured 
 to connect insanity with organic lesions, though 
 it is a matter of daily observation, that it gene- 
 rally arises from moral causes. Those who al- 
 locate the faculties to arbitrary divisions of the 
 brain, would fain connect it with disease of such 
 portions. The absurd and incoherent language, 
 and the irregular conduct of the maniac, result 
 from some anterior mental change, the nature of 
 which is wholly unknown. Insanity may be cha- 
 racterized by greater or less irregularity, of the 
 intellectual associations and reasoning powers, and 
 by the absence or perversion, of the feelings and 
 moral faculties. In idiots, the moral, the intel- 
 lectual, and the physical powers, are deranged, 
 and almost wholly lost. Idiotcy, may exist at 
 birth, and it may be induced in childhood, or at 
 periods more or less advanced. It has been caused 
 in some, by the overwhelming pressure of sudden 
 calamity. Insanity is a disease of adult age, and 
 rarely occurs in children ; it is also the appanage 
 of civilized life. As society improves, and as 
 moral, intellectual, and physical training is better 
 attended to, this unhappy malady will become 
 rarer and rarer, until it for ever disappears. 
 
266 ON THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 We observe partial loss of memory, or absence 
 of mind, but we do not in such cases, impute in- 
 sanity. Yet, the eccentricities of some people 
 proceed so far, as to verge upon this condition. 
 When wisdom however, is the exception, and 
 folly the rule, there is little doubt that the former, 
 would be styled eccentricity and madness. Unless 
 it be contended that the practice of the world, be 
 the acme of wisdom and excellence, it will per- 
 haps be admitted that the conduct of one, who 
 should manifest more than ordinary indifference 
 to wealth, fame, and honours, and who should 
 square his conduct on all occasions, by the rules 
 of justice, temperance, and piety, would be looked 
 upon by most, as manifesting no ordinary eccen- 
 tricity. It is a duty incumbent upon every one, 
 to cultivate his feelings and his intellect in the 
 best direction, and so to regulate them, that they 
 may never pass the boundaries of moderation and 
 propriety. 
 
 In this short sketch, the inestimable impor- 
 tance of the knowledge of mind, has been held up 
 to view. It has been shewn that it is equally 
 desirable in every condition of life, and that 
 without it, we are liable to grievous errors of con- 
 duct as the misery, folly and iniquity, hitherto, 
 and at present prevalent in the world, too clearly 
 testify. 
 
267 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF MIND ON BODY, AND ON THE 
 FEELINGS. 
 
 I. SOME countervailing influence was neces- 
 sary, to enable the mind to resist corporeal im- 
 pulses, and this has been furnished accordingly, 
 by certain properties of the mind itself. Intel- 
 lect and passion respectively, are equal to the 
 task of controlling the dictates of the body. The 
 victories so often achieved over sickness and pain, 
 establish this beyond a doubt. In addition how- 
 ever, to intellectual culture, and strength of pas- 
 sion, the habit of moral resistance adds greatly 
 to the facility. The nobility of our nature is 
 strongly displayed, in the half-developed frag- 
 ments seen throughout the world; yet all the 
 excellencies which mankind have at any time 
 evinced, might perhaps be concentrated. If this 
 be not possible, of what avail is it to point to his- 
 torical examples, or to the specimens of supe- 
 riority which are everywhere to be met with? 
 When the high-minded martyr to the free ex- 
 pression of opinion, whether it relate to political 
 or religious liberty, stands up at the stake, or 
 kneels down at the block when the dauntless 
 Indian bears unmoved, he tortures inflicted by 
 his mortal enemies and when the poor Hindoo 
 
268 ON THE INFLUENCE OF MIND. 
 
 sits by her husband's corse, while consuming 
 flames wing their way to her heart they one and 
 all, display some precious token of our capabili- 
 ties, and illustrate in the strongest manner, the 
 power of the human mind over the human frame. 
 In times long past, when life was less secure, and 
 exile and suffering more common than at present, 
 a body of precepts was drawn up on this very 
 subject. Assuredly, it was wise for men the 
 lovers of wisdom in particular, to prepare for 
 the evils to which they were liable, and to prefer 
 death to life, and pain to pleasure, when the 
 alternative was dishonour and base subserviency. 
 They quailed neither before artificial inflictions, 
 nor those contingent on the common lot, and left 
 behind them a code of morality, which in some 
 respects, has been rarely equalled, and never sur- 
 passed. The Stoics it is well known, confirmed 
 their doctrines by their practice ; and when Seneca 
 and Thrasea by the fiat of a sanguinary tyrant, 
 were condemned to death, they respectively met 
 their fate without either shrinking or complain- 
 ing. Human nature however, is too progressive, 
 to be chained down to any set of examples, how- 
 ever illustrious. Let us take the good which we 
 find in each, and reject the ill; for there are none 
 without the former, and certainly, none without 
 the latter. 
 
 There are also, other forms, in which the 
 powers of the soul, are manifested over the 
 trammels of matter. We see men victoriously 
 resisting the accumulated influences of cold, 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF MIND. 269 
 
 hunger and disease ; and we witness the mother, 
 the sister, the daughter, and the wife, watch day 
 after day, and night after night, by the well- 
 beloved couch, with an untiringness and a con- 
 stancy of purpose, which demonstrate so much 
 the more the pre-eminence of mind, as the body 
 too often, sinks in the struggle. The devotion 
 of women to the objects of their affection, is seen 
 in the midst of toil, hardship, and wretchedness ; 
 while they have sealed the testimony of their 
 courage, by the sacrifice of their mortal existence 
 under circumstances the most trying. All these 
 things go to shew that there is a something which 
 is not matter, and which, by braving the accumu- 
 lated ills of mortality, proves that there is a con- 
 dition still superior, and one, in which human 
 suffering and human sorrows, can afflict us no 
 more. 
 
 It is quite certain, that courage and equanimity 
 are best calculated to bear us through the ills 
 of life, and whether we languish on the bed of 
 sickness, or are about to undergo the last change 
 of mortality, that they will assist us to yield with 
 dignity and submission to the disposal of Provi- 
 dence. The exaggeration of what has been 
 termed the instinct of preservation, aggravates 
 the evils of our position. We have enough to 
 encounter, without adding needless fears to the 
 burthen of our lot. Fear indeed, subjects us to 
 dangers which we should not otherwise incur, 
 and multiplies the accidents to which we are 
 liable. For, as an ancient moralist has observed, 
 
270 ON THE INFLUENCE OF MIND. 
 
 it is not so much the things that befal us, as the 
 opinion which we have formed of them, that is 
 truly formidable. Mental and moral culture 
 then, averts imaginary evils, and enables us to 
 undergo with fortitude, those to which we are 
 inevitably exposed. Courage, will not ward off 
 sickness and death, but it will ward off what is 
 worse -the fear of these. We should not so 
 much wish to live long, as to live well ; to exempt 
 ourselves from pain and suffering, as from igno- 
 rance, vice, and all the qualities that degrade 
 humanity. 
 
 II. The influence of the understanding on the 
 feelings, passions, and moral principles, deserves 
 careful consideration. It is certain that the 
 elimination of these, is by no means in the ratio 
 of mental cultivation. Catherine de Medicis was 
 a woman of talent, although in some respects, a 
 monster of iniquity: the same may be said of 
 Alexander the sixth, and of his son, Csesar Borgia. 
 In truth, the most infamous atrocities, are often 
 projected and executed with singular ability. It 
 is not uncommon to witness a crusade of bigotry 
 and intolerance, or of civil and political oppres- 
 sion, conducted with a degree of skill, which in a 
 better direction, might have proved highly ser- 
 viceable. It is certain then, that mere intellectual 
 cultivation is not equivalent to the development 
 of the feelings and moral principles. The infe- 
 rences flowing from this, are of vast practical 
 value. They shew teachers, parents, and legis- 
 lators, that direct means must be taken for the culti- 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF MIND. 
 
 vation of the heart, and that it will not do to address 
 the understanding alone. Yet the one, must go 
 hand in hand with the other. Without knowledge 
 and active talent, the feelings are liable to be con- 
 nected with improper objects, or to be transferred 
 to the grossest, and most degrading superstitions. 
 What means so effectual, can be devised to secure 
 the purity of our nature, as the united influence 
 of heart and understanding? In infancy, the 
 budding feelings must be directed, and prevented 
 from forming prejudicial alliances. The teacher 
 or the parent, who suffers them to be smothered 
 in their growth ; to be imperfectly developed, or 
 erroneously directed, fails in the performance of 
 a vital duty. Mental development enables its 
 possessor, to cultivate the feelings to any desirable 
 extent, but those of the ignorant, are the sport of 
 circumstances. Hence, the ample store of virtu- 
 ous pleasures, accruing from rational feelings and 
 ideas, on the subject of religion and morality; on 
 the works of God; on human nature; and on 
 science, literature and art. The feelings and 
 ideas which exist in the minds of the ignorant, 
 are comparatively few and unimportant ; in those 
 however, whose moral faculties are developed, 
 and whose knowledge is extended, they are next 
 to innumerable. Thus, the further we proceed 
 in the analysis of our being, the more fully shall 
 we assent to the concurring voices of the wisest 
 individuals of every country and time, that all 
 our capabilities, whether of feeling or intellect, 
 should be elicited. 
 
272 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT, WITH A 
 VIEW TO OUR GREATEST ADVANTAGE, AND THAT 
 OF OTHERS. 
 
 1. THE proper regulation of the intellect, in- 
 volves a variety of particulars, among which, the 
 acquisition and diffusion of knowledge, hold an 
 important place. I have endeavoured to shew 
 the paramount necessity of mental and moral 
 culture. Nature indeed, has so constituted us, 
 that the one, cannot well be compassed without 
 the other. There is nothing absolute, in the 
 quantity of knowledge necessary to moral train- 
 ing. Individuals with excellent hearts, will some- 
 times be seen with little general information; 
 while those in whom it is extensive, will be found 
 morally defective. It is knowledge, moral and 
 intellectual, that causes the difference between 
 the man of science and the savage ; between civi- 
 lization and barbarism ; and between fanaticism 
 and true religion in a word, it is the comple- 
 ment of virtue, and the foundation of excellence 
 the instrument of man's advancement, and the 
 characteristic of his better nature. Its attain- 
 ment should be paramountly active; the mind 
 should be ever on the alert to seize the relations, 
 and to appreciate the conditions of things. This 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 2?3 
 
 cannot be done without energetic exertion, con- 
 tinued day after day, and year after year. It 
 requires a long series of efforts to build up the 
 mind, Without gainsaying the gigantic utility 
 of books, it must be admitted that their abuse has 
 led to an indolent, ill- discriminating tone of mind, 
 which has too often caused names, and the sym- 
 bols of knowledge, to be substituted for the reality. 
 The mere perusal of a multitude of books, will 
 not suffice. Our studies should be limited, and 
 judiciously directed, while the works which we 
 have chosen, should be perused, and re-perused, 
 noting their leading points, and reflecting on 
 them. Intellectual activity is the characteristic 
 of genius, and varies with the time and attention 
 which is devoted to its cultivation. Like every 
 other habit, it is at first slow of acquirement, and 
 difficult of performance; not less with the early 
 efforts of the greatest proficient, than with those 
 of the most illiterate. We seldom reflect on the 
 vast interval that separates the beginner from the 
 adept. The latter, has gone over a multitude of 
 acts, all tending to the same object, and eventually 
 ensuring its attainment. People see the beginning 
 and the end, but forget the intermediate steps; 
 referring to individual talent, that which in reality, 
 is the result of practice and assiduity. The talent 
 indeed, is general, and the materials everywhere, 
 for those who are inclined to make use of them. 
 Next to the pursuit of moral excellence, the cul 
 tivation of the mind, is the duty most incumbent 
 on every human being; and when we consider 
 
 s 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 that the former itself, cannot be compassed with- 
 out the acquisition of knowledge, the latter be- 
 comes imperative, as a branch of duty. The 
 efforts of spiritual and political despotism, to 
 decry its diffusion, though successful in partial 
 instances, and for a time, must finally cease. 
 Knowledge shall prevail over ignorance and bar- 
 barism, so surely as light prevails over darkness ; 
 while all opposition must be eventually overcome, 
 by the continual progress of civilization and 
 truth. 
 
 I. Next to its acquisition, the diffusion of 
 knowledge, claims our earnest attention. Of 
 what avail is it to be instructed, if others remain 
 ignorant ? Knowledge is power, but like money, 
 it ceases to be so, when not in circulation. A 
 morally enlightened man, has but an indifferent 
 prospect amidst a community that is otherwise. 
 He may be happy in his own mind, and inde- 
 pendent of others; he may surprise the mass by 
 the exhibition of qualities which they do not 
 understand, but it is uncertain whether he shall 
 obtain their respect, or the protection which is 
 his due. Physical knowledge indeed, is more 
 impressive among the uncivilized, and the man^ 
 who can awaken their fears, or contribute to their 
 preservation, by his command over the secret 
 phenomena of nature, will probably be regarded 
 as a superior being. Nevertheless, at particular 
 periods, such persons have experienced the most 
 cruel treatment, and it was only by pretensions 
 far beyond the reality, that they were sometimes 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 able to obtain a doubtful immunity. Moral 
 knowledge however, even to this day, confers no 
 such privileges. If its possessor indeed, choose 
 to enrol himself in some dominant party, he may 
 perhaps be secure ; but if the single-minded ad- 
 vocacy and profession of truth be his object, he 
 need expect little favour. His character and 
 conduct will be appreciated by the enlightened 
 few; but he will be liable to misinterpretation 
 and calumny at the hands of the many. Nothing- 
 can cure this, but the calm profession and steady 
 diffusion of what is true. Some may urge the 
 seeming dangers and disadvantages attendant on 
 this line of conduct, but the question simply is, 
 between the profession, or the suppression the 
 diffusion or the non-diffusion of truth. Everything 
 with which men are acquainted, whether as re- 
 gards physical or moral science everything 
 that distinguishes man from the animals beneath 
 him, must at one time have been confined to a 
 single bosom. If discoveries had always been 
 silenced, the mass must have remained in reme- 
 diless barbarism. People say it is not time it 
 is not yet time to teach the truth; the world is 
 not fit to receive it. But how can it be made so, 
 unless by the diffusion of knowledge ? If we re- 
 fuse, for whom do we wait? The world is not 
 to be enlightened by its own spontaneous volitions ; 
 the change can only be accomplished by reite- 
 rated impressions, gradually influencing the com- 
 munity at large. As a general rule, it is the 
 duty of every one to profess what he believes; 
 
276 ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 any conclusion opposed to this, can only arise 
 from error or fear. Doubtless, prudence and 
 moderation are incumbent on all, but assuredly, 
 these can never go the length of suppressing what 
 is true. When we reflect that everything of ex- 
 cellence, was the result of isolated discoveries 
 made manifest for the good of mankind, senti- 
 ments of admiration and gratitude, glow within 
 us towards those generous spirits, to whose efforts 
 existing generations are so largely indebted. 
 Unless we are so presumptuous as to assert that 
 we have arrived at the summit of perfection or 
 if otherwise, we admit that the world is to go on 
 in an unceasing progression of truth and excel- 
 lence, it can only be by the labours of indivi- 
 duals, adding to what is known, and assisting in 
 its diffusion among the mass of mankind. 
 
 Knowledge is circulated by education, adult 
 instruction, conversation, and the press. The 
 difficulty of erasing early prejudices, places the 
 importance of education in a more striking light. 
 In so far as it is well conducted, it sharpens the 
 faculties, and lessens the obstacles to the enlight- 
 enment of the mind. The bias is soon contracted, 
 that is to decide the fate of the individual for 
 good or for ill; a good education therefore, sin- 
 gularly promotes, while a bad one as decidedly 
 impedes, the advantages derivable from superior 
 after training. The most assiduous care should 
 be taken, to secure the best education for every 
 child in the community ; it is an advantage too 
 precious to be left to the caprice of any. No 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 277 
 
 parent should be permitted to bring up his off- 
 spring in moral or intellectual ignorance, any 
 more than to neglect their physical well-being, or 
 to instil vicious practices. Society is bound to 
 see that no one contravenes the imprescriptible 
 rights of humanity, or those great moral laws, the 
 observance of which, is equally imperative upon 
 all mankind. Assuredly, it is . not less called 
 upon to protect the young, the innocent, and the 
 helpless, than the grown-up, the vigorous, and the 
 active. Every child whether male or female, 
 rich or poor, should receive the best education 
 that it is possible to impart. Upon what pre- 
 tence can we establish the monopoly if know- 
 ledge be useful to one, it is so to all ? Of all the 
 means which we possess for bettering the con- 
 dition of our race, it is at once the most benefi- 
 cial, for the individual and for the species. 
 
 Everything should be done to eliminate the 
 latent capabilities of the infant mind ; none of them 
 should be suffered to lie dormant. The business 
 of instruction might perhaps, be further subdi- 
 vided, and the task of enforcing varied, yet pro- 
 gressive attainments, intrusted to a greater number. 
 A parallel is often drawn between public and pri- 
 vate instruction : both have their advantages. A 
 school cannot supply the moral training of a home, 
 or develop the affections which unite a family, in 
 never to be extinguished love. It causes the 
 child however, to become the member of a larger 
 circle, to contract various attachments, and to see 
 society under a different aspect. He is encou- 
 
278 ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 raged, directed, and stimulated, by the exertions 
 of others ; and he obtains a lively forecast of the 
 strifes, the cares, and the rivalries, of life. Young 
 men should proceed with their education, until 
 twenty or more, gradually increasing the time 
 which is devoted to active occupations. It is well 
 to initiate young people early into the business 
 of life, but not so as to interrupt the acquisition of 
 knowledge. If possible, men ought not to be so 
 engrossed with the means, as to lose sight of the 
 end. One feels astonished at the multitudes, that 
 are kept from day to day, in situations, which, 
 although they may not occupy half their time, ex- 
 clude them as effectually from instruction, as if 
 they were stationed in a desert and in very 
 truth, they are placed in a moral desert. The 
 information, in the acquisition of which, it imparts 
 all to labour, is that which purifies the heart, and 
 elevates the understanding. Above all, the young 
 of both sexes, should be taught the all-important 
 duty of energy and self-dependence, in subor- 
 dination to moral control ; while every available 
 means should be made use of, that will form these 
 invaluable principles into abiding habits. 
 
 Adult schools are an anomaly in a civilized 
 country. It is deplorable that men and women, 
 should have to receive the information which 
 ought to be communicated during infancy. 
 Museums, works of art, conversation, lectures, 
 and the press, are copious sources of information. 
 The two first, communicate an instruction which 
 books are inadequate to yield; and while they 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 furnish harmless recreation, sow the seeds of ci- 
 vilization and refinement. Working models of 
 useful machinery, paintings, and sculptures, if 
 not originals, at least good copies, should every- 
 where abound. The beneficial influence of works 
 of arfy in subordination to means still superior, is 
 enormous. A more discerning posterity will not 
 neglect them, nor confine their utility to that of 
 the scanty, and paid-for exhibitions of large towns. 
 The achievements of science and art, are for the 
 common behoof of mankind : the poor, not less 
 than the rich ; the toil-worn artisan, not less than 
 the luxurious possessor of copious wealth. Thus, 
 it is however, in the world; the refinements and 
 amenities, that would mitigate and diversify the 
 cares of life, and which should be free as air to all 
 are confined to the few. 
 
 On the usefulness of books, it is needless to 
 expatiate; every means should be taken to ren- 
 der them accessible. Select collections sufficient 
 for the requirements of the working-classes, 
 ought to be universal. Taxes should be taken 
 off paper and all the implements used in print- 
 ing; the duties on foreign works ought to be 
 abolished, and every facility afforded for the 
 transmission of pamphlets and newspapers. Im- 
 pediments, with regard to the circulation of 
 knowledge, are a direct premium on the conti- 
 nuance of ignorance and vice. Newspapers 
 would improve with the improvement of society ; 
 well-educated and moral men, would alone be 
 tolerated as conductors, and they would become, 
 
280 ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 to a greater extent than at present, the vehicles 
 of useful information. If the community be par- 
 tially instructed, agitated by fanaticism, or the 
 explosions of party feeling, newspapers will re- 
 flect the sentiments of the mass; but if every 
 source of instruction be opened out, they will 
 powerfully aid the general progress. They 
 would then, become the organs of an enlightened 
 public opinion, and wear the exclusive impress 
 of knowledge and civilization. It is difficult to 
 find terms sufficiently energetic, to depict the 
 impolicy and narrow-mindedness of every re- 
 striction on the diffusion of information. Were 
 a community afflicted with a destroying pesti- 
 lence, would not the government which limited 
 the employment of the only remedies that were 
 calculated to grapple with it, be justly looked 
 upon as barbarous? Yet, the most manageable 
 disease is not curable with greater certainty, than 
 are vice and ignorance the diseases of the soul, 
 
 o ' 
 
 by means of moral and intellectual culture. 
 
 The pleasures accruing from social intercourse 
 through the medium of conversation, are perhaps 
 among the greatest of which existence is suscep- 
 tible. If society were somewhat less artificially 
 divided, and if means could be devised for obvi- 
 ating the jealousies of individuals, and for allow- 
 ing the intelligent of different classes to meet 
 occasionally together, vast good would result. 
 Something of the kind takes place in scientific 
 associations, but to a limited extent. Mankind 
 survey one another, not so much as human beings, 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 281 
 
 as invested with the unmeaning, and too often 
 injurious conventions of rank and station. If the 
 elevated, would sometimes mix with the lowly 
 born; the peer with the peasant, and the hard- 
 wrought artisan; and the lady of rank with the 
 toil-worn woman if they would but think, all 
 temporary distinctions apart, that they partici- 
 pated in one common lot; shared in the same 
 wants, the same hopes, and the same fears; and 
 that they were equally to pass through the secret 
 portal, that separates a temporary, from an eter- 
 nal existence, it would be consecrated by infinite 
 advantages. Each would experience an interest 
 unfelt before, in the other's welfare ; and sympa- 
 thy for each other's wants, and each other's woes, 
 would fill their hearts. It is in truth, difficult to 
 say how far the different classes of society, intel- 
 lectually and morally speaking, suffer from the 
 imperfect and limited intercourse which they now 
 maintain with each other. 
 
 2. Next to the generation of moral, that of in- 
 tellectual energy, is most important. There is 
 this difficulty however, in its production, that it 
 is at once, means and end. In the first instance, 
 we have to depend on others; afterwards, on 
 ourselves. The best way, is the assiduous culti- 
 vation of all our faculties. Every opportunity in 
 active life, that will enable us to apply our acquisi- 
 tions judiciously and well, should be turned to 
 account. Energy, will not come of itself, or by 
 means of vague, short-lived, and ill-directed ef- 
 forts. The value of active exertion, and of per- 
 
282 ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 petual struggles with the stormy elements of life, 
 is shewn in the lives of soldiers, sailors, and 
 public men. During rude periods of society, 
 and even still, individuals of stupendous energy 
 sometimes make their appearance, and pursue 
 their onward path whether for good or for ill, 
 with a vehemence that it is not easy to limit or sub- 
 due. Occasionally also, rare beings, born as it 
 were to shew the magnificent capabilities of our 
 nature, come upon the arena of mortality 
 beings whose energy is equally untiring and in- 
 domitable, and whose objects are the happiness 
 and the well-being of our race. These, are the 
 men who are to be turned aside by no obstacle ; 
 who continue their unrelaxing course in the 
 midst of obloquy and reproach praise or blame 
 the inflictions of poverty, exile, or death; who 
 vindicate the noblest attributes of the human 
 mind, and who prove by their conduct, whether 
 living or dying, that well-directed, moral and in- 
 tellectual energy, is among the highest of earthly 
 possessions. A properly cultivated heart and 
 understanding, furnish a supply of it, even upon 
 the first demand. How many children, tender 
 maidens, loving sisters, and devoted wives, have 
 displayed a firmness and a presence of mind, 
 amid scenes of danger and death, that nothing- 
 could appal? Practised energy however, is 
 usually the most powerful, and he will shew most, 
 in whom it has been oftenest called into action. 
 I would urge the acquirement of that, which is 
 adapted to the highest efforts, and most extensive 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 283 
 
 usefulnesss. If it were possible, I would endow 
 each member of the community with sufficient, to 
 enable him to excel in the duties of domestic, as 
 in those of public life : that would make every 
 one a good parent, a good child, and a good 
 brother or sister; that would teach individuals 
 to forego their personal ease for the sake of 
 others to sacrifice all inferior considerations, 
 and even life itself, in support of truth to view 
 all things in subordination to the providence of 
 God, and to prepare for the final exit from this 
 existence, and the commencement of a future one, 
 with calmness, dignity, and cheerfulness. Now, 
 all these are attainable by means of mental and 
 moral culture; by the formation of good habits, 
 and by a vigorous perseverance in every act, that 
 redounds to the promotion of human excellence. 
 I do not ask impossibilities I require the per- 
 formance of no visionary task. I have endea- 
 voured to shew, that if men and women will but 
 cultivate the innate powers of their hearts and 
 understandings, they may realize, not only all 
 that I have pointed at, but more than it has 
 fallen to my particular lot, to conceive or imagine. 
 In the pursuit of this, as in that of all other ex- 
 cellencies, our own efforts will be most effective. 
 Others may assist us at the onset, or during the 
 course of our career, but the mind that is ambi- 
 tious of goodness and truth, must achieve their 
 possession for itself. 
 
 3. Credulity and scepticism are relative terms. 
 We may exhibit them with regard to both false- 
 
284 ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 hood and truth. Error however, is usually im- 
 plied; inasmuch as it would be an incongruity 
 to style a person sceptical, who disbelieved a 
 falsehood, or credulous, who believed a truth. 
 Nothing is more common than to impute credu- 
 lity, or scepticism, to persons who are chargeable 
 with neither. It is good to doubt the false, and 
 to believe the true, but what is the criterion? 
 Opposing sects lavish the offensive terms, for be- 
 lieving, or disbelieving respectively, what each 
 affirms to be false or true. It is not less our 
 duty to seek the evidence of truth, than to doubt 
 until we have found it. We are however, often 
 required to believe upon testimony, not only in 
 matters of science, but in the daily concerns of 
 life, inasmuch as human powers are inadequate 
 to embrace the infinite particulars of existence. 
 In moral science, every one should be able to 
 form an opinion for himself, not only because it 
 is every man's concern, but because it involves 
 the widest criterion for the determination of truth. 
 It is the interest of all to arrive at it, though dis- 
 torted views, sinister interests, and early preju- 
 dices, too often sway the mind in a false direction. 
 Many indeed, never seek for truth at all, but 
 take up a gratuitous position from the first, em- 
 bracing what supports, and shunning what runs 
 counter to it. Some who begin this way, though 
 rarely, may arrive at truth. It is impossible for 
 every creed, whether political or otherwise, to be 
 true, yet formal demonstrations exist on the sub- 
 ject of all. Before proceeding to the search, the 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 285 
 
 mind should be familiar with general principles, 
 in all the wide diversity of moral and intellectual 
 truth. This it is, which in this state of existence, 
 places man upon the highest pinnacle which he 
 is able to climb. A person may be a chemist, a 
 mathematician, or a geologist, but without the 
 knowledge in question, it is impossible for him to 
 be a philosopher, or even to be possessed of su- 
 perior discrimination. It is hard however, to 
 induce men to pursue truth without bias or pre- 
 occupation, or even to lead inquirers to relin- 
 quish the prejudices with which their minds have 
 been imbued. Every one with the smallest tinc- 
 ture of information, is aware of the difficulty with 
 which physical science has made its way. Moral 
 science however, has only partially wrought its 
 deliverance ; and as it has been, will continue to 
 be opposed by all, whose temporary interests are 
 mixed up with the preservation of the different 
 views, whether sectarian or political, which it 
 assails. Men may gain fame by the invention of 
 paradoxes, and barren metaphysical hypotheses, 
 but the cultivation of moral science for its own 
 sake, and the simple enunciation of the infe- 
 rences to which it leads, are too frequently, the 
 signal for slander and persecution. It is vain to 
 urge, that it concerns every one; men of sordid 
 or mistaken views, will not believe that, to be for 
 their advantage, which has any tendency to 
 threaten their position, or to withhold the profits 
 which are derivable from the continuance of 
 error. We should feel astonished were a Hin- 
 
286 ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 doo to scrutinize his creed, with the calmness 
 which we would not fail to display, were we to 
 engage in the search ; yet we manifest little con- 
 cern for the delusions under which we labour 
 ourselves, and which cannot be removed, without 
 laborious and unflinching examination. Error 
 is too often attended with a pomp and circum- 
 stance of detail, that captivate the imagination, 
 and assail the belief. The mind alone, that is 
 fortified by moral and intellectual cultivation, 
 cannot vacillate. The best rule is to test the 
 alleged fact, in connexion with its particular 
 evidence, by the incontrovertible experience of 
 mankind, from which, except in the case of well- 
 authenticated discoveries, it will rarely be found 
 to depart. This general rule however, has ex- 
 ceptions, as when error has become universal. 
 Individuals under these circumstances, must have 
 recourse to a higher evidence, drawn from the 
 stores of moral and intellectual truth, which can 
 hardly fail. The utility of experiment and direct 
 observation, is obvious, but these cannot always 
 be resorted to. It is certain however such are 
 the facilities with which the Deity has so plenti- 
 fully endowed us for its discovery, that if we 
 will but seek truth earnestly, and without undue 
 bias, with all the powers of our hearts and un- 
 derstandings, we shall most probably arrive at it. 
 4. Mental pleasures cost nothing, and they are 
 such as riches alone can never purchase. The 
 comparative value of intellectual acquirements, 
 and the order of their cultivation, must be deter- 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 287 
 
 mined by their respective advantages, and by 
 their tendency to enable us to perform our duties 
 to the Deity, to our fellow-men, and to ourselves. 
 Hence, it is desirable, that every one should pos- 
 sess just and abiding perceptions, of the great 
 principles of morality, as well as of the various 
 utilities and relations of human pursuits. With- 
 out these, we may be led away by the mere love 
 of fame; though the principal value of mental 
 culture, is as a means to an end; which end, is 
 the better performance of the duties of life, and 
 a clearer appreciation of the wonderful works, 
 and moral government of God. It is not so 
 much, what a person's knowledge and abilities 
 are, as the use which he makes of them; since 
 they are a trust and a gift from the Deity, for 
 the promotion of our rational welfare, and that of 
 others, and to enable us to act in conformity with 
 the universal manifestations of God's wise and 
 good providence. If a man have talent and 
 information, it is well let him turn them to ac- 
 count; he is not at liberty to leave them in 
 disuse, much less to devote them to improper 
 purposes. How vain are the self-gratulations 
 in which some indulge? Has nature endowed 
 them with capabilities superior to those of their 
 fellows, let nature be lauded for the gift; but if 
 fortunate circumstances, or careful instructors 
 have led to their superiority, where is the scope 
 for praise ? Let us cultivate knowledge, not only 
 for its own sake, but on account of the capabili- 
 ties which it confers of doing good, and of per- 
 
288 ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 forming our duties with energy, ability, and suc- 
 cess. When it is turned to evil purposes; when 
 it is used to foment rivalries ; to tyrannize over 
 others, or as the instrument of vain and idle 
 ostentation in a word, when it is wrested from 
 its legitimate purposes, then indeed, it ceases to 
 be cultivated for its own sake, or for the sake of 
 any thing that is wise or good. Yet, when we 
 look abroad in the world, and take cognizance of 
 the sectarian and political rivalries with which it 
 abounds, as well as of the various immoralities 
 which knowledge is made to subserve, we can 
 hardly help feeling that in such cases, it were 
 better there had been none, than that it should be 
 turned to such inferior purposes. Far better 
 indeed, were it for men to remain in ignorance, 
 than that they should convert what they had 
 learned, into an engine of iniquity. Hence it is, 
 that we must insist again and again, on the ne- 
 cessity of moral knowledge, on the cultivation of 
 the heart, and on virtuous habits. Though 
 science and literature can hardly be gained, with- 
 out a tincture of moral knowledge ; still, the latter 
 to be efficiently known, must be made the object 
 of specific pursuit. 
 
 5. Perhaps nothing would promote more effec- 
 tually, the objects here insisted on, than the cul- 
 tivation of a sense of accountability. Were it 
 properly inculcated that every action necessarily 
 leads to certain results, it would tend to the utmost 
 habitual circumspection. The prudence which 
 we are to adopt however, is not of the circum- 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 289 
 
 scribed character, that would square our conduct 
 by inferior and partial motives, accommodated 
 to temporary, and perhaps sinister interests, but 
 the large and comprehensive prudence, that would 
 regulate our thoughts, feelings, and impulses, by 
 views of excellence and utility, not bounded by 
 the present merely, but extending to the absent 
 and future. This is the prudence that dwells 
 lightly on existing evils, and existing toil, incurred 
 in the promotion of good, and even repaid in the 
 endurance, by the approbation of our best and 
 purest feelings. Were a sense of accountability 
 abidingly present, it would so modify our de- 
 meanour in all times and places, whether alone 
 or in society, that our lives would be uniformly 
 characterized by purity and truth. In children 
 especially, it should be fostered by every available 
 means, since it would exercise the most beneficent 
 influence on their after lives,, and regulate the 
 intellect to the production of usefulness, elevation, 
 and truth. In fine, the cultivation of useful and 
 virtuous intellectual occupations, cannot be too 
 largely insisted on. No poverty, no press of 
 business, no situation in life, need exclude us from 
 the pursuit; and when carried on in the manner 
 which has been recommended, cannot but re- 
 dound to happiness and self-respect. 
 
 The credulity of ignorant adults, is generally 
 marked by some mental pre-occupation, that ren- 
 ders the inculcation of error, easier than that of 
 truth; children however, are equally ready to 
 imbibe all impressions. Hence, a great moral 
 
 T 
 
2QO ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 duty devolves upon all who are engaged in the 
 business of instruction, that they should take ad- 
 vantage of the susceptibilities of childhood, for 
 imbuing useful knowledge, and for developing 
 the feelings which confer grace and dignity on 
 humanity. The individual who neglects these 
 precious moments, or who instils error, is not 
 only guilty towards the innocent victim of his 
 folly or indifference, but to generations unborn. 
 The errors, the evil passions, and the stunted 
 mental growth sometimes the only fruits of 
 childhood, are eradicated with difficulty, if ever, 
 and too often remain for the purification of an- 
 other state of existence. 
 
 6. The importance of habit cannot be passed 
 over in silence, with regard to the regulation of 
 the mind. No single intellectual act can be con- 
 sidered of great importance, until a habit has been 
 formed. It is only after a time, that mental 
 efforts become easy of performance, and steady 
 in their recurrence ; nothing short of these, can 
 render any one capable of speaking, writing, or 
 thinking, with ease, correctness, and continuity. 
 The individual must be conversant with the given 
 topic ; he must reflect upon it, and try to express 
 his thoughts with fluency and perspicuity. For 
 want of this, persons really well-informed, are 
 apt to blunder out their meaning, while the con- 
 trary confers an attractiveness, even on what is 
 superficial. And though correct thinking tends 
 to correctness of expression, steady composition 
 is necessary to both. Energetic reflection yields 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 2 ( J1 
 
 a pleasure, and produces a facility, that cannot 
 well be imagined by the indolent and ill-informed. 
 How many think carelessly on the most impor- 
 tant topics, who would be ashamed to act in a 
 similar manner, with regard to the minor con- 
 cerns of life? How many minds are weed- 
 grown, and infested with ignorance, prejudice, and 
 error? Good habits then, must be formed, and 
 kept in perpetual activity, if we would obtain and 
 preserve, the dignity and excellence, of which a 
 great and bountiful Benefactor has rendered us 
 capable. Were a man told where he might have 
 gold for the fetching, neither danger, distance, 
 nor fatigue, would separate him from the pre- 
 cious deposit; yet there are treasures of infinite 
 price, in the recesses of the mind, more costly far, 
 than the jewels of earth, and which every man 
 may have if he will. 
 
 7. It only now remains to enlarge on the ba- 
 lance, that should subsist between the objective, 
 and the subjective the real, and the ideal world. 
 The phenomena of mind however, are just as 
 real as those connected with outward objects. 
 By the constitution of our nature, we are obliged 
 to pay incessant attention to the business of life. 
 No man can neglect this, without perilling his 
 existence ; yet the individual who cares for no- 
 thing save outward concerns, is as far from pro- 
 moting the end of his being, as the man who is 
 wrapt up in the world of imagination. We owe 
 an attention to the former, which befits a crea- 
 ture whose temporal existence is involved in his 
 
292 ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 connexion with material things ; but we are called 
 on to commune with the still nearer concerns, of 
 that which is to survive the perishable relations 
 of our mortal being. Every man cannot be rich 
 in temporal possessions ; but every one may be- 
 come so, with regard to those of the mind. 
 Attention to worldly interests is a matter of ne- 
 cessity to spiritual ones, it is a duty. 
 
 Nature indeed, has richly provided for our 
 animal, yet still more so, for our spiritual wants. 
 The gratification of the former would have suf- 
 ficed, had we been designed to exist on a level 
 with the brute ; we are intended however, for a 
 more elevated destination. It has been so ordered, 
 that our physical sustenance cannot be secured, 
 without some degree of intellectual development ; 
 and Divine goodness is manifested by the acces- 
 sibility, universality, and permanence, of the 
 means which promote this result. The immate- 
 rial world is strongly recommended by its rich- 
 ness and security. Fraud or violence may deprive 
 us of earthly possessions, but cannot alienate 
 those of the soul; and death, which surely takes 
 away the one, secures an everlasting reversion 
 of the other. The material world is necessary 
 to our animal, but the immaterial, to our spiri- 
 tual nature the former promotes the things of 
 this world, the latter, those of a future : the one 
 fits us for earth, but the other for eternity. 
 
 Were adequate conceptions of the great ends 
 of existence general, we should hardly witness 
 such a bustle after riches, honour, and power. 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 293 
 
 The pleasures of sense, though great, are momen- 
 tary, and infinitely surpassed by the persistence 
 and durability, of mental and moral gratifications. 
 By this precious arrangement, an exclusive ad- 
 diction to the former is obviated ; for shall we not 
 prefer the riches that are at once inexhaustible 
 and incorruptible? If mankind have erred on 
 the road to happiness if individuals languish in 
 the lap of luxury, it is because they have courted 
 that as an end, which should only have been 
 sought as a means. We hear of the pursuit of 
 wealth, possessions, and empire; but what con- 
 queror aspires to the boundless domains, wherein 
 he may reign free and unopposed in which, he 
 will trench upon no one's rights, and cause no 
 one's unhappiness, and of which, the duration is 
 co-extensive with existence itself? Yet progres- 
 sion is a feature in the history of man ; and we 
 may perhaps venture to hope, ere ages have lapsed 
 away, that a race will appear whose ambition it 
 will be to diffuse knowledge, not to spread igno- 
 rance to propagate a sense of true religion, in 
 place of the horrors of superstition and fanati- 
 cism, and to urge with a success which has not 
 hitherto graced the efforts of the wise and good, 
 the excellencies, and the infinite superiority of 
 the spiritual world, in opposition to all the plea- 
 sures of sense. 
 
 One who is initiated into the concerns of the 
 former, cannot fail to discern the vast variety 
 that exists among men. Some devote themselves 
 with an energy worthy of nobler aspirations, to 
 
294 ON THE REGULATION OF THE INTELLECT. 
 
 the world of sense, hardly dreaming it would 
 seem, that there is another and a better. But 
 there is in truth another, which though only par- 
 tially discernible, we perceive to be fairer and 
 more magnificent, than that which is revealed by 
 our senses alone. Of the boundless and diversi- 
 fied nature of the spiritual world, we can only 
 form a faint and glimmering conception ; but we 
 see enough to satisfy us, that when the curtain is 
 lifted up which obscures our mortal vision, we 
 shall become the spectators of a scene, which 
 must infinitely excel all the conceptions which we 
 are able to frame of it here. Every phenomenon 
 of earth, every act of life, have their spiritual 
 analogues, which, although they will not force 
 themselves on the attention of the careless, may 
 be seen in part, by those who will search after 
 them. All point to their Author and Regulator ; 
 and some of them, perhaps to a greater extent 
 than we have any means of knowing, are related 
 to other forms of existence. Our devotion to our 
 Maker, and the various duties which we owe to 
 ourselves and to our fellows, unite us with that 
 other state of being, to which we are daily has- 
 tening. Independent of these however, there is 
 a host of feelings connected with our moral and 
 intellectual manifestations, the arts, and sciences, 
 as well as the vast panorama of nature, which also 
 associate us with more extended scenes of percep- 
 tion, and a wider sphere of action. In fine, it is 
 to the world within the breast, that we are to look, 
 however partially, for the solution of those won- 
 
ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 295 
 
 derful enigmas of our mortal existence, which link 
 us by an inscrutable bond, with the things that 
 are without. The present, is the age of material 
 utilities ; of endless projects and speculations ; of 
 measures partially conceived, and imperfectly 
 realized, for improving our earthly condition: 
 but a period must arrive, in which, while our 
 corporeal well-being is secured, the boundless 
 regions of the moral and intellectual world, 
 shall be better explored, and in which, means 
 will be made use of, to secure to it also, the at- 
 tention and cultivation that shall most redound to 
 the promotion of our temporal and eternal welfare. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 ON THE BEST MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 
 
 THE leading points connected with the improve- 
 ment of the mind, have already been enlarged on ; 
 it only remains therefore, to mention that which 
 has not been fully dilated on before. Correct 
 moral, and intellectual, and subordinately, phy- 
 sical culture, comprises the whole. The first, as 
 it must ever be repeated, should be the most pro- 
 minent feature in general education. Truth in- 
 deed, must come from the heart, as well as from 
 the head, and we should never have been endowed 
 
296 ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 
 
 with the two-fold capability, had its cultivation 
 not been intended. 
 
 I. The utility of education is so great, that few 
 have risen to eminence who have not enjoyed its 
 advantages. Instances indeed, will be alleged, 
 in which uneducated persons have excelled in 
 literature, science, and art; this however, illus- 
 trates another principle, but does not do away 
 with the importance of that now insisted on. If 
 we look around, we perceive that the powers of 
 the great majority remain undeveloped ; that few 
 enjoy the advantages of superior moral and intel- 
 lectual culture in a word, that the infinite capa- 
 bilities of mankind, remain nearly inert, from 
 birth to the grave. If this were otherwise; if 
 society would foster, with all its strength, the 
 mighty utilities of education, excellence of every 
 kind would as surely become the rule, as it is now 
 the exception. Inasmuch as the interests of so- 
 ciety are made up of those of individuals, by so 
 much do the ignorance and prejudices of the latter, 
 depreciate those interests. The omitted cultiva- 
 tion of human powers, is not only individually, 
 but collectively hurtful. It is for the advantage 
 of the community, that no one should be immoral, 
 or ignorant, since no one can be so, without injury 
 to others. If mankind could once be convinced 
 of the advantages derivable from universal train- 
 ing, they would shew infinitely more zeal in its 
 promotion, than they have ever displayed in any 
 of the insane projects dictated by ambition, 
 avarice, and superstition. How much energy is 
 
ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 297 
 
 wasted on objects, whose tendency is worthless 
 or uncertain? Wars in one place; crusades 
 against opinion in another ; political struggles in 
 a third ; all in relation to things, of which few 
 have any well-defined conceptions. Let men's 
 blood be heated; rouse them in defence of they 
 know not what, and on they proceed, to the close 
 of their career, squandering their powers, and 
 bequeathing an unmeaning strife to their descen- 
 dants. It is certain that the attention which is 
 paid to education, will be in the direct ratio of 
 intellectual and moral culture, and that it must 
 go on with the progress of time, and general en- 
 lightenment. The expenditure arising out of a 
 single war, would educate the children of a whole 
 people for ever. Nations of every creed and 
 clime, might have their offspring imbued with that 
 useful knowledge, and that cultivation of the 
 heart, of which every human being, the least en- 
 dowed with the better attributes of his species, 
 admits the utility; while error and ignorance 
 would fall off, never to be resumed. No really 
 beneficial change can be thought of, even in spe- 
 culation, which shall not be more than realized. 
 No language indeed, is adequate to depict the 
 utility of education ; it ministers to our moral and 
 intellectual wants, nurturing the arts and sciences, 
 ' with all the excellencies of humanity. Shall we 
 not then, encourage it; shall we not strive, with 
 our best energies, to direct and improve it? 
 
 II. While dwelling on a subject so important, 
 we must not omit to observe that education, in- 
 
298 ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 
 
 dispensable though it be, forms but the initiative 
 to that self-instruction, which it would be the 
 business of after life to perfect. The one is the 
 necessary complement of the other. Where there 
 has been a good education in youth, unremitting 
 self-instruction crowns the process. Without the 
 former, the latter languishes ; but with it, proceeds 
 vigorously, under the combined stimulus of pre- 
 vious knowledge, industrious habits, and maturing 
 faculties. The man who has been well educated, 
 however vast the advantage which he thereby 
 derives, is an imperfect being without the further 
 aid of self-discipline. Neither the operation of 
 external circumstances, the instruction of others, 
 nor any earthly means, will otherwise suffice. 
 The greatest benefit which education can confer, 
 is that of preparing us for the energetic improve- 
 ment of all our powers, through our own efforts. 
 As it is, we should strive to impress the unspeak- 
 able importance of the latter, on every human 
 being who is desirous of realizing the excellencies 
 of his nature, as the indispensable condition with- 
 out which, it is impossible to secure any real or 
 lasting progress. 
 
 III. The influence of governments, were it 
 properly directed, might be vastly increased; 
 yet much of their power remains latent. This 
 circumstance can only have arisen from an erro- 
 neous conception of the duties incumbent on 
 them. It is considered an affair of importance, 
 when an alliance can be arranged with a foreign 
 power, or a few square miles of territory secured ; 
 
ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 299 
 
 compared with the real ends of government how- 
 ever, such things are insignificant. The powers 
 of individuals are limited, those of governments 
 are unlimited. Every motive, human and divine, 
 calls on these mighty social engines, to promote 
 education to the utmost, and so far as may be, 
 to aid in the fulfilment of the great ends of exist- 
 ence. Individual energies, they cannot indeed 
 supply, but they can encourage and support them. 
 The part which governments have to perform, is 
 not passive, but eminently active ; and if so, the 
 good which they may do, is incalculable. When 
 a patriot king happens to be placed at the head 
 of affairs, with what reverence is he not regarded, 
 and with what devotion are not his name and his 
 deeds handed down to posterity? In place of 
 fomenting idiot wars, and the never-ceasing strug- 
 gles of political and sectarian factions, govern- 
 ments should expend their utmost efforts in 
 securing the good of the whole, by conforming to 
 those eternal laws, whose foundation is laid in the 
 constitution of our nature. It is not the well- 
 being of a part, but of all, that should be attended 
 to; every member of society has an indefeasible 
 title to the fostering care of the collective energies 
 of the people. If the rights of any be neglected, 
 the results are sure to recoil upon the rest; hu- 
 manity can be outraged in no particular, without 
 evil consequences. Tried by this rule, few go- 
 vernments will stand the test ; how rarely indeed, 
 has their trust been fulfilled with faithfulness and 
 impartiality? It must ever be reiterated, that 
 
300 ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 
 
 they alone, can introduce a universal education, 
 in which the lowest in the community may par- 
 ticipate, and which shall be upon a level with 
 the utmost advance of human knowledge and 
 intelligence. 
 
 Governments however, cannot do all; they 
 must he urged incessantly forward, by the efforts 
 of the community. Society might do much, but 
 warring interests have singularly neutralized its 
 powers. The latter however, will become more 
 effective, with the increase of that general en- 
 lightenment, which shall cause the interests of 
 individuals to be identified with those of the com- 
 munity. It requires little intelligence to shew, 
 that there is nothing incompatible between the 
 two, and that the advancement of the one, tends 
 to the promotion of the other. Social zeal is not 
 always well directed; it attempts the palliation 
 of existing evils, without trying to eradicate them. 
 With judicious arrangements, the poorest even, 
 might secure an education for their children, that 
 would be calculated to raise them high in the 
 scale of humanity. As society becomes better 
 informed, it may be presumed that this stupen- 
 dous power of working good, will be cultivated 
 to an extent, of which we are at present able to 
 form but a feeble conception. 
 
 IV. Every one should waken up his energies 
 to the utmost, so as to do all the good in his 
 power, while the brief tenure of life permits. 
 Much may be effected if we will but strive : no 
 one should slumber in the lap of indolence. 
 
ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 301 
 
 Every one has some influence, and all that has 
 ever been done, was done by individuals. We 
 should reflect betimes, on the business, and on the 
 end of existence we should oppose and combat 
 with all our might, irresolution, apathy, and indo- 
 lence. Good must be wrought by positive efforts, 
 if it is to be wrought at all; vain wishes can 
 accomplish nothing. Our mental and moral 
 faculties improve with exercise, to the close of our 
 career ; but if we do not advance, they must ne- 
 cessarily recede. The stupidity, the ignorance, 
 and the imbecility, which afflict the world, are 
 occasioned by ourselves. Every one has a part 
 to act, if he will exert himself, and may realize 
 some substantial benefit, if he will but try. All 
 have a value and a usefulness, which no one 
 should be permitted to trample in the dust. 
 
 V. The mental and moral sciences, as well as 
 the wonderful works of God, comprise a field of occu- 
 pation and inquiry, that the most active intellect 
 in vain attempts to exhaust. Such, form a noble 
 culture for the heart and understanding, the very 
 capability of undergoing which, proves the inde- 
 scribable goodness of an almighty Providence. 
 An influence the most beneficent, is thereby ex- 
 ercised over our moral and intellectual develop- 
 ment, while we are enabled to perform a digni- 
 fied part in this world, and to prepare, it cannot 
 be doubted, for the duties of the next. If intel- 
 lectual science however, be inferior to moral, it 
 is equally indispensable, in order to enable us to 
 form a correct theory of moral science itself. 
 
302 ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 
 
 And although the theory is one thing, and the 
 practice another, yet the former is of advantage 
 to the latter. Intellectual science in one sense, 
 is the basis of morality, education, and legislation, 
 which would otherwise be regulated by custom, 
 prejudice, and caprice. If indeed, they have also 
 a foundation in experience, it is an experience 
 rectified and generalized by the observations of 
 a multitude of wise and reflecting men. We see 
 in the history of nations, the bungling that has 
 existed in the application of these sciences, and 
 the long period that has elapsed before the prin- 
 ciples on which each must repose, were success- 
 fully elaborated. 
 
 The acquisition of science and art, though dif 
 ficult at first, is rendered easy by practice. Their 
 cultivation produces a vast facility in intellectual 
 operations, and in the formation of agreeable and 
 useful mental combinations. Hence it is, that 
 while they are means to an end, they also con- 
 stitute in themselves, an end of no inferior impor- 
 tance. Thus, while the student perfects himself 
 in literature, science, and art, he lays the foun- 
 dation of industrious habits, and mental acumen 
 qualities in themselves, of infinite value. What 
 other than wisdom supreme, could have devised 
 anything so admirable? The advantages seve- 
 rally arising from the culture of the sciences, are 
 enormous. Nature, both organic and inorganic, 
 makes us acquainted with God's works, their sin- 
 gular properties, their applications to human 
 wants, and the general purposes of creation, as 
 
ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 303 
 
 well as with the irrefragable evidence which they 
 yield, of wisdom, goodness, and power. They 
 elevate the mind; they point out arrangements 
 for the reception of man upon earth, long ere his 
 species found a place on it, and they demonstrate 
 prospectively, the transition of his immortal na- 
 ture, to a higher sphere of existence. By the 
 study of God's infinite works, the heart is hu- 
 manized, and the understanding elevated; while 
 man is raised above the petty, yet consuming 
 passions, to which his heart is subject, and juster 
 conceptions of the nobility of his nature imparted. 
 The arts are attended with peculiar advantages; 
 they refine upon the phenomena which surround 
 us, and enhance the legitimate pleasures of sense. 
 The heart and understanding are purified, and 
 an origin given to emotions, which we should not 
 otherwise experience. And, not least, they 
 strengthen the foundations of society, and lead us 
 to delight in associating with our fellows. Moral 
 and intellectual science however, crowns the 
 whole. By the first, we instruct ourselves in the 
 foundation, and in the practice of our duties; 
 form abiding conceptions of our condition here, 
 and our destination hereafter, and by scrutini- 
 zing the relations to which we are subjected, 
 penetrate however feebly, into the intentions of 
 the Deity, and conform to his will. It permits 
 us to enlarge on the evidence, derived at once 
 from the exercise of the heart and understanding, 
 of God's infinite providence, as well as of the 
 existence of the human soul, and our hopes as to 
 
304 ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 
 
 its immortality. The general cultivation of this 
 precious science, would lead to universal peace 
 and good- will ; while it would for ever extinguish 
 the hideous warfare, and the miserable clashing 
 of opinions, with which mankind have so long 
 been desolated. Intellectual, though less intrin- 
 sically important than moral science, is indisso- 
 lubly connected with it. So far as it is possible 
 to become acquainted with them, it shews us the 
 constitution of the human mind, and the nature 
 of our faculties ; in like manner, it points out the 
 origin of our knowledge, as well as of our moral 
 sentiments ; and by laying down a clear analysis 
 of the process, prevents the introduction, or com- 
 bats the existence of false moral doctrines. It is 
 also, singularly well calculated as a study, to im- 
 prove the faculties, and by unfolding the opera- 
 tions of the mind, affords a stupendous instance 
 of that power, which we can never sufficiently 
 admire. This alone, independent of other utili- 
 ties, would be a sufficient reason for its universal 
 cultivation. I shall only add, that our intellec- 
 tual efforts should be incessantly connected with 
 moral associations, and pre-eminently, with the 
 wisdom, and goodness of God. Thus, the mind 
 in all its varying conditions, would be kept under 
 the influence of benevolence and love, and ever 
 prepared for the exercise of the duties, which con- 
 fer happiness and dignity in this world, and per- 
 mit us to look forward with hope and trust, to 
 that which is to come. 
 
 VI. While the means of improving the mind 
 
ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 305 
 
 are under consideration, it will not be out of 
 place to devote a few observations to its influence 
 on the passions. If these be extinguished, or 
 greatly subdued, so much the worse for the un- 
 derstanding, which cannot reach the vigour and 
 elevation to which their well-directed impulses 
 contribute. On the other hand, if the passions 
 preponderate, they will go far to reduce to stormy 
 confusion, powers otherwise productive of varied 
 benefit. It is erroneous to enjoin their extinc- 
 tion ; if the Deity had not designed their useful 
 instrumentality, is it possible that he would have 
 permitted their existence or their operation? It 
 is the misdirection of these admirable agents, 
 which is alone to be reprobated. Without pas- 
 sion, we should be mere automatons, retaining 
 the form, but not the ennobling attributes of hu- 
 manity. The influence of reason should be ab- 
 solute; it ought to guide and restrain, but not 
 unduly repress the passions. Thus regulated 
 and directed, they yield a force and an energy, 
 which it would otherwise be impossible to obtain. 
 The removal of various prejudices would vastly 
 facilitate the cultivation of the mind. One of 
 the most remarkable of these perhaps, is that 
 which would condemn the majority to almost 
 utter ignorance. Great stress is laid upon laws 
 and the administration of justice, but would not 
 their objects be more effectually accomplished, 
 among an educated, than among an ignorant and 
 corrupt community? Assuredly, the virtue and 
 happiness of the people the real objects of all 
 
306 ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE MIND. 
 
 law, would be better secured were moral and in- 
 tellectual knowledge universal. Knowledge is 
 the appanage of no particular class, and should 
 be free to all, as the air we breathe, or the run- 
 ning stream. Objections to universal education 
 do not bear a moment's examination; for will 
 any one deliberately assert, that the community 
 would not be the better of mental and moral cul- 
 ture? The active occupations to which of ne- 
 cessity, the greater number are devoted, pre- 
 clude most ornamental, or elaborate branches of 
 knowledge. All could not become painters, 
 poets, or musicians, and excel in literature or the 
 recondite sciences, but undoubtedly, all should 
 acquire an accurate command over their mother 
 tongue, an intimate familiarity with the princi- 
 ples of moral truth, and a general acquaintance 
 with physical science. It is a base prejudice, that 
 would force the continuance of ignorance on any 
 portion of the community; endless evils must 
 flow from it, but from the dissemination of truth 
 union, peace, and happiness, without end. No 
 advantages from any other source, can be com- 
 pared with those which necessarily arise from 
 universal mental and moral culture. Let us 
 only reflect for a little, on the mass of buried 
 capabilities that might be ripened into the rich- 
 est display of virtue and excellence. We have 
 associations for various purposes, but none for 
 securing the best cultivation of heart and head 
 of every member of the human family. When 
 the mighty utility of such a procedure shall once 
 
ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE MIND. 307 
 
 be recognized, there is every reason to believe, 
 not only that mankind will exert all their ener- 
 gies to accomplish it, but that no hindrance shall 
 be able to check the fulfilment of its objects. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 ON THE PROGRESSIVE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE 
 HUMAN MIND. 
 
 How far the intellect is capable of advancing 
 in this world, and in the next ; to what lengths it 
 may attain, and what its final destination may 
 prove, are problems, in the solution of which, 
 every enlightened mind must take a part. As 
 to its progress hereafter, we have no means of 
 determining; but we are entitled to place bound- 
 less confidence in God's wisdom and truth, and 
 to believe that the process which he may employ, 
 will prove all-sufficient for its purposes. It is 
 tolerably certain that we shall be provided with 
 means of perception as efficient, if not more so, 
 than any which we now possess. We are sen- 
 sible that much remains behind the scene which 
 we cannot know, and that we are able to investi- 
 gate the phenomena which surround us, to an ex- 
 tent far short of the reality. How far they may lie 
 open to us hereafter, remains to be determined. 
 The very existence of another world, infers that 
 
308 ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE MIND. 
 
 of means of information at present wholly inac- 
 cessible. May we not venture from analogy to 
 presume, that there may be gradations of know- 
 ledge to which we shall be successively admitted? 
 The objective existence which we enjoy at present, 
 may possibly be superadded to a subjective one. 
 But who can say ? It has pleased the Creator that 
 our reason should but dimly penetrate into the 
 obscurity of the future an arrangement doubt- 
 less necessary to secure that due attention to the 
 affairs of life, which could hardly subsist, had we 
 been distracted by the stupendous changes of 
 another world. The prospect would have been 
 incompatible with earthly duties, and with the 
 means of information which have been judged 
 sufficient for us here ; it would have deranged the 
 apparatus of life, and set aside the provisions of 
 the Deity. The obscurity around us, in one sense 
 is a source of instruction, inasmuch as it is bene- 
 ficial to speculate upon another state of being, and 
 upon our condition therein. How admirably is this 
 calculated to sharpen our faculties, to purify our 
 hearts, and to lead us to place unlimited trust 
 in the hidden, as well as in the manifest provi- 
 dence of God ? If the event had been apparent, 
 these advantages would have been cut off. Even 
 the cavils of those who have arrived at the un- 
 happy conclusion that there is no futurity, tend 
 indirectly to the accumulation of proof, and to 
 stimulate inquiry. It is better perhaps, that con- 
 clusions so important, should be kept before the 
 attention, even by the refutation of objections, 
 
ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE MIND. 309 
 
 than that they should slumber in the torpor of an 
 indolent assent. Thus, it is well to turn evil into 
 good, and to make the opposition of the incredu- 
 lous, a means of more firmly establishing doctrines, 
 so essential to the virtue and happiness of our race. 
 The advance of the mind in this world, has been 
 secured by countless provisions, emanating from 
 the infinite wisdom and goodness of God. These 
 however, are counteracted by a variety of tempo- 
 rary obstacles, which militate more or less against 
 the general result. As time wears on, mankind 
 will doubtless, sufficiently perceive their interests, 
 to enable them to secure the fullest development 
 of the admirable capabilities of our common na- 
 ture . The force of circumstances must eventually 
 bear down all impediments, however numerous 
 and formidable. Bodily wants, absent moral 
 and intellectual culture, pernicious habits, and 
 useless pursuits sectarian and political animosi- 
 ties, defective energy, inferior motives, bad go- 
 vernments, the jealousy of the partially instructed, 
 the prejudices of the rich, and the ignorance of 
 the poor, operate to a vast extent, in retarding the 
 progress of the mind. These defects can only be 
 slowly removed, since the means most effectually 
 calculated to overcome them, take for granted the 
 partial existence of the qualities to be created. 
 Ignorance however, though not universal, is suf- 
 ficiently extant, to call for the strenuous efforts of 
 the wise and good, for perhaps ages to come. 
 Such is the discipline of the world ; we must take 
 it as we find it, and act accordingly. If there 
 
310 ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE MIND. 
 
 were no ignorance, no superstition, no tyranny, 
 no blood-thirstiness no prejudice, folly, or error, 
 on earth, we should not have the merit of opposing 
 them ; it is at least, some compensation, to possess 
 the virtues and the moral hardihood, that must 
 continue to display themselves, till the principle 
 of evil shall be for ever rooted out. The univer- 
 sal diffusion of knowledge and moral truth, will 
 engender other virtues ; but if we are to arrive at 
 the happy calm which shall ensue from the sup- 
 pression of ignorance and vice, we must resolve 
 to encounter the storms occasioned by their exist- 
 ing prevalence. 
 
 The operation of animal wants, sometimes im- 
 proves, and sometimes degrades the mind. As- 
 suredly, it is their abuse, not their mere existence, 
 which has this tendency. Everything indeed, 
 may be made a source of improvement, if we will 
 but abide by the dictates of nature. It is true, 
 that we are in some measure, intrusted to our 
 own care ; that we have the privilege of making 
 the most of our position, as well as of abusing it. 
 This however, could not have been avoided, with- 
 out taking away the power of selection, a loss that 
 would have been fatal to the interests of virtue. 
 The legitimate object of animal wants, is to pro- 
 vide for the exigencies of our frames, and by in- 
 citing us to exertion of body and mind, to operate 
 as an agent of mental and moral improvement. 
 If we neglect, or bestow too much attention on 
 them, the fault is our own: the regulations of 
 nature are not to be evaded with impunity. 
 
ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE MIND. 311 
 
 Mental and moral pleasures, to be appreciated, 
 must be experienced; hence, the importance of 
 early culture. This is the only way by which 
 the gratifications of sense can be prevented from 
 gaining the ascendency. When we address our- 
 selves to a sensualist, we feel mortified at the in- 
 sufficiency of our exhortations, forgetting that we 
 are actuated by sentiments, to which he is per- 
 haps, wholly inaccessible. If there be anything 
 certain in our constitution, it is, that moral and 
 intellectual enlightenment is the best guarantee 
 for the prevention of impurity, and the formation 
 of habits of imperturbable excellence. Hence, 
 the necessity of the highest culture, from the 
 earliest dawn of our capabilities, so that when the 
 period arrives in which temptations multiply, the 
 individual will be found unassailable ; or if un- 
 happily, he yield, it is only for a time, for 
 his endowments cannot be lost, and they must 
 eventually set him above the sovereignty of earth- 
 born passions for ever. Once the delights of 
 moral and intellectual excellence have been 
 graven on the heart and soul, they cannot be 
 obliterated. It is the glorious prerogative of 
 knowledge, that with care and attention, it cannot 
 be lost it is a possession for ever, which no 
 wrongs on the part of others can take away, and 
 from which, death itself cannot separate us. It 
 is impossible to urge too strongly, 'its indispensable 
 utility in the formation of a superior character, 
 or how amply it indemnifies us for whatever 
 sorrows, sufferings, or privations, the acquisition 
 
312 ON DEATH. 
 
 may have cost us. We may venture to hope, 
 that the admirable individuals who have appeared 
 from time to time, on the theatre of the world, 
 have not exhausted the capabilities of humanity ; 
 and if we may argue from the past, that there is 
 a progression of virtue and excellence in store for 
 us, of which the contemplation, even in advance, 
 causes the heart to thrill and bound with joy. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 ON DEATH, AND ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER, 
 VIEWED IN REFERENCE TO THE INTELLECT. 
 
 OUR knowledge is limited by our means, yet 
 we are permitted a glimpse however imperfect, 
 into the infinite arrangements of a good and wise 
 God. If what we actually witness, reveals such 
 splendour and perfection, what must that be, 
 which exists beyond the sphere of our actual cog- 
 nizance, and of which the stupendous whole, per- 
 haps exceeds the comprehension of any finite 
 being? It is our lot to strive on, and so to per- 
 fect our intellectual and moral grasp, as to em- 
 brace everything that relates to our safe conduct 
 on earth. Thus, shall we realize the intention of 
 existence, as well as best prepare for the higher 
 range of duty and activity, involved in an ulterior 
 stage of being. 
 
ON DEATH. 313 
 
 The body is a scaffolding for building up heart 
 and mind, against the advent of eternity, and for 
 a closer intercourse with a higher grade of intel- 
 ligence, than what the intervention of material 
 organs enables us to maintain. Though we may 
 attempt to image them forth, it is impossible to 
 conceive the emotions that must actuate the feeling 
 mind, when for the first time permitted to con- 
 template other, and more extended manifestations 
 of Divine wisdom, than those which are unfolded 
 in the existing world. How much more closely 
 the Deity will hold intercourse with his creatures, 
 and in what manner, are problems which we 
 cannot solve ; but we may perhaps suppose, that 
 his manifestations will be varied, conformable to 
 the capacity of those who shall be called on to 
 participate in them. We are even permitted from 
 earth, to witness an extent of creation so stupen- 
 dous, that the whole may well be presumed ade- 
 quate to form a subject of study and contemplation 
 to intellects of the highest order for ever. It has 
 been conjectured, that the Deity permits the sub- 
 ordinate direction of different tracts of creation. 
 We can hardly conceive a more extended scope 
 for the exercise of energies the most exalted ; but, 
 however probable the supposition, it is one which 
 we can have no means of verifying. 
 
 The contemplation of death is an instructive 
 one. Even to our limited perceptions, this change 
 seems pregnant with multitudinous advantages. 
 It clears away prejudice along with its upholders ; 
 and though some is still transmitted, it is with a 
 
314 ON DEATH. 
 
 diminished grasp. The revelations of another 
 world, will doubtless, prove too much for the most 
 obstinate adherents of error; the truth which 
 shall then shine forth, cannot be subverted by any 
 previous conclusions. It behoves us to think 
 rightly if we can ; but whether we do, or do not, 
 we may feel the unlimited assurance, that the fu- 
 ture must still remain the same. That the phe- 
 nomena of an hereafter, should accord in some 
 measure with our conceptions, would be a satis- 
 faction; they must at any rate, be sufficiently 
 striking to rectify every false anticipation. All 
 who are conversant with human nature are aware, 
 that prejudices often cling with such tenacity, 
 that nothing save the hand of death, seems ade- 
 quate to overturn them. The condition of society 
 is such, that when the mind has once contracted 
 an undue bias, it too often becomes closed to every 
 other avenue of inquiry; so that there is neither 
 motive nor ability to undertake the task. Con- 
 sideration, wealth, station, and all the advantages 
 of conformity, are found to preponderate, when 
 weighed against ignominy, poverty, and the naked, 
 albeit priceless rewards of truth. The satisfac- 
 tion accruing from the latter, affords an ample 
 recompense to many; but it is true, that the 
 greater number prefer that whiph is found in the 
 beaten track. Repugnance towards dissent, ap- 
 pears from the multitudes that are silent, to the 
 infinite detriment of rational investigation, who 
 have yet had sufficient strength of motive to in- 
 stitute inquiry to seek for truth, but not to pro- 
 
ON DEATH. 315 
 
 claim the discovery. Death however, will remove 
 every incentive that hypocrites or false professors 
 may experience, for declaring what they do not 
 believe. There will be no risk of persecution, or 
 failure of security hereafter ; nor shall sordid mo- 
 tives, or efforts at deception, prove of any avail. 
 The sincere votary of error will be disabused, 
 and though the long-loved delusion must be cast 
 away, any regret that he may experience, will be 
 allayed by the reception of unalloyed truth. This 
 must be the aspiration of all ; and however much 
 we may desire not to prove in error, our next 
 best wish will be that of having it eventually rec- 
 tified, if not in this world, at least in the next. 
 Independent of these results, death makes way 
 for the unprejudiced. All enjoy the instruction 
 of nature, and to the truths already admitted, add 
 those which are continually suggested. Thus, 
 notwithstanding all partial lapses, the march of 
 mankind is ever onward, and each succeeding 
 generation is on the whole, wiser and better than 
 that which preceded it. Death removes all error 
 and prejudice, along with the advocates of such; 
 and though race after race die away, consigning 
 more or less of the former to oblivion, knowledge 
 and truth are not lost, but go on, ever increasing, 
 and involving more and more of the family of 
 mankind. Death lifts up the curtain, beyond 
 whose ample folds no mortal eye has ever pene- 
 trated; it reveals the hidden secrets of futurity, 
 and ushers us into a condition, replete with other 
 duties, and more extended aspirations, where the 
 
316 ON DEATH. 
 
 phantoms with which the falsely-named king of 
 terrors has been surrounded, shall vanish for 
 evermore. 
 
 A question of apparent difficulty is sometimes 
 asked whence the destruction of so many in 
 earliest youth? The mortality among children 
 is owing to the irregular lives, and defective con- 
 stitutions of parents, and to the misery, disease, 
 and destitution, consequent on the imperfect con- 
 stitution of society. Mankind are left to their 
 care and forethought in this particular, as in every 
 other; if they will think and act providently and 
 wisely, they may also escape this calamity. It 
 was necessary to leave us to our own delibera- 
 tion and choice; if the desired event had been 
 otherwise secured, it could not be attended 
 with the advantages that flow from human skill 
 and human forethought. The blessings of exis- 
 tence must be earned before they can be enjoyed; 
 and Supreme intelligence has so ordered it, that 
 the cultivation of the means, bestows a happiness 
 equal or superior to that which flows from the 
 realization of the end. O divine O wonderful 
 provision what language, what words can we 
 employ, that will adequately express the wisdom 
 and goodness of God ! As for the intelligence of 
 the babe that perishes ere it has seen the light, 
 and that of the child who dies in early infancy, 
 we can rely with full security on Supreme wisdom, 
 that every arrangement will be made for the best. 
 Doubtless, the Providence which never sleeps, 
 attends to this also, and has appointed those who 
 
ON DEATH. 317 
 
 will care for the undeveloped soul. But these 
 are points into which we cannot enter ; the wisest 
 must be at fault as to particulars, whose intricacy 
 no living sagacity can resolve. 
 
 The spiritual world is more extended than the 
 material. Though the hosts of stars should per- 
 vade infinity, with every diversity of form and 
 production, they must still be out-numbered by 
 the multitude and variety of spiritual exist- 
 ences. It is likely that these display a range 
 utterly inconceivable to our faculties. We wit- 
 ness in this world a vast variety from the smallest 
 insect up to man ; but that which is involved in 
 the circle of our experience, is limited indeed, 
 compared with the mighty whole. It is probable 
 that there are beings whose powers transcend 
 those of mortal man, much more than man him- 
 self, does the lowest of creation. Progression is 
 the inevitable characteristic of intelligence, wher- 
 ever it may be placed; and it is impossible that 
 the lapse of countless time, should not have elimi- 
 nated an inconceivable degree of knowledge and 
 capacity, among the innumerable hosts of the 
 creatures of God. It may appear a contra- 
 diction to say that one infinity exceeds an- 
 other; that the infinity of thinking beings ex- 
 ceeds the infinity of created worlds, but it is 
 poverty of language that makes it seem so. The 
 multitude of worlds must of necessity, be exceeded 
 by the endless succession of living beings, that 
 appear and disappear on the surface of each. If 
 the stars be the abode of intellect, as we have the 
 
318 ON DEATH. 
 
 strongest grounds for believing, and if its vehicles 
 succeed each other continually as on earth, it 
 tends to give us a glimmering idea of the spiritual 
 universe. If indeed, there he gradations in each, 
 and if all become denizens of the realms of im- 
 mortality, it enhances still more our faint con- 
 ceptions of their vast extent. There is nothing 
 in numbers to heighten the difficulties, which 
 attend the realization of this immensity of exis- 
 tence. The power of God is equal, over many 
 as over few; he can as easily prolong our being 
 throughout an eternity, as during the brief period 
 of earthly life, and he can advance any degree 
 of intelligence indefinitely onward. All desirable 
 and possible things are equally practicable to the 
 Almighty ; and we have an assurance which no- 
 thing can diminish, that his benevolence is com- 
 mensurate with his power. It is indeed, our 
 duty to think of that hereafter to which all 
 are hurrying. We can anticipate nothing with 
 certainty, but we are not incapable of approxi- 
 mating, however feebly, to the truth; and if in 
 trying to do so, we exercise discretion and mode- 
 ration, our efforts to penetrate through the dim 
 and distant future, will not be unattended with 
 advantage. Speculation thus guarded, is no 
 more reprehensible in mental, than in physical 
 science; the conclusions which it furnishes, are 
 less satisfactory than certainty itself, but they 
 constitute a desirable supplement to the little 
 which we already know. 
 
ON DEATH. 319 
 
 The second part of this undertaking has now 
 been completed. The nature and operations of 
 the human intellect, the uses of language, the in- 
 fluence of circumstances, the physiology, regula- 
 tion, and best means of improving the mind, its 
 progressive perfectibility, and its relation to the 
 final change called death, have been severally 
 dwelt upon ; it now remains to complete the third 
 portion, which is to include the origin, nature, 
 and relations, of our feelings, affections, and moral 
 judgments. 
 
 END OF PART II. 
 
PART III. 
 
 HUMAN NATURE IN ITS MORAL RELATIONS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 ON THE FEELINGS, PASSIONS, AFFECTIONS, MORAL 
 JUDGMENTS, AND THEIR ORIGIN. 
 
 1. NUMEROUS and serious as the errors in other 
 matters have been, those on moral points are 
 still more so. The praises which we lavish on 
 truth, are peculiarly applicable to moral truth; 
 for if a knowledge of external nature be useful 
 and desirable, how much so is that which ac- 
 quaints us with ourselves, and which instructs us 
 in the foundation of our duties to our fellowmen 
 and to our Creator? An acquaintance with the 
 principles of morality was early created by the 
 occurrences of life, but the theory has been of 
 very slow acquirement. Up to a recent period, 
 the physical sciences were attacked with occa- 
 sional bitterness ; they have now however, achieved 
 their independence, and all, geology not excepted, 
 may be cultivated to the utmost, without hin- 
 drance or molestation. Moral science enjoys no 
 
 x 
 
3*22 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 such exemption ; and though the amount of tole- 
 ration be considerably increased, it still remains 
 in some measure, in bondage and leading strings. 
 Opposition however, may storm, prejudice and 
 error may scorn the proffered boon, yet mo- 
 ral science must eventually surmount every ob- 
 stacle, while its universal diffusion will prove as 
 great a blessing to mankind, as its absence 
 hitherto, has been an evil and a curse. 
 
 Our mental emotions the pleasures and pains 
 of which our minds are susceptible, are derived 
 in the first instance, from sensations of pleasure 
 and pain; just as our ideas not pleasurable or 
 painful, spring from sensations originally neither. 
 The term idea, is confined to remembered sen- 
 sations not pleasurable or painful and emotion, 
 to remembered sensations that are pleasurable or 
 painful. As ideas are derived from sensa- 
 tions direct or transmitted, so emotions them- 
 selves, may be direct or transmitted. In the 
 latter case, there must be some prototype; in 
 other words, the elements must be previously 
 experienced. By' these means, a few primary 
 feelings are multiplied into diversified forms 
 of splendour and beauty, raising man high above 
 the intellectual, and almost infinitely above the 
 animal part of his nature. Thus, the emotions 
 which are formed in our own breasts, and in those 
 of others, are reciprocated; and when we think 
 or feel, we think and feel for others also. The 
 feelings in no case, any more than the ideas, are 
 innate. Education, and moral instruction, pro- 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 323 
 
 ceed upon the supposition that truth is commu- 
 nicable. When man comes into the world, he is 
 destitute of all knowledge, and of every tendency 
 whether towards good or evil. All are equally 
 ignorant and equally innocent ; while the mind and 
 heart like a table of pure white wax, are at the 
 mercy of occurrences for the impressions that are 
 made upon them. All may be trained alike, to 
 virtue or vice, knowledge or ignorance. The 
 character of man hitherto, now, and for the future, 
 whether as regards the heart or the understan- 
 ding, has depended, and ever must depend, on the 
 operation of external circumstances, combined 
 with his own exertions. Material organization 
 however, bodily health, and the greater or less 
 perfection of the senses, modify the impressions 
 that are made. But the operation of such causes, 
 except where the senses are so depraved as to 
 lead to inevitable idiotcy, or a condition approxi- 
 mating to it, may be obviated. As to the con- 
 formation of the mind itself, we have no means 
 of coming to any conclusion, whether negative or 
 affirmative. By the moral man, we understand 
 the intellectual judgments, and the various pre- 
 occupations for or against, on the subject of good 
 and evil. These are singularly fortified by their 
 connexion with vivid affections; and though it 
 would be improper to say that a coldly moral 
 man might not be a virtuous one, he would ne- 
 vertheless, be destitute of that devout enthusiasm 
 in behalf of virtue, by which it is so powerfully 
 strengthened, and by which it effects an ever- 
 
324 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 lasting abode in the human breast. I do not 
 mean however, in this place, to dilate on the ad- 
 vantages and necessity of this sacred union, so 
 much as to signalize its existence, and to shew 
 that the moral man the man within the breast, 
 is a compound of intellectual judgments and 
 affections. It is hardly necessary to state se- 
 riously, that the feelings and affections are but 
 forms of consciousness, of one and the same sub- 
 stance, with whose seat and nature we are wholly 
 ignorant. No one acquainted with the physiology 
 of the mind, would refer the latter to the brain, in- 
 asmuch as body and outward objects respectively, 
 are but forms of consciousness, provoked indeed, 
 by some unknown exterior cause. To affirm that 
 the mind dwells in what, in one sense, is a form 
 of its own consciousness, or in the brain namely, 
 is to assert a contradiction and an incongruity. 
 Briefly then, when we say the heart, we mean the 
 mind in that condition which we call feeling, 
 affection, passion, and virtue itself, so far as the 
 feelings are concerned. 
 
 There is not within the compass of Divine pro- 
 vidence, a more striking instance of stupendous 
 wisdom, and beautiful adaptation, than the for- 
 mation of mental pleasures and pains, from 
 a comparatively small number of primary sensa- 
 tions. It is not surprising that the early inqui- 
 rers into this interesting subject, when they 
 reflected on the diversity of our emotions, should 
 have found it difficult to refer them to their real 
 source. That our different feelings should spring 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 325 
 
 from a few primary corporeal conditions of plea- 
 sure and pain, is a circumstance so wonderful, 
 as to demonstrate its origin from the power by 
 which means are adapted to ends, with an effi- 
 ciency and a certainty, that leave nothing to be 
 desired. Agreeable sensations give rise to pleasu- 
 rable, and painful sensations, to painful intellectual 
 emotions. Mixed feelings are afterwards gene- 
 rated by association. To this is also to be 
 ascribed the countless hosts of mental pleasures, 
 and mental pains, to which so much of the hap- 
 piness and the misery that chequer our mortal 
 career are owing. Pleasures and pains as derived 
 from organic sources, so far as variety is con- 
 cerned, are not very numerous; but they are 
 sufficiently so, if we regard the frequency of 
 their repetition, and their different degrees of in- 
 tensity. The remembrance of organic pleasures 
 and pains is productive of equivalent mental emo- 
 tions. We may however, recal collateral cir- 
 cumstances the time, the occasion, the agent* 
 the cause, and the consequences, alone. Thus, 
 the recollection of these is one thing, and that of 
 the pleasure or pain itself, whether direct or 
 transmitted, another. The mental pleasures and 
 pains are under the regulation of laws peculiar to 
 themselves, and cannot be renewed or dwelt upon, 
 except in subordination to these. 
 
 2. Some organic phenomena are styled appe- 
 tites, to the exclusion of others ; yet the desire of 
 sleep, res^ warmth, and breathing, respectively, 
 is not less an appetite, than are those which re- 
 
326 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 lute to food, drink, and sex. The corporeal 
 feelings that precede the performance of any 
 organic act, are appetites, the one as much so as 
 the other. Thus, the desire of exercising the 
 different senses, is an appetite ; while the exercise 
 of each, is the gratification of an appetite. It is 
 a name, not only for the desire which precedes 
 the act, but also for the act itself. The animal 
 feeling called desire, is a pleasure ; if not attended 
 to, or if gratified to excess, it merges into pain. 
 Hunger, for example, within certain limits, is 
 agreeable, while its gratification, and the after 
 feelings, are so likewise; privation however, on 
 the one hand, and excess on the other, entail 
 suffering. Genial warmth, rest after fatigue, 
 and exercise in the open air, are sources of sen- 
 sations the most exhilarating. When the func- 
 tions are properly attended to, and performed 
 with ease and regularity, they return a variety of 
 pleasing sensations, on which we bestow the col- 
 lective term, good health. Those however, in ill 
 or delicate health, are not debarred from such 
 sensations, to an extent more than adequate to 
 produce kindred mental emotions. It requires 
 moral energy indeed, to combat the deteriorating 
 influence of prolonged suffering; hence, those 
 whose hearts and minds have not been sufficiently 
 cultivated, are apt to become fretful and ill-tem- 
 pered, under pain and sickness; while on the 
 contrary, high-minded individuals bear the as- 
 saults of both, with firmness and equanimity. 
 The affections and feelings must be specially cul- 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 327 
 
 tivated, otherwise no amount of mere bodily plea- 
 sure, much less intellectual cultivation, will suffice 
 to elicit them. A rustic, whose vigorous organi- 
 zation enables him to enjoy every corporeal plea- 
 sure with the keenest relish, may yet, from the 
 absence of all training, as to the intellect and 
 affections, be nearly as destitute of feeling and 
 moral perception, as the beast in the fields. The 
 same is true in part, of the voluptuary and the 
 fanatical ascetic. Without proper training, the 
 feelings and affections are continually liable to 
 err, if not to remain wholly dormant. 
 
 There are numerous anomalous sensations 
 which it would be difficult to refer to any definite 
 origin. Who for example, has not experienced 
 the transient thrills which seem to pervade the 
 whole frame? The senses are rarely exercised 
 singly, consequently, the pleasures accruing from 
 their action, are increased by combination. An- 
 other powerful addition to the gratifications which 
 they afford, is their association with feelings and 
 ideas. Some of our corporeal pleasures begin at 
 an early period, others not till afterwards; some 
 persist through life, while a few cease before the 
 term of our mortality. Sensual and defective at 
 first, they lay the foundation of those exquisite 
 forms of mental consciousness, which constitute 
 so large a portion of our joy and happiness, as 
 well as of those exalted and purely disinterested 
 conditions, which invest humanity with its great- 
 est charm. Selfish and animal, they begin indeed, 
 and selfish and animal they remain, in minds 
 
328 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 that are destitute of moral and intellectual cul- 
 ture. Thus, we perceive that every energy is 
 necessary, to make the most of the admirable 
 capabilities which have been so bountifully ac- 
 corded to us all. 
 
 The simple consciousness of existence, did men 
 live naturally, and avoid inordinate stimuli, would 
 be ever pleasing. When the animal feelings are 
 blunted by irregularity or excess however, there 
 arises a morbid craving after exciting agents. 
 Excessive hunger or thirst, induces the severest 
 agony, until relieved by food, or the hand of 
 death. Privation of sleep and rest, is highly dis- 
 tressing. Unnatural denial with regard to any 
 of the appetites; also, blows, bruises, hurts, 
 wounds, heat, or cold, impeded respiration, and 
 the exercise of injurious agents generally, occa- 
 sion much suffering. Indigestion, nightmare, and 
 the various forms of disease, are productive of 
 greater or less uneasiness. Thus, functions and 
 organs that return no appreciable sensations in 
 health, become sources of pain during disease. 
 Mental pain has a tendency analogous to that of 
 corporeal; it occasions injurious states of mind 
 to become disagreeable. Bodily sufferings are 
 the source of mental. This is effected by their 
 simple remembrance, and by their adhesion to 
 our different ideas and intellectual emotions. 
 Painful, any more than pleasing associations, can- 
 not be transferred, without the pre-existence of 
 their elementary or complex forms, in the mind 
 in which they are awakened. 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 329 
 
 The pleasures and pains of sense are incapa- 
 ble of indefinite prolongation. The same organs 
 at least the involuntary ones, cannot return an 
 incessant tissue of agreeable sensations. If the 
 pleasure-giving powers of the organs be taxed to 
 excess, pain, not pleasure, is the result ; plainly 
 enough shewing, that the gratification of appetite 
 is not intended to occupy our continual attention. 
 Unless when stimulated by licentious indulgence, 
 or an unbridled imagination, they are quickly 
 satiated, and all desire is extinguished. The vo- 
 luptuary vainly attempts excesses that nature 
 never contemplated, and which she cannot sanc- 
 tion. Were mental and moral culture universal, 
 such infractions would never be attempted. As 
 to pain, if it be intense and of long duration, the 
 organs quickly cease to experience it; a tempo- 
 rary suspension of perception, and even death 
 itself, take place. Tyranny and superstition 
 were careful to regulate their dreadful inflictions 
 by this rule ; and medical science has been de- 
 graded in order to determine the powers of the 
 victim. Pain from disease is seldom conti- 
 nuous; the most violent even, has its periods of 
 remission, which yield a breathing time, and pre- 
 pare the strength and spirits for farther trials. 
 
 3. Our feelings as they spring up, may be 
 associated with each other, with animate and in- 
 animate objects, and with ideas. They may be 
 connected with conventional signs, awakened by 
 oratory, the exercise of the arts, or the daily 
 events of life. Feelings are associated with our 
 
330 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 fellow-creatures in the order of their proximity, 
 and to a still less extent, with inferior objects. 
 Emotions of pleasure and pain arise from analo- 
 gous sensations; selfish in the first instance, and 
 disinterested in the last. Once imbibed, they 
 may be associated with each other, and with ideas, 
 in combinations without end. They may also 
 be transferred to other individuals, and from 
 others to us; a translation however, which pre- 
 supposes the existence of their elements in the 
 breast of the receiver. Associated with our mo- 
 ral judgments, they accumulate to such an extent, 
 and acquire such an intensity, as to become 
 perhaps as great an incentive to the pursuit of 
 excellence, as the end which that pursuit has 
 in view. Thus, by a magnificent adaptation of 
 Providence, ever working for our good, means 
 and end are identified, and the result is secured 
 with redoubled certainty. To this is owing that 
 much disputed, but most certain condition, which 
 bears the name of disinterestedness. The pro- 
 pagation of feeling from breast to breast, through 
 the medium of books, and personal intercourse, is 
 a happy circumstance. We are thus assured that 
 its cultivation, not less than that of knowledge 
 itself, redounds not only to our own advantage, 
 but to that of all with whom we come in contact ; 
 and that virtuous, generous, and exalted emotions, 
 will often and often prove sources of happiness, 
 long after the bosom which emanated them, has 
 grown cold. 
 
 The child comes into the world without know- 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 331 
 
 ledge or feeling, virtue or vice. He is quickly 
 sensible of hunger and satiety, heat and cold, as 
 well as of the desire to rest and sleep. He is 
 conscious of the grateful sensations which flow 
 from the healthy performance of the different 
 functions, and of pain from disease. The exer- 
 cise of his senses also, proves a source of plea- 
 sure. His tender frame however, is incapable of 
 much exertion, and his life for a time, is divided 
 between food and rest. As he gets older, his 
 senses become more experienced; he observes 
 and remembers. His mother engages his great- 
 est attention ; he is fed from her bosom, and fos- 
 tered by her care ; she consequently, proves the 
 object of his earliest affections. This is obvious; 
 the mother is the instrument of all the pleasures 
 which he enjoys, and he connects her with their 
 recollection. By and by, he commences a more 
 extended existence ; he comes to know his father, 
 his sisters, his brothers, and all who approach 
 him. They form the objects of successive asso- 
 ciations, in the ratio of their agency in causing 
 pleasure and pain, or as they awaken feelings 
 already stored in his memory. In the one case, 
 they will be loved, in the other, feared or dis- 
 liked. As the child grows up, he assumes a more 
 active position ; he moves from place to place ; 
 he mixes with different companions, and becomes 
 the origin, and the receptacle of a variety of feel- 
 ings. The complexion of these, will be regulated 
 by the manner in which he is trained, and the 
 care which has been taken to exclude what is 
 
332 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 evil, and to secure what is good. Thus, the 
 affections and the passions of his early years, 
 will be feeble or energetic, well directed or ill. 
 As he approaches manhood, new feelings pervade 
 his heart, and the love of sex, paramount in its 
 impulses, and of long duration, becomes fully 
 lighted up. He enters into the turmoil of life, 
 and comports himself according to his knowledge, 
 his feelings, his habits, and the varying circum- 
 stances in which he is placed. He becomes a 
 husband and a parent; powerful affections rivet 
 him to wife and child, to friends and fellow- 
 creatures. The love of God, and the knowledge 
 of his providence, may be early experienced; 
 but it is in adult life, that we are best able to 
 feel the one, and to appreciate the other. This, 
 likewise, is the period, during which, the arts and 
 sciences, as well as every branch of human know- 
 ledge, are cultivated with the greatest fruit, and 
 in which, a due preparation is made for eternity. 
 To obtain these advantages to the fullest extent, 
 the best intellectual and moral instruction, from 
 the earliest dawn of feeling and intellect, is in- 
 volved. As age advances, the more violent pas- 
 sions are assuaged, while die intellect becomes 
 purer and less clouded ; there is a deeper love of 
 offspring and of mankind, and a more exalted 
 veneration for the Almighty ; but the mind, ever 
 and anon, looks forward to its everlasting home, 
 and to the more perfect satisfactions of that 
 spiritual world, for the coming of which, the 
 anxieties, the troubles, and the perplexities of 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 333 
 
 life, no less than those higher aspirations, and not 
 to be satisfied longings of the heart and under- 
 standing, tend to prepare the way. And when 
 death at length arrives, the pure-hearted and 
 high-minded man resigns his mortal existence, 
 with a satisfaction chequered indeed, by the mo- 
 mentary sundering of earthly ties, yet akin to the 
 feelings with which an infant rests, securely 
 trusting in the unspeakable wisdom and good- 
 ness, and in the never-sleeping providence of God. 
 I. Our feelings are never wholly simple. Each 
 connects us with living beings, our various pur- 
 suits, and the phenomena of nature. Our affec- 
 tions however, unite us most closely ; and first 
 of these, parental love. An admirable introduc- 
 tion to the love of offspring, is formed by the de- 
 voted reciprocity which subsists between the sexes. 
 The position of females in society, their compa- 
 rative isolation from the active business of life, and 
 perhaps, their peculiar organization, render them 
 more susceptible of tender emotions. Even 
 child-bearing, its duration, dangers, and suffer- 
 ings, add to the intensity of maternal love. The 
 act of nourishing her baby a highly pleasurable 
 one to the mother, is calculated to awaken emo- 
 tions the most glowing; while the protracted 
 period of childhood, requires a multitude of at- 
 tentions, all productive of feelings well calculated 
 to ensure their repetition and permanency. No 
 fond parent can perform a single office about her 
 child, that will not cause thousands of such feel- 
 ings to spring from her heart ; even the anxieties 
 
334 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 and cares which her situation entails, are sources 
 of fresh affection. She watches by her child; 
 she sympathizes in its sufferings with an earnest- 
 ness, which a mother alone can experience ; and 
 if it live, or if it die, her bosom equally throbs 
 with a delirium of grief or joy. The father's 
 affection is less at first; his love for his partner 
 however, is transferred to his child, and by de- 
 grees, the latter appeals to all the feelings which 
 have any place in his heart. He is elated with its 
 growing intelligence, and with the different marks 
 of its affection. It becomes in a degree, his 
 companion, and the object of his anxious solici- 
 tude. By a beneficent Providence, all the marks 
 of care and affection which he bestows, awaken 
 feelings that grow stronger with time, and the 
 evidence of which, death alone can suppress. 
 Thus, nature has balanced the affection of the 
 parents; and if a mother's love be better nur- 
 tured in the infancy of her offspring, that of the 
 father is more strongly developed afterwards. 
 Once created, neither can be extinguished, but 
 form the elements of the extended affections, 
 which bloom for ever in the regions of eternity. 
 Everything that purifies the heart, elevates the 
 intellect, and creates a reverence for the duties 
 of life, adds to the perfection of parental love. 
 It is no blind feeling springing up spontaneously 
 in the heart; the appliances which have been 
 furnished for its production, require cultivation. 
 Collateral influences may be daily witnessed, in 
 the pure and deep affection of a tender, an en- 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 335 
 
 lightened, and a highly moral parent, as well as 
 in the indifference of the ignorant, the dissipated, 
 and the unfeeling. The priceless affections of 
 parentage, to be fully possessed, must be secured 
 by heart worship at the shrine of truth and moral 
 excellence. Thus, feeling, virtue, and know- 
 ledge, add to, and enhance each other ; and by a 
 precious adaptation of means to ends, the dif- 
 ferent feelings of our nature are respectively 
 heightened by the cultivation of all. 
 
 II. Of all others, filial love is first created. 
 The animal pleasures of early life are both nu- 
 merous and intense. With what delight does 
 not the child consume its food, play, sleep, and 
 drink in the glowing sensations from every open- 
 ing scene of existence ? Nature is wise as she is 
 good the pleasures of childhood, independent of 
 the direct gratification which they afford, lay a 
 foundation not only for filial love, but for the dif- 
 ferent affections of adult life, and more especially, 
 for that precious feeling towards the Author of 
 good, which transcends all others. The inces- 
 sant repetition of the kind offices of parents, the 
 endearing accents and the affectionate caress, 
 recal each moment, the memory of preceding 
 kindness. Nature's means are ever adequate to 
 the end; agreeable sensations perhaps, are not al- 
 ways recollected, but they are so, to an extent more 
 than sufficient to create those emotions of which 
 it is the happiness of our lives to be conscious. 
 If there be excessive, or ill-timed severity; if 
 children witness the daily spectacle of vice, 
 
336 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 cruelty, misery, and strife, how can the gentle 
 feelings thus counteracted, spring up in their 
 bosoms? One might as well seek the dew of 
 heaven in the cold and dreary mine, or the pur- 
 ple grape in the arid desert. If wisdom and 
 tender love, guided by firmness, and a never- 
 ceasing desire to cultivate the heart and intellect, 
 characterize the conduct of the parent, we shall 
 witness in the child that filial affection, pure, deep> 
 and inextinguishable, which is only inferior to 
 that which is borne to the Creator and Father of 
 all. The feelings should not be left to the mercy 
 of accident, but practically cultivated by every 
 means that sedulous attention can secure. This 
 is the law of our being if our affections and 
 moral powers are not expressly attended to, 
 neither will they be developed. If however, 
 this has been done, a devotedness so pure 
 and disinterested ensues, that it is willing, as a 
 thousand instances prove, to incur every privation 
 for the good of its object. Each of the affections 
 paves the way for the rest, and the child who 
 dearly loves the author of its being, will become 
 the best partner and the fondest parent. 
 
 III. The causes productive of filial, are like- 
 wise so of fraternal love. Intercourse between 
 children of one family, and a participation in the 
 same enjoyments and endearments, necessarily 
 engender the strongest mutual affection. Much 
 will depend on judicious arrangements, by which 
 the operations of nature are left unimpeded, and 
 the unhappy rivalries which prejudice the peace 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 33? 
 
 of families are prevented. The precious relation 
 of brother and sister, will be promoted by the 
 rational and practical enforcement of the different 
 duties ; while the same means which stifle the 
 other affections, will be equally effectual in blight- 
 ing this. There is something inexpressibly de- 
 lightful in these pure and well-ordered affections ; 
 others may surpass them in intensity, but none 
 in calm, abiding fulness. The love of those born 
 of the same mother, prepares us for reciprocating 
 with the larger family of mankind, and with the 
 countless hosts of spiritual existences who are to 
 prove our brethren hereafter. 
 
 I. Any of the feelings, but above all, the love 
 of sex, may assume an all-absorbing intensity. 
 The remaining ties of life, numerous and impor- 
 tant though they be, produce no affection equal 
 to this no relation is so close, none so binding, 
 and none so enduring. All the early affections 
 prepare the way for it, and every moral and in- 
 tellectual endowment tends to heighten it. Hu- 
 man beings are to each other the sources of the 
 greatest felicity which they are capable of enjoy- 
 ing, while the love of sex adds additional attrac- 
 tions to all the ordinary relations of life. Man- 
 kind are capable of conferring infinite happiness 
 on each other; but the tender and rational in- 
 tercourse of men and women, furnishes larger 
 means of promoting it, than any ordinary com- 
 munion between members of the same sex. Na- 
 ture prepares us for this passion from the first, 
 but she wisely prevents its development until the 
 
338 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 powers of body and mind are sufficient for the 
 demands which the anxieties of life, and the care 
 of providing for a family, exact. When this pe- 
 riod arrives, new desires spring up, and new im- 
 pulses are called into being. The permanence 
 of our race must be secured, and the sexes accor- 
 dingly, have been connected by the strongest, and 
 most lasting ties. The love of sex, deep and 
 powerful though it be, rarely amounts to passion, 
 unless through the hindrances to which accident, 
 or the constitution of society, gives origin. It will 
 then, unless stemmed by the strongest efforts, 
 rise to an overwhelming height, and no impedi- 
 ments, and no sacrifices with which it is possible 
 for human nature to contend, will be too great to 
 surmount, or to endure. No pen could trace the 
 miseries of which this passion has been the source, 
 when insuperable obstacles have stood in the way 
 of virtue, or reckless desire ; death, and unhappi- 
 ness, ending only with life, are ordinary results. 
 Virtuous and reciprocated love yields a charm, 
 which no other affection can so generally confer. 
 What spectacle is more replete with dignity, sub- 
 limity, and interest, than the tender mother and 
 devoted wife, or the manly father and fond hus- 
 band? The mutual dependence and affectionate 
 intercourse of husband and wife, daily strengthen 
 the ties that subsist between them. Their off- 
 spring, no less than the good fortune which they 
 enjoy in common, and the evils which they have 
 been forced to endure, cement their union. If 
 happy in their children, it is a happiness which 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 339 
 
 is shared by both ; but if these are taken away, 
 they yield a consolation to each other, which no 
 other living beings could furnish. Thus, loving 
 and loved, they pursue their earthly career, kind 
 Providence gently preparing them for an exist- 
 ence, wherein the bonds of deep affection are sub- 
 ject to no disseverment. It is much to be 
 regretted, that deeper and more earnest convic- 
 tions, as to the duties incident to the married 
 state, and of the qualifications which it demands, 
 are not earlier instilled. No earthly relation in- 
 volves so many trying positions, or demands so 
 uniformly, the exercise of fortitude, energy, and 
 high moral principle. The education of men and 
 women, but of young women in particular, in 
 every class of society, is infinitely inferior to what 
 the exigencies of after life demand. Moral cul- 
 tivation, and the just direction of the affections, 
 are too much neglected in both ; but the intellec- 
 tual education of women is of the most inferior 
 description. The sexes equally require heart 
 and head cultivation of the most elevated descrip- 
 tion ; and until this is secured, we shall look in 
 vain for the beneficent influence which they are 
 mutually, so well calculated to exert. If they 
 regard each other with eyes unchastened by those 
 exalted feelings, and intellectual acquirements, 
 which all should possess; if either contemplate 
 the other in a purely sensual light, or hope to 
 recommend itself, by the agency of mere exter- 
 nals, human nature is in so far degraded, and 
 abandons her position. Personal advantages are 
 
340 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 not to be disregarded, but assuredly, they should 
 be held subordinate to the superior graces of the 
 heart and intellect, without which, beauty and 
 accomplishment, are but higher grades of mere- 
 triciousness. If young persons could only know 
 how much more lasting, and how much more dig- 
 nified, the intercourse of affection becomes, when 
 sanctified by moral purity and intellectual cul- 
 ture, they would strain every nerve to secure 
 both. Much of the deepest and most lasting 
 happiness that earth affords, is realized in the 
 wedded intercourse of persons thus endowed; 
 and were the spectacle more general, the world 
 would display a degree of well-being unfortu- 
 nately too rare. 
 
 V. Friendship is good-will towards another; 
 philanthropy is the same in kind, but different in 
 degree. The former involves more or less mu- 
 tual approbation and affection ; some community 
 of sentiment and opinion, and a reciprocity of 
 good offices. Friendship may subsist between 
 the young and the old; between persons of dif- 
 ferent sexes, and every diversity of habit, tem- 
 per, and disposition. The friendship of men 
 of fraud and violence ; of the wise and good, and 
 of the ignorant and superstitious, presents very 
 different features. As sympathy is the common 
 bond, so the cold-hearted can rarely experience, 
 or inspire it. Highly enlightened and sensitive 
 natures are prone to universal philanthrophy ; 
 they do not however, meet those qualities every- 
 where, that would call forth friendship. Danger 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 341 
 
 and calamity, shared in common, draw hearts to- 
 gether; how many of the most lasting attach- 
 ments have been formed on the stormy ocean, in 
 the political arena, and on the battle field? 
 Exalted and disinterested friendship is the source 
 of singular pleasure. Men of elevated senti- 
 ments are capable of the greatest heights of this 
 noble passion ; for if not based on morality, it 
 must be of an inferior stamp. Whatever may be 
 said, friendship is not common; the cultivation 
 of the heart and understanding that leads to it, 
 does not sufficiently abound. We should not 
 dignify with this title, the maudlin reciprocity of 
 the wine-cup, or the sordid intercourse of mutual 
 convenienee. Most are so engaged with their 
 individual welfare, that they have neither time 
 nor inclination for the higher interests of the 
 heart and understanding. People are equally 
 indisposed to receive, or to tender favours ; sus- 
 picion repels the one, and selfishness opposes the 
 other. The imperfect sympathies of political or 
 sectarian partisans, can hardly be styled friend- 
 ship; the scope is too limited to lead to such a 
 result. Nevertheless, we do not conciliate the 
 good will of others as we might ; we expect good 
 offices before they have been earned. The 
 heart is too much wrapt up in itself to permit the 
 sacrifices that create friends ; we require favours 
 in return for trifles, and are disappointed if we 
 do not receive them. If we could but know how 
 precious it is to give, whether we receive or not, 
 we should be amply satisfied. Happily, the con- 
 
342 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 stitution of human nature is such, that we cannot 
 be habitually beneficent, without reaping the re- 
 ward even in kind. I have spoken of philan- 
 thropy: it is a blessed feeling, and founded on 
 the better qualities of our nature. After our 
 domestic and social affections have been satisfied, 
 it is wise and good to gratify our aspirations with 
 egard to the moral and intellectual welfare of 
 nankind. It is a spurious feeling, that would re- 
 strict the gifts of Providence to one's own family 
 or country, to the prejudice of the rest of the 
 world. The best natures will be well disposed 
 to all, without impeachment to the claims that 
 are nearest and dearest to the heart. Few feel- 
 ings acquire greater strength or disinterestedness 
 than philanthropy. When the patriot, to serve 
 his country, or the philanthropist to promote the 
 interests of mankind, incurs a voluntary death, 
 each respectively, is actuated by a feeling that 
 sets him above present sufferings, and enables 
 him to enact a sacrifice at the shrine of virtue, of 
 which he would otherwise be incapable. Friend- 
 ship, patriotism, and philanthropy, may become 
 equally disinterested; and the sentiments which 
 constitute their better portion, whether directed 
 to an individual, a community, or humanity at 
 large, do equal honour to our race. 
 
 VI. Among the superior affections is the love 
 of truth. In the virtuous and enlightened, it is 
 no less decided, and no less disinterested, than 
 any with which we are acquainted. Such are 
 fully aware of the inestimable value the surpas- 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 343 
 
 sing importance of truth. Their best feelings 
 are indissolubly connected with it ; they love it 
 with a fervour that nothing can abate, and they 
 are willing, if its interests demand, to tender for- 
 tune and life itself, in the cause. The origin of 
 this passion is complicated, but easily intelligible. 
 Every observer must have noticed a multitude of 
 instances in which conformity to the laws of na- 
 ture in other words, to truth, has promoted 
 happiness; hence, the irresistible inference, that 
 truth is infinitely beneficial, and indissolubly con- 
 nected with the best interests of mankind. In 
 those cases in which it ceases for a moment, to 
 wear this aspect, it is to be ascribed to defective 
 institutions, oftentimes but poorly in accordance 
 with its dictates. Seeing these things, the lover 
 of truth must be devoted to it, in the ratio of the 
 knowledge which stores his mind, and the virtue 
 which fills his heart. History indeed, displays 
 examples of remarkable constancy in behalf of 
 opinions, often far from true. If erroneous con- 
 victions then, are capable of inspiring such hardi- 
 hood, what may we not ascribe to truth itself? 
 Some have shewn wonderful evidence of moral 
 power ; multitudes have met a violent death, in 
 support of their creed, their country, or in behalf 
 of truth at large, with a firmness that nothing 
 could appaL All these go to prove that a prin- 
 ciple may be built up in the human breast, which 
 enables it to oppose an invincible resistance to all 
 the evils which it is possible to undergo. But 
 for this, Galileo would never have tenanted his 
 
344 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 dungeon, or Hampden have bled on the battle- 
 field. In the unfortunate aspect which society 
 occasionally presents distracted with the vio- 
 lence of opposing factions, or the temporary su- 
 premacy of tyranny and fanaticism, truth, were 
 it not for self-sacrifice, would become in a man- 
 ner extinct. It is at such times, that individuals 
 arise, who cannot be put down for what can 
 tyranny or fanaticism avail, against men who are 
 indifferent to poverty, banishment, torture, or 
 imprisonment, and who laugh at death? Now, 
 this may be achieved by moral courage by that 
 passionate love of truth, to which, under God, we 
 owe all the knowledge, enlightenment, and hap- 
 piness, which mankind enjoy, or to which they 
 shall ever attain. Nature, solicitious as she is 
 for our advancement, would not have implanted 
 such capabilities, unless for the wisest ends ; if 
 we had not required, neither should we have pos- 
 sessed them. 
 
 VII. The love of God, created like the other 
 affections, is the highest, the dearest, and the best 
 of them all. Imbibed in earliest youth, it is con- 
 firmed by the reason of after years. It is the 
 possession which raises the child above the man 
 of sense who is destitute of it. The highest aim 
 of the latter indeed, is to elevate the heart, no less 
 than the understanding, to the contemplation of 
 the Creator; but if love do not dwell within us, 
 science is barren. When we feel and reflect, that 
 God is the source of every joy; when we find 
 that he is the instrument of every earthly good, we 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 345 
 
 cannot but experience an uprising of our hearts, 
 that surpasses every other emotion. The heart 
 and the understanding here, go hand in hand ; the 
 one points out and examines the wonders of God's 
 creation, and the ways of his providence, while 
 the other exults with love and joy over the de- 
 velopment. Either singly, is too weak for the 
 task. The intellect is too cold the heart too 
 ignorant; both are necessary to enable us to 
 realize, in all its fullness, that blessed feeling 
 which makes us content with every earthly vicis- 
 situde, and by means of which we regard even 
 death and suffering with tranquillity. When we 
 think upon infinite wisdom and goodness, our 
 hearts bound upward, to the equal source of all 
 things. Well may the love of God be the strongest 
 of all the affections; but inferior passions and 
 habits, as well as imperfect cultivation, too fre- 
 quently render it feeble, or ineffective. The in- 
 structed even, dilate too much on proofs of God's 
 existence; as if the infinite order, contrivance, 
 and beauty of the moral, no less than of the phy- 
 sical world, did not at once point out the Almighty 
 Author. It is the boundless benevolence the 
 unspeakable wisdom and goodness of the Deity, 
 on which we should continually dwell. Doubtless, 
 the most searching intellect is but too well em- 
 ployed, in scanning the wonders of providence ; 
 but the greatest that man can exert, is poor and 
 feeble, unaided by the precious outpourings of the 
 heart. The utmost expansion of both, to which 
 we can attain, is all too weak to raise a fitting 
 
346 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 strain of praise and thanksgiving. We cannot 
 devote too much of this sacred energy to so holy 
 a purpose: we cannot too highly worship the 
 supreme cause the Arbiter of all things the 
 hand that measures out the events of time and of 
 eternity. To whatever vicissitudes our earthly 
 affections may be subjected, this should experi- 
 ence none. It ought to be instilled with our 
 earliest perceptions ; it should grow with our 
 growth ; it should subsist through life, and persist 
 in death. We cannot too strongly conceive too 
 strongly feel, that God is the source of every 
 good, and the Author of all the happiness which 
 we enjoy. It is this abiding conviction, which 
 leads us to ascribe every thing that is wise and 
 excellent to Him. We are capable of intense 
 devotion, of entire confidingness, but the feeling 
 is not sufficiently drawn out, so that the heart 
 and intellect languish in the direction in which, 
 of all others, they should be most frequently 
 turned. There is no affection of our nature so 
 well calculated to elevate and maintain our moral 
 dignity to sweeten our joys, and to alleviate 
 our sufferings to reconcile us to the cares, the 
 contradictions, and the vicissitudes of life, or to 
 support us in the hour of death. Yet the love of 
 God is the coping-stone and the complement of 
 all the affections, of which it pre-supposes the 
 existence and highest development. It is by 
 earthly affections that it is best nourished, best 
 directed, and best sustained. It is vain to hope 
 to create the one, by annihilating the other. We 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 347 
 
 were not intended for such flights, nor are we 
 capable of them. When age, misfortune, and 
 isolation from all we love, have taken away the 
 objects of our affections, this will fitly fill their 
 place. Even then, the recollection of past feel- 
 ings will tenant our breasts, and we shall turn 
 from their contemplation, still better qualified to 
 adore that exalted Being, by whom we trust to be 
 reunited for ever, to those whom we have loved 
 on earth. Our natures are indeed, too weak to 
 be incessantly occupied with so elevated an affec- 
 tion ; but when deep thoughtfulness, and the en- 
 joyment of countless blessings have chastened the 
 heart, we shall recur to it with solemn delight. 
 All the affections in truth, are admirable and 
 good; but this is best, for it enables us to con- 
 template God's works with a fervour, that no mere 
 intellectual perception could supply. 
 
 We shall not stop to examine the sad prostra- 
 tion of heart and intellect, that would ascribe 
 qualities to the Deity, unworthy even of man 
 that would assert anything in opposition to the 
 sacred truth, that he is, and only can be, solici- 
 tous for the universal happiness and advancement 
 of his creatures, here and hereafter now and for 
 ever. Mysticism assumes the possibility of un- 
 limited communion with the Deity, by other than 
 natural means ; but it may be safely alleged that 
 no human being is capable of such. Our only 
 intercourse is through the ordinary channel of the 
 heart and understanding, and by the maintenance 
 of our better affections. The history of the hu- 
 
348 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 man mind abundantly demonstrates the futility of 
 pretensions, that stretch beyond the compass of 
 human powers. A devotion to which the intellect 
 does not contribute, incurs the constant risk of 
 going astray; but the worst result of mysticism, 
 is that of keeping the mind in a condition of 
 barren inertness, or in neglecting the natural 
 affections for one, that singly is unattainable. 
 Mystics however, do not persecute ; they cannot 
 therefore, be styled fanatics: wrapped up in their 
 own imaginings, they do not seek to inflict evil 
 on others. So far, this is well; but though mys- 
 ticism may assume a superior aspect in a few 
 elevated minds, it must still be deprecated as 
 leading in an erroneous direction. The quietism 
 of a Fenelon, a Guyon, or a Krudener, sinks in 
 comparison with the more rational piety of a 
 Galen, a Kepler, a Galileo, or a Newton. 
 
 VIII. In no two individuals are the affections, 
 even those bearing the same name, wholly alike. 
 When we are acquainted with their general ori- 
 gin however, and have had some experience, it 
 will not be difficult to analyze the particular forms 
 that come before us. The sympathetic relations 
 of man with man, are exceedingly numerous. 
 Our hearts throb at the tale of distress, and with 
 the joys, the sorrows, and the sufferings of others : 
 all this is repaid in kind, to the infinite augmen- 
 tation of human virtue and happiness. The 
 intercourse of the intelligent and moral-minded, 
 is highly pleasing; but that of rationally-accom- 
 plished, kind-hearted men and women, is among 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 349 
 
 the greatest enjoyments which life affords. There 
 is an intelligence, a solicitude to please, a confi- 
 dingness, and a refinement, singularly gratifying 
 to unperverted minds. Human intercourse how- 
 ever, is not always what it ought to be; and one 
 cannot help thinking what a pleasant world it 
 might become, were better social arrangements 
 introduced, and a superior education accorded to 
 all. The daily intercourse of life originates end- 
 less combinations of emotion, some of which have 
 been unfelt before, while others never recur 
 again. Many are so habitually under the influ- 
 ence of certain feelings, as to tinge their whole 
 conduct; among these, are gentleness, courtesy, 
 and good temper. Certainly, few things are 
 calculated to modify character more favourably, 
 than the habitude of such, when connected with 
 correct moral perceptions. Without these, a 
 seeming urbanity, though regulated by all the 
 formularies of a Castiglione or a Chesterfield, is 
 but a screen for folly or duplicity. 
 
 Virtue is the union of emotions highly plea- 
 surable, with superior moral perceptions. Under 
 certain circumstances indeed, its exercise may 
 be attended with painful feelings; but pleasing 
 ones are always more or less associated, and con- 
 stitute the ordinary alliance. Duty may be con- 
 nected with an excess of present suffering; but 
 the ultimate result, both here and hereafter, must 
 be a preponderance of happiness. Were this 
 not so, virtue would be incongruous with herself. 
 The advantages of association, in the regulation 
 
350 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 of our intellectual operations, are indeed, great ; but 
 they sink into insignificance, when contrasted with 
 its importance in a moral point of view. It is 
 here, that the gigantic influence of this mighty 
 agent becomes conspicuous. Were it not for it, 
 the law of transference would not exist; and 
 without both, there could be no disinterestedness. 
 In consequence of this sublime, this stupendous 
 exercise of God's wisdom and power, the plea- 
 surable emotions connected with any desirable 
 end, -are transferred to the means productive of 
 that end. Outward advantages may be absent, 
 or replaced by suffering, yet the precious feelings 
 allied with superior conduct, prove an ample re- 
 compense. The. instrument which realizes so 
 admirable a result, and which so clearly testifies 
 the wonderful providence, and unspeakable bene- 
 volence of the Deity, is association. As an all- 
 important law of moral and intellectual causation, 
 it is perhaps among the best established of any of 
 the governing principles of the human mind. 
 The annals of humanity teem with examples 
 illustrative of all that is here insisted on. In- 
 stances are endless, wherein men and women 
 have given up every earthly possession, and life 
 itself, in conformity with the dictates of feeling. 
 If ever love was disinterested, it is that of a 
 mother for her child. Oh, what would she not 
 suffer for the almost unconscious infant which 
 she clasps to her bosom what sacrifices would 
 she not endure, utterly unthinking and careless 
 of a return? At every step, we witness the 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 351 
 
 evidence of disinterestedness, in measureless and 
 unceasing kindness and love. In the exercise of 
 the different passions and affections, to what pro- 
 digies of devotedness has it not led? Love, 
 friendship, patriotism, and philanthropy, have 
 each offered their bright and glowing testimony 
 to its truth testimony, which all the cavils in the 
 world can never impeach or gainsay. What 
 multitudes of pious and right-minded individuals, 
 in the midst of outward poverty, wretchedness, 
 and adversity, have yielded the strongest proof 
 of pure, disinterested, and glowing feelings, in 
 their perfect submission to the providence of a 
 just and wise God? An agent of such superlative 
 efficacy, in the support of virtue and excellence, 
 cannot be too earnestly insisted on, or too assidu- 
 ously cultivated. 
 
 4. Painful feelings unhappily, form a large 
 proportion of the trains of consciousnesss which 
 make up our earthly existence. They commence 
 early, and they accompany us to the grave. The 
 lot of man is variously cast, and while pleasure 
 and pain are more evenly balanced than what 
 some suppose, there is, in reality, a very great 
 disparity. Certainly, nature never intended that 
 some should be sated with pleasure, while others 
 were steeped in misery. It would be to do away 
 with all motive and exertion, were competence 
 and starvation, virtue and vice, knowledge and 
 ignorance, liberty and oppression, equally pro- 
 ductive of happiness. It is indeed, true, that 
 some will be indifferent in situations, which to 
 
352 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 others, are replete with privation; but this can 
 never annihilate the distinction between good 
 and ill. While there are such things as refine- 
 ment and coarseness, knowledge and ignorance, 
 virtue and vice and while our organs and our 
 intellects remain constituted as they are, so long 
 will there be something to cultivate, and to avoid 
 with all our energies, and consequently, a differ- 
 ence in our condition and happiness. Mental 
 and moral culture, and the exercise of the affec- 
 tions and moral qualities, are the greatest sources 
 of enjoyment. The pleasures of sense, if occa- 
 sionally more intense, are brief and fleeting; 
 those of the heart and intellect, deep and lasting. 
 Sensual gratifications, more or less refined, are 
 most in demand ; the superiority of those derived 
 from mental and moral sources, will not soon be 
 practically enrolled among the convictions of our 
 race. Truth however, is progressive; and it is 
 impossible even for the wisest and best, to imagine 
 any thing so good or so wise, as not to be even- 
 tually implanted in the hearts and habits of 
 mankind. 
 
 The origin of painful, is precisely that of plea- 
 surable feelings. Painful sensations are remem- 
 bered, and become connected with each other, 
 and with various sums of ideas. Once deposited 
 in the memory, they may be translated from 
 mind to mind, through the various avenues of 
 association. When we witness a person in dis- 
 tress, we join in his emotions, if similar ones have 
 a place in our bosoms. Sometimes indeed, dif- 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 353 
 
 ferent feelings are excited, as when annoyance 
 leads to scorn, or misplaced terror to contempt. 
 The cause of this is obvious; the feelings which 
 we observe, and with which we cannot sympa- 
 thize, lead to ideas with which different emotions 
 are associated. A man may justly refuse to sym- 
 pathize with pusillanimity, but he is unfeeling or 
 immoral, if he do not with virtuous and allowable 
 suffering. When the evil is enormous however, 
 it seems to deaden compassion : fire, shipwreck, 
 famine, bloodshed, and pestilence, overwhelm the 
 commiseration, that a smaller amount of misfor- 
 tune would excite. Analogous emotions of all 
 descriptions, as every reader of the human heart 
 is aware, afford an easy inlet to each other. 
 
 Pain is not needlessly inflicted. Occasional 
 instances do indeed occur, wherein its immediate 
 utility is not discernable, but which we can readily 
 justify, by referring to its general necessity. Few 
 will be so bold as to maintain the ancient paradox, 
 that pain is no evil; nevertheless, it is certain 
 that without it, there would be much less happi- 
 ness. The object of the Creator is not that we 
 should possess existence merely, but that we 
 should enjoy it. To secure this result more 
 effectually, he has not only connected pleasure 
 with virtue, but the opposite with vice. Corporeal 
 suffering tends to prevent the continuance of con- 
 ditions, that would be detrimental to the organi- 
 zation ; while mental, is the ordinary contingency 
 of such as lead to moral injury and disease. 
 Envy, ingratitude, tyranny, and persecution, are 
 
354 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 attended with pain in the mind of the agent, 
 while virtue is associated with pleasure. Mental 
 pain then, operates in the production of virtue, 
 by connecting its absence with sorrow and suf- 
 fering. Thus, nature proves her own accuser, 
 judge, and avenger : if we listen to her dictates, 
 the evil may be averted or mitigated, but if not, 
 it must continue to assail us. By the occasional 
 connexion of pain with pleasure, whereby the 
 latter is enhanced, an additional advantage has 
 been secured. This indeed, is to convert pain 
 into pleasure, and evil into good. Painful feel- 
 ings may be variously associated with each other, 
 and with intellectual conditions, in themselves 
 indifferent. When despondent and gloomy pas- 
 sions have been indulged in, they are apt to 
 reproduce themselves. New associations are 
 formed ; old ones are repeated, and the mind is 
 confined to the same unceasing and melancholy 
 round. Disinterested grief may be felt just as 
 readily, as disinterested emotions of a different 
 kind ; and when it comes under the head of sym- 
 pathy, may be looked upon as a branch of virtue. 
 We feel the woes, no less than the joys of others, 
 though personally free from the sources of 
 either. It will appear then, from these different 
 particulars, that pain, whether corporeal or men- 
 tal, besides the hindrances which it opposes, and 
 the correctives which it applies to vice, has fre- 
 quently a direct tendency to heighten virtue, 
 and even to produce happiness. 
 
 I. Sorrow and grief, in the first instance, 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 355 
 
 arise from sensations of pain, which being recol- 
 lected, are gradually transferred to different 
 trains of ideas. These being awakened under 
 appropriate circumstances, the painful emotion 
 is necessarily recalled at the same time. When 
 deprived of wealth, we lose not only the advan- 
 tages, but the numerous associations connected 
 with the exercise of pecuniary influence. We 
 are exposed to the hardships of poverty, as well 
 as to the real, or imaginary apprehensions by 
 which it is aggravated. The regret which we 
 experience from the absence of a beloved object, 
 and the loss of fame or power, may be similarly 
 analyzed. Our painful feelings are continually 
 re-awakened, until our own efforts, or the current 
 of circumstances, has blunted their intensity. As 
 no pleasure is so great, as that which we derive 
 from the society of our fellows, so no grief is so 
 enduring, as that which is occasioned by their loss. 
 Oh, it is sad to see the face no more, which once 
 beamed gentleness and affection to hear no 
 more, the accents of friendship, and to lose for 
 ever, so far as regards this world, the multiplied 
 good offices of unceasing kindness and love. 
 How bitter is the anguish of parting from those 
 who are dearer to us than our own souls to wit- 
 ness the filmy veil, which shrouds in darkness 
 the eye of devotion and truth? No suffering is 
 so intense as that occasioned by the dissolution 
 of earthly ties ties, which the hand of death 
 alone can repair. 
 
 II. Among the painful emotions which agitate 
 
356 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 the soul, fear holds a prominent place. No age 
 or station is exempt from its deteriorating influ- 
 ence. The term, is a name for various mental 
 conditions the dread of death is one thing, of 
 poverty, another. An individual who would feel no 
 scruple in storming a battery, might yet experi- 
 ence the utmost trepidation in addressing an 
 assembled multitude. Fear is a painful emotion, 
 united with endless groups of complex ideas. 
 Sometimes, a peculiar association, or an idiosyn- 
 crasy of temperament, leads to it; as some have 
 been known to dread a cat, or the odour of musk. 
 Of all the sources of fear to which mankind are 
 exposed, the most numerous are derived from 
 themselves. They are not only the actual ob- 
 jects of reciprocal dread, but they experience a 
 multitude of fears that are wholly imaginary. 
 When the intellectual and moral capabilities of 
 human beings are better cultivated, they will 
 cease to regard each other with apprehension ; 
 they will place implicit confidence in the wise 
 and just providence of God, and regard him with 
 unmingled reverence, devotion, and love. The 
 fear of apparitions is confined to the ignorant, 
 that of death, must also cease with the progress of 
 moral knowledge. We witness endless proofs of 
 infinite benevolence in this world ; why should 
 we apprehend a cessation of it in the next? 
 Death is no less natural than sleep, and the one 
 is no more to be apprehended than the other. 
 Why should we suppose that the goodness and 
 wisdom which characterize every arrangement 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 357 
 
 on earth, should not be displayed on a more ex- 
 alted and perfect scale hereafter ? Mankind are 
 the victims of fear. They pass through life in 
 continual dread of the evils, which their heedless 
 folly, ignorance, or malevolence, leads them to 
 inflict. This is a condition which nothing save 
 the diffusion of information, and better moral 
 training, can essentially alter. 
 
 III. Repentance is composed of the union of a 
 painful emotion with the perception of a disastrous 
 result. A lost opportunity, an omitted duty, or 
 the commission of acts of impropriety, leads in 
 minds that are not degraded, to sorrow and regret. 
 The intellect points out the conditions which we 
 have not fulfilled, thereupon spring up the painful 
 emotions connected with the failure. The in- 
 fluence of the understanding in the production 
 and perpetuation of our different feelings, is very 
 great, and in one way or other, extends to them 
 all. When the moral principles have been ex- 
 tinguished, or much perverted, repentance is 
 absent. The intellectual perceptions and better 
 feelings with which it is united, may never have 
 been formed, or having been so, are overwhelmed 
 and destroyed. In either case, acts of heinous 
 atrocity will be committed without regret. If, 
 however, it do occur, it assumes the form of 
 remorse that better repentance which ensues 
 after crime. Too frequently however, there is 
 none, and the perpetrator of iniquity leaves this 
 world unhealed. Yet, the general result is the 
 occurrence of repentance, when there has been 
 
358 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 any invasion of the moral law. That, which 
 follows an error that cannot be directly remedied, 
 is the most intense. When the object of our 
 misconduct has been removed by death when 
 past harshness and injustice are not to be recalled, 
 we experience an extremity of anguish. Re- 
 pentance is the corrective of evil and crime, but 
 if followed by no amendment, it is destitute of 
 every wholesome feature. If genuine, the result 
 is testified in the altered conduct of the individual. 
 When deep and unaffected contrition ensues, 
 the penitent becomes a new being; sin and 
 sorrow are blotted from his soul, and he com- 
 mences a fresh career of virtue and excellence. 
 Let us then, encourage the criminal in the forma- 
 tion of new and correct feelings and convictions ; 
 let us assure him, that if he will pursue the path 
 of goodness and truth, there is happiness in store 
 for him, and the inexpressible enjoyment of an 
 approving heart. How often is the offender 
 against the laws of nature and the intentions of 
 Providence, plunged irremediably into sin and 
 misery, by a cold-hearted and pitiless world ? In 
 how many instances are crime and vice to be 
 ascribed to defective institutions, that place the 
 individual within the sphere of temptations, 
 which no sufficient moral or intellectual culture 
 enables him to resist? It is the object of re- 
 pentance to induce the offender to amend his 
 habits, his feelings, and his conduct; to connect 
 misery with their improper, and happiness with 
 their well-regulated indulgence. The only just 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 359 
 
 repentance, is that by which our souls are puri- 
 fied and turned to virtue by which our moral 
 perceptions are exalted, and by which our hearts 
 are lifted with joy and thankfulness to the 
 Almighty Giver of good. 
 
 This invaluable principle however, is too often 
 perverted. Men in an inferior stage of civiliza- 
 tion are to be found, who shall evince more 
 regret for the omission of a superstitious rite, 
 than for the violation or perversion of the dictates 
 of truth and justice. During those unhappy, and 
 not very distant periods, when human victims were 
 immolated on the altars of intolerance, the perpe- 
 trators were so far blinded to every correct 
 perception, as to display nothing but satisfaction 
 and an irreligious joy at the spectacle. Could 
 those who thus outraged every feeling of pro- 
 priety, have been cognizant of the commonest 
 principles of morality? Doubtless, they ex- 
 perienced a deeper regret in not having consigned 
 a supposed criminal to the flames, than in ne- 
 glecting the observances of religion and truth. 
 In more recent times however, men may be found 
 who scruple not to run counter to every obliga- 
 tion of conscience, when inflamed by personal 
 resentment, fanaticism, or political animosity, but 
 who are nevertheless, punctilious in the display 
 of outward observances. Assuredly, the heart 
 must be far astray, that can on any pretext, in- 
 fringe the sacred duties which we owe to our 
 fellows ; nor can the love of God or man, actuate 
 the individual who thus conducts himself. It is 
 
360 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 to sap the foundations of morality, when people 
 can bring themselves to believe, that religion and 
 justice are served by slander, insult, and injury. 
 Immorality however, can never bring forth the 
 fruits of morality ; nor the semblance of virtue, 
 the happiness that is conferred by the reality. 
 There can be no religion where there is not some 
 degree of intelligence, a pure heart, correct con- 
 duct, and elevated aspirations. Mere ceremonial, 
 or the assertion of particular opinions, can never 
 assume the place of a faultless life, or of the well- 
 founded repentance of a pure and contrite heart. 
 In all countries where the opposite persuasion is 
 general, there is a greater or less abandonment 
 of principle, and an awful prevalence of immo- 
 rality, atheism, fanaticism, and hypocrisy. The 
 longer I reflect, the more firmly do I feel per- 
 suaded, that nothing can destroy this condition of 
 things, save the better cultivation of the heart and 
 head of all, from youth upward, and the dissemina- 
 tion of rational and elevated views on the subject 
 of the Deity and his providence. Such would 
 correct the defects of society, and place moral 
 excellence on a firm foundation ; vice and 
 hypocrisy would be discouraged, while offenders 
 would be brought under the influence of that 
 searching repentance, without which, crime has 
 little prospect of being remedied, or better habits 
 of being established. 
 
 IV. Disappointment is the union of certain 
 ideas with painful feelings. It is long before we 
 bear the evils of life with firmness and equani- 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 361 
 
 mity ; by degrees however, we become inured to 
 them, and regard them as among the ordinary 
 conditions of existence. The corporeal and 
 mental pains which they generate, lay the basis 
 of an endless variety of associations, which every 
 fresh disappointment adds to, or confirms. We 
 ever contain within us, in a latent state, nu- 
 merous susceptibilities of pleasure and pain, 
 which may be awakened or not, as circumstances 
 determine. The most frequent source of disap- 
 pointment is the formation of unreasonable ex- 
 pectations, and the practice of placing happiness 
 otherwise, than in the dictates of reason and 
 morality. If we indulge in no wishes that it will 
 not be in our power to realize, circumscribe our 
 desires within the boundary of probabilities, and 
 cherish intellectual and moral habits, our disap- 
 pointments will not be either numerous or severe. 
 Now, these our habits, are the very things which 
 lie most in every one's power, and which are 
 most conducive to the happiness of all. Thus, 
 by the infinite benevolence of the Deity, our 
 well-being is placed in our own hands ; and if 
 every one would but cultivate to the utmost, the 
 capabilities that are left at his disposal, there 
 would be comparatively, little to complain of, on 
 the score of the inequalities of rank, wealth, or 
 condition. Several circumstances however, mi- 
 litate against this self-cultivation the imperfect 
 regulations of society, inferior political institutions, 
 and above all, the defective state of education. 
 Nevertheless, the general rule remains unim- 
 
362 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 peached; and if men would but acquaint them- 
 selves with their duties, and practise them with 
 all their might, their prospects of happiness would 
 be infinitely increased. Even when reasonable 
 expectations and dearly cherished hopes have 
 been frustrated, our efforts will secure as many 
 alleviations as the case will permit. It is amongst 
 our highest excellencies that we should ever strive 
 to be above our fortune, and to be equally 
 independent of external good or ill. What is 
 there in the former, that a man should identify 
 himself with it, or in the latter, that it should 
 utterly cast him down? He may be transported 
 for a time by the one, or momentarily depressed 
 by the other ; but has not the Deity given him 
 the mastery over things external ; has he not en- 
 dowed him with the imperishable riches of the 
 heart and understanding, that depend upon 
 neither time nor place why then, should he cease 
 to be himself for anything that may befal, in this 
 fugitive and perishable scene ? There is neither 
 poverty nor riches, good fortune nor ill no evil 
 in fine, that human constancy may not surmount. 
 It is therefore, our duty, without pretending to a 
 vain, because impracticable impassiveness, to 
 make the most of every situation in which we 
 may be placed, and to look upon earthly goods 
 with an eye that has been chastened by the per- 
 ception of the eternal truths of religion and 
 morality. Let us be moderate and rational in 
 our expectations let us found them on the nature 
 of things, and on the faultless order established 
 
ON THE PEELINGS. 363 
 
 by Providence. This is the corrective for all evil : 
 when however, we erect a standard of right and 
 wrong that is not founded on this, what can 
 accrue but anguish and disappointment? We 
 should try to have just notions, to be true to 
 ourselves, and to maintain our independence 
 against all external influences. If we do this, it 
 will be difficult for any situation to destroy our 
 equanimity, or to make us forget our duties to 
 ourselves and others. Disappointments however, 
 will assail the best; no one is wholly free. Our 
 nearest, our dearest, and our best friends our 
 children, and the companions of our hearts, are 
 successively removed by the hand of death; the 
 intercourse of the world but imperfectly supplies 
 their place, and at length, we find ourselves alone. 
 Even here, the good and wise man will endeavour 
 to perform his duty ; but his heart yearns towards 
 that other world whither his friends have gone 
 before ; and he cannot help sighing for the period 
 in which he shall rejoin them for evermore. 
 Thus, the losses and the crosses of life, have a 
 spiritualizing and purifying tendency, and pre- 
 pare the heart and understanding for the final 
 change. Thus, evil is converted into good, 
 and all things work for the amelioration and 
 regeneration of the human soul. 
 
 V. Mental weariness to some, is the bane of 
 existence; certainly, few conditions are more 
 distressing. It is apt to assail us most, when 
 the daily task is done, and when neither duty 
 nor pleasure, calls for immediate exertion. It 
 
364 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 lies more in the negation of pleasure, than in the 
 positive infliction of pain ; nevertheless, it is often 
 combined with painful emotions, disappointments, 
 unpleasant retrospects or anticipations. Mental 
 weariness is most frequently experienced by the 
 idle, the disappointed, the hypochondriacal, and 
 such as have relinquished active employments, 
 for the imaginary pleasures of indolence and ease. 
 Those who have habituated themselves to high 
 excitement, are seldom comfortable unless while 
 they experience it. Sensualists are generally 
 wretched in the intervals of their enjoyments, 
 which, spin them out as they may, can only 
 occupy a limited period. The institutions of 
 society, miserably imperfect in many respects as 
 they are, constitute a copious source of mental 
 weariness. How can the victim of injustice, 
 poverty, and neglect, avoid being weary weary 
 and heart-sick of very existence ? Human beings 
 are the agents of the greatest happiness which, 
 next to the operation of nature, it is possible for 
 them to enjoy; yet much of that which might be 
 derived from this source, is cut off. 
 
 The utility of occupation is seen in the case of 
 the artisan and the peasant, who engaged in un- 
 ceasing toil, have neither time nor inclination for 
 mental weariness. This is not urged as a reason 
 
 o 
 
 why corporeal exertion should wholly assume the 
 place of mental, but to shew that there are means by 
 which the condition under consideration, may be 
 obviated. It is the part of every man to cultivate 
 a rational intercourse with his fellows : to be ac- 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 365 
 
 tive in the performance of his duties, and in the 
 improvement of his faculties, and to prepare for 
 the translation to another world. This is a busi- 
 ness which may well occupy every leisure moment 
 of our mortal existence, pleasantly and profitably. 
 Assuredly, there is enough to be done know- 
 ledge to be stored up, affections to be exercised, 
 duties to be attended to, and misery to be re- 
 lieved, adequate, and more than adequate to en- 
 gage every thought, and every waking minute of 
 the most energetic individual. Let us work then, 
 and labour assiduously, for life is flitting fast 
 away. All have a task to perform all may be 
 useful in their respective positions ; and if we are 
 willing and active, we shall never experience 
 weariness of mind, nor shall our graves close the 
 account of an idle and worthless existence. 
 
 VI. Painful or pleasing recollections and anti- 
 cipations, hardly comprise a class by themselves, 
 since they include every kind of emotion, whether 
 as regards the past or future. Recollected emo- 
 tions constitute no mean portion of daily life. 
 As the past may have been chequered with sor- 
 row or joy, as pleasure or pain may have predo- 
 minated, so will be the current of ordinary 
 existence. Occurrences in which our passions 
 and our energies have been excited, are singu- 
 larly engrossing. Men who have taken a share 
 in any remarkable event, can sometimes think of 
 nothing else. The soldier narrates his battles, 
 the statesman the measures which he has con- 
 certed, and the man of the world, the petty 
 
366 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 events of society all, in fine, dwell upon the past. 
 This principle, when carried to a moderate ex- 
 tent, is productive of advantage ; but it is ohvious 
 that it must prove injurious, if our retrospections 
 go to prejudice our existing usefulness, or to per- 
 vert the appreciation of passing events. The 
 anticipation of future pleasure or pain, calls for 
 no particular analysis, since it is but the trans- 
 ference of feelings and ideas already experienced. 
 Our present happiness is influenced by the 
 past, as well as by the determinations which we 
 frame respecting the future. If people would 
 be but fully assured, that each word, thought, and 
 feeling, had some prospective bearing, more or 
 less appreciable, it would lead them to weigh 
 more carefully the consequences of their conduct. 
 The advantages accruing from prudence in the 
 highest and best sense of the term, are not only 
 immediate, but extend throughout our career, 
 shedding their beneficent influence upon every 
 future act and condition of our existence. Moral 
 causation teaches us that the present depends in 
 a great measure upon the past, and the future upon 
 the present and past inclusive. Doubtless, our con- 
 dition hereafter, must be regulated by our conduct 
 here how far indeed, the great Arbiter of events 
 can alone decide. Motives derived from others, 
 will often influence conduct to such an extent, that 
 the individual appears to have undergone an en- 
 tire revolution of character. It is obvious, that 
 the stronger the moral and intellectual impulses 
 which we receive, the more decided will be the 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 367 
 
 alteration in our ideas and habitual demeanour. 
 Nor is it perhaps too much to presume, that the 
 influx of new feelings and ideas attendant on our 
 transfer to the world to come, may have a cor- 
 responding influence, in inducing that desirable 
 improvement of which every human being will 
 stand sufficiently in need. Present happiness is 
 largely affected by the judgments which we form 
 as to the future. If they are erroneous, exagge- 
 rated, or insufficient, we must be more or less 
 unhappy, and if correct, the reverse. Were the 
 mental and moral superiority which the latter 
 would ensure, universal, how much would the 
 situation of mankind be improved? Warned, 
 comforted, and instructed by the past, they would 
 calculate with certainty on the future ; their well- 
 being, placed as it is in their own hands, would 
 be fully secured; and free from painful retro- 
 spections, and unhappy anticipations, they would 
 complete the term of their career, securely trust- 
 ing that the events which were veiled from their 
 perceptions, would be no less wisely and benefi- 
 cently ordered, than those which came within the 
 range of their actual observation. 
 
 VII. I have now gone over the leading con- 
 siderations connected with painful emotions. 
 What has been said, serves to shew their im- 
 portant agency, and to demonstrate that our 
 happiness would be imperfectly secured without 
 their contingency. Pain is not inflicted for its 
 own sake; it is a subordinate instrument a 
 means, but never an end. It is possible, though 
 
368 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 reason does not venture to pronounce, that pain 
 may be made accessory to the promotion of 
 virtue and happiness hereafter ; but we may be 
 very certain that it can never be employed as an 
 end, and that to whatever measures the Ruler of 
 events may resort, they will be only such, as wis- 
 dom, benevolence, and power supreme, could 
 dictate. There is no infliction without an object ; 
 and when this has been secured, the introduction 
 of new associations, by a provision truly divine, 
 alleviates or removes the pang. This principle 
 doubtless, is subject to modifications, but as a 
 general rule, it is unassailably correct. The 
 grief which we experience for the loss of friends, 
 and other misfortunes, leads us to anticipate the 
 future with calmness, resignation, and desire. It 
 perfects the moral man, and shews the littleness 
 of material possessions, in opposition to the goods 
 of the heart and understanding, which never 
 decay, and which are a possession for ever. In 
 fine, virtuous grief and sorrow, to a certain extent, 
 are useful and necessary portions of the great 
 moral machinery, which fits us for the duties of 
 this world, and prepares us for an abode in the 
 next. 
 
 5. As to mixed feelings, life is such a combina- 
 tion of good and evil, pleasure and pain, that 
 they are found in the breasts of all. Almost 
 every pleasure is alloyed with anxiety, and there 
 are few sufferings wholly destitute of some 
 counteracting admixture. Pleasure must be 
 toiled for, before it can be won, and continued 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 369 
 
 exertion is necessary to its preservation. The 
 difficulties and the hindrances connected with 
 the pursuit however, involve more or less pain. 
 This, indeed, is overpaid, but not wholly removed 
 by the accruing satisfaction. Thus, associations 
 are formed between painful and pleasurable feel- 
 ings, which, when the latter predominate, are on 
 the whole, agreeable. Even when the case is 
 otherwise, we are not destitute of consolation and 
 support, and consequently, of pleasure. The 
 greatest misfortunes must have their term ; and 
 we feel assured, even while we suffer evil, so far 
 as regards this world irretrievable, that there is 
 another, wherein misery and oppression must for 
 ever lose their sway. This consideration yields 
 satisfaction under circumstances otherwise des- 
 perate; for where are the wretched to look for 
 support, if not to the providence of God, and to 
 a state of being, where the infinite duration of 
 happiness and intelligence, reduces the worst 
 evils of earth to comparative insignificance ? The 
 benevolence, the goodness, and the wisdom of 
 man, are oftentimes great, but what are they 
 compared with the attributes of the Deity ? We 
 cannot even imagine benevolence, wisdom, and 
 goodness, approaching to His. Knowing this, 
 how can we entertain even a momentary doubt, 
 that our condition hereafter, will not be in full 
 conformity with all that these attributes would 
 lead us to expect ? The miserable, the oppressed, 
 and the heart-broken, may rest assured that there 
 is a time in store for them, abounding with a joy 
 
 A A 
 
370 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 and a happiness to which no earthly experience 
 can furnish a parallel. 
 
 I. The union of pleasure with pain, is a con- 
 dition so truly remarkable, that no other than a 
 hand Divine, could have blended such opposite 
 conditions into an harmonious whole. All feli- 
 city derived from external sources, is transitory. 
 Delicious music, the pleasant landscape, and all 
 the delights of sense, flit away in the possession; 
 but the pleasures of mind are never lost. What 
 we have thus once enjoyed, we may enjoy again, 
 unfettered by time or circumstance. Even when 
 the organization is irreparably shattered, and when 
 death is upon us, we experience an unspeakable 
 serenity a joy that cannot be told, when we 
 feel that the treasures of the heart and under- 
 standing remain uninjured, and that we shall 
 carry them to another world, there to be aug- 
 mented and improved, throughout eternity. Yet 
 the consciousness of these things is not unmixed 
 with sorrow we cannot forget the friends whom 
 we have loved, and with whom we have realized 
 a happiness that cannot be recalled. The not to 
 be banished recollection of perished delight, comes 
 sighing over us; yet, if it bring pain along with 
 it, there is also pleasure, and we experience a 
 tranquil melancholy that we would not exchange 
 for ruder joys. If friends have left us, we have 
 the consolation of remembering their virtues, and 
 the pleasant hope of meeting them again. Than 
 melancholy, there is no feeling more engrossing, 
 unless, indeed, it be love itself. Eaten up with 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 3*71 
 
 melancholy, is the phrase so fitly made use of, to 
 designate its overwhelming influence. When 
 unmixed with guilt, or excessive pain, there is 
 nothing to hinder it from being exquisitely, 
 though mournfully sweet. Like every other 
 emotion, it may be cultivated, and such have 
 been its fascinations, that some have abandoned 
 themselves to it without reserve. It cannot be 
 justified to the exclusion of nobler impulses; yet 
 in a subordinate degree, its influence in the pro- 
 motion of refinement, and even happiness, cannot 
 be denied. Melancholy, sometimes pours itself 
 over our whole being in a mingled flood of joy 
 and sadness. The perfume of a flower, a sum- 
 mer breeze, the view of scenes of early pleasure, 
 strains of music, but above all, the recollections 
 of the past, cause it to gush over us to the exclu- 
 sion of every other feeling. It is then, that we 
 are wholly absorbed by it, and that those fitful 
 emotions, aptly compared to echoes from another 
 world, take entire possession of the soul. The 
 conditions which awaken retrospective melan- 
 choly, as well as those which connect it with the 
 future, are too numerous to be mentioned. That 
 man must have a heart of stone, who can un- 
 moved, look forward to the time, when wife or 
 child may need his fostering care when desolate, 
 unpitied, and oppressed, they may have none to 
 aid or comfort them. The hand of God alone, 
 reaches through the drapery of the grave once 
 entered upon the territories of the world to come, 
 we are equally impotent to help or injure those 
 whom we leave behind. 
 
372 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 6. The correct appreciation of the following 
 subject is of great importance. If we derive our 
 ideas in the first instance, from sensation, it is 
 no less certain that we must refer our inferior 
 passions with a similar qualification, to the same 
 source. To suppose them innate, is a libel upon 
 human nature, and equally at variance with 
 analogy and truth. It is difficult to account for 
 the origin of an error so momentous. The 
 tender, smiling baby is the type and personifica- 
 tion of innocence, and how can we without doing 
 violence to our better nature, allow ourselves to 
 entertain the belief that such a creature could be 
 the actual recipient of any tendency to vice or 
 wickedness? The child unborn, is justly invoked 
 as the emblem of innocence; yet the infant, 
 whether born or unborn, is equally and assuredly 
 so. Indeed, the unbiassed perceptions of man- 
 kind, have done ample justice to the question. 
 The results of education, the tendency of precept, 
 the effects of good and bad example in a word, 
 the power of circumstances over character, are 
 everywhere, more or less admitted. No one in- 
 deed, will deny their influence, but some will 
 contend that they are subordinate to inborn 
 passions: their power however, is absolute. 
 Virtue and vice, knowledge and ignorance, talent 
 and dulness, result alike, from the action of cir- 
 cumstances on the common susceptibilities of our 
 nature. This view is peculiarly favourable to the 
 interests of virtue and morality, which in so far, 
 argue powerfully in its behalf. It asserts that 
 with proper training, all are capable of ex- 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 373 
 
 cellence, and that vice and ignorance are to be 
 ascribed to the operation of injurious agents. 
 Nothing is more common than to urge false con- 
 sequences, in order to overthrow or support a 
 given position; but the consequences flowing 
 from the preceding doctrine, yield a presumption 
 of its certainty. There is however, additional 
 evidence of the strongest nature : it is wholly in 
 conformity with the principles of moral causation ; 
 and were there even no other proof, would 
 borrow all the certainty which the evidence in 
 favour of these, could reflect. But it is capa- 
 ble of standing on its own merits, and derives 
 equal support from reason and observation, as 
 well as from the dictates of morality at large. 
 The opposite view is opposed to our conceptions 
 of the goodness of God ; while the supposition of 
 a universal susceptibility for virtue and excellence, 
 is in entire accordance with all that we are able 
 to conceive, of his measureless attributes, and 
 inseparably mixed up with our purest aspirations. 
 The former would be a blot on creation, and out 
 of keeping with the general harmony which we 
 everywhere behold. If we see evil in the world, 
 it originates in our capacity for good, which 
 subjects us to an opposite liability. The apparent 
 defects and imperfections in our condition, are 
 redeemed by compensations, which more than 
 outweigh the attendant disadvantages; but the 
 existence of inborn, evil passions, would be a gra- 
 tuitous and unredeemed infliction, at variance 
 with the wisdom and benevolence which mark 
 the arrangements of the universe. 
 
374 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 Inferior feelings do not spring up of them- 
 selves. Given causes produce them, and without 
 the operation of such, they cannot appear. 
 These are ascertainable and measurable, and 
 taking into account their powerful agency over 
 human character, deserve our attentive consi- 
 deration. If mankind could once be firmly 
 persuaded, that in the world of mind, as in that of 
 matter, every change is regulated by fixed and 
 unalterable laws, and that with given causes, cer- 
 tain consequences inevitably follow, it would lead 
 to the happiest results. They would ascribe evil, 
 to the influence of badly regulated circumstances, 
 and would not seek for good, when the precursors 
 which lead to it, had not been called into existence. 
 Passion, of whatever malignity, is artificially pro- 
 duced; it may be introduced into our bosoms, 
 but it is not lodged there by the hand of nature. 
 The circumstances productive of inferior passions 
 are of a wide range, but they may be briefly summed 
 up, under absent or deficient culture, defective 
 energy, corrupt example, and erroneous precept. 
 High moral, with insufficient mental culture, is 
 better than the converse, which is the more 
 common occurrence in persons said to be well 
 educated. Without the appliances furnished by 
 nature, we should be low indeed ; but it is her 
 intention that the moral, not less than the intel- 
 lectual man, should be mainly the work of our 
 own hands. Labour and toil, and much striv- 
 ing, are necessary to the prosperity of both: the 
 heart and understanding, require cultivation 
 equally strenuous and unremitting. Evil feelings 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 375 
 
 are easily generated, while indulgence confirms 
 and multiplies them. One whose impulses are 
 gratified without any reference to ulterior pro- 
 priety, almost necessarily becomes vicious and 
 immoral. Absence of early restraint, together 
 with bad example, are among the principle sources 
 of human depravity. The child, by a happy 
 principle of our nature, since it may be made 
 the source of unlimited good, imitates everything 
 that he sees and hears ; if the example be inferior, 
 his conduct is so likewise. Imperfect indeed, is 
 the condition of the mass : society is so defective, 
 that no one however fortunate in station, is 
 wholly secure from the risk of contamination. 
 The child at first, is purely under the dominion 
 of his physical wants ; if these be satisfied with- 
 out restriction, they must come at length, to 
 trench upon his moral well-being. Experience 
 has proclaimed that nothing at any age, is so 
 much calculated to vitiate and lower the standard 
 of excellence, as an unrestrained addiction to 
 appetite. On what an infinity of occasions has 
 not ruin of body and mind been the result? It 
 lowers, if it do not destroy the moral tone; 
 renders us incapable of withstanding the hardships 
 of life, or of attaining to the elevation which is 
 the parent of great and good actions. Sensualists 
 indeed, have been found brave and generous; 
 but certain it is, that the unalloyed tendency of 
 sensuality is debasing. Individuals however, are 
 exposed to such mixed influences; moral re- 
 generation and correct mental perceptions, occur 
 
376 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 at such different periods, as to render the correct 
 appreciation of the different elements which con- 
 cur in the formation of character, a problem of 
 much complexity. 
 
 The production of evil passions from ill-re- 
 gulated moral and intellectual impulses, is greater 
 than from any other source. Mind and heart 
 must act in unison, under the supervision of ma- 
 tured judgment, in order to secure perfection. 
 The moral and intellectual man is developed by 
 slow degrees, and requires the constant inspec- 
 tion of wisdom and excellence. If the wisest and 
 best stand in need of incessant self-correction 
 of the example and advice of others, how much 
 more must this be the case, with youth and ten- 
 der infancy? The common tendency of the lat- 
 ter, when uncontrolled by superior goodness and 
 wisdom, is to immediate enjoyment, idleness, or 
 misdirected effort. Who can doubt, that if a 
 number of children were removed from the best 
 regulated families, and brought up by savages, 
 they would become savage likewise ; and that if 
 the offspring of the ignorant and depraved, were 
 reared by the wise and good, they would also par- 
 take of wisdom and goodness ? If the mental and 
 moral powers of the young are thwarted and mis- 
 directed ; if they are exposed to the influence of 
 bad example ; if their vicious desires are fostered, 
 and their good ones repressed ; if they are encou- 
 raged to associate pain with what is good, and 
 pleasure with what is evil, who can question the 
 production of unmitigated malignity ? Most, are 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 subjected to mingled influences, good and bad, 
 and as either preponderates, so does character 
 accordingly. Numerous degrading agencies are 
 unhappily at work; but what does it teach, 
 but that we should endeavour to avoid them, and 
 to nullify their power. Every inferior quality 
 that ever existed, must have had some cause, and 
 it is the aggregate of such causes, that leads to all 
 the miseries which afflict humanity. The absence 
 of moral and intellectual culture however, is the 
 Tnost fertile source of human depravity. 
 
 I. I shall now enlarge on the leading inferior 
 principles, sufficiently to illustrate the foregoing 
 observations; and first, on the feeling which 
 takes place after the commission of crime, and 
 which bears the title of remorse. The pressing 
 conviction of the enormities that have been per- 
 petrated, awakens a multitude of painful feelings, 
 which are transferred to the conviction itself. 
 Such have been previously generated by a vari- 
 ety of causes, and are ready to be associated as 
 occasion demands, with anything that may call 
 them forth. These, together with the conscious- 
 ness of the affections that have been violated, and 
 of the evil that has been done, form a feeling at 
 once intense and painful. There is no escape 
 unless contrition open the door, and the deeper 
 the offence, the more difficult the expiation. 
 When revolting crimes have been committed, the 
 energies that should point out the remedy, are 
 too often absent. The former however, will bear 
 a relation to the state of the individual, his moral 
 
378 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 constitution, and the trials which he has under- 
 gone ; since it would be improper to place two 
 persons on a level, one of whom is innocent, 
 because unassailable by temptation, and the other, 
 because he has never been exposed to it. Unless 
 it can be obviated, remorse must haunt the 
 breast, until the close of our career. It may be 
 lulled into occasional oblivion, but only to awaken 
 with a fresher sting: it is nature's punishment 
 for offences against her laws, which are not to be 
 violated with impunity. 
 
 If we consider the constitution of the human 
 mind, it will not appear remarkable that remorse 
 should sometimes be induced by imaginary crimes. 
 The understanding is the director of the heart ; 
 but if the former be led astray, the latter must 
 follow in the track. A superstitious devotee might 
 experience agony at the omission or commission 
 of an act, that bore no relation to his real welfare. 
 It is a serious evil when remorse is felt in con- 
 nexion with things of this description, to the pre- 
 judice or neglect of more serious observances. 
 This is a perversion of the most demoralizing 
 character, but one, which is not to be instanta- 
 neously eradicated. The dictates of nature how- 
 ever, cannot be wholly stifled, and the substitution 
 of a factitious morality, can never afford the 
 satisfaction, much less the practical results, which 
 attend the observance of virtue. It is singular, 
 though melancholy, that men could ever be- 
 come so far perverted, as to consider themselves 
 freed from crime, by the performance of certain 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 379 
 
 ceremonies, for the omission of which, they must 
 consequently experience greater regret, than for 
 the deeds for which they are supposed to atone. 
 Experience indeed, has shewn that with the 
 ignorant, they come at length, to be regarded as 
 cheap and easy means of washing away iniquity. 
 Ceremonies are vain and useless ; but if there be 
 any truth in virtue, crime is to be expiated by a clear 
 conviction of its unhappy and dreadful tendency ; 
 by a vivid and sincere contrition, and by the 
 realization of an energetic determination to re- 
 gulate the after conduct, by the closest dictates of 
 religion and morality. 
 
 The legitimate object of painful feelings, is 
 their union with allowable grief and sorrow, or 
 with enmity towards vice ; but they are utterly 
 misdirected, when associated with the worth or 
 excellence of others. Of this last character, is 
 envy. To be jealous of superior endowments, 
 can betray nothing but an ill-regulated heart and 
 understanding. If indeed, we had been rendered 
 incapable of painful feelings, envy could find 
 no place in us; but then, their various and 
 extraordinary utilities would be forfeited. As 
 with other base emotions, this is most apt to 
 haunt the hearts of those who are already addicted 
 to kindred evil passions. Like these also, it 
 exhibits different gradations of intensity, from the 
 slightest perceptible shade, up to a pitch of 
 boundless malignity. In common with the rest, 
 it increases with indulgence, and by vitiating the 
 reasoning powers, leads to conqlusions little short 
 
380 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 of the dictates of insanity. This passion is not 
 exclusively directed against superior objects, 
 since a rivalry may exist in villany and vice. The 
 vicious and ignorant are opposed to knowledge 
 and virtue, as light is opposed to darkness. One 
 who knows the worse, as well as the better side 
 of humanity, may wage successful war with 
 wickedness and guile; but how are the un- 
 suspecting and the innocent, to unravel the 
 meshes of falsehood, or to ward off the subter- 
 fuges and the iniquities, of the evil-minded and 
 the base? 
 
 Mere freedom from vice, in so far, is a nega- 
 tive quality. An individual may be so apathetic, 
 as to be unsusceptible of envy, or he may never 
 have been placed in the circumstances which ge- 
 nerate it. He alone, is supremely virtuous, who 
 has fought with, and overcome the temptation. 
 This passion lurks in guises in which we should 
 hardly expect to encounter it. Who beforehand, 
 would suspect a man, with any claims to enlight- 
 enment, of bearing envy to another, who was bet- 
 ter informed than himself? There is nothing 
 more absurd, than to decry the talent and the 
 knowledge which we do not possess. The worst 
 form of envy however, is that which the base and 
 immoral, display towards superior excellence. It 
 will admit of some palliation perhaps, when an in- 
 dividual envies in another, the qualities which bear 
 away the world's esteem ; but what apology is 
 there for those who hate with unspeakable malig- 
 nity, the moral worth in which they have no 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 381 
 
 share? Such feelings have the worst influence 
 on those who are so unhappy as to experience 
 them; for how is it possible to abhor with impu- 
 nity, the single-minded profession and practice 
 of morality. If we do not strive we cannot win, 
 and surely, every means should be pursued, that 
 is calculated to ward off this truly debasing pas- 
 sion. Careful management is required to pre- 
 vent emulation from degenerating into envy ; ex- 
 tended acquirements were better lost, than won 
 at the price. 
 
 II. Some passions are conditionally vicious; 
 among the number, is contempt. On occasions, 
 it is allowable, to feel and to express contempt, 
 towards brutality, tyranny, hypocrisy, and vice, 
 although tempered by consideration for the power 
 of circumstances over the offender. It is a pas- 
 sion which the man of highly elevated heart and 
 understanding, will rarely experience, inasmuch 
 as he will look down with commiseration on its 
 more legitimate objects. In ordinary life, how- 
 ever, men will not practise this forbearance ; and 
 it is at least right, that they should bestow their 
 condemnation on things comparatively deserv- 
 ing of it. Few moral derelictions are more 
 dreadful, than the scorn which is exhibited by 
 the ignorant, the prejudiced, the vicious, and the 
 superstitious, towards the enlightened and the 
 good ; yet how often this has been inflicted, let 
 the annals of society declare ? I cannot con- 
 ceive a greater outrage upon humanity, than 
 the iniquities which have been perpetrated by 
 
382 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 arrogance, conceit, and empty folly, against in- 
 nocence, gentleness, and blameless excellence. 
 Contempt is sufficiently to be deprecated, in cases 
 wherein the merits of individuals are equal ; but 
 when a grossly inferior nature dares to trample 
 on a higher, it calls for the loudest reprobation 
 of indignant justice. 
 
 III. Resentment is a feeling that is vicious 
 or otherwise, according to the circumstances in 
 which it is indulged. It is not necessary that 
 human endurance should be carried to such an 
 extreme, that neither contumely nor injury is 
 capable of moving it. Without some provision, 
 individuals would be liable to perpetual insult on 
 the part of the violent and unfeeling. As it is, 
 people too often submit through timidity or want 
 of adequate self-respect, to inflictions that a little 
 well-directed energy would speedily repel. What 
 is this principle not able to effect? The fiercest 
 animals even, hesitate to attack others much 
 weaker than themselves, when they shew an 
 undaunted front; and men the most savage and 
 implacable, will quail before a hardihood that 
 nothing can appal. When we have done what is 
 necessary to secure our well-being however, we 
 are not justified in proceeding farther. Anger 
 is unwarrantable towards one who merely asserts 
 his rights. It is our bounden duty to keep the 
 reining hand of reason upon our resentments ; to 
 use them as energizing instruments to secure our 
 safety, but not to violate the rules of rigid justice. 
 The power which the most violent even, possess 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 383 
 
 over their passions, is shewn in the circumstance 
 that few venture to indulge them in the presence 
 of their superiors. Men of long experience, 
 philosophic training, and habitual self-control, 
 have been known to exercise such a perfect 
 mastery over themselves, as never at any time, to 
 suffer anger to overcome them. Such, however, 
 are rare, and though we should strive to profit by 
 their example, the generality will not venture on 
 the attempt. 
 
 IV. Revenge, is the attribute of inferior na- 
 tures. We are not however, to place on the 
 same level, the man who resents every infringe- 
 ment as a deadly affront, with the individual who 
 has encountered flagrant injustice, and who seeks, 
 however erroneously, to enact retribution on the 
 head of the offender. The only case in which a 
 palliation is admissible, is under circumstances 
 in which society is unable to protect the injured. 
 In barbarous times, wherein no public tribunal 
 was recognized, and when the oppressed had no 
 other resort to secure immunity, retaliation could 
 hardly be esteemed a crime. It is impossible 
 indeed, for any tribunal, save that of public opi- 
 nion, to take cognizance of every offence against 
 the well-being of society; and though bigotry 
 and party spirit may bias its decisions, they 
 are rarely warped so far, as to lead in the long 
 run, to the sanction of acts of glaring enormity. 
 Yet, when even this fails, what can we do ? Re- 
 venge, may appease the ranklings of our hearts, 
 but it cannot undo the offence. And when time 
 
384 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 has brought its healing balm, and when the per- 
 petrator perhaps, lies stretched in the dust, we 
 may think with dissatisfaction on the part which 
 we have taken, and wish that it had been other- 
 wise. A protest against injury, and a dignified 
 demeanour, will often better become us, than 
 attempts at impotent and useless revenge. Such 
 conduct will be apt to occasion feelings more pain- 
 ful in the breast of the offender, than any injury 
 that we might have the power, or even the wish to 
 inflict. Possibly also, it may lead to repentance, 
 and voluntary expiation the best results; and, 
 at any rate, we shall enjoy the pleasant conscious- 
 ness of well-doing. It is terrible to witness the 
 vindictive inflictions in which some delight. Men 
 are occasionally trampled on by their fellows, 
 with a degree of ferocity unparalleled, except in 
 the combats of the brute. 
 
 V. Pride may be base and malignant, or it 
 may be far from unjustifiable. It is frequently 
 marked by a peculiar bearing, intimating the con- 
 sciousness of supposed superiority. The objects 
 with which it is usually connected station, birth, 
 possession, and power, are in this point of view, 
 sufficiently contemptible, since they mark an 
 over appreciation of things, in which human 
 dignity does not reside. If we are to respect 
 ourselves, it is as men as beings endowed with 
 rich capabilities ; with pure and elevated feelings, 
 and for acts of utility and beneficence. When 
 probity, honour, and a sterling regard for truth 
 and principle, are mixed with pride, we must 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 385 
 
 applaud the combination on the whole. Too 
 frequently however, pride is not only unredeemed, 
 but united with folly, sensuality, ignorance, and 
 vice. In this state, it is wholly intolerable, since 
 however disgusting in themselves, these defects are 
 thus additionally aggravated. How often has the 
 world's history proclaimed the union of pride 
 with meanness, cowardice, tyranny, and those 
 other qualities which sink the possessor below the 
 level of the beast ? The cultivation of the ever- 
 lasting portion of our being, and the distinct and 
 earnest appreciation of those attributes, to which 
 the real elevation of mankind is owing, are the 
 only means by which this degrading passion, in 
 all its forms, is to be banished from the heart. 
 
 7. It is wearisome to recount the long list of 
 human infirmities, and were they not redeemed, 
 the mind would revolt and sicken at the task. 
 The fanatic, the bigot, the violent party man, and 
 those engaged in pursuits that engender an eager 
 rivalry little tempered by feeling or principle, 
 are the most frequent victims of these degrading 
 passions. Their great feature seems to be the 
 association of the real or imaginary good of others, 
 with painful feelings of our own. Nothing indeed, 
 but the defective arrangements of society, and in- 
 ferior moral development, could thus lead people 
 to look with a jaundiced eye on the prosperity of 
 others. Such can be the only origin of those 
 degrading associations which fill the heart with 
 gall, and poison the cup of happiness through 
 life. There is nothing in man, his nature, pros- 
 is B 
 
386 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 pects, or condition, thai need cause the happiness 
 of his fellows to be the source of evil feelings. 
 Under present circumstances however, struggling 
 for our daily bread in the midst of keen and bitter 
 competition, it requires more than ordinary self- 
 control to preserve our equanimity. Society 
 ought to be so constituted, that the immediate 
 interests of one, should be those of all. False- 
 hood, ignorance, and error, stand opposed to the 
 improvement of the human race ; they cannot 
 exist without being prejudicial, and should be 
 resisted until wholly subdued. When mankind 
 shall be generally enlightened as to their duties 
 and expectations, and made acquainted with their 
 relations to each other, to the world around, and 
 to their Creator, it is impossible that they should 
 not take the best means of freeing themselves 
 from existing evils that the turpitude, misery, 
 and defectiveness, under which our social institu- 
 tions labour, should not be remedied, and that 
 hatred, malice, and uncharitableness, should not 
 be banished from the earth. 
 
 I. Bloodthirstiness, cruelty, and brutality, are 
 qualities befitting human beings of the worst 
 stamp ; they indicate the lowest grade of moral 
 and intellectual culture certainly, the very 
 lowest of the former. The accounts which his- 
 tory furnishes of the savage atrocities at different 
 times displayed on the theatre of the world, are 
 truly frightful. One cannot be sufficiently amazed 
 at the unrelenting barbarity with which men, 
 under different pretexts,have immolated their kind. 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 38? 
 
 Sometimes the brutalities to which I allude, were 
 the acts of masses of men of individuals, of ar- 
 mies, of commanders, of civil and religious tri- 
 bunals, and of kings. It is only since a recent 
 period, that juridical torture has been abandoned ; 
 the lash however, is still applied in public, and 
 death, often under the most savage and harrowing 
 form, is inflicted on criminals, women among the 
 rest. Instances of suffering from destitution and 
 disease, are so common, even in our paths, as 
 rarely to attract either notice or compassion. 
 Animals are slaughtered with needless suffering ; 
 while on other occasions, they are too often treated 
 with unmitigated cruelty. The atrocities perpe- 
 trated by victorious armies, wicked kings, and 
 fanatical persecutors, are enough to make the 
 blood run cold. Countless cities have been de- 
 stroyed with such accompaniments, as to make the 
 humane and rational almost doubt that any could 
 be guilty of them. What feeling individual could 
 peruse the details of the cruelties of a Nero, a 
 Domitian, or an Iwan, or those inflicted in the 
 insulted name of religion, without being moved 
 with inexpressible shame and burning indigna- 
 tion ? These evils are lessened, but not removed ; 
 nation still makes war upon nation, while horrid 
 and revolting crimes disgrace society. The in- 
 tercourse of mankind can never be what it ought, 
 until the prevailing practice of leaving the greater 
 portion in blighting ignorance, whether as regards 
 intellectual or moral knowledge, shall be utterly 
 discarded. Then, and then only, shall blood- 
 
388 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 thirstiness, cruelty and brutality, cease to charac- 
 terize our race. 
 
 II. I have now nearly closed the dark cata- 
 logue with which I commenced. The passions 
 which I have enumerated, are indeed, evil and 
 destructive, but their malignity is susceptible of 
 still farther aggravation. Brutality, malice, and 
 bloodthirstiness receive an additional intensity of 
 hue, when united with fanaticism, bigotry, and 
 superstition. These last, communicate a depth 
 and a continuity of character, of which the first 
 alone, are destitute. The vindictiveness of the 
 merely ignorant and brutal, is temporary and 
 occasional, but the malice of the fanatic is sleep- 
 less as the feeling which generates it. Supersti- 
 tion as a passion, is one of the worst stamp; 
 party-spirit indeed, legitimizes cruelty and op- 
 pression, but this is only for a time; whereas, 
 this hideous vice renders every kind of infliction 
 perennial with itself. Deeds of awful enormity, 
 at which men without the motives which super- 
 stition furnishes, would shudder, are perpetrated 
 under its influence with reckless indifference. It 
 blasts the moral perceptions, turns man upon 
 man, and in a word, renders its wretched victims 
 deaf to every dictate of reason and humanity. 
 Nor is it merely its direct results its immediate 
 tendencies, which we are to deplore, but that it 
 constitutes itself erring tribunal, the arbiter of 
 right and wrong. In short, superstition in all its 
 forms, is the unvarying opponent of truth, wis- 
 dom, and excellence, and wages a war of exter- 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 389 
 
 mination upon all who are animated with the 
 faintest desire of improving the condition of man- 
 kind. Victim after victim has been, and must 
 continue to be sacrificed to its fury, until know- 
 ledge shall for ever extinguish its existence in 
 the blaze of universal light. Nothing is too sa- 
 cred for the fangs of this ruthless passion reli- 
 gion, the hopes of a happy hereafter, and the 
 providence of the Deity, have all been seized 
 upon, and inconceivably distorted. Attributes 
 the most foreign to his nature, have been ascribed 
 to the benevolent Father of all ; and cruelty, im- 
 potent, yet unsatisfied as if a violent death and 
 anguish unutterable, were insufficient, unable to 
 push the capabilities of poor insulted humanity 
 beyond the utmost verge of endurance, has 
 doomed the hapless sufferer to torments beyond 
 the grave. What other passion could so harden 
 the female breast naturally so susceptible of 
 tender emotions, as to have led women even of 
 the highest rank, to witness unconcerned the 
 agonies of the wretched victims of an execrable 
 tribunal? What other indeed, could have in- 
 duced the ladies of the court of Charles the Ninth 
 of infamous memory, to exult over the remains 
 of the courtiers who were slain on the occasion 
 of the massacre of St. Bartholomew ? Supersti- 
 tion, bigotry, intolerance, and fanaticism, are 
 akin; they belong to the same evil family, and 
 their common results, if not equal in degree, are 
 similar in kind. What pen could detail the hor- 
 rors, or the bloodshed which they have occa- 
 
390 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 sioned? Yet as if to add another feature to 
 their atrocity, wretches for whose villany no re- 
 probation is adequate, have taken advantage of 
 the insanity to which these passions lead, to 
 wreak their enmity on opponents, whose only 
 fault perhaps, was that of being over- wise or over- 
 good. It cannot be too strongly urged, that the 
 only cure for these and similar miseries, is moral 
 and intellectual enlightenment. This, under 
 God, is the sovereign remedy for those malignant 
 and evil -dealing passions which are the sources 
 of such inconceivable mischief. With a full per- 
 ception of his duties; with a heart alive to the 
 sweet impulses of which humanity is susceptible, 
 and with a mind energized by the best and most 
 powerful motives, man at length, would cease to 
 prey upon man, he would equally cease to 
 be the victim or the oppressor, and dwelling in 
 the midst of the sublime realities of existence 
 inspired by the precious relations which connect 
 him with his fellows and with his Creator, he 
 would complete the term of his career usefully 
 and happily, and pass resigned and cheerful to 
 that ulterior stage of being, of which the present 
 is but the threshold and the vestibule. 
 
 III. Did not ample experience confirm the 
 fact, we should doubt the possibility of such a 
 quality as disinterested malevolence. That a 
 human being should be guilty of inflicting pain 
 and annoyance from the mere love of evil, seems 
 at variance with reality. Unhappily however, 
 nothing is more certain ; and from the idle boy 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 391 
 
 who delights in tormenting dogs, drunkards, and 
 lunatics the sarcastic orator and the sneering 
 cynic, to him in whom malevolence and wicked- 
 ness are the business of life, all exhibit but vary- 
 ing shades of the same base passion. So many 
 examples are on record of men whose pleasure 
 consisted in the infliction of evil, that although 
 we may doubt whether all the feelings could be 
 merged in this one, it still remains unquestion- 
 able that it may become the leading character- 
 istic. It is trite to say, that this deadly principle 
 could exist to this extent, in no cultivated intel- 
 lect or feeling heart. Historians indeed, affirm 
 that Nero in the early part of his career, was 
 conspicuous for clemency; but we may well 
 doubt whether his disposition was ever really such 
 as to indicate this quality. A feeling and en- 
 lightened man can never become a brute, though 
 nothing is more easy with regard to one who is 
 ignorant and immoral. The despot just named, 
 would not have altered, had he been in possession 
 of the qualities first ascribed to him. Who, for 
 example, could believe that such a change was 
 practicable with regard to an Aurelius, a Julian, 
 or a Vespasian? There is too much of this dis- 
 interested malevolence in the world. It is deemed 
 hardly culpable to give pain to an enemy, or to 
 those who, deservedly or otherwise, incur our dis- 
 pleasure. An extension of the principle is seen 
 in controversial writings, and in the usages of 
 deliberative assemblies. The wise, the good, and 
 the benevolent, will rarely be the cause of suffer- 
 
392 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 ing to others; and when stern necessity compels 
 the infliction, it will be with a painful reluctance 
 widely different from the savage exultation at- 
 tendant on some of the practices of society. 
 This reprehensible tendency may exist to a 
 slight extent, in persons otherwise worthy of 
 esteem; but the qualities with which a defect is 
 united, should never be suffered to obscure its 
 real nature, or to induce indifference. The pro- 
 duction of disinterested malevolence is briefly 
 this. In minds of inferior training, the advantages 
 which are realized by others, come to be looked 
 upon with pain, while their losses are regarded 
 with satisfaction. When this is habitually in- 
 dulged in, and more especially, if from motives 
 of gain or enmity, the individual take an active 
 share in the perpetration of evil, he comes by 
 degrees, to experience pleasure in the practice. 
 In the career of ambition, men struggle for power 
 from the persuasion of its advantages; eventu- 
 ally however, they pursue it for its own sake. 
 This, and other illustrations, go to shew that an oc- 
 cupation which is engaged in with earnestness and 
 passion, is eventually loved independent of colla- 
 teral advantages. There is perhaps no single 
 pursuit which people do not follow with an 
 entire abrogation of interested motives. The 
 professional man, the merchant, and the man of 
 science, afford equal examples. It follows there- 
 fore, that we should pay the most scrupulous atten- 
 tion to the nature and tendency of all our habits, 
 since we shall inevitably conceive attachment for 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 393 
 
 whatever we practisewith energyand perseverance, 
 however irksome and disagreeable it may prove at 
 first. What an overwhelming what an admirable 
 argument in behalf of truth, morality, and all ex- 
 cellence, and what a sublime example of the 
 goodness, the mercy, and the wisdom of God? 
 Let the votary of virtue never flag let him only 
 persevere, and he must eventually reap a bright 
 and glowing reward in the ardent feelings which 
 his conduct shall light up within his heart feelings 
 pure and unmixed, and which the most assiduous 
 cultivation of happiness for its own sake, could 
 never realize. As for the blighting pleasures 
 arising from disinterested malevolence, they 
 cannot be compared for a moment, mixed up 
 as they are, with the miseries flowing from the 
 stern retribution of insulted nature, with the ever- 
 flowing, ever-increasing satisfactions which accrue 
 from a life of virtue. The unhappy subject of 
 such a perverted feeling, is liable to incessant 
 misery from the spectacle of the well-being which 
 he is unable to prevent ; while he must be often 
 visited with the scorn which his conduct is so 
 well calculated to inspire. 
 
 8. There are two states of mind, each of a 
 truly deplorable nature the one, the absence of 
 all feeling, the other, that of the better feelings. 
 The almost exclusive attention which is paid to 
 intellectual education, and the neglect of adequate 
 moral culture, suffice to account for the occurrence 
 of minds without feeling. In such, the con- 
 ceptions on the subject of virtue, are cold and 
 
394 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 passionless ; the affections are meagre or null, and 
 the refinement and delicacy of sentiment which 
 give the relations of life their greatest relish, and 
 enshrine them in dignity and grace, are wanting. 
 Individuals like these, may be cognizant of their 
 duties, and attend to them with sedulous propriety, 
 but they cannot love virtue for its own sake, or 
 take any pleasure in the performance of those 
 numberless courtesies and amenities, which fill 
 existence with delight, and make the intercourse 
 of society a priceless happiness. I need not here 
 urge the advantages which virtue, and even 
 knowledge, derive from those pure emotions, with- 
 out which the former could not be said to exist. 
 Those who are destitute of them, will never be 
 enthusiasts in the cause of excellence; they will 
 not enrol themselves in the bright phalanx which 
 combats for truth and the advancement of hu- 
 manity, neither will they look with entrancing 
 delight on the wonders of Providence, nor regard 
 the future with hope and longing. The exclusive 
 presence of the inferior feelings, is a condition still 
 worse than the preceding, since to equal dis- 
 advantages, it adds its peculiar evils. Prevention 
 is the only efficient remedy. Let the young of 
 both sexes be universally instructed; let their 
 attention be early directed to the contemplation of 
 the elevated spectacle of nature, and let their affec- 
 tions and moral principles be incessantly developed 
 by precept, example, and the use of all those 
 means, which judicious and kind-hearted instruc- 
 tors so well know how to enforce. 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 395 
 
 Apathy however, may assume another form, 
 to which we refer in speaking of the perished and 
 blighted affections. It is contrary to the usual order 
 of things that emotions once developed, should 
 ever be wholly extinguished. Feelings both of 
 pleasure and pain, remain in a latent state, ready 
 to be awakened into life and activity; but in the 
 case of the perished affections, no ordinary means 
 are sufficient to revive them. An individual for 
 example, takes no adequate pains to nurture his 
 own affections, or those which have been centered 
 in him; he neglects, insults, or betrays, the ob- 
 jects whom he should have loved and cherished, 
 until their feelings perchance, are entirely alien- 
 ated. Than such a procedure, nothing is more 
 strongly calculated to destroy the affections, how- 
 ever developed. Those who are capable of it, 
 are usually addicted to various vices; their tem- 
 pers are stormy and uncontrollable, and their in- 
 tellects rarely attain to considerable development. 
 In those in whom the affections are dead, 
 there may be a range of character, from perfect 
 innocence, to vice and wickedness the most reck- 
 less. How often has it happened, that the pure- 
 minded, from insufficient knowledge of the world, 
 defective appreciation of- character, undue influ- 
 ence, or the mastery of passion, have yielded 
 their affections to persons utterly unworthy of 
 the preference? With lacerated and bleeding 
 hearts, what resort have they? Often supplica- 
 ting often repulsed, and finally abandoned, be- 
 trayed, and heart-broken, the affections at length 
 
396 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 take refuge in their secret cells, never to be re- 
 awakened. How many are turned aside by 
 faults, petulancies, and deficiencies, some of which 
 might have been corrected, while others seem 
 too deeply grafted for removal? The treatment 
 which men have inflicted on those who deserved 
 better at their hands, is of so infamous a nature, 
 as to be inconceivable to all who have not sounded 
 the depths of human depravity. Some are so 
 false, so unprincipled, so brutish, and in all re- 
 spects so inferior, as to preclude the possibility 
 of happiness to those connected with them. There 
 are unions on earth, which assuredly were never 
 registered in heaven of the pure with the im- 
 pure, of the virtuous with the vicious, of the ig- 
 norant with the enlightened, and of the feeling 
 with the unfeeling. And whatever may be said 
 of their tendency to nurture patience, forbear- 
 ance, resignation, and other virtues, I cannot 
 think that such disparity is desirable, or that ex- 
 cellence and single-heartedness, should be left so 
 wholly to the mercy of duplicity, malignity, and 
 iniquity. The usages of the world however, pro- 
 vide no sufficient remedy, and the innocent vic- 
 tim, perhaps destitute of energy, and tied down 
 by circumstances wholly uncontrollable, too often 
 perishes by sudden violence or slow decay. After 
 all, it is our part to make the most of the position 
 in which we may be cast. Few situations are so 
 extreme, as to be destitute of every alleviating 
 feature; and even where they seem utterly de- 
 plorable, the sufferers may still enjoy their own 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 397 
 
 approbation, and patiently and trustingly await 
 that future, which bruises the fangs of the op- 
 pressor, and liberates the oppressed. It is the 
 duty of all to improve their intellects, to cultivate 
 the precious store of feeling on which happiness 
 so much depends, and to cherish incessantly, the 
 affections which have been reposed in them. 
 In this way, each will best escape that forlorn, if 
 not vicious condition, which perished affection 
 must realize, and at any rate, enjoy the acquittal 
 of an upright heart. 
 
 9. Nothing is more certain, not only that 
 similar vices and similar virtues exist in the same 
 individual, but that qualities the most opposed, 
 will also be found united. The explanation of this 
 occurrence is founded on the operation of mixed 
 circumstances, some of which are favourable to 
 the development of one class of qualities, and 
 some to that of another. If we look abroad in 
 the world, we often perceive virtue and vice, 
 prodigality and meanness, avarice and generosity, 
 courage and cowardice, refinement and sensuality, 
 variously combined. We are sometimes surprised 
 at the liberality of the miser, the humanity of the 
 executioner, or the tenderness of the veteran 
 inured to war and hardship. Some are marked 
 by truckling subserviency and assurance the most 
 arrogant. Honour perchance, may be evinced 
 by thieves, and generosity by robbers. Some 
 have active courage, others passive; while fear 
 at times, assails the bold, and resolution inspires 
 the timid. Many are energetic and immoral, 
 
3Q8 ON THE FEELINGS. 
 
 while others are moral, yet feeble of purpose. 
 There are characters who have sufficient honesty 
 for ordinary emergencies, and little or none, for 
 trying occasions. The world is often at fault. 
 Some have earned reputation who only merited 
 infamy, while others are execrated with as little 
 propriety. The visible evidence of character is 
 often fugitive and uncertain. There are occasions 
 in which the metal of the soul is severely tried: 
 some giving proofs of an elevation for which they 
 never received credit, while others belie the ex- 
 pectations which their past conduct had inspired. 
 The ordinary current of life is little qualified to 
 draw out the secret tendencies of the heart ; and 
 it may be said, as times of peril and excitement 
 evince, that few exhibit a tithe of the qualities 
 whether good or bad, which they are capable of 
 displaying. Persons of superior energy, will 
 start from the beaten track, with attributes that 
 make them a misfortune or a blessing to their 
 kind. Our position on earth indeed, affords 
 ample scope for the utmost exertion of which we 
 are capable, did not the prejudices of society in 
 favour of qualities often anything but beneficial, 
 prove a perpetual snare. The purification of 
 public opinion however, and a juster appreciation 
 of character, would lead the lofty and noble- 
 hearted beings whom circumstances are con- 
 tinually generating, to devote themselves to the 
 welfare of mankind ; while the imperfect, vicious, 
 and vacillating characters, with which the world 
 is inundated, would more rarely abound. 
 
ON THE FEELINGS. 399 
 
 I have thus concluded my observations on the 
 leading passions of our nature, good as well as 
 evil, and have endeavoured to shew the vast im- 
 portance, and infinitely superior nature of the 
 good affections. To be virtuous, we must feel as 
 well as know: the disinterested love of what is 
 good, is even more necessary than the love of 
 goodness for the sake of the end albeit the lat- 
 ter is the source of the former. Habit also, must 
 confirm and enforce virtue. No mere intellec- 
 tual perception can equiponderate the influence 
 of the affections. We might know on various 
 occasions, that it was right to encounter death, 
 and other real or supposed evils, but unless we 
 felt it to be so, we could hardly resolve on the 
 sacrifice. It is not enough to know our duty, we 
 must also feel and love it. Under the impulse 
 of affection, a woman, or a weak child even, will 
 face perils before which hardy manhood quails. 
 The patriot animated by the love of country, will 
 perform prodigies of valour which no mere hire- 
 ling could enact; and if he cannot conquer, he 
 is willing to die. We incessantly complain of 
 our lot, but our situation is susceptible of infinite 
 amendment : the exercise of our faculties affords 
 a satisfaction, superior perhaps, to that derived 
 from any other source. Now it seems impossi- 
 ble to secure this exercise, by any means short 
 of those which our present position involves 
 surrounded as we are by pressing wants ; acted 
 upon by the elements, as well as by the necessi- 
 ties, the defects, and the passions of our fellows. 
 
400 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 We are rendered liable to evil that we may ob- 
 tain good ; and the pleasure-giving attributes of 
 our species, as this world is arranged, could not 
 have been so effectually promoted without the 
 contingency of others of an opposite character. 
 Even pain itself, the source of our never-ceasing, 
 querulous lamentations, is most commonly the 
 work of our own hands of defective arrange- 
 ments, gross inattention to the behests of nature, 
 and neglected capabilities. In other respects, 
 pain is one of the elements of virtue, as well as 
 of pleasure itself. The painful, yet virtuous and 
 allowable emotions of our souls, whether arising 
 from earthly bereavements or the spectacle of the 
 miseries of others, prepare us for our final trans- 
 ition to a more abiding home, where further ideas, 
 further emotions, and further duties, await us. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT CONSCIENCE THEORY 
 OF VIRTUE, AND LANGUAGE OF PASSION. 
 
 1. THE moral judgment or conscience, is a 
 case of complex association of affections, feel- 
 ings, habits, and ideas. Intellect, no less than 
 feeling and affection, is concerned in its produc- 
 tion. Decisions on most subjects, have been long 
 recorded, so that every individual finds them 
 
ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 401 
 
 ready for his purposes. Few venture to think 
 for themselves; they adopt the current views 
 peculiar to the sphere in which they move. The 
 aggregate of these becomes their conscience, the 
 dictates of which, they adhere to or disobey, as 
 interest, passion, or principle, may prompt. Yet 
 every one should try to dissect the canons of 
 opinion for himself, and to appreciate the founda- 
 tions on which they respectively rest. The very 
 attempt, if perseveringly and judiciously made, 
 imparts more or less ability. Each grants the 
 propriety of examination, except in cases in which 
 he is satisfied; an admission that subjects all 
 opinions to the test, since all are variously held 
 by fallible men. Truth indeed, might not be 
 uniformly secured, but there would be a con- 
 tinual approximation to it. 
 
 Conscience, or the moral judgment, is not 
 innate ; it is the result of experience, habit, asso- 
 ciation, and feeling. It does not come into the 
 world with us, but takes its complexion from the 
 circumstances in which we are placed, acting on 
 our natural capabilities, and generating the vari- 
 ous habits, ideas, emotions, and energies, by which 
 as human beings, we are characterized. In every 
 way, it is made up of matters of daily occurrence, 
 worldly, and worldlike ; what then, could have 
 produced it in the silent womb? The innate 
 origin has been supposed to indicate the will of the 
 Deity as implanted in the human breast; the 
 existence of the same capabilities however, in every 
 man, and the universal formation of conscience 
 
 c c 
 
402 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 under given circumstances, equally testify his de- 
 termination. Truth can be no degradation ; and 
 before we allege the designs of Providence as an 
 argument, we must first determine whether the 
 fact which they are brought to support, be correct. 
 The doctrine of innate emotions, by assuming 
 their congenital existence, militates against edu- 
 cation and moral training ; and by asserting the 
 occasional existence of evil tendencies at birth, 
 runs counter to religion and morality, contradicts 
 our better feelings and the dictates of our under- 
 standings, and diminishes their joint utility as 
 guides under God, for the maintenance and 
 security of virtue and happiness. 
 
 Conscience is perfect or imperfect, as good or 
 bad feelings, correct or incorrect representations, 
 predominate. That of the same individual is capa- 
 ble of various phases ; while the maximum of ex- 
 cellence is singularly diversified. The great 
 land-marks of right and wrong are more or less 
 appreciated by all ; yet some will commit actions 
 with self-approval, that are really pernicious, and 
 which persons of more correct principles, would 
 scorn to perpetrate. Even the feelings connected 
 with the same duties, are differently experienced 
 by those who recognize them as equally binding. 
 How desirable it is, that conscience should be 
 upright in all, and regulated by those eternal 
 principles of truth and justice, which are made to 
 flow from the constitution that has been imparted 
 to us? The history of mankind proves that it 
 has varied with the moral and intellectual cultiva- 
 
ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 403 
 
 tion of nations and individuals, and that to this, 
 its further progress must be owing. All civiliza- 
 tion is comparative: the most barbarous tribes 
 are not more inferior to the most elevated, than 
 are the latter, to what all must one day become ; 
 and both from the operation of similar causes. 
 Nature's provisions for securing a good con- 
 science, and averting a bad, are numerous and 
 effective. First, there is the pleasure connected 
 with the superior, and the pain which attends the 
 inferior affections. The bad man sympathizes 
 with evil, and is pained by good ; while the good 
 man takes pleasure in what is good, and is pained 
 at evil. The malevolent satisfaction of the former, 
 both as to frequency and intensity, is less than 
 the benevolent delight of the latter; while the 
 misery which the one suffers from the gratification 
 of his passions, is infinitely greater than any un- 
 happiness which can befal the other in the dis- 
 charge of his duties. No particular instances of 
 the adversity of the good, or the prosperity of the 
 wicked, can invalidate the general rule, which 
 must subsist so long as virtue and vice continue 
 what they are. Happiness does not reside in 
 wealth or power, nor is misery unavoidable in the 
 absence of both. The former mainly consists in 
 the proper regulation of the ideas and feelings. 
 This may be done whether in adversity or pros- 
 perity, and with it there cannot be lasting un- 
 happiness, nor without it, true dignity. Nature 
 is no respecter of persons : she relentlessly levels 
 the petty distinctions which we would vainly 
 
404 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 oppose to her behests. The vicious man though 
 garbed in splendour, is unable to purchase the 
 felicity which dwells unsolicited, in the abode of 
 virtuous poverty. 
 
 A correct moral judgment, furnishing as it does 
 an instant guide to conduct, yields enormous ad- 
 vantages. An individual who has fortified his 
 judgment, and purified his principles, by assidu- 
 ous cultivation and frequent reflection, will be 
 infinitely better provided than one who takes his 
 opinions, just as they happen to be suggested, 
 from others. The former can easily amend his 
 conclusions, but the latter is at the mercy of 
 every prejudice. If habit, education, and long 
 association, yield such a scope to error, of what 
 service must they not prove in the cause of truth ? 
 It requires a powerful effort to cast aside the de- 
 lusions of early life, while the disruption occasions 
 a kind of violence to our nature. How incalcu- 
 lable then, the advantages, if truth were incul- 
 cated on the minds of all from infancy. Thus 
 instilled, and enforced by the acts, the associa- 
 tions, and the affections of childhood and youth, 
 it would receive the sanction of mature age never 
 to be erased or forgotten. And thus, the mighty 
 empire of the breast, invigorated and nourished 
 by continual accessions of truth and excellence, 
 would increase and flourish until revolving time 
 had accomplished our earthly destiny, and pre- 
 pared our souls for an expansion which our pre- 
 sent career is not intended to realize. 
 
 It is wonderful, yet true, that elementary 
 
ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 405 
 
 combinations so perishable and transitory as 
 those which go to make up the body, should be 
 the agents whereby ideas and feelings are pro- 
 duced, that can never die. Mind alone, is impe- 
 rishable matter indeed, preserves an elementary 
 perpetuity, but its forms are fleeting and imper- 
 manent as the wind. The reflection that in hu- 
 man organization and its various adaptations, a 
 beautiful and effective arrangement exists all over 
 the peopled earth, for realizing an instant im- 
 provement, fills the mind with wonder and admi- 
 ration, alloyed indeed, by an emotion of deep 
 regret, when we consider the magnificent results 
 to which this arrangement might be made sub- 
 servient, and how little has been done to render 
 it so. The moral judgment is continually pro- 
 gressive in infancy non-existent, in childhood 
 feeble, in youth vacillating, and in manhood 
 formed. If we consider the slow advances of the 
 heart and intellect, but more particularly of the 
 latter, the cause of the foregoing will be obvious. 
 In children, by a munificent Providence, the 
 feelings are sufficiently awakened to become con- 
 nected with the different duties of which their 
 tender age permits the performance. It is an 
 after effort to develop the foundation of these du- 
 ties, but in the mean time, childhood may be 
 trained to love and revere them. The moral 
 judgment is not a single indivisible faculty, but 
 one made up of many particulars, all resolvable 
 into feeling and judgment. It is developed at 
 various periods, as the development of the intel- 
 
406 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 lect and affections is early or late. The moral 
 man may never be formed, or it may be to the 
 imperfect extent which characterizes the great 
 majority of living men. When the affections and 
 intellectual powers however, are eliminated in the 
 natural order, and improved by exercise and cul- 
 tivation, the advance of the moral judgment is 
 co-ordinate. The feelings and affections are 
 progressive, consequently the moral judgments 
 which they sanction, and of which indeed, they 
 are integral parts, must be equally so. Filial 
 love is first developed, then the love of God, of 
 friends, of nature, of wife, of child, and of man- 
 kind. During the production of these affections, 
 various others, such as the love of justice, of mo- 
 rality, and of truth, are successively generated. 
 Although children may employ the language in- 
 dicative of them, it is impossible by any amount 
 of early culture, to realize beyond a certain ex- 
 tent, the capabilities or the acquirements of after 
 life. The great object is to attend to everything 
 in its place, and to secure the effectual reception 
 of every desirable quality at the proper period. 
 Were this done, we should not witness multi- 
 tudes of individuals, with the outward form and 
 bearing of men, but inwardly maimed and defec- 
 tive. Nature will not wait for us if we do not 
 secure the opportunity at the fitting moment, it 
 passes away, and so far as this world is concerned, 
 is lost for ever. Much of our intellectual pro- 
 gress is contingent on the passions every affec- 
 tion and every feeling lend an impulse to mind. 
 
ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 407 
 
 Most men however, after a certain period, aban- 
 don the cultivation of their intellect ; hence it is 
 not surprising that it should retrograde, or that 
 hebetude and imbecility should replace the se- 
 rene and piercing sagacity of old age. How is 
 it to be expected that faculties should retain an 
 activity, for the promotion of which, almost every 
 provision has long ceased to be made ? Mankind 
 will never become what they ought, until their 
 capabilities are developed from the earliest pe- 
 riod. Prescriptive morality alone, is insufficient. 
 Every one so soon as his faculties permit, should 
 know the basis of his duties; a species of infor- 
 mation, to the inculcation of which, every other 
 should be made subservient. 
 
 In fine, the moral judgment, whether as re- 
 gards the intellect or the affections, is formed by 
 natural causes by the influence of God's works 
 and those of man by our own efforts and those 
 of others. Our feelings and affections, no less 
 than our sensations and ideas, are owing to ordi- 
 nary agencies; it is impossible even for one to 
 exist, of which these are not the sole origin. Our 
 moral judgments are intellectual conclusions 
 united with certain feelings; once produced and 
 existing in the mind, they are called up and re- 
 gulated by the usual laws of association. The 
 course of nature, no less with the moral, than the 
 physical world, is never departed from. We feel 
 assured that the wise and good can never lose 
 the feelings and ideas which render them so, and 
 that the wicked and ignorant cannot cease to be 
 
408 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 thus, without the employment of proper means. 
 It is evident that the regulations which the Deity 
 has laid down for our guidance and protec- 
 tion, are the very best that could be devised. 
 Our interest lies in observing them, nor could 
 their Divine Originator ever will their infraction. 
 Were that to be obtained as a gift, which we en- 
 joy as a reward, we should cease to strive. We 
 are placed in a certain situation we are afforded 
 means and opportunities, and then left to our- 
 selves. If we would reap good, or avoid evil, we 
 must owe it to our own exertions our happi- 
 ness, if we would obtain it, must be the work of 
 our own hands. Every form and condition of 
 human feeling and human passion, are produced 
 and regulated by undeviating, and never-ceasing 
 laws, from which there is no appeal. In all the 
 varying relations of humanity, we see the one 
 constant rule if we would be happy, if we would 
 be wise, if we would be virtuous, we must make 
 ourselves acquainted with, and abide by it. 
 
 2, Virtue and vice as names, are abstract terms. 
 The former is the collective title of the superior 
 feelings, conceptions, and acts of mankind, as well 
 as of the happiness flowing from the possession of 
 the one, and the practice of the other. It also 
 extends to the painful feelings and acts required 
 by faultless conduct, and to all the contingent 
 immolations, bereavements, and self-sacrifices. 
 Vice is the collective title or abstraction, of the 
 inferior acts and feelings of mankind, as well as 
 of the pains and pleasures contingent on the 
 
ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 409 
 
 practice of iniquity. This world has been so 
 ordered, that virtue is not always productive of 
 material well-being ; but infinite wisdom has se- 
 cured to the good man feelings and a conscience, 
 the possession of which, amply compensates the 
 absence of outward fortune. If we place an 
 unflagging trust in our Maker, that he will do 
 everything for the best, and that the crosses and 
 the trials to which this our earthly life subjects 
 us, are but parts of a mighty whole, the eventual 
 result of which, is to produce the greatest sum of 
 virtue and happiness, here and hereafter, how is 
 it possible for us to experience cureless misery or 
 distrust, let what will befal? We must often feel 
 bitter grief and sorrow for a time, for precious 
 sympathies cannot be loosened with impunity; 
 but neither can be permanent, when we know 
 that it is the precursor of great and lasting good. 
 Were existence indeed, to pause with this world 
 were there no compensation hereafter, well 
 might we be miserable and comfortless. The 
 living earth with all its glories, would be but 
 dust and corruption without this precious con- 
 summation, which so sure as God exists, and is 
 good and just, must ensue. The ill-informed 
 then, and the weak of heart, owe their unhappi- 
 ness to their defects, and to the insufficient culti- 
 vation of those virtuous energies, the full pos- 
 session of which is a shield against every evil. 
 There are not enough of comforters and instruc- 
 tors in the world. The task of self-purification is 
 often slow and painful; and many a one who 
 
410 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 with a little help, might have gone on with cer- 
 tainty and success, without it, faints and perishes 
 by the way. It is beautiful to observe how virtue 
 in all times, has testified for herself; how par- 
 takers of every creed have shewn by their conduct, 
 that their principles were correct. Assuredly, 
 she must increase and flourish among men, as 
 knowledge and moral training themselves, shall 
 increase and flourish. 
 
 A multitude of pens have sought to pervert 
 the nature of virtue to chain her down to certain 
 professions to a given belief to acts independent 
 of feelings, and to feelings independent of acts ; 
 but however obscured for a while, she invariably 
 emerges with unsullied purity, from the attempt. 
 Virtue is not difficult of comprehension to pure 
 hearts and unbiassed minds. Those who are 
 possessed of deep feelings, disinterested affections, 
 the love of God, respect for self, and respect for 
 others, charity and self-denial, are also possessed 
 of her. All the excellencies of our nature are 
 promoted by antagonist qualities. How could 
 there be virtue without the liability to err, re- 
 sistance, when there was no temptation, and 
 energy, without ends to be attained, or obstacles 
 to be overcome? The storms, the evils, and the 
 turmoils of the moral, no less than of the physical 
 world, are productive of qualities calculated to 
 meet and subdue them. It is desirable to be ex- 
 posed to no dangers greater than we have 
 strength to surmount; this however, has been 
 attended to by the Divine Architect, for there is 
 
ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 411 
 
 no hindrance so great, that our faculties if pro- 
 perly cultivated, will not be adequate to cope 
 with it. To have subjected us to difficulties with 
 which we were rendered impotent to grapple, 
 could never be the intention or the work of a 
 benevolent and all-powerful Being, who could not 
 place his creatures in a situation that would not 
 tend to their eventual benefit. The innate capa- 
 bilities of our nature, cannot be developed with- 
 out the agency of powerfully operating causes, 
 and such as everywhere abound. We are not 
 indeed, to suppose that the disorders which 
 abound in the moral world are to continue for 
 ever; but if they are to be removed, it must be 
 by the exercise of virtue, the only remedy for 
 earthly ills. Perfection perhaps, is unattainable 
 on earth, yet assuredly, a state of things must 
 arise, that will be as perfection itself, compared 
 with the present. We are not to anticipate the 
 dreaming innocence and security which poets 
 have painted, but that superior condition which 
 is derived from the dissemination of knowledge, 
 and the practical cultivation of our moral and 
 intellectual energies. Man cannot otherwise 
 secure his happiness, nor is it possible for him to 
 arrive at a position that will exonerate him from 
 strenuous and sustained exertion. The remi- 
 niscence of past evils doubtless, will operate as a 
 continual incentive to avoid a repetition of them ; 
 but even so, it is doubtful whether the world will 
 ever attain to a pitch of perfection so great, as to 
 present no infractions of the moral law. 
 
412 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 The benefits flowing from the practice of virtue, 
 do not always accrue to the full extent at once. 
 The world's standard, which measures good and 
 ill by the amount of outward possessions, is falla- 
 cious. Human dignity does not reside in material, 
 but in moral riches ; this however, is a truth that 
 must be felt to be known. It is an error to deny 
 the utility of external conveniences ; but these 
 are as one to infinity, compared with the qualities 
 of the heart and understanding. A man may 
 enjoy unbounded wealth, yet be characterized 
 by every vice that degrades humanity. That 
 riches will not ward off all the miseries of life, is 
 a truth too trite to be insisted on; they are 
 among the agents of happiness, though in them- 
 selves, wholly impotent to produce it. That the 
 practice of virtue however, is most favourable 
 even to material advantages, does not admit a 
 doubt; but that as things are, it is frequently 
 otherwise, is no less certain. It is founded on 
 the existence and moral attributes of the Deity, 
 that virtue, if not in this world, at least in the 
 next, must be productive of happiness. If indeed, 
 there were no other, the pleasure which accom- 
 panies the pursuit, would yield a sufficient incite- 
 ment; but the sanction is prodigiously enhanced 
 by the existence of another state of being, wherein 
 knowledge and virtue shall go on progressively 
 and for ever, and where the practice of the one, 
 and the acquisition of the other, shall prove 
 sources of unceasing happiness. The evils to 
 which virtue sometimes subjects its profession in 
 
ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 413 
 
 this world,and the desirableness of afuture,reposing 
 as it does, on the wisdom and goodness of God, 
 together yield a sum of evidence, which if it do 
 not amount to actual certainty, at least approaches 
 indefinitely near to it. However the intellectual 
 proof may fail, that which is drawn from the 
 heart and affections, is wholly conclusive. These 
 repose with full conviction upon the boundless 
 love of the universal Parent, and taken along 
 with the intellectual proof, yield a sum of evi- 
 dence that is altogether unassailable. We are 
 often required to forego outward advantages, of 
 which others less scrupulous, do not hesitate to 
 avail themselves ; while our constancy is tested 
 by poverty, undeserved obloquy, and other inflic- 
 tions. These are the price of excellence, and 
 we cannot expect to obtain the one, if we with- 
 hold the other. In fine, the practice of virtue is 
 ensured by the happiness immediately flowing 
 from the feelings which attend it, and, con- 
 tingently, by the end or reward, which in this 
 world or the next, it is sure to realize. 
 
 Intellect without feeling, is but an insufficient 
 prop of virtue; the one however, requires the 
 perpetual assistance of the other. This is shewn 
 in that important particular of moral conduct, by 
 which we incur present pain to secure a prepon- 
 derance of future good, or it may be, to satisfy 
 the disinterested love of virtue. If reason did 
 not demonstrate that the path of virtue most re- 
 dounded to eventual happiness and utility, the 
 heart alone, would be unable to discriminate. It 
 
414 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 is a noble spectacle, and one worthy of our bet- 
 ter nature, to witness a conscientious individual 
 incurring every form of pain and suffering in con- 
 formity with the dictates of principle. No amount 
 of present inconvenience no infliction, can appal 
 the courage of such a one, or deter him from 
 the performance of his duty. It is indeed, the 
 acme of sublimity, when a human being delibe- 
 rately seals with his blood, his unassailable con- 
 fidence in the blessed principles of religion and 
 truth. These he loves with a love that nothing 
 can subdue, and which alone, were there no ulte- 
 rior recompense, would prove an ample reward. 
 How firm must be the convictions of such a man 
 how unspeakable his confidence in the justice 
 of God, when he is thus enabled to submit with- 
 out repining, to the utmost assaults of tyranny 
 and iniquity, and to pass the threshold of the 
 nameless future as opened to him by a violent 
 death, not only without sorrow or regret, but 
 with cheerfulness and joy? Such however, are 
 among the merciful and precious provisions of 
 that Providence, which adapts all things to our 
 capabilities ; and which, if it subjects us to mighty 
 evils, also provides us with equal powers of en- 
 durance. 
 
 The disinterested feelings and affections are 
 among the most powerful supports of virtue; 
 without their aid, the most enlightened appreci- 
 ation of the superior advantages, flowing from 
 wisdom and excellence, would not suffice. They 
 yield a continual reward, in return for acts that 
 
ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 415 
 
 may be attended with bodily suffering or priva- 
 tion. There are even whole classes of mental 
 pleasures, the gratification of which, we sacrifice 
 to some dictate of principle or morality, but for 
 the loss of which, we are amply compensated by 
 the exquisite feelings accruing from the perform- 
 ance of duty. The good man is well assured that 
 his suffering is only for the moment, and that 
 however great the passing pang, his lasting hap- 
 piness will be all the greater for having endured 
 it. Duty will lead the patriot to quit wife and 
 child, and to lay down life in the defence of his 
 country, while it equally impels the man of 
 probity, to bear with cheerfulness and resigna- 
 tion, the inflictions and bereavements to which 
 all are subject. A stony indifference is neither 
 desirable nor necessary; and though we must 
 know and feel that they cannot last, tears and 
 bitter grief are not the less fitting accompani- 
 ments, for the loss of friends whom we shall 
 never meet on earth again. If indeed, a subdued 
 and gentle sorrow were not induced by the hand 
 of time, we should be utterly incapacitated for 
 the business of life ; and however much we may 
 deem our sufferings unappeasable, the daily cur- 
 rent of existence compels our attention, and draws 
 a portion of our consciousness to other thoughts 
 and other feelings. In short, it may be asserted 
 that there are no inflictions whether of body or 
 mind, which the love of virtue will not enable us 
 to endure. It is desirable however, that the 
 knowledge and appreciation of duty, should ac- 
 
416 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 company our affection for it, since, when these 
 are united with the habitual practice, no evil will 
 be able to overcome our constancy. 
 
 It is a vital error in those who would substitute 
 an intellectual perception of the utilities of virtue, 
 in place of the love of it, as a spring of action. 
 No psychological fact can be more certain, than 
 that there may be an habitual adherence to mo- 
 rality, in persons who have never examined the 
 foundations on which it rests. Assuredly, every 
 duty can be shewn to have a basis which justifies 
 it, but it is erroneous to say that it is not influ- 
 ential, unless this is perceived. The feelings 
 which constitute the love of virtue, inasmuch as 
 they singularly promote it, require cultivation 
 for their own sake, as a branch of moral duty. 
 Every one should be intimately conversant with 
 whatever may affect the interests of others, in 
 order to guide his conduct and affections ; but to 
 be regulated by these, is nevertheless, the highest 
 and best spring of action. The adoration, love, 
 and reverence, which we owe the Supreme Being, 
 afford motives superior to those which are sug- 
 gested by the contemplation of the advantages 
 accruing from submission to his will; although 
 at the same time, it is infinitely important that 
 we should know how to act in perfect sub- 
 servience to it, as well as entertain an intimate 
 conviction of the benefits induced by our con- 
 formity. To minds less highly developed, the 
 hope of a reward will be a good, though inferior 
 impulse. The appreciation of the evils arising 
 
ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 417 
 
 from the infringement of duty, is a motive still 
 lower, yet one which the present defective culti- 
 vation of human nature, renders necessary. In 
 every case indeed, it is desirable that these should 
 be minutely known to us, not so much as motives, 
 as a guide to what is right, and a beacon to what 
 is wrong. If we are not acquainted with what 
 constitutes virtue, how can we follow how can 
 we love it? Too much of the recorded, as well 
 as of the existing conduct of mankind, has been 
 a tissue of error and of crime, and consequently, 
 affords ample warning. It would indeed, seem 
 necessary, that man should work out his final 
 purification by his own experience of good and 
 ill, and that he should be gradually led by suc- 
 cessive steps, from the supremacy of inferior 
 motives, to that exalted condition in which the 
 love of excellence as a spring of conduct, shall 
 wholly influence him. These remarks hold good 
 with regard to all the better principles of our 
 nature; and the pre-eminence in every case, of 
 the higher feelings and affections, cannot be too 
 often, or too earnestly insisted on. The advanta- 
 ges which decide its superiority, should indeed, 
 lay a foundation for the love of virtue in every 
 form ; but it is most certain, that this love itself, 
 eventually becomes an infinitely stronger motive. 
 It should be the never-ceasing effort of the 
 moralist, the legislator, and the philanthropist, to 
 inculcate and promote upon every occasion, by 
 appeals to both heart and understanding, this 
 precious, this admirable principle, the foundation 
 
 D D 
 
418 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 of everything that is heart-elevating and enno- 
 bling in our nature. 
 
 3. There is one condition that has perplexed 
 inquirers, but which, with a little attention, may 
 be readily cleared up ; I mean that in which 
 virtue is appreciated, but in which evil is preferred. 
 To see the better path, and yet to choose the 
 worse, has been a reproach since morality has 
 engaged human attention. It has been remarked 
 that the intellectual perception of truth, is not 
 sufficient to secure our assent; but the principle 
 has been carried too far, when it is argued that 
 knowledge and morality are wholly distinct. 
 What is the situation of the person who follows 
 evil, yet knowing its nature ? His knowledge 
 of the moral law is neither deep nor accurate; 
 his habits are defective, and above all, his love of 
 virtue is feeble or absent. He is addicted to 
 base propensities and inferior interests, nor is 
 truth his pursuit. Such a condition however, 
 admits of numerous modifications, from slight and 
 occasional aberrations, to villany the most con- 
 summate. Evil is gradual and deceptive in its 
 progress. The victim involved in its meshes, 
 hopes or believes that he will be able to escape ; 
 but the period of liberation never arrives, and the 
 efforts that might have served to free him at first, 
 prove no longer of any avail. Thus carried 
 along from rock to rock, and from shoal to shoal, 
 by the swiftly -in creasing current, he is buried at 
 last in the gulfs of perdition. Individuals have 
 different degrees of moral strength that is to 
 
ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 419 
 
 say, their habits, feelings, and knowledge, vary. 
 No one is required to cast himself in the way of 
 temptation. Before we incur avoidable risk, it 
 is expedient to weigh our strength, and to act 
 accordingly. How many have been plunged into 
 the depths of sin and misery, by incautiously 
 venturing within the sphere of attractions, which 
 they falsely imagined they were able to resist? 
 It is better to avoid temptation unless perfectly 
 assured of our ability to withstand it ; but when 
 the mind has been properly trained, the habit of 
 resisting evil, increases the power. The world 
 however, is a rough teacher, and will not always 
 graduate its trials to the powers of those who are 
 to incur them; hence it is, that while some 
 surmount them, others are swept away and de- 
 stroyed. All should be carefully instructed from 
 the earliest period; while the study of moral 
 causation should form a prominent part of educa- 
 tion. The same results would not then be ex- 
 pected from different causes; society would be 
 better arranged, and changes would be induced 
 not less advantageous to the individual, than to 
 the mass. 
 
 4. Tears, sighs, exclamations, and attitudes of 
 sorrow, are marks of grief as laughter, smiles, 
 and cheerful tones, are the language of joy. 
 Each emotion, whether good or evil, has its ap- 
 propriate expression; how much this is calcu- 
 lated to promote happiness, and contingently, to 
 favour the cause of virtue, will be obvious at a 
 glance. Human intercourse would be defective 
 
420 ON THE MORAL JUDGMENT. 
 
 indeed, were it destitute of the joys which are 
 shed upon it by the display of the different feel- 
 ings and affections. The outward aspect of the 
 lover of virtue, promotes its reception on the 
 part of others. Were love, sorrow, joy, and 
 every feeling which virtue combines, even to 
 continue, how much would happiness be dimin- 
 ished by the absence of the signs which now 
 attend them? Without these, the communings 
 of affection, of sympathy, of sorrow, and of joy, 
 would be in a manner cut off; while the arts 
 which are derived from their multiplication and 
 transfer, would exist no more. Genius, that pre- 
 cious condition which sheds innumerable rays of 
 pleasure upon all within the sphere of its influ- 
 ence, would never be awakened. Neither could 
 we have the frequent bursts of kindling emotion 
 which flow from the passionate display of virtue 
 and self-sacrifice. We should be a plodding and 
 an apathetic race, devoid of those numerous 
 graces and refinements, which gild existence with 
 nameless delights. Is not all this a glorious ma- 
 nifestation of surpassing goodness, ever solicitous 
 to promote human happiness; and does it not 
 infer that the world which is to come, will exhibit 
 to a degree still higher than this, other means of 
 testifying the love, the emotions, and the tender 
 feelings, which must characterize beings who are 
 to exist throughout eternity? 
 
421 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES ON THE 
 DEVELOPMENT OF THE PASSIONS, FEELINGS, AND 
 MORAL PRINCIPLES. 
 
 1. THE influence of circumstances on the moral 
 man is indeed enormous. There is perhaps no 
 individual in whom passion is wholly extinct ; but 
 short of this, circumstances are adequate to the 
 production of every variety that the world has 
 hitherto seen. It will be oovious that while some 
 situations promote, others retard the development 
 of the heart and moral faculties. Nature has 
 provided certain means for evolving both, but 
 she leaves their employment in our own keeping. 
 If we second her intentions, the result will be 
 favourable, but not otherwise. Purity and inno- 
 cence alone, are not adequate to the wants of ex- 
 istence, or calculated to bear the wear and tear 
 of daily life. Elevated conceptions, noble views, 
 and energetic determinations, must be added, 
 otherwise the better purposes of our being are 
 not to be achieved. Let us take nature indeed, 
 for our guide, but let us multiply to the utmost, 
 the facilities which she has placed within our 
 reach. The one design is equally visible in the 
 physical, the intellectual, and the moral world. 
 We everywhere witness a necessity for exertion, 
 
422 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 and everywhere behold the same happiness, im- 
 provement, and energy, not less from the efforts 
 made use of, than from the ends which they are 
 intended to realize. The fields untilled, will not 
 produce the yellow corn the uncultivated intel- 
 lect cannot lay up stores of knowledge nor will 
 the heart reap spontaneous virtue or excellence. 
 Human capabilities have never been duly evolved. 
 In what part of the world indeed, or in what por- 
 tion of society, shall we observe men and women 
 brought up as they ought? Almost everywhere, 
 the infant mind is more or less imbued with error 
 and prejudice, if not with actual vice. There is 
 no sufficient gradation in the development of the 
 faculties ; things are taught that ought not to be 
 taught, and others omitted that ought not to be 
 omitted. While again, faculties are developed, 
 that should be left quiescent, and others suffered 
 to remain in disuetude, that should be cultivated. 
 As to the heart, it is not properly dealt with; 
 sympathies with our species and with the world, 
 and love and veneration for the Creator, are in- 
 adequately inspired. Where there should be 
 self-respect, elevated feeling, energy, and enlight- 
 enment, there are too often ignorance, meanness, 
 and grovelling sentiments. When by a rare con- 
 tingency, we have succeeded in throwing off the 
 error and moral torpor which oppress our ear- 
 lier years, we have already lost the greater por- 
 tion of our active life. The period that should 
 bs employed in laying the foundation, and in 
 perfecting the superstructure, has passed away. 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 423 
 
 Time and faculties have been squandered al- 
 most in vain ; and while we should be reaping 
 the harvest, we are pulling up the weeds, and 
 preparing the soil for the seed which may never 
 arrive at maturity. So the seasons of life are 
 perverted the business of the spring is not done 
 till the summer is far advanced, and the stunted 
 produce is gathered midst the storms and chills 
 of winter. It will not do the work of youth 
 must be done in youth, and of manhood in man- 
 hood; the efforts of the one are not adapted to 
 the strength of the other, any more than the 
 energies of adult life are suited to the declining 
 powers of advanced age. It is the part of child- 
 hood and youth to learn of man's estate to think 
 and act, and of old age to reflect and to teach. 
 Even among those who know better, and who 
 would rear their children to knowledge and ex- 
 cellence, how are they to proceed? Where are 
 they to obtain teachers or domestics of incorrup- 
 tible probity how are they to create anew, a 
 moral atmosphere of untainted purity, amid the 
 young and old among whom their offspring are 
 to inhale their first impressions ; how are they to 
 regulate the events of after life, or avert the du- 
 plicity, the ignorance, the folly, the sensuality, 
 and the superstitions, of a degraded and per- 
 verted world? Far be it from me to deny the 
 good, but in this place I allude to the defects, not 
 to the excellencies with which it abounds. After 
 all, each must do the best he can. If imperfect 
 circumstances exercise a control which we can- 
 
424 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 not wholly evade, there are none whose influence 
 may not in some degree, be mitigated. Human 
 progress cannot be instantaneous ; if each would 
 do the good which lies in his power, much might 
 be effected, while the general consummation of 
 knowledge and virtue would be accelerated. 
 
 As has been already stated with regard to the 
 development of the intellect, the evolution of the 
 moral principles hinges upon two great classes of 
 circumstances those which depend upon others, 
 and those which depend upon ourselves. With 
 the exception of the appliances and capabilities 
 furnished by nature, it will be manifest that these 
 two classes include every existing agency. The 
 influence of others is included under the heads 
 of society, government, religion, and education; 
 that which rests with ourselves, is involved in the 
 efforts which we make to secure our intellectual 
 and moral improvement, and to maintain our fa- 
 culties in habitual activity. It is certain that our 
 development depends no less on others than on 
 ourselves. The results produced by the former 
 however, constitute a continually ascending point 
 of departure for individual exertions. Every one 
 should use his utmost efforts to advance the gene- 
 ral sum of knowledge, and to appropriate the 
 acquirements of others. These, we should feel 
 with our hearts, and appreciate with our under- 
 standings; yet how few are true to their own 
 interests how few elicit fully, the admirable 
 capabilities of their nature ? If people could only 
 be convinced of the efficacy of continual striving, 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 425 
 
 what might not be done to improve the moral and 
 intellectual man? But they will not strive, and 
 too frequently they have not the wish to do so. 
 Could it be but firmly impressed on the minds of 
 all, that with exertion, all things lay open to 
 them, how much might be effected? Our aspi- 
 rations after wisdom and excellence are smothered 
 by a thousand circumstances; and of those who 
 are actuated by the desire, how frequently are 
 their impulses blighted by the erroneous convic- 
 tion of insuperable obstacles ? 
 
 Intellectual cultivation to be effective, must go 
 hand in hand with moral. The first impulse to 
 improvement, is the necessity of providing for our 
 physical wants. It might be expected that every 
 situation would more or less evolve the better 
 principles of humanity, but it is not so. In the 
 present stage of social intercourse, the agents 
 which after the operation of nature, most affect 
 character, are undoubtedly those derived from 
 mankind themselves. Human beings subject one 
 another to a multitude of deteriorating influences, 
 which might all be avoided. Humanity is insuf- 
 ficiently respected ; titles, riches, and other tran- 
 sitory possessions, are objects of veneration, to 
 the neglect of more precious endowments. It 
 is not to sympathize with the man, if we regard 
 him but as the recipient of money, dignity, or 
 power. The possessor of these is more frequently 
 wrapt up in the contemplation of their vulgar 
 tendencies, than in his command over the feelings, 
 thoughts, and affections, of his fellows. What is 
 
426 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 all this, but to remove us from the consideration 
 of our immortal nature, to that of things which 
 are infinitely inferior? The rich revel in luxury, 
 while the poor are ground down by poverty: 
 either of which situations is abundantly un- 
 favourable to the production of an elevated 
 morality. This is sufficiently proved by the 
 absence of superior culture; by the ignorance 
 and proneness to crime which often subsist among 
 the one, and by the apathy and sensuality which 
 too frequently attend the other. For do the rich 
 sympathize with the poor; are they mindful of 
 their situation, or do they feel for them as for 
 brothers and sisters inhabiting the same vale of 
 mortality, and possessed of boundless, but ne- 
 glected capabilities? 
 
 I. Governments are abstractions of popular 
 power; owing their existence to it, but acting 
 independently. Their influence on morality, 
 though of a mixed and inferior nature, is very 
 great. It is enough to excite mournful reflections, 
 when we consider what governments might do, and 
 what they omit doing; how education is limited 
 and perverted, and how the diffusion of know- 
 ledge is shackled and restricted. If they repre- 
 sented the enlightenment of the community, these 
 things could not be. It is a problem worthy of 
 solution, how it happens that the governments of 
 Europe and of the world, exert an almost irre- 
 sponsible power; or how it is, that everywhere 
 the best interests of the many, are more or less 
 misunderstood and opposed? How long k this 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 427 
 
 state of things to last, or when shall governments 
 concentrate their energies for the common en- 
 lightenment and happiness of mankind? It is 
 difficult to propagate truth without enlisting un- 
 der the banners of a party ; but can there not be 
 the party of humanity a party advocating with- 
 out restraint, the principles which concern the 
 well-being of our race? Among the inferior 
 passions, truth and excellence have a fierce and 
 implacable opponent in party-feeling. Even the 
 powerful enginery of governments is controlled 
 by its agency. In mischief- working however, it 
 must yield to fanaticism, which at times, is an 
 epitome of everything that is base. When the 
 two are combined, iniquities the most demora- 
 lizing, result. It is not that these vices are so 
 destructive in themselves, as that they become 
 the vehicle and the pretext for personal enmity, 
 and every form of human malignity. Truly, if 
 humanity prove noble and admirable under some 
 aspects, it is base and despicable under others. 
 How then, shall we adequately denounce those 
 destructive qualities, that convert the milk of 
 human kindness into gall and bitterness, and sow 
 the heart with sin and misery ? Party -feeling in 
 its worst features, is indeed a wide remove from 
 that rational and benevolent patriotism which 
 wills and works the good of all of family, coun- 
 try, and humanity. Not less different is fanati- 
 cism from the pure and blessed spirit of religion, 
 which unites unbounded reverence and submis- 
 sion towards the Deity, with the all-enduring and 
 
428 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 inexhaustible love of mankind. As party-feeling 
 impedes and limits the progress of rational im- 
 provement, so superstition, irreligion, and immo- 
 rality bar the progress of the soul towards ex- 
 cellence. Moral and religious truth has been 
 uniformly opposed by the powers of evil, so often 
 as they have been awakened to a perception and 
 a dread, of its existence and utility. We are not 
 to estimate the force of this opposition, so much 
 by its open, as by its concealed attacks by its 
 direct, as by its insidious influences. Hence it 
 is, that multitudes who have partly perceived the 
 truth, are driven back into the regions of obscu- 
 rity and error ; while those who have attained to 
 its comparatively full perception, remain silent. 
 Thus, a false and spurious conformity created by 
 apprehensions of persecution, enmity, and the loss 
 of the means of support, has blighted in part, the 
 testimony of the advocates of truth, and retarded 
 for a time, the needful progress of mankind. 
 
 II. Of all the means whereby we are enabled 
 to modify the condition of our fellows, education 
 is the most powerful. If its importance be con- 
 fessedly great, with regard to the physical and 
 mental, it is not less so with respect to the moral 
 man. It is necessarily the most influential agent, 
 inasmuch as it includes and modifies all others. 
 This is evident if we consider how soon character 
 begins to be formed, and how rarely first impres- 
 sions are afterwards obliterated. If goodness 
 and truth are hard to imbibe at later periods, and 
 if they continue for ever, when firmly implanted 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 429 
 
 in youth, of what unspeakable consequence is it, 
 that the affections and moral judgments those 
 bulwarks of our nobler nature, should be culti- 
 vated from the earliest moments of awakened 
 perception? In all the relations of life as citi- 
 zen, father, friend, and man, they must render the 
 individual superior. Oh, how desirable it is, 
 that those admirable qualities those most sweet 
 and precious sympathies of which we are so sus- 
 ceptible, should never be suffered to lie dormant ? 
 What might we not become, and what are we ? 
 Assuredly, the qualities that would convert earth 
 into the abode of peace and happiness, and ap- 
 proximate us to the condition of superior beings, 
 are worthy of the zealous attention of each and 
 all. It is impossible for language adequately to 
 express the overwhelming importance of moral 
 instruction, or to insist sufficiently, on the culture 
 of the feelings and affections. Yes, I say it 
 emphatically, it is not on intellect or on the gra- 
 tifications of sense, that our felicity must depend ; 
 it is on the development of the heart and under- 
 standing, in every direction in which it has been 
 given to them by the Supreme Controller of ex- 
 istence, to expand in devotion to Him, in love 
 to our fellows, in self-respect, and in disinterested 
 attachment to all the virtues of our nature. 
 These are the possessions which yield comfort in 
 living, and peace in dying ; and as they best con- 
 duce to our well-being and usefulness in this 
 existence, so it is undoubted, that they must also 
 best prepare us to encounter the more extended 
 scenes and duties of an existence to come. 
 
430 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 The principal advantages of education, are 
 preparatory to self-action ; in other words, to the 
 production of that energy, the possession of which, 
 is so great a good. The value of what has been 
 so emphatically styled the education of life, alters 
 with the state of public enlightenment and public 
 opinion. The latter singularly varies in different 
 ages, and periods of civilization. Practices, re- 
 garded at one time with approbation or indiffer- 
 ence, come to be looked upon at another, with 
 scorn and indignation. It is very unlikely that 
 the people of Geneva will again permit a sectarian 
 partisan to burn an unoffending opponent, or 
 that the inhabitants of Paris will a second time 
 lend their aid, while a bigot king fusillades his 
 innocent subjects from his palace windows. The 
 sacrifices of the Inquisition have ceased, it is to be 
 hoped, for ever; and it may be presumed that 
 the period will come round, when intellectual, 
 moral, and religious knowledge, will get the better 
 of all the cruel and fanatical observances, that 
 yet abound on earth. Man is a marvellous 
 creature superior training exalts him into a 
 being worthy of admiration and love, while the 
 contrary, has an equal tendency to sink him be- 
 neath the brute. Still he is man, and whether 
 immersed in the mire of ignorance and superstir 
 tion, or elevated to the conception and the practice 
 of religion and morality, we cannot but feel the 
 most lively interest in his welfare. How much 
 then, must his moral purity and elevation depend 
 upon the circumstances in which he is placed, 
 and the condition of society in which he is cast? 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 431 
 
 This last indeed, as we must ever repeat, is the 
 home of man. It is in society that human ex- 
 cellence must wax or wane; in which it is to 
 receive its highest impulses, and experience 
 opportunities for realizing the golden harvest 
 which constitutes our greatest happiness. Even 
 the love which we bear to the Supreme, is no 
 exception. Doubtless, the adoration of the heart 
 will pour itself forth with fervour and sweetness, 
 in secrecy and retirement; but whether we offer 
 up the tribute of our devotion and our thankful- 
 ness in the majestic presence of nature, or in that 
 of impassioned thousands, the first impulse must 
 flow alike, from the fostering care, the sympathy, 
 and the instruction of others. 
 
 There are numerous accidental circumstances 
 which lie equally beyond the reach of anticipation 
 or control, but which modify character, and en- 
 gender various dispositions in the human heart. 
 The frequency with which a taste for the fine 
 arts is casually produced, is matter of daily 
 observation ; and it would be easy to cite a long 
 list of individuals who have attained to eminence 
 in consequence of events, in the first instance, 
 wholly fortuitous. Science and literature afford 
 examples equally numerous ; but it is in the pro- 
 duction of feeling, passion, and temper, from 
 transitory, and for the most part, unobserved 
 events, that the causes now under consideration, 
 are important. Such are constantly operating, 
 and laying the foundation of dispositions that 
 last through life. To these in part, must we 
 
-132 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES, 
 
 also ascribe the diversity of character which 
 exists in members of the same family : the results 
 are visible, but the sources are overlooked. By 
 diminishing the empire of accident, temper and 
 disposition would not indeed, be assimilated in all, 
 but we should be rendered more rational, energetic, 
 and benevolent. 
 
 III. After the comparatively limited training of 
 youth, the education of life holds the most pro- 
 minent place. This no doubt, is going on at 
 every period of existence, but as we advance in 
 years, we reciprocate more and more, the con- 
 duct and the influences of our fellows. Our ha- 
 bits of feeling, thinking, and acting, are regulated 
 in no small degree, by the manner in which other 
 men feel, think, and act, with regard to us. As 
 they feel, we feel; as they think, so think we; 
 and as they act, we act likewise. This sympathy 
 of man with man, exercises a prodigious influ- 
 ence, since it may be the equal instrument of 
 boundless good, or of incalculable evil. When man 
 becomes what he ought, his power over others will 
 increase to an extent, of which our limited expe- 
 rience enables us to form a very feeble conception. 
 Much of the goodness which this world displays, 
 is under God, to be ascribed to the agency of 
 man on man. And if this, imperfect as it is, has 
 produced such results, what may we not expect 
 when in place of excellence thinly scattered, there 
 will be whole communities rife with all the 
 qualities that confer honour on humanity? As 
 it is at present, man is compelled to struggle with 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 433 
 
 man, and every one is forced to work out his 
 social position by an infinity of efforts, some of 
 which are anything but calculated to promote the 
 real interests of individuals or of society. The 
 rivalries of emulation and ambition in the diffe- 
 rent walks of life ; the persecutions flowing from 
 personal enmity, party-spirit, and sectarian ani- 
 mosity, as well as the kindlier sympathies of 
 social existence, are powerful springs in the de- 
 velopment of feeling. These however, are still 
 less so, than the closer relations of our being 
 relations dictated by Supreme benevolence. I 
 speak of the ties of kindred, to whose existence 
 and continuance we owe some of the most deli- 
 cious emotions that we have been rendered capable 
 of enjoying. The connexion of husband and wife, 
 of parent and child, and of brother and sister, is 
 the source of excellencies and virtues so great, 
 and of happiness so exquisite, that life without 
 them, would be a worthless possession. Yet by 
 the ordination of Providence, these may also 
 prove the source of unutterable woe. If however, 
 we would love our friends if we would prize 
 their society if we would live and die for them, 
 how is it possible not to experience regret for 
 their loss? We cannot have the one without the 
 other. Yet God in his mercy, extracts good 
 from evil: our grief carries an antidote along 
 with it; nor is it a small source of virtue and 
 excellence. If we will but turn our hearts to the 
 great First Cause, we must see that all is goodness 
 and wisdom. We shall perceive that a permanent 
 
 E E 
 
434 ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 
 
 existence on earth, is not calculated to ensure that 
 perpetual progression for which the soul in its 
 inmost recesses longs; while it is equally in- 
 compatible with the intention of this world, 
 as a nursery for beings who are to endure 
 throughout eternity. We thus come, at length, 
 to rest satisfied with the present, and to look for- 
 ward with hope and trustfulness to that future, 
 where we feel assured of finally arriving. There, 
 we shall receive a joyful welcome from those who 
 were dear to us here, and whom we shall meet wiser, 
 and better, and happier than when they left us. 
 Thus, at either end of the isthmus of time, we 
 are provided by the care of Him who watches 
 over all things in the one case, with the happy 
 band of friends and relatives, and in the other, 
 with those who were once united to us by earthly 
 ties, and by. whom we may hope to be initiated 
 into some of the wonders and delights of an un- 
 tried sphere of existence. 
 
 Of all the qualities attainable by man, moral 
 energy is the highest. It includes virtue, know- 
 ledge, and excellence, in an active form active 
 in thought, feeling, and deed. Once duly deve- 
 loped, this principle pauses no longer for excite- 
 ment from without, but draws strength and 
 motive for exertion from itself. Energy of this 
 cast, has no limits save those to which the capa- 
 bilities of human nature are themselves subjected. 
 Ever striving for good and the means of improve- 
 ment, it yearns after perfection in all things 
 in additional knowledge, in accurate perceptions, 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 435 
 
 in deep and just feelings, and in pure and well- 
 directed affections. It makes both intellect and 
 passion subservient ; the one to work nobler pur- 
 poses, the other to furnish the sacred and undying 
 ardour necessary to fulfil them. To a mind en- 
 dowed with such energy, every increase of know- 
 ledge and mental power, but prepares the way 
 for further additions, and ulterior improvements. 
 I do not speak of that enthusiasm which is im- 
 mersed in a vortex of aimless, ill-defined, and 
 often erroneous impulses, but of that pure and 
 precious energy which guided by reason, and 
 enlivened by passion, strives continually after 
 perfection, and equally tries to resolve the great 
 problem of existence, and faithfully to perform 
 the duties and purposes of life. This is the 
 quality which of all others, builds up and perfects 
 the moral man; and it may be said once for all, 
 that no superior character ever existed, and no 
 continued series of virtuous actions ever was per- 
 formed, that were not owing to a large infusion 
 of it. 
 
436 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND AS REGARDS THE 
 AFFECTIONS, PASSIONS, FEELINGS, AND MORAL 
 JUDGMENTS. 
 
 1 . THE three fundamental conditions of conscious- 
 ness, are sensation, feeling, and reflection ; these 
 however, may be reduced to two material and 
 ideal consciousness. It will not do to confound 
 under the one term perception, a sensation and an 
 idea; it is equally obvious, that an idea and a 
 mental emotion, should not receive the same 
 appellation. Moral truth may be taught like any 
 other branch of science, but the feelings and 
 habits which accompany it, and which are an 
 integral part of virtue, cannot be communicated 
 by a similar process. It has been looked upon 
 as a sanction of particular convictions, that they 
 were regarded with love and affection ; the feel- 
 ing involved however, may accompany error as 
 well as truth, and hence the difficulty of turning 
 away the belief, unless we appeal to both heart 
 and understanding. Truth indeed, must be in- 
 sisted on, and the affections drawn to the only 
 source of light, and life, and love. As for the 
 moral judgment, it is not a matter of reasoning 
 alone, but of feeling and understanding united. 
 I. There is no material organ for the exercise 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 437 
 
 of the affections, feelings, and moral judgments. 
 The brain is not the organ of mind, consequently, 
 it cannot be the organ of the feelings, since these 
 are but forms of consciousness. Sensations them- 
 selves, are so likewise; therefore, to assert that 
 the brain is the organ of mind, is to fall into the 
 error of making a part stand for the whole to 
 put the effect for the cause, and to make one con- 
 dition of consciousness, the vehicle of another. 
 Something ulterior exists ; this undergoes the 
 different states to which we give the names of 
 sensations, feelings, and ideas. Feelings are just 
 as distinct from ideas, as ideas are from feelings, 
 and as sensations are from both. They are alike 
 the manifestations of an unknown something, or 
 of something known only by these. It is wrong 
 therefore, to confound the manifestation with the 
 thing that manifests it, or to make the former the 
 source of the latter. Physical science however, 
 now unites with intellectual, in looking upon 
 sensations as modes of consciousness. The phe- 
 nomena of light, extension, resistance, and muscu- 
 lar motion, are cases in illustration, though in point 
 of fact, every class of sensation is equally so. Of 
 the exterior source of sensation, we are no less 
 ignorant, than of the interior recipient, or vehicle 
 of consciousness. That there is an external 
 something beneath the phenomena of the outward 
 world, seems probable ; that there is an internal 
 something cognizant of sensation is indubitable, 
 since consciousness is at once the indication and 
 the proof. The mind however, whether as re- 
 
438 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 gards the intellect or the affections, has no ma- 
 terial organ ; in other words, it is not identical 
 with matter. 
 
 II. We are not capable of calling up our feelings 
 and ideas with equal facility; would we renew 
 the former, we must repeat the ideas with which 
 they are associated. Every one is aware with 
 what intensity past affections are recalled, by the 
 recollection of the words and acts of a beloved 
 person, or even by the sight of his abode, or the 
 localities which he was wont to frequent. When 
 we would awaken the feelings connected with 
 patriotism, honour, glory, or the love of family 
 and kindred, the mental trains included under 
 these terms are summed up, and become the 
 rallying point of the various associated affections. 
 So likewise, when we would renew the love and 
 veneration which we bear towards the Deity, we 
 ponder upon his attributes, his wonderful works, 
 his innumerable perfections, the blessings which 
 attend his providence, the security which he 
 accords to us, and the acts of beneficence which 
 we have experienced at his hands. The painter, 
 the poet, the musician, and the orator, are re- 
 spectively in possession of a language with which 
 the feelings are united, and by which the slumber- 
 ing emotions of our nature, are indirectly aroused. 
 Whether we hate or love, the emotion comes 
 either imperfectly or not at all, under our direct 
 volition ; indirectly indeed, the power to do both 
 is very considerable. We cannot immediately 
 contract aversion or esteem; but by means of 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 439 
 
 certain agencies, both, in some measure, are 
 placed at our disposal. Our affections and 
 aversions are indeed, subject to certain laws, but 
 their exercise or restraint, is necessarily con- 
 trolled by the state of mind which we call will. 
 Love and affection are generated by the qualities 
 which yield us pleasure; hate and aversion, by 
 those which cause us pain. The aversions of a 
 good man will vary from those of a bad ; and the 
 objects of the love of the intellectual and en- 
 lightened, from those of the ignorant and debased. 
 This holds no less true with regard to those whose 
 feelings, affections, and moral judgments are highly 
 developed, than those in whom they remain in a 
 state approaching to nullity. The sympathies of 
 the one, widely differ from those of the other. 
 How opposite will be their condition in minds 
 chained down by ignorance, sensuality, and vice, 
 from that which they exhibit in hearts and un- 
 derstandings, alive to the dictates of knowledge 
 and virtue ? Man is endowed with mighty capa- 
 bilities, but these remain barren and inert, till 
 called by cultivation, into life and activity. This 
 is the source of the amazing differences which 
 exist, as well as of the wonderful attainments by 
 which some have been distinguished. 
 
 The wise and virtuous man will be careful to 
 regulate his desires and aversions according to 
 the dictates of duty. He will try to feel aver- 
 sion when it is proper to experience aversion, and 
 love, when it is his duty to experience love. In 
 fine, he is aware that he should avoid all the 
 
440 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 occasions which tend to the production of ill- 
 directed affections, as well as of associations of 
 feeling that he should not entertain. He knows 
 that all desires incompatible with purity, should 
 be struggled with, resisted, and subdued. Evil- 
 doers cannot afford him pleasure, but reflection 
 on the nature of circumstances, and on the inevi- 
 table subjection of every human being to their 
 influence, will teach him charity and forbearance, 
 as well as lead him to hate, not so much the per- 
 petrators of evil, as the hateful vices to which 
 they are addicted. 
 
 The principles which govern the conduct of 
 the vicious and ignorant, will diverge more or 
 less from the line of rectitude, as they recede from 
 knowledge and excellence. A sensual man will 
 rarely hate or love, from motives the same as those 
 which regulate the affections of the refined and 
 virtuous. One bad passion, more or less perverts 
 our whole moral being. Those whose minds are 
 base and sensual, whatever be their station, will 
 hate every manifestion of disinterested excellence. 
 There is a difference between the man who com- 
 mits crime from a sudden and powerful impulse, 
 and the low, cunning, and selfish individual, 
 who, steeped in depravity, has yet sufficient 
 self-command to avoid any overt act of glaring 
 iniquity. Vice and impurity, not less than igno- 
 rance and imbecility, pervert and degrade the 
 reasoning powers. The influence of outward 
 circumstances is contingent on the state of the 
 heart and intellect. We are indeed, the crea- 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 441 
 
 tures of circumstances, but it is in a very large 
 and copious sense. The man with well-regulated 
 habits and affections, and who is furnished with 
 knowledge and moral energy, so far from being- 
 controlled by circumstances, turns them to his 
 advantage; and if obliged to yield for a time, 
 always recurs with fresh strength to his purposes. 
 It is but an evidence of weakness when we per- 
 mit any obstacles to overcome our good inten- 
 tions* The influence of disposition and character 
 over the formation and proper direction of the 
 feelings and affections, is enormous. A bigot, a 
 fanatic, or a violent party-man, would consider 
 it an error to accord his esteem to the best indi- 
 vidual in existence, whose principles and prac- 
 tice happened to differ from his own. False 
 associations are the source of the greater num- 
 ber of bad and evil tendencies which desolate the 
 world tendencies which cause the ignorant to 
 hate knowledge, the vicious to hate virtue, and 
 the irreligious to hate true religion. In a word, 
 ignorance and malevolence oppose knowledge 
 and excellence in every form; for as the better 
 feelings of our nature confirm and suggest each 
 other, so do evil ones with regard to their own 
 kind. Thus, our sympathies come to be per- 
 verted at their source; and conditions which 
 to the wise and good, bring triumph and joy, 
 prove to the bad and ignorant, so many occa- 
 sions of misery and despair. 
 
 The advantages that would accrue from a 
 knowledge of the laws of the affections and moral 
 sympathies, are exceedingly great ; as it is, the 
 
442 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 formation of these is left in a great measure to 
 chance. Every young person should be instructed 
 in the theory of both, in order that he may dis- 
 criminate between qualities merely pleasing, and 
 those which are of substantial excellence; be- 
 tween the graces of the exterior, and those of the 
 heart and understanding. He should be taught 
 to prize, not merely the glittering endowments 
 which attract the frivolous and unthinking, but 
 those which constitute the precious essence of 
 our better nature fortitude, constancy, charity, 
 self-respect, self-denial, energy, and the love of 
 God and man. It must be shewn that the moral 
 faculties and sympathies require daily cultivation, 
 and that we should be unceasing in seeking op- 
 portunities for their display. Like the intellec- 
 tual powers, they cannot safely slumber in disue- 
 tude: if they do, the inclination dies with the 
 habit, and the moral man is degraded. When 
 this is the case with the wise and good, what must 
 occur with regard to the ignorant and vicious 
 those whose feelings are rarely or never exer- 
 cised? The glorious capabilities of our being 
 should be cultivated, not in one, but in all; we 
 should then, no longer witness them slumbering 
 in ignominious inaction, or basely perverted from 
 their original purposes. A sympathy would 
 spring up between man and man, of which we 
 have at present but faint conceptions; no one 
 would attempt to constrain the feelings by vio- 
 lence, or display hatred and aversion, when he 
 should be actuated by love and esteem. 
 
 III. Association exercises the same govern- 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 443 
 
 ment over the feelings, passions, and moral judg- 
 ments, as over the purely intellectual part of our 
 nature. The manifestations of our fellow-crea- 
 tures may be united with an immense variety of 
 feelings, giving rise to that pure and perfect sym- 
 pathy which is extended to virtue, knowledge, 
 and all excellence, as well as to that vicious and 
 perverted form of it, which is allied with igno- 
 rance and iniquity. A fanatic or a violent party- 
 man will extend his approbation to the advocacy 
 of his peculiar views, however revolting the means 
 may be which that advocacy involves. These 
 two base passions fanaticism and party-spirit, 
 by veiling iniquity, and by distorting and misap- 
 plying just principles, have largely degraded the 
 human mind. This will be the more apparent, 
 if we consider that they act not only on indivi- 
 duals, but on masses of men. The sympathy of 
 man with man, however much abused, has been, 
 and ever will continue to be, one of the most 
 powerful props of honour and excellence ; while 
 the relations which it includes, are of the most 
 diversified character, and yield the strongest 
 illustrations of Divine wisdom and power. Our 
 better qualities dispose us to entertain the warm- 
 est feelings towards our fellows, while superstition, 
 ignorance, and depravity, induce the worst. 
 
 IV. Sympathy is not confined to what takes 
 place between man and man; it is extended to 
 the inferior animals, and even to the inanimate 
 world. Assuredly, it is a beautiful arrangement 
 by means of which, our feelings and affections 
 
444 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF- THE MIND. 
 
 are spread over so many objects, to the multiplica- 
 tion of our being, and to the promotion of the 
 happiness of all concerned. Every act which is 
 attended with a feeling of any kind, helps to 
 reflect it on its object. Thus, a provision is made 
 for the fostering of children, and for the forma- 
 tion of affections towards them during a period 
 of helplessness, in which they can make little or 
 no return. We come to love the material world, 
 our mother earth, in whose lap we were born 
 the continents, oceans, mountains, vallies, rivers, 
 lakes, and plains; the lonely forest, and the 
 crowded scenes of human existence. These, and 
 all the magnificent features with which they 
 abound, are connected with deep and varied emo- 
 tions in which we delight to dwell. Even the 
 poor dumb brute, shares in our sympathy, and is 
 regarded with an interest which we should not 
 otherwise accord. The perceptions of some as 
 to the beauties of the external world, are singu- 
 larly, nay painfully accute, while to the ignorant 
 and apathetic, the objects which display them, 
 are but as stocks and stones. There are few 
 things in which mankind are more deficient, or 
 in which the habitual neglect displayed towards 
 the various sources of joy and happiness so bounti- 
 fully scattered around, is more glaringly apparent. 
 The inhabitants of cities from their artificial ex- 
 istence, have little opportunity for cultivating a 
 taste for natural objects ; while those of the 
 country, are too generally destitute of refinement 
 and mental culture, as well as eaten up with the 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 445 
 
 pressing necessities of daily life. When we survey 
 the glories of the outward world, and reflect upon 
 its sublime utilities, our hearts are smitten with 
 profound emotion, and raised with gratitude to 
 the exalted, the ineffable Author. The great 
 book of nature is replete with boundless scope 
 for speculation and improvement; all its influ- 
 ences are favourable to the promotion of mental 
 and moral elevation, of virtue and of happiness. 
 It is commonly chosen for the purpose of illus- 
 trating Divine wisdom and power; and well do 
 its majesty, diversity, and unspeakable grace and 
 beauty, justify the selection. As mankind ad- 
 vance in knowledge and wisdom, in virtue and in 
 excellence, so shall the humanizing, the instructive 
 and the gladdening influence of nature, be the 
 more fully felt and recognized; and the more 
 powerfully shall it contribute to the further pro- 
 motion of human joy and well-being. 
 
 V. As the feelings are regulated according to 
 the laws of association, it follows as a corollary, 
 that exercise is necessary to their wholesome and 
 active permanence. Their recurrence therefore, 
 should not be left to the mercy of contingencies. 
 It is not practicable indeed, were it desirable, 
 that our whole being should be wrapped up in 
 successive trains of feeling; the latter should 
 nevertheless, be daily cultivated, as auxiliaries 
 highly conducive to the interests of virtue and 
 happiness. Accidental circumstances are insuf- 
 ficient for the purpose, as they confessedly are 
 for intellectual training. In both cases we must 
 
446 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 resort to active expedients. It is owing to the infe- 
 rior development of the feelings and affections, that 
 the generous dictates of religion and morality are 
 so feebly felt. The intellectual perception merely, 
 of what is right, will not suffice ; it is no less ne- 
 cessary to feel, than to know. Had this been 
 otherwise, the Creator of the universe would not 
 have thus endowed us. It is our bounden duty 
 to exercise the better feelings, and to discourage 
 the worse. If disuetude stunt the former, so the 
 latter are pampered and rendered prominent by 
 indulgence. Evil feelings should be starved and 
 forced out of existence by want of culture ; while 
 opposite ones should receive every degree of care 
 and encouragement. The institutions of society 
 however, too frequently counteract the purposes 
 of nature ; and even where they do not, we should 
 leave no available means unimproved, that are 
 calculated to second her intentions. It is not the 
 barren exercise of feeling which is recommended, 
 but that which flows from the practice of mora- 
 lity, self-respect, the love of our fellows, and 
 more especially, the love of God. Few days 
 pass by, that do not present some opportunity of 
 doing good, if we will but embrace it. The mise- 
 ries of mankind yield ample scope for the exer- 
 cise of benevolence the most exalted; and there 
 are few communities so well circumstanced, as 
 not to exhibit frequent occasions for succouring 
 the sorrowing, the unhappy, and the distressed. 
 As it is, there are sickness, destitution, and all 
 the evils which flow from the continuance of ig- 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 44? 
 
 norance, superstition, tyranny, and the absence 
 of sufficient instruction. It is not enough to re- 
 lieve the misery which lies in our path, but also 
 to attend to that which, unless sought for in its 
 secret haunts, remains unmitigated and unknown. 
 There are indeed, numberless ways by which 
 happiness may be promoted, and by which the 
 superior feelings may receive exercise and de- 
 velopment ; while the universal existence of capa- 
 bilities for such, affords a strong presumption that 
 all were intended to share in the blessings that 
 might be made to accrue from them. 
 
 VI. The feelings and affections are regulated 
 by immutable laws : were this not so, their culti- 
 vation would be vain and impracticable. In 
 every clime, and under every circumstance 
 now, as in times past, they have been ever the 
 same. It is this which causes the treatises of the 
 sages of old, to be of importance at the present 
 day, and which will render those now written, 
 available hereafter. There is but one rule of 
 morality for the whole world, and for all times ; 
 man may misinterpret, but it does not the less 
 exist. Its uniformity and immutability, repose 
 on the unvarying constitution of human nature, 
 as laid down by eternal wisdom, and on the con- 
 stantly recurring relations of the outward world. 
 Error could not be inculcated by the few, were it 
 not owing to the ignorance of the many ; for if 
 the minds and hearts of all, were duly cultivated, 
 there would be no prejudices to which it would 
 be possible to appeal. The mass of mankind as 
 
448 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 now circumstanced, are nearly in total ignorance 
 of the laws of the intellect, feelings, and moral 
 judgments ; they are consequently, liable to be 
 imposed upon, by every one who has sufficient 
 energy and depravity of motive, to lead him to 
 undertake the task. 
 
 VII. It is singular that feelings may be awa- 
 kened during sleep that our dream-life is not 
 merely confined to intellectual phenomena, but 
 extends to those of feeling and passion. Every 
 emotion whether of passion or pain, may be 
 vividly felt in our sleeping, as in our waking mo- 
 ments. Feelings and ideas are co-associated, not 
 less during the former, than at any other period ; 
 our ideas however, not being under the control 
 of waking realities, often assume the most fantastic 
 aspects. The joys and sorrows of this strange 
 condition, appear no less real at the time, than 
 do the mental conditions with which they are 
 connected. Our dreams are more or less regu- 
 lated by the current of our waking feelings. 
 There is a difference in the dreams even, of 
 the wise man and the fool; of those endowed 
 with mental energy, and those who are not. 
 Few persons rest composedly after violent ex- 
 citement. In the painful condition called night- 
 mare, the mind is partly conscious of its situation, 
 but the power over the voluntary organs is nearly 
 suspended. Sleep-walking, is a state still more 
 extraordinary ; the mind controls the voluntary 
 organs indeed, but is nearly ignorant of its rela- 
 tions with the outward world. These obscure 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 449 
 
 phenomena in which so many mixed agencies 
 operate, will probably never be fully cleared up. 
 After all however, though less frequent, they are 
 not more remarkable than others. How are we 
 to explain sleeping, waking, or any of the pheno- 
 mena of consciousness, much less that condition 
 which includes them all life? Is it too much 
 to conjecture with some, that when the veil of 
 eternity is lifted up, we shall find that we have 
 dwelt in the midst of things of whose existence 
 we never weened, and that life itself, with all its 
 marvels, was but one long dream? 
 
 VIII. A remarkable condition to which the 
 name of double or divided consciousness is given, 
 has attracted attention of late years. If the 
 alleged instances should prove genuine, it would 
 serve to establish,, a new and very singular psy- 
 chological phenomenon. Two different mental 
 states are said to occur, in which the individual 
 while experiencing the one, does not recollect 
 what has taken place in the other. There would 
 appear to be two separate identities in the same 
 individual, during each of which, the subject 
 thinks, feels, learns, and reflects differently. The 
 examples however, are so few, as hardly to come 
 within the range of philosophical disquisition, and 
 if true, are wholly insusceptible of explanation. 
 A kind of intermitting consciousness however, 
 takes place in every one to a certain extent; we 
 experience feelings and ideas at one time, which 
 we do not at another. Emigrants and exiles, at 
 the hour of death, and during sickness, will often 
 
 F F 
 
450 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 express themselves in their mother tongue, though 
 for a large portion of their preceding lives, it 
 has been disused, and apparently forgotten. The 
 converse also, has been observed. During fits 
 of anger and intoxication, foreigners frequently 
 lose all fluency in their adopted tongues, though 
 by no means incapacitated from employing their 
 own. We cannot indeed, comprehend how con- 
 sciousness takes place in any case ; but that two 
 distinct forms of it, should exist at once in the 
 same individual, is equally unintelligible and ex- 
 traordinary. 
 
 IX. The term moral insanity, has been given 
 not improperly, to the excessive misdirection of 
 the moral faculties, feelings, and affections; in 
 every case however, it may perhaps be assumed 
 that intellectual derangement must constitute the 
 essence of the disease. Unless the mind be dis- 
 turbed, or predisposed by ignorance and super- 
 stition, a mere corporeal hallucination will not 
 affect it. The intellect of Nicolai not to mention 
 others, was untainted, though he was haunted by 
 a multitude of diseased visual perceptions. In 
 moral insanity, an erroneous idea is associated 
 with some feeling, passion, or affection, the 
 vehemence of which indeed, may possibly have 
 induced it. In the short-lived madness which 
 we term anger, the feelings it is true, are deep 
 and violent; the insanity nevertheless, does not 
 reside in them, but in the exaggerated conceptions 
 with which they are united. Intense emotion 
 however, will raise up fresh currents of ideas, 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 451 
 
 which in their turn, enhance or aggravate the 
 emotions already formed. What is called reli- 
 gious madness, consists of a series of mental illu- 
 sions, connected with some feeling in itself cor- 
 rect. The melancholy of Cowper was of this 
 stamp ; the impossibility of being saved, was the 
 morbid conviction round which his exquisite 
 feelings rallied with invincible tenacity. How 
 many minds have been subverted and destroyed, 
 by conceptions that would convert the Infinite 
 Father into a being of merciless wrath ? Pity 
 it is, that the blessed, the consolatory, and the 
 vivifying spirit of true religion, should ever be 
 converted into an agent of misery and desolation. 
 Similar observations apply to moral insanity, 
 so far as the inferior passions are concerned. 
 There is still the same union of a feeling with an 
 intellectual conception, either erroneous in itself, 
 or erroneously directed. Ravaillac, the assassin 
 of Henry the Fourth of France, and Damiens, who 
 attempted the life of Louis the Fifteenth, were 
 actuated, the one by fanatical, the other by 
 political impulses. Sand affords an analogous 
 example. His feelings were raised to a high pitch. 
 He believed that Kotzebue was suborned to write 
 down the liberties of his country, and therefore con- 
 cluded that he should destroy him. This was the 
 rallying point of his madness: the feeling was 
 correct, but the conviction was insane. If the 
 contemplation of isolated instances however, be 
 painful, how much more so is it, when nations 
 furnish the spectacle, and when by the pro- 
 
452 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 scription and persecution, of excellence and truth, 
 they become chargeable with the imputation? 
 Whenever we witness the union of feelings, 
 whether good or bad in themselves, with perverted 
 and erroneous conceptions wherever we behold 
 the many or the few, banded together to oppress 
 the innocent and the just; to suppress truth or 
 to cultivate error; to promote irreligion at the 
 expense of religion ; or to minister to the base and 
 inferior passions of our nature, to the prejudice 
 of those which are pure and elevated, there we 
 must recognize the existence of the disease in 
 question. Moral insanity presents itself in many 
 forms : the mere occurrence of violent or de- 
 pressing passions, does not constitute, though it 
 often originates it. There is however, no exact 
 line, where it may be said that .reason begins or 
 ends. In a highly cultivated and moral commu- 
 nity, every form of vice and depravity, would 
 doubtless, be looked upon as one of perverted 
 reason. Is it not to defective associations between 
 the two leading conditions of our nature, that the 
 practice of evil is in a great measure to be as- 
 cribed? It will not do to cherish the feelings at 
 the expense of the intellect, nor yet the intellect 
 at the expense of the feelings, and without good 
 habits, knowledge is worthless It may be presumed 
 that if these were cultivated from infancy, the 
 base passions and miserable prejudices which in- 
 fest society, would be unknown. 
 
 X. Transference is one of the most interesting 
 of the laws which come within the range of our 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 453 
 
 mental constitution. The first thing with regard 
 to it, which strikes us with peculiar force, is the 
 substitution of the means for the end. This is 
 secured by a process at once so admirable and 
 effective so worthy of the divine Author, and 
 so well adapted to human wants, as to demand 
 our most enthusiastic admiration. Humanity is 
 not sufficiently strong to keep the end ever in 
 view, so as to make it singly, a sufficient motive 
 to exertion ; the translation in idea and affection, 
 of the advantages of the end to the means, was 
 therefore added. This then, was to render the 
 cultivation of the means, of vast importance, and 
 the instrument of great happiness. The end 
 contended for, might not be obtained in this life ; 
 it might not even be of a nature that could be 
 realized, yet the means employed, were an imme- 
 diate source of measureless good. Like every 
 other however, the principle is susceptible of 
 abuse. Those who hate virtue and knowledge, 
 abhor every one who is influenced by them, and 
 everything that has any tendency to uphold them : 
 the same extends to civil and religious liberty, 
 with regard to those who are so unfortunate 
 as to stand in this depraved relation towards 
 it. The fear of death illustrates the law of 
 transference in a remarkable manner. In most 
 cases, it is connected, not only with the imme- 
 diate phenomena attendant on this change, but 
 with all the agents by means of which, the disso- 
 lution of the mortal fabric is accomplished. With 
 some men, and in some countries, this passion is 
 
454 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 very strong, while with regard to others, it is the 
 reverse. Similar remarks extend to the love of 
 sex, of life, and in fine, to all the affections and 
 desires. The love of money affords a striking 
 example, since it evinces the strongest attach- 
 ment for a thing intrinsically worthless. Am- 
 bition is a case almost equally in point: the 
 ultimate object may or may not be attained, but 
 the intervening steps, though possessed of little 
 attraction in themselves, come to be looked upon 
 as infinitely desirable. Energetic and restless 
 minds often gratify the love of action without 
 much, if any reference to its object. There is a 
 singular form of transference in which the desire 
 becomes the belief. The love of truth is a potent 
 agent in securing its retention, but in individuals 
 of inferior knowledge and moral stamina, the 
 principle may become so far perverted, that the 
 affection leans to error. There are many cases 
 in which, when the truth of a given position is 
 strongly desired, it actually comes to be enter- 
 tained. It is obvious that if the seeker after 
 knowledge do not free himself from adventitious 
 tendencies from hope and fear alike, he will be 
 continually liable to be led astray. How often 
 do the passions distort the conceptions which we 
 form respecting conduct and character? The 
 minds of the superstitious, the bigoted, the mali- 
 cious, and the ignorant, are in perpetual thral- 
 dom; intellect cannot expand, so long as it is 
 thus kept in bondage. The cheerful portal that 
 leads to the realms of everlasting truth, is barred 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 455 
 
 to such, blinded and chained down as they are, 
 by errors from which there is no release. In- 
 stances perpetually occur, in which from the in- 
 fluence of perverted desire, men are led to act in 
 opposition to the very dictates of their senses. 
 Few physicians in the days of Harvey or Serve- 
 tus, believed in the circulation of the blood ; and 
 the discoveries of Newton, Lavoisier, and others, 
 were disregarded by many, although in both 
 cases, the physical evidence was full and com- 
 plete. 
 
 The translation of the affections, feelings, and 
 moral judgments, when placed as it ought, under 
 the regulation of reason and virtue, is the origin 
 of a never-ceasing variety of mental pleasures. 
 What can be a more fitting subject for wonder 
 and astonishment, than that any given feeling 
 may be multiplied, apparently to infinity; and 
 that emotions arising in the first instance from an 
 organic source, should not only be transferred to 
 the conscious mind, but there exist without end? 
 Nothing indeed, is more worthy of admiration in 
 itself, or better calculated to awaken an unlimited 
 sense of devotion towards the Supreme Contriver. 
 The intimate appreciation of the laws of our 
 moral being, holds out fresh inducements for the 
 promotion of virtue, and additional sources of 
 admiration, not less with regard to the endow- 
 ments which have been conferred on us, than 
 towards the wisdom, goodness, and power, which 
 have originated them. 
 
 XI. The succession of ideas and feelings, is 
 
456 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 only less continuous than that of ideas themselves. 
 Few days, if any, elapse, in which the mind is 
 not more or less occupied with the affections, 
 emotions, and moral judgments, and this, in the 
 ratio of the cultivation of the sensitive portion 
 of our nature. Some are highly imbued with 
 feeling; their affections are widely expanded, 
 both as regards their fellow-creatures, and the 
 principles and practice of moral truth: while 
 others again, feel but little, or little that is of an 
 elevated description. The external aspect and 
 demeanour are indeed alike, but the inward diver- 
 sity is inconceivably great. Be it more or be it 
 less however, there is a never-ceasing succession 
 from an early period to the grave. Each day not 
 only brings its emotions, but also, an exceeding 
 variety of them ; to such an extent indeed, as to 
 make us marvel at the capabilities of our nature. 
 Some of these combinations are exquisitely pain- 
 ful, while others are beautiful exceedingly. They 
 pass away however, some to recur, and others 
 never to recur again, while mortality endures. 
 
 XII. We cannot appropriate the affections and 
 emotions, whether painful or pleasurable, of others, 
 without archetypes of them in ourselves. Nor 
 yet, can this be done without cultivation. The 
 sympathies of the great majority in favour of 
 truth, justice, and moral excellence, are all too 
 imperfect. In how many is there not a debased 
 and malignant community of feeling with error, 
 ignorance, and crime ; and even among the edu- 
 cated, how much does the development of the intel- 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 457 
 
 lect supersede that which is due to the heart, and 
 how imperfect and coldly conventional are their 
 sympathies? In none are the eternal powers 
 of the human mind adequately elicited. It is 
 only by the universal cultivation of our nature 
 by the development of the moral judgment, no 
 less than of the understanding of the feelings, no 
 less than of the ideas, that man can reciprocate 
 the joys, the hopes, and the fears of his fellows; 
 and it is by the same means that the heart may 
 be best exalted to the love and contemplation of 
 the Ruler of the Universe : for the love of God, 
 as it is the highest of the affections, includes and 
 perfects them all. Shall we not strive then, to 
 improve the precious principle, and in a correct 
 and enlarged sympathy for the good, the beauti- 
 ful, and the true, seek our best and dearest hap- 
 piness. 
 
 XIII. Feelings, affections, and fears, will some- 
 times remain, when the convictions connected 
 with them have passed away. It is true that new 
 feelings spring up with fresh convictions, but it is 
 difficult for the strongest minds, at once, to dis- 
 possess themselves of emotions long indulged in. 
 Our deepest feelings should doubtless, be rivetted 
 to our convictions of truth, since they uphold and 
 maintain them in the strongest manner ; but it is 
 impossible, consistent with the power of forming 
 such associations, to prevent them from being 
 occasionally connected with error : it is the abuse 
 of a superior principle, unavoidable from the 
 liberty of choice, and the progressive nature of 
 

 458 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 our being. One remarkable result attendant on 
 this firmness of association, is the occasional re- 
 vival of error after it has for a period ceased to 
 be entertained. In minds that are weakened 
 by misfortune or disease, and on which perhaps, 
 newly-acquired truths are not sufficiently im- 
 pressed, old associations of feeling and belief are 
 renewed with such force, as sometimes to repro- 
 duce convictions that were seemingly extinct. It 
 is obvious that the more powerful the intellect, 
 and the more vigorous and successful the efforts 
 to arrive at truth, the less probability will there 
 be, of the re-awakening of previous feelings with 
 their co-associated errors. Indeed, when these 
 desiderata unite, error with all the emotions 
 which appertain to it, will vanish with a ra- 
 pidity which to one unacquainted with such 
 transitions, appears impossible. Superstitious 
 and unfounded terrors at whatever period im- 
 bibed, are only to be removed by the sedulous 
 cultivation of the heart and understanding; by 
 the acquisition of well-founded convictions, and 
 by connecting with them, pure and elevated feel- 
 ings. It is the duty of every man to disabuse his 
 mind of error, and of all the emotions that accom- 
 pany it. Such, are the evidence of weakness and 
 imbecility, when suffered to remain to the preju- 
 dice of truth. There is enough in the well- 
 directed study of man's nature ; in his relations 
 with his fellows, and in the contemplation of 
 God's providence and infinite works, to fill the 
 mind and heart to overflowing, and to banish for 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 459 
 
 ever, the illusions of ignorance, superstition, and 
 error. 
 
 XIV. There is a time in which the feelings 
 and affections, the moral judgment and the in- 
 tellect, awaken to a condition of life and activity 
 in which they were never previously placed. 
 This ensues at different periods in early youth, 
 in childhood even, or at a more advanced age. 
 In the case of remarkable children, we sometimes 
 find the understanding and feelings developed to 
 an amazing extent. The changes here adverted 
 to, produce results that are observable, not only 
 by the person affected, but by those who surround 
 him. He obtains a degree of mental and moral 
 energy, by which he was never before actuated ; 
 the wonders of nature, and those of science 
 and art, strike him with a vividness previously 
 unfelt ; while the great questions of social 
 existence, and the various relations of his being, 
 engage his earnest attention. With reference to 
 natural objects, this alteration has been termed 
 philosophic childhood ; with regard to the feelings, 
 affections, and moral judgments however, there is 
 no specific name. The first implies the same 
 delightful appreciation of the objects of nature, 
 which the child experiences for a long time after 
 being ushered on the stage of life the fresh and 
 vivid curiosity of the child, with the moral and 
 intellectual perceptions of the man. Between 
 one who has been thus roused, and one who has 
 not, the difference is truly marvellous. To the 
 former, all things appear under an interesting 
 
460 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 and agreeable aspect : their relations and applica- 
 tions, as well as the exquisite skill which has been 
 manifested in their arrangement, are surveyed 
 with endless satisfaction. The change however, 
 is if possible, greater in one who from apathy and 
 ignorance, is turned to the appreciation of moral 
 truth, and to its application to the varying wants 
 and concerns of life. Of him it may be emphati- 
 cally said, that he is no longer the same. He 
 experiences a lively sympathy with regard to the 
 wants and wishes of his fellows; he studies to 
 discharge the duties of an intelligent and moral 
 being; he is imbued with sentiments of respect 
 towards himself and human nature at large ; 
 and he is impressed with the deepest sense of the 
 dependence of all things on the goodness, wisdom, 
 and unerring excellence of God. To arrive at 
 such a condition however, implies no small ad- 
 vancement, and the individual who would achieve 
 so glorious a consummation, must consider neither 
 time nor toil, watching nor self-denial, mispent. 
 
 XV. As it is frequently necessary for the sake 
 of ulterior good, to do that which is more or less 
 disagreeable, so a provision has been made for 
 mitigating the latter. The exercise in the first 
 instance, of self-denial and forbearance, and the 
 endurance of cold, hunger, and toil, are often suffi- 
 ciently painful; but if done conformably to 
 principle, they will be associated with feelings so 
 pleasurable, as far to outweigh the primary in- 
 convenience. Temperance is to be advocated in 
 all things, even for its material utility ; but it is 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 461 
 
 on higher grounds, as tending to the direct eleva- 
 tion of the heart and understanding, that its 
 efficacy is to be upheld. Without a sanction thus 
 superior, it would dwindle into a meagre and use- 
 less asceticism. When the appetites are gratified 
 in subordination to morality, and the better in- 
 stitutions of society, their indulgence will not be 
 at variance with the dictates of duty. The false 
 importance that is attached to material pleasures, 
 is clearly shewn by the wretchedness which so 
 many experience upon their loss. Much of the 
 existing frame-work of society is based upon their 
 supposed superiority, and the subordination of 
 all pursuits and profession of principle, to obtain- 
 ing them. We are aided in our endeavours, by 
 the benevolent providence of nature, which in- 
 vests abstinence, temperance, chastity, and the 
 endurance of physical pain, if undergone for the 
 sake of duty, with pleasurable feelings, not less 
 calculated to support us through our task, than 
 to assist us in arriving at that moral elevation of 
 which we have been rendered susceptible by the 
 Author of Good. 
 
 XVI. Mankind would have been unhappily 
 circumstanced if the growth of the affections, and 
 the practice of morality, had been made contin- 
 gent on a knowledge of their theory and origin. 
 Without rules or guidance for their conduct, 
 what would have become of them during their 
 long minority? It has however, been better 
 ordered; and we have been enabled by a pro- 
 cess eminently manifesting the wisdom, the power, 
 
462 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 and the goodness of God, to conform to the 
 principles of morality, hardly less faithfully per- 
 haps, than if we understood the basis upon which 
 they rest. Their habitual observance necessa- 
 rily leads to the formation of states of mind, 
 partly founded on the simple recollection of right 
 and wrong, and partly, on the different feelings 
 of pleasure and pain connected with them. It is 
 impossible for men to escape the dictates of con- 
 science as operated upon by the various agents 
 of social existence. Thus, habit and association 
 become the mighty instruments whereby human 
 conduct is controlled and regulated. It is only 
 recently indeed, that successful inquiries have 
 been instituted into the origin of the various mo- 
 tives, feelings, and impulses, that govern life. It 
 was long before men could arrive at the simple 
 truth, that virtue and vice were founded upon 
 the favourable or unfavourable tendency of ac- 
 tions, thoughts, and feelings, with regard to our 
 mental, moral, and corporeal well-being, and upon 
 emotions of pleasure and pain, translated from 
 the painful and pleasurable sensations of our ma- 
 terial organization. Truth advances but slowly, 
 in the face of the time-propped and interest-sup- 
 ported errors of the world. The theory of morals 
 indeed, has been imperfectly progressive ; not so 
 with the practice and the rules, which even as 
 they have been laid down in remote antiquity, 
 are worthy of reverence and esteem. 
 
 XVII. The greater or less success of appeals 
 to the passions and higher feelings, proves that 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 463 
 
 the latter are more extensively diffused than 
 what some are inclined to suppose. In truth, the 
 existing condition of society is unfavourable to 
 their culture ; its relations are too artificial, and 
 the difficulties of individuals too urgent. Never- 
 theless, on occasions, these conventional barriers 
 are overturned, and man thinks and feels as he 
 ought. A vast fund of emotion is engendered 
 and maintained by the different ties of domestic 
 life. Most men have friends or objects whereon 
 to expand their affections. The hearts of some 
 indeed, are replete with feeling, while those of 
 others, are nearly destitute of it. In how many 
 do vicious sentiments grow and flourish, until 
 they overtop every other principle? Yet all 
 cases of disease excepted, are capable of feeling, 
 affection, and moral worth in a word, with pro- 
 per training, of being imbued with the virtues 
 and the excellencies of humanity. No one is 
 born with defective capabilities, or with inferior 
 tendencies. What higher evidence could be 
 brought forward of unceasing and measureless 
 goodness what would have become of us indeed, 
 had such inequalities existed? Resting upon the 
 glorious truth, we are enabled to proclaim that 
 all may be brought to goodness and wisdom, so 
 soon as the institutions of society shall sufficiently 
 advance, to lead to a provision for universal reli- 
 gious and moral training. Surely, the value of 
 life is to be estimated, not so much by its physical 
 duration by the days and nights that we eat, 
 drink, and sleep, as by the extent to which we 
 
464 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 have thought and felt, and by the deeds which 
 we have done to promote our own rational 
 dignity, and the honour and glory of our race. 
 
 XVIIL Our beneficence, whether to the friends 
 of our bosom, or to our fellow-creatures at large, is 
 the source of emotions which add to our affection 
 in the one case, and to our sympathies in the 
 other. Injuries also, generate further malevo- 
 lence towards those who undergo them. Thus, 
 we come to love those whom we benefit, and to 
 hate those whom we injure. The glow of satis- 
 faction accruing from the performance of good 
 offices is so great and so varied, as to prove an 
 incentive of the strongest description, towards 
 the practice of virtue. What happiness indeed, 
 can be greater than that of expanding in affection 
 and good-will towards our friends and fellow-crea- 
 tures, through the performance of kind and 
 beneficent actions? 
 
 XIX. As age advances and time flows on, a 
 gradual though partial change is wrought in our 
 convictions, feelings, and affections. We no longer 
 attach the same importance to place, dignity, and 
 power. The joys of youth, and many of those 
 of manhood, fade away and cease; there are no 
 longer the same external impulses, and satiety, 
 restlessness, and weariness, too often ensue. Men 
 whose moral training has been defective, or whose 
 experience has been of an unhappy cast; and 
 more especially those who complain that the gra- 
 tifications of sense are to be reaped no more, now 
 begin to utter bitter, because fruitless and un- 
 
THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 465 
 
 availing lamentations, on the shortness, the emp- 
 tiness, and the vanity of life. Such regret how- 
 ever, is irrational, or at least erroneous ; there is 
 a sphere of action and of usefulness adapted to 
 every period; while he who is endowed with a 
 grateful heart, and mindful of the obligations to 
 which, by the very tenure of existence he is sub- 
 jected, will have cause for satisfaction to the last. 
 Some however, are overwhelmed with misery and 
 wretchedness, and have cause to repine rather 
 than rejoice; yet many such, are truly cheerful, 
 far more so indeed, than others who have more 
 seeming reason to appear so. It is the part of 
 all to rise superior to the ills of life ; since there 
 are few which may not be mitigated, if not wholly 
 overcome. 
 
 As years roll on, and as we advance in the 
 vale of life, though the turbulent pleasures of 
 youth have flown away, the good man will try to 
 increase his knowledge, and to obtain a clearer 
 perception of moral truth. He will cultivate his 
 affections, and be more rigid in attending to the 
 duties that still await his performance. Children 
 may remain to him, or friends, and at all events, 
 the family of mankind will still be there to claim 
 his attention. Nevertheless, his relations with 
 society become gradually fewer, his intellectual 
 energies are no longer stirred up by the wants 
 and the contentions of daily life; his corporeal 
 powers dwindle into insignificance, and every 
 thing reminds him that his mortal career is fast 
 wearing to a close. These wean his affections 
 
 G G 
 
466 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE MIND. 
 
 from earth, and fix them on that other world to 
 which he is daily hastening. He begins to con- 
 template more and more frequently, a future 
 state of being where good men and superior 
 spiritual existences, with all justice and excellence 
 await him, and where he hopes to obtain a closer 
 insight into the wonders of God's infinite provi- 
 dence. At length, he passes away without sorrow 
 or regret, into those higher scenes for which his 
 heart has so long yearned. Death indeed, is not 
 that painful transition which some have imagined ; 
 for why should there be suffering where no use- 
 ful end is realized by it ? Even granting the oc- 
 currence of a passing pang, it must prove a slight 
 consideration to one- who is about to taste the 
 glories of eternity. 
 
 XX. Without the passions there could neither 
 be feeling nor affection, love of justice, or hatred of 
 vice. These are but modifications of one and 
 the same principle of emotions variously asso- 
 ciated, and combined with endless intellectual 
 convictions. It is needless to insist in this place 
 on the energizing nature of the passions on the 
 pleasures with which they strew the path of life, 
 or, on the aids which they yield to the cause of 
 virtue. Doubtless, they may be excessive or mis- 
 directed, abused or neglected, but their misappli- 
 cation argues nothing against their utility. If we 
 would have the good, we must run the risk of the 
 ill ; the one is necessarily contingent on the 
 other. We should neither over-estimate nor un- 
 derrate the passions, but endeavour to appreciate 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART. 467 
 
 them at their just value, as agents of immense 
 importance in the formation of character. In 
 their regulation, as in other things, we have been 
 left in a great measure, to our own discretion. 
 We have been furnished with the means of se- 
 curing our happiness, if we will but make use of 
 them ; and we may learn from the records of an 
 ample experience, the benefits which accrue from 
 the use, and the devastation which follows the 
 abuse, of these active constituents of our nature. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART ON THE MIND 
 AND FRAME, AND ON ITSELF. 
 
 THE heart's influence on the moral judgment has 
 already been insisted on. The intellect indeed, 
 must determine what is true, but the perception 
 will not suffice without the additional sanction of 
 the heart and affections. A coldly moral man 
 cannot be perfectly virtuous : the seeds of excel- 
 lence may exist, but they cannot fructify unless 
 subjected to the continued impulse of the better 
 feelings. The warm and lively sympathies of 
 humanity, bring home to our bosoms the wants 
 and the sufferings of our fellows, as well as lead 
 to those active exertions in their behalf, which 
 are at once the evidence and the fruit of excel- 
 
468 ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART, 
 
 lence. One who is destitute of the former, passes 
 by the wretched with indifference, or if he do re- 
 lieve them, his assistance is tardily and imper- 
 fectly given. How meagre and sparing are his 
 offerings, without imagination to depict, or sensi- 
 bility to enter into the woes of others? Power- 
 ful motives are furnished by the intellect, but 
 they are feeble and ineffective compared with 
 those which spring from the heart. It is from 
 the feelings and affections, that our moral judg- 
 ments acquire their complement and strength : in 
 fine, the intellectual perception is not a more in- 
 tegral portion of these judgments, than are the 
 emotions with which, to be complete, they must 
 be united. 
 
 It is a topic upon which eloquence and wisdom 
 might dilate for ever the influence of the heart 
 on the understanding, and of the understanding 
 on the heart. The one yields fresh force to the 
 other, and a reciprocal influence is created, which 
 it would be impossible to obtain from any other 
 source. A merely intellectual man is an imperfect 
 one ; he fulfils a portion only, of the obj ects of his ex- 
 istence; and even in an intellectual point of 
 view, forfeits numerous advantages. Total igno- 
 rance on the other hand, is incompatible with the 
 maintenance of morality. Those who are sub- 
 jected to it, know not how to regulate their affec- 
 tions, or where to place them. How can they 
 there is nothing to stimulate, nothing to impel? 
 It is a miserable error to direct an exclusive atten- 
 tion to mental cultivation ; all that could be be- 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART. 469 
 
 stowed, is vain and useless without that of the heart. 
 Were both enforced, we should no longer witness 
 the prodigious amount of wretchedness which 
 abounds, or see individuals straining all their 
 energies in the production of remote and specu- 
 lative changes, to the neglect of those imme- 
 diately useful. Society would not be convulsed 
 by worthless strife, or the infliction of deeds of 
 cold-blooded malignity. There would be a greater 
 degree of mutual consideration, and human beings 
 would at length regard each other as members of 
 the same family. All would be mindful of the 
 distresses of their fellows, nor live from day to 
 day, as if there were no term to present enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 The influence of the heart on itself, is neither 
 slight nor unimportant. He in whom it is moved 
 by the gentler impulses of our nature, is thereby 
 rendered more prone to virtue ; and he in whom 
 one good quality has taken root, is already pre- 
 pared for the reception of all. In such, the vir- 
 tues are sympathetic, for generous qualities are 
 readily imbibed, when similar ones pre-exist in 
 the breast. The habitude of good deeds and 
 gentle affections, facilitates most powerfully the 
 further improvement of the heart. It is easier 
 to add many, when there are some virtues, than 
 to create one, when there are none. The supe- 
 rior feelings are akin to each other; and in pos- 
 sessing one, we may hope to gain others. In 
 nothing is the influence of habit more conspicu- 
 ous. Acts of justice, mercy, pity, and generosity, 
 
470 ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART. 
 
 are easiest to him, who is just, merciful, compas- 
 sionate, and generous. How often indeed, does 
 the presence of a single virtue operate like a 
 charm; and the heart being once animated, the 
 way is paved for a succession of redeeming 
 qualities? It is justly considered a pledge of 
 hope, when a prodigal or a criminal exhibits some 
 latent trait of excellence; but in the obdurate 
 and unfeeling, what is to be expected ? The 
 tiger cannot change his stripes, or the panther 
 his spots, neither can the bad, the hardened, and 
 the malignant, at once transmute their natures. 
 Monsters of not to be mitigated iniquity, whom 
 it would be vain to trust, have been witnessed. 
 Such may be controlled by the iron hand of force, 
 but to oppose them with gentleness, is madness 
 or imbecility. We should have boundless faith 
 in the reformation of human debasement; but we 
 should not yield our confidence until improve- 
 ment has earned it. In fine, the heart nourishes 
 itself, and enlarges the boundaries of its precious 
 domain. 
 
 The heart assists the intellect in demonstrating 
 God, virtue, and futurity. No man of exalted 
 feeling denies the reality of these, though a per- 
 son of merely intellectual cultivation, might do so. 
 The mind must determine what is false and what 
 is true, but a pure and upright heart is necessary to 
 encourage, invigorate, and direct. Reason is the su- 
 preme arbitrer, but the heart must give the impulse. 
 Either, alone, is impotent and faulty united, 
 they display their real strength. We must culti- 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART. 471 
 
 vate both, in order to obtain the best fruits. This 
 is clearly the Supreme will, otherwise it would 
 not have been rendered a condition of insupera- 
 ble importance. 
 
 A discriminating intellect, and a feeling heart, 
 will discern the being and the operations of 
 the Almighty, in the universal field of nature 
 no scene is so limited, nor any so extended, as 
 not to exhibit both. His existence and wonder- 
 ful providence, are not less conspicuous in the 
 minutest atom, than in the measureless regions 
 of illimitable space. To how many vain and 
 preposterous schemes, has not mere intellect, mis- 
 led by false analogies, erroneous conceptions, and 
 inadequate feeling, given birth? Matter, in the 
 ordinary acceptation of the term, has been en- 
 dowed with the attributes of Deity; and that 
 which in itself, is destitute of volition and intel- 
 ligence, has been made the arbiter, and the ori- 
 gin, of the beautiful order and regularity which 
 the earth displays. Each and all of the pheno- 
 mena which surround us, are so many tangible 
 evidences a moral as well as a material revela- 
 tion, of the existence of the Divinity, and demand 
 nothing but a grateful heart and an intelligent 
 mind, to yield conclusive demonstration of the 
 most precious, the most elevating, and the most 
 consolatory of truths. The mind and feelings as 
 we must ever repeat, require equal culture ; for as 
 a pure and upright heart affords the best impulses, 
 so one that is degraded and perverted, gives ori- 
 gin to the worst. Atheism, wretched as it is, is 
 
472 ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART. 
 
 perhaps less deplorable than fanaticism : the athe- 
 ist may be a coldly moral man, but it is impossi- 
 ble for the fanatic in so far as he remains one, to 
 arrive at any excellence. 
 
 The discernment of the evidence in favour of 
 futurity, no less than that for the existence of the 
 Deity, is contingent on the development of head 
 and heart. There are many of considerable 
 mental, but inferior moral culture, to whom futu- 
 rity is a dream. Such cannot believe because of 
 insufficient feeling; they have no heart to direct 
 their reason aright, or to turn it to those precious 
 considerations that would compel assent. It has 
 been providentially ordained, that feeling is in- 
 dispensable to the judgment; the very necessity, 
 tends to secure a degree of moral excellence that 
 could not otherwise exist. Hence, a source of 
 consolation under circumstances that otherwise 
 would admit of no alleviation. Thus, when a 
 feeling and reflecting individual, comes to lose 
 some dear relative a wife, a child, or a devoted 
 friend, he turns with a sense of transport to the 
 deep assurance which issues from his breast, that 
 he shall meet them again. He who discerns in 
 all things, the existence and operations of the 
 mighty Ruler of the universe, will likewise per- 
 ceive that there is a future as much superior to 
 the present, as higher capabilities unalloyed by 
 the cares, the hindrances, and the vexations of 
 earth, must necessitate it to be. The one great 
 truth is contingent on the other; and they are 
 reciprocally upheld and supported. It is impos- 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART. 
 
 sible to believe in the existence of the Deity, 
 without the additional conviction of the immor- 
 tality of the human soul. The one renders the 
 other necessary, inasmuch as the wise and bene- 
 ficent providence of God, involves the perform- 
 ance of everything that is good and desirable. 
 Now, what can be more so, after the turmoils 
 and troubles of life have ceased, than a condition 
 of being which gives promise of a perpetual pro- 
 gression in wisdom, excellence, and happiness, 
 and which permits us to hope that we shall even- 
 tually obtain a greater insight into the surpassing 
 goodness of that Providence, of which we here 
 witness such beautiful, yet comparatively inferior 
 displays? Whatever is best for us, must neces- 
 sarily take place ; and as the consummation in 
 question, is dictated by the utmost degree of in- 
 telligence and heart cultivation at which we are 
 able to arrive, and consequently, yields evidence 
 that it is ordained by the Deity, so we may ven- 
 ture to anticipate that an expectation so beauti- 
 ful and desirable, has not been inspired in vain. 
 Can we indeed, imagine anything so good or so 
 wise, as not to be surpassed by the Almighty, 
 by so much as His wisdom, and His goodness, 
 surpass those of mortal man ? It is not enough 
 to be actuated by a passive acquiescence in these 
 all-important truths; they should dwell with a 
 warm and lively conviction in our souls; they 
 should become the pervading springs of our daily 
 conduct, and actuate us, not less in the fulness of 
 health and strength, than in the debility and de- 
 cay of disease and death. 
 

 474 ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART. 
 
 It is the heart which in its inmost recesses, de- 
 monstrates and feels the sanction of pure morality ; 
 of true religion, self-respect, and respect for hu- 
 manity ; of unsullied and holy love towards God 
 in fine, of the three-fold range of the affections 
 and duties, as they relate to ourselves, our fellow- 
 creatures, and our Maker. Without its influence, 
 the performance of duty would be cold and un- 
 energetic there would be power, but not will; 
 capacity, but no sufficient motive. Yet, notwith- 
 standing all the natural and ordinary aids which 
 virtue receives from the certainty of its infinite 
 superiority in conducing to our temporal well- 
 being, the highest and best sanction will be de- 
 rived from a firm and lively faith, in the existence 
 and providence of God, and in the sure and 
 certain hope of a happy hereafter. We might 
 otherwise feel convinced that virtue was our best 
 resource, but without this divine confirmation, it 
 could no longer exert the same happy influence. 
 A belief in the Deity assures us that virtue must 
 meet with his approval; and the conviction of 
 immortality, that what is good for us here, must 
 continue to be so throughout eternity. How 
 elevating are these considerations that what we 
 are able to effect in life's short span, shall avail 
 us hereafter ; and that our sufferings and our 
 sacrifices when dictated by principle, are enacted 
 in the pervading presence of an approving God? 
 Yet we cannot secure these precious results, un- 
 less a deep and energetic conviction be united 
 with perfect love for to believe in God, and to 
 love him, are one ; and we cannot have an earnest 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART. 
 
 persuasion in futurity, unless it spring warm and 
 gushing from the heart. The intellect and affec- 
 tions must be equally defective, when we can 
 disbelieve in either; yet even this unhappy situ- 
 ation is less deplorable, than that into which 
 superstition would plunge us. It would be better 
 not to believe in a providence or in futurity, than 
 to endow the one with any attributes short of 
 those which flow from boundless mercy, wisdom, 
 and love; or to imagine that the other could be 
 designed for any purpose, save that of promoting 
 the never-ceasing happiness and improvement of 
 the beings who are permitted to enjoy it. 
 
 The peculiar privilege of the heart, is to im- 
 part grace, gentleness, and beauty, to the dispo- 
 sition, and to soften and lessen the harshness of 
 character, otherwise apt to subsist. It is consi- 
 dered, and justly so, that this is realized more 
 frequently with regard to women than men; 
 partly, from their different organization, duties 
 and habits, and partly, from their being less im- 
 mersed in the active struggles of life, as well as 
 less frequently perverted by fanaticism and party- 
 strife. The very circumstance of being a mother, 
 a sister, a daughter or a wife, alone seems 
 adequate to the creation of mild, gentle, and re- 
 tiring habits. Merely to pass an indiscriminate 
 eulogium on women, is not to praise the sex ; their 
 real merits call for no adventitious adornment. 
 If females are carefully and tenderly brought up ; 
 if they be secluded from bad example, and receive 
 the benefit of good ; if they acquire sound moral 
 
476 ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART. 
 
 and intellectual instruction, from able and con- 
 scientious teachers ; if they be treated with kind- 
 ness, gentleness, and consideration, and if they 
 steadily exert their faculties of head and heart in 
 a useful direction that is to say, in the fulfilment 
 of their obligations to themselves, their fellow- 
 creatures and their Creator, they will necessarily 
 become endowed with a superior character. If 
 these means are imperfectly pursued, the result 
 will be imperfect ; and if they be perverted, what 
 can we anticipate, but proportionate degradation. 
 The defects of early education are sometimes re- 
 deemed ; but if education and after training are 
 both neglected, we cannot expect that nature will 
 set up a compensatory process. Why should we 
 hope against probabilities ; the laws of our moral, 
 are no less peremptory than those of our physical 
 nature : and it is only by active, not passive con- 
 formity, that we can hope in either case, to reap 
 the desired results. Women naturally, are neither 
 better nor worse than men: intellectually or 
 morally, there is no sex in the mind. Superior 
 training has the same good, and its absence, the 
 same evil results, in both. If we would have 
 either sex as it ought to be, it must be through 
 the steady exercise of moral and intellectual 
 energy, as grounded on the best possible educa- 
 tion. Nature does not respect our artificial dis- 
 tinctions : hence, so far as essentials extend, the 
 early training of every woman should be alike. 
 We should in this case, witness the extension to 
 all, of that moral beauty, grace, and dignity, 
 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE HEART. 477 
 
 which accrue from the sedulous culture of the heart 
 and understanding, and which shed such an inex- 
 pressible charm upon the social relations of life. 
 
 We cannot sufficiently enlarge on the innume- 
 rable blessings and utilities flowing from moral 
 excellence, and which equally extend to every 
 condition of human existence. Its influence is 
 conspicuous even in the face and form, of which 
 the expression when naturally defective, is there- 
 by redeemed. On the other hand, individuals in 
 whom physical deformity has no existence, may, 
 owing to their vices and imperfections, exhibit 
 the most repulsive aspect. Moral and intellec- 
 tual beauty cannot exist, and cease to display it- 
 self; adding fresh charms to physical perfection, 
 and lessening or doing away with the ordinary 
 tendencies of deformity. As for the co-existence 
 of corporeal beauty and moral defects, it is im- 
 possible ; the one will necessarily mar and coun- 
 teract the other. The vicious and ignorant, 
 evince their defects, even in their countenances, 
 were their forms and faces in other respects, of 
 faultless perfection. There is a propriety, a 
 grace, and a harmony, which bespeak their ex- 
 istence in every word and deed, as well as in 
 every gesture, motion, and attitude. These are 
 vainly imitated by those who would gain the ex- 
 terior, without the inward charm that realizes it. 
 Moral and intellectual beauty is the true beauty 
 of humanity, adding inexpressible dignity to every 
 individual of either sex, who is so fortunate as to 
 rejoice in its possession. 
 
478 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS, FEEL- 
 INGS, AND MORAL CONDUCT, WITH A VIEW TO 
 SECURE OUR OWN BEST INTERESTS AND THOSE 
 OF OTHERS. 
 
 1. OUR duties may be included under three 
 general heads those which regard ourselves; 
 those which regard others ; and those which re- 
 gard the Deity. A threefold division also, ex- 
 tends to our duties to ourselves as they refer to 
 the cultivation and the exercise of our physical, 
 our intellectual, and our moral capabilities. 
 
 I. The importance of physical training has 
 been already dwelt upon; superior corporeal, is 
 necessary to superior moral and intellectual de- 
 velopment. Some come into the world so de- 
 fectively endowed, that they inevitably perish; 
 with care however, inferior constitutions improve, 
 while those that are sound, are maintained so. 
 Multitudes are cut off in early life, or grow up 
 into a rickety and defective manhood. It is 
 melancholy to witness the sickly aspect of the 
 children which throng our factories, or swarm 
 ill-fed and ill-clothed, in the various streets and 
 lanes. There should not be one physical educa- 
 tion for the rich and another for the poor, unless 
 it can be shewn that heat and cold, light and 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 moisture, food and raiment, air and exercise, act 
 differently upon each. It is but trite to urge 
 that both should be provided with the comforts 
 and appliances, that ensure health, vigour, and 
 length of life. The young of no creature is so 
 helpless as that of man ; nor is there any of the 
 inferior animals whose existence is so precarious, 
 or so dependent on artificial ministerings. Should 
 not our race in infancy then, be equally cared 
 for, nor left to the inadequate efforts of a poor, 
 and perhaps weak and destitute woman, or to 
 those of an ill- employed and imperfectly requited 
 man? Indeed, since some have ventured to de- 
 clare, that the destruction of human beings by 
 cold, hunger, and destitution, was a resource of 
 nature for keeping down their numbers, indivi- 
 duals who formerly would have been ashamed to 
 blazon their inhumanity, are provided with an 
 unblushing pretext. The education of the youth 
 of both sexes, and of all ranks ; their due provi- 
 sion with proper food, clothing, and shelter, and 
 the gentle exercise of their corporeal powers, are 
 not only essential in themselves, but preparatory 
 to superior moral and intellectual training. 
 
 II. All young persons should have their grow- 
 ing powers properly directed and gently stimu 
 lated from the earliest period. Over-exertion is 
 apt to lead to satiety and disgust, and the con- 
 trary, to mental torpor and imbecility. The im- 
 provement of his faculties must flow from the 
 child's own efforts ; it is an error equally hurtful, 
 to hurry them too fast, or to leave them in disue- 
 
480 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 tude. We cannot sufficiently urge the necessity 
 of a superior education for every class ; one that 
 will make good and useful members of society, and 
 qualify for the comprehension and the practice 
 of those great rules of morality, from the re- 
 ception and observance of which, humanity de- 
 rives its greatest gain and highest glory. Nature 
 has not endowed the rich with one kind of in- 
 tellect, and the poor with another : the mind js 
 the same in both, with the same capabilities, and 
 the same capacity for improvement. The poor 
 man however, labours under a still greater in- 
 cumbency to improve his condition; he has to 
 struggle with the elements, and with the various 
 difficulties of his social position ; he has also to 
 acquire knowledge, and to possess some idea of 
 his destiny here and hereafter, and he has to con- 
 template his relations with his fellows, and with 
 the great Creator. All these things involve an 
 education of the most superior description. To 
 be happy, or efficiently useful, the essentials, not 
 the mere rudiments of information must be com- 
 municated. The exigencies of life will for a long 
 time, prevent the communication of superfluous 
 acquisitions, but moral and intellectual culture 
 can never be reckoned among these. In fine, it 
 is impossible to attend to it too closely, commen- 
 surately with the wants, and the destination of 
 mankind. 
 
 III. The necessity of the joint cultivation of 
 all our capabilities, is ever to be insisted on ; for 
 if any portion of our better nature be neglected 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 481 
 
 if we sacrifice the whole to a part, degradation 
 is the inevitable result. We are so constituted, 
 that it is impossible to make the most of humanity 
 without the improvement of every faculty. In 
 individual instances, our powers will doubtless, 
 require to be pushed further in some directions, 
 than in others ; but independent of this, there is 
 a culture which all should receive, and which 
 ensures the greatest general fitness for the duties 
 of life. When we go into detail however, and 
 estimate the relative importance of the different 
 branches of human development, we perceive 
 that that of the heart claims superlative pre-emi- 
 nence. This it is, which confers honour and 
 dignity upon us, both as human beings and as 
 individuals, and to which, of all other things, 
 reverence and precedence are to be accorded. 
 Seeing then, its inestimable value, it is impossible 
 to sow the seeds of moral excellence too early, 
 or to foster and nourish its growth, with too much 
 tenderness and assiduity. There is not one sort 
 of cultivation for the affluent, and another for the 
 poor, since the requirements of humanity are 
 alike. Charity, moderation, fortitude, and magna- 
 nimity, cannot be one thing in one station of life, 
 and another thing, in another. The knowledge 
 of duty, as a melancholy experience shews, is not 
 always sufficient; but when to this, good habits 
 and the love of duty are conjoined, comparative 
 excellence is secured. Yet moral knowledge is 
 of vast importance to the cause of virtue; 
 directing her steps in doubtful cases, and under 
 
 H H 
 
482 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 all circumstances, securing the powerful and un- 
 assailable suffrage of reason. Although child- 
 hood and youth are periods in which morality 
 can be but imperfectly understood as a science, 
 they are most precious for the inculcation of that 
 unbounded love and habitual practice of virtue, 
 which are to accompany us throughout our career. 
 Children cannot be too early taught a reverence 
 for truth ; to connect pleasure with its observance, 
 and pain with the contrary. How far artificial 
 means are available, is a question of deep interest. 
 It is better to inflict pain than to permit the 
 growth of vice; but it is to carry the instru- 
 mentality of the former too far, if virtue be need- 
 lessly associated with suffering. Well-meant, but 
 injudicious severity, even in the hands of anxious 
 instructors, too often forfeits its objects; while 
 innocent childhood is made the scene of so much 
 misery and vexation, as to induce a feeling of 
 deep regret that that which is so good and ex- 
 cellent in itself, should ever be inculcated by 
 such a process. Children are sadly often exposed 
 to the influence of depreciatory agents, and too 
 frequently come under the hand of the instructor 
 in a state so vitiated, as to call for all the means 
 of repression which lie in his power. From igno- 
 rance among parents and instructors as to the 
 laws and operations of the human mind, character 
 is often mistaken, and individuals who might 
 have been imbued with every virtue, are plunged 
 into almost remediless degradation. The vene- 
 ration and the habitual observance of virtue, so 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 483 
 
 essential to our highest dignity and welfare, are 
 best ensured by the loving kindness and unassail- 
 able firmness which are the most efficient charac- 
 teristics of the instructor. 
 
 Practical morality above all other things, is to 
 be inculcated in youth. It lays a foundation for 
 the association of pleasure with duty, as well as 
 for the formation of correct habits. The option 
 of performing or of neglecting duty, is not to be 
 permitted. The obligation should be peremptory. 
 Needless restraint is to be avoided, but every 
 deviation should be marked and rectified. If 
 artificial control be perpetually interposed, the 
 child's feeble powers cannot well be strengthened. 
 There is a certain medium between doing too 
 much or too little; let us only not ruin the child 
 by neglect, or stunt his powers by perpetual in- 
 terference. Can anything be more miserable 
 than the chiding and grinding oppression to which 
 so many young creatures are subjected ? A 
 sufficient range of action is not permitted ; hence 
 among other reasons, the rarity of moral energy 
 and determination of purpose. The freedom 
 here contended for, would require a degree of 
 intelligence and moral culture, which teachers 
 and parents do not generally possess. Beneficial 
 changes however, will ensue by degrees ; and as 
 preparatory to them, I would urge that children 
 should be treated a little more as rational beings 
 weak and imperfect indeed, but still rational ; 
 and that continual and duly graduated appeals 
 should be made to their moral and intellectual 
 
484 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 powers. For it is impossible to insist too earnestly, 
 or too frequently, on the vital truth, that it is by 
 self-exertion, that character is to be strengthened 
 and developed in youth, or maintained and per- 
 fected in more advanced age. 
 
 Let us cultivate the youthful heart both by 
 precept and example ; let us detail frequent cases 
 of virtuous conduct of instances of sacrifices to 
 principle, and of the forfeiture of present advanta- 
 ges to secure future good. Let us steep the soul 
 in an intimate conviction of the excellence of 
 wisdom and virtue ; and let us shew continually, 
 that the highest and best happiness consists in 
 acting up to principle for its own sake, and in 
 cultivating those feelings of rational self-approval, 
 which afford so precious a requital for all the 
 sufferings, and all the inflictions to which their 
 maintenance may at times expose us. It is good 
 for children to know the rules of duty, and to be 
 able to express them in fitting language; unless 
 however, they be appreciated and acted up to, 
 such lip-service will be of little avail. No, they 
 must be felt by the heart, more than uttered by 
 the voice ; they must be appropriated and assimi- 
 lated as part of the moral nature, and made the 
 ground- work and the corner-stone of the whole 
 man. This is to be moral the rest is a dream. 
 Bad example should be shunned as poison ; to the 
 unformed it is replete with desolation and ruin. 
 To what else is it owing, that the vices and de- 
 fects of one generation, are handed as heir-looms 
 in perpetual succession, to the next? If the in- 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 485 
 
 fluence of vicious and degrading example could 
 be removed, the greatest source of human depra- 
 vity would be done away with, and man would 
 march forward in a continual progression of truth 
 and excellence. Young people are often imbued 
 with vices and defects at schools the* more in- 
 nocent are corrupted, or their simplicity receives 
 a taint, which it can never wash away. When 
 children are kept at home, how are they to be 
 prevented from associating with inferior charac- 
 ters, or secluded from the too frequently polluting 
 influence of servitude ? Still, much may be done 
 to avert bad example; and everything that a 
 deep conviction would dictate, of the sacred trust 
 which parents and instructors are called on to dis- 
 charge, should be rigidly enforced. Thus, by suc- 
 cessive efforts, generation after generation would 
 improve, until at length, the defects which charac- 
 terize our race, would perhaps appear no more. 
 
 We should be singularly cautious, lest in at- 
 tempting to forewarn, we make the child acquainted 
 with vices that he might never have known. It 
 is easy to blunt irreparably, that fine sense of moral 
 delicacy which it is so desirable that we should 
 retain through life. The influence of imitation, 
 whether for good or for ill, is enormous. Com- 
 pared with superior example, precept sinks almost 
 into nullity. It is above all things desirable, 
 that the child should come in contact with good 
 conduct, and that every one with whom he is 
 connected, should be truthful, moral, kind-hearted, 
 and intelligent. How would it be possible in 
 
486 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 this case, to contract anything that was vicious, 
 inasmuch as it would be the necessary and bles- 
 sed tendency of such a happy position, to suffer 
 nothing inferior to be imbibed. There is no well- 
 spring of error in the human heart; if indeed, 
 that which was accidental, was lapsed into, 
 it would be speedily effaced, and vice itself would 
 exist but in name. It is difficult however, con- 
 stituted as society now is, even for wealth, wis- 
 dom, or power, wholly to secure a child from the 
 risk of contamination ; still it is allowable to pause 
 on the efficacy of good example to insist upon 
 its advantages, and to realize them to the utmost. 
 Let us connect pleasant feelings with the per- 
 formance of duty, that thus the unavoidable aspe- 
 rities which sometimes strew the path, may not 
 only be diminished to the utmost, but associated 
 with as many pleasures as circumstances will per- 
 mit. Why should not the localities of instruc- 
 tion, and the haunts of children, be made as 
 agreeable as possible, and provided with as many 
 innocent adornments, as good taste and sound 
 sense would dictate, or the means of individuals 
 allow. Their apartments should be cheerful, 
 lofty, well-ventilated, and warm: they should 
 open upon gardens or the pleasant fields; while 
 models, pictures, and the statues and portraits of 
 the wise and good, should adorn the walls. If 
 the incessant activity of children were properly 
 directed in leisure hours, it would find ample 
 scope in scientific recreation, and in the different 
 arts and mechanic employments. Young persons 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 487 
 
 thus occupied, would feel little impulse towards 
 those acts of mischief and petty devastation, to 
 which carelessness or ignorance so often con- 
 demns them. An energetic and encouraging 
 cheerfulness on the part of teachers, is a power- 
 ful element in subduing that distraction and men- 
 tal weariness to which youth is sometimes liable. 
 As for those whose very hearts and souls are not 
 wrapped up in love and sympathy for the moral 
 and intellectual welfare of their charge, they are 
 little fitted for the great business of instruction. 
 It is no portion of our task to make young people 
 disgusted with improvement, or weary and sick 
 with that period of existence, which should only 
 be replete with innocence and joy. As to the 
 association of mental occupation with mere ani- 
 mal pleasures, or making these a reward for 
 those, it is wholly to be deprecated. Such should 
 be yielded by the way, and never held out as in- 
 centives to exertion. The great object is to 
 induce a love of occupation for its own sake, as 
 well as for the eventual pleasures and advantages 
 which accrue from it. And it should be the un- 
 flagging effort of every teacher who has the pre- 
 sent and eternal interests of the beings committed 
 to his care at heart, to inculcate by precept, illus- 
 tration, and example, the unspeakable advantage 
 of loving duty in every form, and of looking up- 
 on a rigidly bestowed self-approval, as a better 
 earnest and a higher reward of virtue, than the 
 possession of all the gratifications of sense. 
 
 Too much stress cannot be laid on the cultiva- 
 
488 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 tion of easily accessible moral pleasures, and on 
 the exercise of our sympathies in every direction 
 that circumstances will permit. No condition of 
 humanity neither destitution nor riches, obscu- 
 rity nor power, excludes the performance of our 
 duty to ourselves and others; nor is there any 
 thing which affords higher or more lasting gra- 
 tifications. Hence children should be led to de- 
 light in the better feelings of their nature, and in 
 the acquisition of knowledge in every form ; while 
 their affections should be turned by every avail- 
 able means, in the direction of goodness and ex- 
 cellence. It is not enough to prescribe given 
 feelings on such and such occasions the too com- 
 mon error of preceptive morality ; practical mea- 
 sures must be taken to realize them. Gentleness 
 and goodwill, firmness and justice, should be dis- 
 played by the teacher, and encouraged in the 
 child. It would be impossible for the continual 
 manifestation of such qualities, not to generate 
 the most noble and amiable characteristics. The 
 nature of the human mind, and the history of our 
 race, equally prove it. Never has man or wo- 
 man of superior endowments adorned the scene 
 of life, in whom they were not thus produced. 
 How could we indeed, experience unmoved, the 
 display of never-ceasing kindness and love. This 
 is the golden secret which is to regenerate the 
 world, and to create in man while young, those 
 precious habits, and inward tendencies, that 
 would make him happy in himself, and a blessing 
 to his kind. The faculties of the child should be 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 489 
 
 strengthened by exercise, and by submitting to 
 his decision, questions suited to his tender powers. 
 In this way, an all-important principle would be 
 strengthened, and a continually increasing fund 
 of knowledge, power, and excellence, provided 
 for after years. 
 
 Fortitude, forbearance, and energy, should be 
 cultivated from the earliest periods, not only with 
 regard to things physical, but things moral to 
 the vicissitudes of the elements, as well as the 
 stormy and tumultuous manifestations of human 
 passion. The one helps the other, and he who 
 can bear unmoved, the turbulence of the former, 
 is in part prepared to encounter the din and strife 
 of the latter. Thus, the youth and even the child, 
 should be occasionally habituated to loss of sleep, 
 food, and rest, as well as to encounter cold, hunger, 
 and fatigue. These trials must be cheerfully 
 undergone, else they cannot serve the end in 
 view. To conduct them properly, the teacher 
 must be acquainted with the physiology of both 
 mind and frame. He must in fact, be all in all 
 with his pupils; identifying himself with, and 
 leading them from task to task, and from diffi- 
 culty to difficulty; encountering the same priva- 
 tions, and undergoing the same exertions. The 
 mind cannot adequately form itself, but requires 
 the continual aid of a highly moral, intelligent, and 
 loving guide. Restrictions however, can have 
 no value in themselves; they are only useful by 
 guarding against vice, and by familiarizing the 
 learner betimes, with the crosses and the cares of 
 
490 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 life. A wholesome indifference should be early 
 inspired with regard to delicacies and luxuries; 
 it should be impressed that their possession yields 
 no merit, and their absence no demerit ; in fine, 
 that they form no part of the dignity of elevated 
 human nature, or have any connexion with our 
 everlasting interests. 
 
 Although the discipline just recommended, 
 contributes to the formation of character, it is to 
 an extent subordinate to the more direct exercise 
 of the heart itself. The child should be ac- 
 customed to rebuke, contradiction, and the impu- 
 tation of error. These will be justly apportioned 
 by the rigid teacher ; but the learner will thereby 
 be prepared to bear with firmness, undeserved 
 inflictions, and the ill-treatment of the unworthy, 
 the malevolent, and the unjust; not with in- 
 difference indeed, but with charity and moral 
 courage. These are things which every wise and 
 good man must anticipate, as they are in some 
 sort, the complement of his knowledge, his wisdom, 
 and his goodness. It will be a superior stretch 
 of improvement when the young have learned 
 their duty, not only towards the just and good, but 
 to the wicked, the ignorant, and the base ; making 
 allowance for their errors, but not yielding to 
 their defects compassionating the individual, but 
 abhorring the crime. This will lead to that calm- 
 ness and equability of temper, which is founded 
 on moral discrimination, patience, and self-respect, 
 mingled with a due regard for the weaknesses and 
 the infirmities of others. The child should be 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 491 
 
 led to the practice of what is good, and so far as 
 his little means permit, to succour the poor, the 
 wretched, and the oppressed. Youth is the period 
 for inculcating charity ; and provided it be exer- 
 cised with gentleness, sympathy, and the utter 
 absence of ostentation, few virtues more fitly 
 adorn the heart. It is needless to urge the ne- 
 cessity of impressing on all occasions, the deepest 
 love and respect towards parents, brethren, 
 friends, and instructors, as well as humanity at 
 large ; and more especially towards the good, the 
 wise, and the beneficent, of every age and clime. 
 The kind attentions of the one, and the virtuous 
 deeds of the other, should be treasured up in the 
 heart for contemplation and imitation. In fine, 
 every means that united wisdom and benevolence 
 can suggest, should be employed to create and 
 promote self-reliance and virtuous energy, as well 
 as the habits and duties which it becomes human 
 beings to learn and to practise through life. All 
 things should be made subservient to religion and 
 morality the bodily powers and the capabilities 
 of the understanding, varied and wonderful though 
 they be, must not be cultivated at the expense of 
 the heart. This last in its purity and excellence, 
 is the cynosure to which all other things should 
 turn ; its elevation is the first and the last the 
 beginning and the end, towards which all our 
 strivings whether social or individual, should be 
 directed, and without which, there is nothing in 
 humanity adequate to develope the superlative 
 capabilities of our immortal nature. The culti- 
 
492 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 vation of science and art, should be pursued with 
 the intimate conviction that there are things of 
 greater weight the acquirements and the duties 
 which ennoble us on earth, and qualify us for 
 eternity. Such should be attended to with the 
 abiding conviction that we are placed in this 
 world for purposes which we are not at liberty 
 to omit or evade, and of which the better or the 
 worse performance, elevates or degrades us ac- 
 cordingly. Children should be incessantly en- 
 couraged to think on the Supreme Being, to 
 praise him to dwell on his perfections, his 
 wisdom, his goodness, and his continual presence 
 to refer all things to him, and to make con- 
 formity to his will the leading object of existence. 
 Thus heightened and purified, the gentle emotions 
 of our nature would be centred in Him ; and as 
 their cultivation redounds to the adoration and 
 the love of God, so this most excellent and 
 mighty affection, would be reflected back upon 
 them, elevating us as to ourselves, and purifying 
 and enhancing in endless forms, the relations 
 which we hold with our fellows. 
 
 III. It will be apparent that our duties to our- 
 selves as men, are in many respects identical 
 with the preceding. It is the part of every one to 
 maintain his faculties in as much activity, health, 
 and strength as possible in fine, to cultivate his 
 nature in every practicable direction: not in 
 youth alone, but in adult life,, and not in the 
 latter only, but in advanced age. What is all 
 this, it may be asked, to tend to wherefore the 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 493 
 
 prodigious activity that is here enjoined? To 
 which it may be replied, that it is worthy of our 
 highest dignity as rational and moral beings ; that 
 it is calculated to make us more happy in our- 
 selves, and useful to our fellows ; that it augments 
 the real duration of human life, and that while it 
 places us in more elevated relations with our 
 Creator, prepares us for the advent of eternity. 
 We might indeed, vegetate on and on, taking- 
 small note of the present, and caring little for the 
 future ; but is this happiness is this our destina- 
 tion, or are we to strive how ignorant, how indo- 
 lent, and how useless, we may prove to ourselves 
 and others? Still, if we do not strive to be so, 
 it comes virtually to the same thing, we remain 
 so we make no efforts to attain a higher po- 
 sition. We are so formed through the bounty of 
 Providence, that existence without some obser- 
 vance of the moral law is impossible ; but are we 
 to content ourselves with a bare sufficiency, when 
 such admirable results may be realized by further 
 effort ? Utter neglect of the regulations of our 
 being, is indeed incompatible with the continuance 
 of life ; but we are bound to exert ourselves in 
 every direction to the utmost, since by so doing, 
 we shall raise ourselves to a degree of moral 
 supremacy, virtue, and happiness, which has been 
 imaged forth by a few individuals, but never 
 achieved by any entire community. 
 
 Let pleasurable feelings be connected with 
 useful and proper duties ; let cheerful and happy 
 associations be cultivated purity, truth, and mo- 
 
494 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 ral excellence ; and let us exercise ourselves in 
 every duty that is calculated to improve the 
 heart. We should endeavour to lay up a store 
 of moral judgments, so that no exigency could 
 meet us unprepared. Let us cherish praise- 
 worthiness more than praise, and reputability 
 more than repute. In the possession of the rea- 
 lity, we shall experience a satisfaction which all 
 the honours of the world, without real deserving, 
 could never bestow. Let us cultivate rational 
 self-respect, and avoid arrogance, self-conceit, 
 and pride, with all our might ; and let us be tem- 
 perate, disinterested, prudent, and chaste, in 
 everything that concerns either body or mind. 
 It is incumbent on us to be enthusiastic in behalf 
 of virtue ; and it is not less so, to promote in our- 
 selves by every practicable means, moral courage, 
 fortitude, and energy. Our duty may lead us to 
 encounter every sort of evil calumny, loss of 
 fortune, friends, country, health, and life, with 
 equanimity and cheerfulness, when principle re- 
 quires the sacrifice. That such conduct is often 
 attended with acute, though temporary suffering, 
 is what cannot be denied ; but then, it must never 
 be lost sight of, that it is in conformity with the 
 highest dictates of our nature, obedience to which 
 is sure to be attended with its own reward. 
 When the patriot sacrifices property and life in 
 opposition to domestic faction or foreign enmity, 
 he gives away along with these possessions, many 
 others that men hold dear wife and child, pa- 
 rent and friend. By acting up to a principle 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 4Q5 
 
 however, which enjoins the loss of one for the 
 good of many, he displays the magnanimity of 
 which our nature is capable; for where is the 
 man who would not yield all that he was pos- 
 sessed of, to promote the happiness and security 
 of the community to which he belongs? The 
 soldier marches to the battle-front with a willing 
 heart, ready to live or die as the dictates of duty 
 may demand. And in the moral struggle be- 
 tween good and evil, knowledge and ignorance, 
 the philanthropist plants himself undauntedly in 
 the breach, and regardless of the assaults of a 
 merciless enemy, fights pursuant to his noble 
 mission, in behalf of the best interests of man- 
 kind. After all, no one however powerful or 
 malignant, can take away our knowledge or our 
 moral qualities ; and it is our part ever to pro- 
 mote them in ourselves and others, at whatever 
 expenditure of material possessions, the urgency 
 of circumstances may demand. For if our chief 
 good had resided in these, they would have been 
 rendered unassailable ; but it is plain that it con- 
 sists in those endowments which raise man above 
 his fellows, ennoble him in this world, and qua- 
 lify him for the next. 
 
 Pleasure, whether mental or corporeal, is not 
 the rule of life, but duty only. Yet he who 
 attends most assiduously to the latter, will have 
 the greatest probability of realizing the former; 
 not physical pleasure perhaps, but certainly mo- 
 ral. In the moderate gratification of their appe- 
 tites in exercise, temperance, and regularity, and 
 
4<)6 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 in the contemplation of the magnificence of na- 
 ture, the virtuous will find ample sources of ma- 
 terial enjoyment. In such indeed, it is under 
 the guidance of principle, united with knowledge 
 and moral purity; and as much surpasses the 
 short-lived, feverish excesses of the voluptuary, 
 as truth exceeds falsehood, virtue vice, or health 
 disease. It would indeed, be an incomprehensible 
 arrangement, were health and physical well-being 
 not more frequently allied with good conduct than 
 with ill; that it is so, let the dreary annals of 
 vice, intemperance, and debauchery, declare. Let 
 us participate in the goods of life with moderation, 
 as things in which our real dignity does not reside, 
 and of which the presence does not secure ex- 
 cellence, nor the absence vice. Riches should 
 not be looked upon as the instruments of selfish 
 aggrandizement, but as agents for promoting the 
 well-being, and alleviating the miseries of man- 
 kind. In misfortune and poverty, we should re- 
 collect that it is not wealth that constitutes happi- 
 ness or real excellence, but knowledge and vir- 
 tuous conduct. Competence is desirable as the 
 instrument of rational enjoyment, and as a means 
 of good, but it is not to be sought for at the ex- 
 pense of principle. Virtuous poverty is better 
 than wealthy vice. Ill-gotten gains are a curse 
 to the possessor, and can never serve the pur- 
 poses of a truthful mind. Whatever inflictions 
 we may labour under, there is a certain course 
 of duty incumbent on us as men, most conform- 
 able to our condition here, and to our destination 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 497 
 
 hereafter. There is nothing so well calculated 
 to diminish the pressure of evil, as the earnest 
 conviction that virtue and excellence may be 
 maintained uninterrupted. If indeed, misfortune 
 rendered us wicked or ignorant, we might com- 
 plain, but it has no such tendency. When dear 
 friends have been removed, it is in conformity 
 with the laws of Providence ; for unless these take 
 their course unless sickness and death pursue 
 their path, there could neither be health, nor life, 
 nor being. Without death, no one could come 
 into the world, nor could there be any accession 
 to the infinite hosts of spiritual beings, among 
 whom, we hope and believe that we shall flourish 
 for ever, inseparably united with the wise and 
 good. As for disease and decay, they are neces- 
 sarily contingent on our earthly state the means 
 and condition of our mortal existence. Doubt- 
 less, we must labour under bitter grief when loved 
 friends go from us; but still, we are not without 
 consolation the soothing hand of time, and 
 above all, the firm and unrelaxing conviction, 
 that we and they are equally included within the 
 range of the wise and just providence of God, 
 will allay our sorrow however seemingly unap- 
 peasable. This conviction indeed, is an all-suf- 
 ficient comfort, since it assures us that no portion 
 of His creatures remains uncared for, and that 
 the very existence of universal laws, infers the 
 comprehension of every living thing within their 
 grasp. Weak and imperfect as we are, we shall 
 often find it difficult to raise our hearts with firm- 
 
 i i 
 
498 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 ness to this mighty source of comfort ; but we 
 should nevertheless, do all in our power to main- 
 tain an unceasing trust in the unerring wisdom 
 and goodness of God. The assurances which 
 flow from this ; the very necessity, notwithstand- 
 ing our transitory pains and sufferings, that all 
 must eventually become good and happy as they 
 successively fulfil their respective destinations, is a 
 consideration more than adequate to raise the 
 soul from the lowest dregs of desolation and dis- 
 tress. It is one, however, which is best appre- 
 ciated by pure hearted and trustful individuals. 
 I know not whether human nature is capable of 
 going the lengths which some would enjoin that 
 we should not even wish the cessation of the ut- 
 most misery to which it might be possible for us 
 to be exposed ; but certain it is, that after we have 
 done our best, and excited our energies to the 
 utmost, the persuasion here inculated, is emi- 
 nently calculated to comfort and re-assure us un- 
 der the pressure of the heaviest calamities. 
 
 Sacrifices to principle are never to be regret- 
 ted; and when pursuant to its injunctions we re- 
 linquish present good, the privation is repaid a 
 thousand fold. No prospect of worldly gain, 
 whether immediate or remote, should induce us 
 to swerve from the path of equity; to incur the 
 risk of moral pollution, or to violate that purity 
 the possession of which is the most precious jewel 
 of the human soul. This is to be promoted by 
 knowledge, not ignorance, by the due regulation 
 of our passions and desires, by a correct view of 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 499 
 
 the objects and ends of life, and by the energetic 
 performance of what is just and right. Virtue 
 cannot be realized without an effort ; nor good 
 habits without a struggle against ill. If we would 
 arrive at excellence, we must resist evil in every 
 form ; we must oppose error, vice, and oppression ; 
 in fine, we must perform our duty to our fellow- 
 creatures and to ourselves. It is equally neces- 
 sary to free our minds from all the defects that 
 would impede the increase of our knowledge, and 
 the progress of our hearts. Let us associate with 
 the wise and good for our own advantage, and 
 with the ignorant and vicious for theirs. Let us 
 estimate justly, the respective claims of a life of 
 action and one of meditation, and assign to each 
 a fitting portion of our energies ; and let us strike 
 the balance between the cultivation of the heart 
 and that of the understanding, so as to promote 
 to the greatest extent, the well-being of both. 
 Let us disunite ourselves for ever, from error, 
 vice, and iniquity, and endeavour to secure the 
 performance of our duty while yet we live and 
 move. A strong sense of accountability to the 
 laws of our moral, intellectual, and physical na- 
 ture, is ever to be cultivated; since we shall 
 thereby impress on our hearts and souls, that 
 strict obedience which will best promote our own 
 happiness, and that of others, as well as avoid the 
 misery, the degradation, and the vice, which de- 
 solate the world. It is thus, by the performance 
 of duty under all its different aspects, that we 
 shall act up to the dignity of human nature, and 
 
500 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 to the capabilities with which we have been so 
 liberally endowed ; and after having conducted 
 ourselves in all respects, in conformity with the 
 providence of God, that we shall die as we have 
 lived, in the full conviction that the ineffable 
 wisdom, benevolence, and power of which we 
 have been vouchsafed so magnificent a demon- 
 stration in this life, shall be surpassed by a still 
 greater display in the next. 
 
 2. Let us cultivate cheerful, kind, and happy 
 relations with others, and do all we can to alle- 
 viate the sorrows, the sufferings, and the toils to 
 which all are more or less exposed. Our love 
 for humanity should be co-extensive with the ex- 
 istence of our race ; and no child of man should 
 be so poor, so wretched, or so destitute, as to 
 be unworthy of our warmest sympath}^ and regard. 
 There are some vices in relation to our fellows, 
 so low, so gross, so mean, that it would almost 
 seem impossible for any one to incur the imputa- 
 tion ; among these, slander and defamation stand 
 pre-eminent. If the poor wretch, who, perhaps, 
 to avert starvation, abstracts a little of the ma- 
 terial of life, is severely punished, of what is not 
 that conduct deserving, which goes to annihilate 
 our mutual trust, and to sap the foundations of 
 social existence ? Slander and detraction, in all 
 their ramifications, are a cankering evil, and tend 
 to poison the sources, and to diminish the amount 
 of human happiness. Such are their usual guise, 
 but wretched as they are in this, there is yet 
 another, which is as much more despicable, as the 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 501 
 
 well-being of the great family of mankind exceeds 
 in importance that of individuals. Ordinary 
 slander singles out its victims one by one, but 
 this of which I speak, assails the noble charac- 
 teristics of humanity in the gross, and wages war 
 against the interests of the species at large. 
 Envy, selfishness, meanness, and the herd of baser 
 passions, may lead to personal aggressions; but 
 when these sinister influences presume to raise 
 their fronts against the majesty of human nature, 
 they merit measureless opposition, detestation, 
 and contempt. It will be obvious that I allude 
 to the false and calumnious assaults, to which 
 beneficence, benevolence, and enlightenment, have 
 ever been subject, on the part of the ignorant, the 
 malignant, and the base. The retardation of im- 
 provement that has arisen from this source, it is 
 impossible to calculate; but it makes one sigh to 
 think how the wise and good those whose ex- 
 ample and influence might have led to the practice 
 of every virtue, have thus been opposed in their 
 career. Such opponents are not to be conci- 
 liated; submission to error, vice, and ignorance, 
 only leads to further aggression, and to a more 
 unsparing enmity. The man of probity, wisdom, 
 and enlightenment, should never yield, but per- 
 severe with unshrinking firmness in the advocacy 
 of the everlasting interests of his race. Igno- 
 rance and error are only to be extinguished by 
 knowledge and truth superstition and fanati- 
 cism, by true religion ; while the opposition which 
 the one ever manifests towards the other, must 
 
502 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 be subdued by the unceasing exercise of that 
 indomitable moral courage, which is based upon 
 the firm conviction of the sacred objects which 
 create and maintain it. 
 
 Let us be mindful of those lesser virtues to the 
 existence of which, society owes so much of its 
 charm courtesy, gentleness, and urbanity. The 
 politeness which is not regulated by principle, is 
 but hollow trickery a shadow without the sub- 
 stance. Efforts to please that are based on 
 intelligence and moral feeling, will ever be suc- 
 cessful. There is nothing in the practice of 
 virtue which calls for austerity, and their pre- 
 tensions are to be narrowly weighed, who would 
 associate morality with gloom. We are required 
 to bear and to forbear ; if character be formed 
 to a large extent for, as well as by the individual, 
 it should assuredly lead us to transfer the hatred, 
 contempt, and indignation, with which vice so 
 naturally inspires us, from the criminal to the 
 crime, as well as to the causes which have ope- 
 rated in its production. I ask no paltering with 
 iniquity it is hateful in every form, and preju- 
 dicial to the dearest interests of our kind; but 
 while we combat it with our best energies, let us 
 not forget what is due to humanity in the person 
 of the offender. This is more especially neces- 
 sary when w T e are called upon to oppose those 
 evil qualities, that would arrogate the power of 
 inflicting pain and misery upon the fallacious pre- 
 text of doing good. We should be cautious how 
 we frame our conclusions; things which at first 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 503 
 
 sight appear blameable, are often not so in real- 
 ity. We incur a high degree of reproach, when 
 we impute unworthy motives and conduct to per- 
 sons incapable of entertaining the one, or of per- 
 petrating the other. The wise and good are 
 peculiarly aware of the infirmity of our nature, 
 and are the more ready to make allowances ; but 
 the little-minded, the fanatical, and the base, en- 
 tertain no scruples, but asperse characters, often 
 immeasurably their superiors, with wanton and 
 gratuitous malignity. 
 
 Let us help the poor, the hungry, the ignorant, 
 the afflicted, and the oppressed; let us do them 
 all the good we can, and if it be possible, make 
 the burthen of life sit light and easy on them. 
 How much distress is there in the world, how 
 much misery that might be relieved if we would 
 but attend to the evil which lies in our path ? The 
 greater portion of this, as it is generated by 
 artificial causes, might be removed by the efforts 
 of individuals, or by the collective agency of 
 society. Much good assuredly, is effected in this 
 very way, but not enough. That this is so, let 
 us ask our own hearts let us look to the un- 
 succoured woe that everywhere abounds. Men 
 may contend for improvements in government, 
 and for those other changes which appear so 
 brilliant in the perspective ; but meanwhile, we 
 live and die, we enjoy the pleasures, and taste 
 the miseries of life. Oh, let us not pause for the 
 dim uncertain future, to do the good which the 
 fleeting moments place within our grasp, but 
 
504 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 succour the hungry, the fatherless, and the op- 
 pressed, while light and life remain. For our 
 time is hurrying fast away, and the period must 
 come quickly round, in which we may only have 
 the wretched consciousness that we had energies 
 which we did not exert, and means which we did 
 not apply. Let us then, while yet we may, do 
 what we can to smooth the path of life, and to 
 extend our beneficence to every human being 
 who may stand in need of it. A good deed is 
 never lost : even if it do not inspire gratitude in 
 the object, it fosters the seeds of mercy, justice, 
 and excellence, in the doer. Let us then, stretch 
 a helping hand to our fellows in distress, and so 
 far as may be, assist the wretched and miserable 
 of every land. Let us live the lives of men, nor 
 suffer the grave to close over us, uncheered by 
 the conviction that we had deserved well of man- 
 kind. 
 
 We should rise superior to the conventions of 
 society, so often as they are founded on injustice. 
 There is a respect which we owe to humanity in 
 every form, which we ought never to withhold. 
 Is our fellow-creature, poor, old, blind, lame ; is 
 he ignorant, vicious, superstitious, or fanatical; he 
 is still our fellow-creature still to be loved, 
 cherished, and respected, in virtue of his humanity. 
 Oh, let us not heap degradation on degradation, 
 nor add a deeper disgrace to misery and wretch- 
 edness. Poor human nature has enough to bear, 
 even in its worst disguises, and it is not the part 
 of goodness, wisdom, or philanthropy, to increase 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 505 
 
 the load. There is something more worthy of 
 respect than riches, or dignities, or power; and 
 that is man himself. No creature is so vicious, 
 that under happier auspices, might not have been 
 reared to excellence that might not have had 
 the seeds of knowledge and virtue so implanted 
 in his breast, as to have afterwards expanded into 
 those glorious energies that distinguish man from 
 his fellows, and raise him above the brute. Some 
 hapless beings indeed, are born with an organiza- 
 tion so defective, that their senses are inadequate 
 to convey those elementary impressions upon 
 which knowledge is founded; but such are ex- 
 ceptions to the general rule, and bear but a small 
 proportion to the mass of mankind. Next to his 
 duties to the Deity, his immediate friends and 
 relatives, every one should be early impressed 
 with the necessity of respect for humanity ; never 
 forgetting that it is man whom he is to honour, 
 and not merely trappings and decorations that 
 have little reference to personal worth. Thus, 
 we should not witness the revolting spectacle of 
 ill-treatment towards others, on the part of the 
 young a malevolence that is unnatural, as it is 
 precocious. Neither should we see that ill- 
 founded courtesy which displays itself in hollow 
 politeness towards the rich and opulent, and in 
 contumely and insult, or at any rate, contempt 
 and indifference, towards the poor. It is not 
 always easy perhaps, to practise the lesson here 
 inculcated, because it is difficult to recognize our 
 degraded nature, under its various disguises ; but 
 
, 
 
 506 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 if we strongly bear in mind, that the worst and 
 most wretched, because most vicious of our 
 species, might under other circumstances, have 
 acquired a diametrically opposite character, it 
 will go far to inspire us with the proper senti- 
 ments compassion towards the offender, but 
 aversion for the crime. 
 
 It is our duty, so far as it may lie in our power, 
 to diffuse information in every form whether to 
 communicate what is new, or to promulgate what 
 is old. Our attempts must always be more or 
 less successful; since, as it has been often said, 
 every effort in the dissemination of knowledge, 
 discovers some channel through which it never 
 penetrated before. This is peculiarly true with 
 regard to books, of which every one who produces 
 a good one, bestows an imperishable treasure on 
 society. How many, for example, as revolving 
 years have passed away, have been comforted 
 and instructed by the unbending energy of an 
 Epictetus, the sweetly-flowing wisdom of an Aure- 
 lius, or the sublime disquisitions of a Plato? 
 And how many in different ages and nations, 
 have cheered the burthen of life with their pre- 
 cious philosophy some handing down their names 
 in pleasant remembrance, and others, their 
 thoughts, albeit the former have perished in the 
 stream of time ? 
 
 It is our duty then, to instruct our fellows in 
 everything that we know, and if there be any 
 truth in science relating to their physical, their 
 intellectual, or their moral welfare, to make 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 50? 
 
 them acquainted with it. Whether we do this or 
 not, it is certain that there are other powerful in- 
 structorsthat circumstances, as they include 
 the operations of nature, and the rules and regu- 
 lations of society, are perpetually at work, modi- 
 fying character for good and for ill. But it is 
 not the less true, that much will lie in the power 
 of individuals to act beneficially on those around. 
 Many urge that it is enough, if each perform the 
 part into which accident has thrown him, and 
 discharge to the best of his abilities, the duties of 
 his station, and the ordinary demands of social 
 life. This doubtless, is a high and useful object, 
 but the pure-hearted and lofty-minded those 
 who best fulfil the claims of society, will likewise 
 best attend to ulterior duties. Indeed, the pro- 
 priety, as well as the necessity of attention to 
 general interests, is recognized by all. After the 
 performance of our private duties, the highest 
 wisdom and purest philanthropy, require the pro- 
 motion of the well-being of the community in 
 which we dwell, as well as of society at large. 
 The great social improvements to which we owe 
 the advantages of modern life, were the work of 
 individuals, and often only developed and made 
 known, after much personal risk. This was more 
 peculiarly the case with regard to moral and po- 
 litical truth, the propagation of which, has too 
 often been productive of danger and death to the 
 discoverers. Every one, however, may benefit 
 his fellows, and this to an extent so much the 
 greater, as he is virtuous and enlightened himself. 
 
508 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 Nothing absolves us from the obligation, short of 
 the impossibility of success. We are to weigh 
 well before we decide ; things which appear the 
 former to the indolent and ignorant, are often 
 abundantly otherwise to the enlightened and 
 energetic. That indomitable firmness of purpose 
 which is conquered by no difficulties, and which 
 only pauses in the pursuit of its object, when in- 
 superable obstacles interpose, laughs ordinary 
 hindrances to scorn, and performs achievements 
 which to other natures seem impracticable. In- 
 stances in illustration, are abundantly numerous 
 in the history of the human mind ; not only when 
 good, but evil objects were the main-springs of 
 conduct. And shall virtue and knowledge then, 
 be daunted in the career of good, when vice and 
 iniquity hold on unchecked? Let us consider 
 the impediments all but invincible, which have 
 been subdued by the lust of fame, wealth, or 
 power, and blush to be outstripped by anything 
 so inferior. In truth, not knowledge only, nor 
 even good feeling, is sufficient for the mighty task; 
 it is necessary to foster those habits of iron energy 
 and practised determination, which so accustom 
 us to the contemplation of difficulties, that we can 
 bring ourselves to relinquish no useful attempt, 
 until every means of realizing it has been tried 
 in vain. 
 
 It has been observed, that perhaps no man so far 
 outstrips his cotemporaries, as no where to meet with 
 countenance and support. This is true to a con- 
 siderable extent, for the laws by which the acqui- 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 509 
 
 sition of knowledge is regulated, demonstrate that 
 it must be in a great measure transmitted. Ne- 
 vertheless, it is certain that some have so far pre- 
 ceded their fellows, as to become subject to 
 persecution, obloquy, loss of fortune and of life. 
 The individual may endure these transitory evils, 
 but the multitude are benefitted. A man may 
 be maligned, and his means of existence perilled, 
 yet numbers are made happy by his conduct, 
 when the oppressor and his oppression have 
 passed away. Death, imprisonment, exile, and de- 
 famation, are fleeting evils ; they cannot annihilate 
 the consciousness of having done good, either in 
 this life or in the next, or prevent the accruing 
 satisfaction from accompanying us to the grave. 
 Truth, sooner or later, shines brightly forth, and 
 it will be seen who were the upholders of the best 
 interests of their species, and who were otherwise. 
 Yet in the midst of his triumph, the enlightened 
 and virtuous man is not without compassion to- 
 wards his persecutors: he knows that they are 
 the victims of evil training, malignant passions, 
 and debasing ignorance ; while he derives from 
 the spectacle of their conduct, a still higher in- 
 centive to the diffusion of the knowledge by which 
 mankind are made wise and happy, and to the 
 removal of the ignorance, to which are owing the 
 the misery, sin, and wickedness, that afflict the 
 world. Such, then, is the incumbency under 
 which every right-minded individual labours, with 
 regard to the promulgation of truth, but more 
 particularly moral truth. All the happiness, vir- 
 
510 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 tue, and excellence, which we possess, are owing 
 to the efforts of those who are now no more ; 
 while the well-being that may accrue to posterity, 
 must repose on these efforts of the past, combined 
 with those of the existing races of mankind. No 
 good act, no true thought, or virtuous feeling that 
 is manifested to others, is ever lost; but borne 
 on in the hearts and souls of mankind, flourishes 
 and perpetuates itself for ever, in an unceasing 
 and blessed succession of just deeds and pure af- 
 fections. 
 
 Let us sympathize with all God's creatures, 
 but more especially with our own kind with the 
 oppressed, the ignorant, the superstitious, the vi- 
 cious, and the unhappy. The vicious and igno- 
 rant are worthy of our regard, not indeed, be- 
 cause they are vicious or ignorant, but because 
 they are unfortunate. For what greater misfor- 
 tune can befal, than to be afflicted with degrading 
 qualities ? It is by many considered an evil, when 
 loss of property, reputation, or life, assails us; 
 but narrow-mindedness and vice are properties, 
 as to whose baleful nature, no second opinion can 
 be held. The one is but an alteration in the exter- 
 nal and fugitive relations of our being the other, 
 the absence or depravation of our most glorious 
 attributes. Even death, the bug-bear of humanity, 
 in itself can be no evil; it is the unavoidable 
 passport to futurity but iniquity, of what can it 
 be productive, save of further misery and sin ? 
 Moral diseases might doubtless, be removed ; 
 but who is to carry the proper measures into 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 511 
 
 effect ; who is to feel compassion for the spurned-at 
 outcast? The ignorance, the degradation, and the 
 desolating habits into which so many are plunged, 
 are truly deplorable. The inconceivable want 
 of information, the horrid crimes, the brutality, 
 and the absence of feeling so often displayed, are 
 enough to fill the heart with sorrow and woe, and 
 loudly call for that energetic sympathy which ex- 
 pends itself in devising and carrying into effect, 
 active measures of prevention and relief. 
 
 If the ignorant and vicious claim our sympathy, 
 it is obviously demanded by the wise and good. 
 When we think of the innumerable privations, 
 the sufferings, and the struggles, which have been 
 undergone in conformity with the dictates of 
 principle, it serves to inspire us with the deepest 
 regard. Nor is there anything so well calculated 
 to rouse our best and purest impulses, as the 
 spectacle of such efforts, of which the very recital 
 even, affects us with transports of satisfaction and 
 joy. Every virtuous sacrifice is sure to realize a 
 glorious reward; some are animated by it at the 
 time, while history records the example, and holds 
 out the incitement to after ages. It is impossible 
 to estimate the collective good which has thus 
 been wrought, or adequately to weigh the 
 advantages which flow from a single instance 
 of successful opposition to tyranny, superstition, 
 and the upholders of vice and ignorance at large. 
 Let the patriot, the philosopher, and the philan- 
 thropist, feel the intimate assurance, whatever 
 persecution, risk, or temporary ignominy, they 
 
512 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 may be called upon to undergo, that their exam- 
 ple is never lost, but goes on a precious heritage 
 to posterity, mingling and commingling with the 
 results of other superior agencies, until it involves 
 the human race in its effects. The efforts of the 
 wise and good can never die; the memory of 
 warlike deeds may be lost, or handed down only 
 to be execrated, but those of the lover of peace 
 and wisdom, prolong their blessed tendencies for 
 ever. Fame is not the aim of the good man, but 
 virtue; and having realized this, his object is ful- 
 filled. The preservation of our names is nothing ; 
 superior conduct will be most apt to ensure it, 
 but whether or not, is of little moment. The 
 consciousness of having done good in secret, 
 yields delight ; but the perpetuation of a name, 
 is every way an inferior object of ambition. The 
 sympathy of the enlightened and the good, whether 
 here or hereafter, is the dearest meed of excel- 
 lence, and so surely as it exists, shall it obtain 
 this reward. 
 
 Let us do good to the utmost of our power, for 
 the interest of one is that of all. In truth, the 
 performance of our duties to ourselves, secures it 
 to others; for it is the very nature of rational 
 self-interest, to desire nothing that is hurtful. 
 The doctrine is compassed within small bounds ; 
 let us not do anything to others, that we would 
 not have done to ourselves. But much comes 
 with the range of duty besides acts ; these, indeed, 
 are the evidence, but not the essence of morality. 
 We must know our duty, and we must love to 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 513 
 
 perform it : we must moreover, be actuated by 
 those kind and gentle feelings, and those good 
 affections, whose very existence affords a proof 
 of our superior and immortal nature. It is ne- 
 cessary to be disinterested, to love virtue for itself, 
 and not merely for the sake of the outward ad- 
 vantages that may accrue from it. In other 
 words, we must foster those inward emotions and 
 feelings, to gratify which, is among the highest 
 objects of virtue. The diffusion of moral know- 
 ledge and virtuous sentiments greatly enhances 
 the beneficent result. Our individual happiness 
 is thus reflected on others, while that of others 
 increases our own. It is indeed, impossible for 
 the spectacle of the general felicity to be unat- 
 tended with satisfaction to the beholder. When 
 the time works round in which moral and reli- 
 gious truth shall universally abound ; when vice 
 and ignorance, error and superstition, shall be 
 no more, our happiness will be singularly aug- 
 mented ; human relations will be rational, just, and 
 kind, and while the real ends of our being shall 
 be better understood, there will be a greater de- 
 gree of submission to Providence, and a superior 
 preparation for the duties of our earthly, as well 
 as for those of our everlasting existence. At pre- 
 sent, there is a generally prevailing ignorance as 
 to many of the more important objects of life ; a 
 miscalculation as to the essentials of happiness 
 as well as of the means of promoting it, and lastly, 
 too great a disregard for the well-being of others. 
 Did mankind sufficiently perceive that their 
 
 K K 
 
514 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 highest and most enduring felicity was vested in 
 kind and gentle affections, in energetic and use- 
 fully directed mental efforts, and in virtuous con- 
 duct, we should no longer perceive those bitter 
 rivalries, that grasping after wealth and power, 
 and that desire for exclusive appropriation, which 
 are the bane of social life. 
 
 3. I now arrive at the third great class of our 
 duties, or those which regard the Deity. It is 
 indeed, true, that these include the whole ; but it 
 is equally so, that some have a more immediate 
 reference to the great Author of our being, than 
 others, and consequently, call for separate and 
 careful consideration. Let us cultivate a close 
 acquaintance with all God's mighty works, but 
 ever in relation to Him. Even those of men's 
 hands, are to be viewed in the same spirit ; for 
 are not human talent and ingenuity derived from 
 the one and only source ? The instincts and 
 powers of the inferior animals, with all the won- 
 derful variety of creation, while they are the in- 
 dication and the evidence of boundless wisdom 
 and power, afford endless scope for expatiation 
 and delight. As our capacities are strength- 
 ened and perfected during the ceaseless lapse of 
 eternity, so it is not too much to anticipate, that 
 we shall be permitted a perpetually increasing in- 
 sight into the glories of that Providence, which 
 then, as now, it will be our most exalted happi- 
 ness to admire. The manifestations of the Deity 
 are co-extensive with creation itself. There is 
 no solitude no wilderness no ocean depths or 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 515 
 
 desert recess, which does not exhibit boundless 
 tokens of wisdom and power ; while in the wide 
 range of animated being, the feeling heart will 
 discover incessant subject for consolation and joy. 
 What a blessed reflection it is, that there is no 
 creature, however low and unimportant, from the 
 fragile insect that flits in the noontide beam, to 
 man himself, exalted and refined by reason and 
 feeling, or degraded by ignorance and vice, that 
 is not under the sedulous care of unceasing wis- 
 dom and love ? The Mighty Ruler has not 
 provided for one portion of his works to the exclu- 
 sion of the rest all are the objects of his unre- 
 mitting attention. There can be no favouritism, 
 no neglect ; all are cared for, all are loved ; while 
 the well-being of each is made subordinate to its 
 conformity to those unalterable and perfect laws, 
 which have been laid down for all living things. 
 Man, indeed, has received reason and feeling to 
 guide him in the detection and observation of 
 these laws, which, by a wonderful provision, are 
 made the instruments of his progressive improve- 
 ment. How could we indeed, suppose for an 
 instant, that the all-wise God could prejudice by 
 neglect, or exclusively favour any portion of his 
 creatures ; surely, such a procedure would be un- 
 worthy of his boundless love his beneficent and 
 fatherly care his unerring wisdom ? No, all 
 are cherished all are minded none are forgot- 
 ten ; nor does the infinite multiplicity of his Pro- 
 vidence cause aught to be neglected, even to the 
 minutest fragment, or the faintest operation of his 
 precious works. 
 
516 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 Let us dwell on the omnipresence of the Deity. 
 Oh, glorious and transcendent reality, that it is 
 impossible for us for any portion of his crea- 
 tures, to cease for one moment, to exist in his 
 presence. How great the comfort how blessed 
 the conviction of this mighty truth? Living or 
 dying miserable, destitute, or forlorn, still the all- 
 seeing, all-pervading eye is upon us, looking into 
 our souls, and surveying us with ineffable com- 
 passion, wisdom, and love. Oh, let us but fitly 
 cherish this persuasion in our hearts, and misery, 
 sorrow, and suffering, must for ever cease for 
 who could be permanently unhappy with the inti- 
 mate belief that he was under the unswerving 
 love and inspection of a being of infinite benevo- 
 lence and power? We have reason to rejoice, 
 even when a sincere and devoted friend provides 
 for our welfare but where is the friend like 
 God ; who is to be compared to him ? His vision 
 penetrates through the darkness of night, and 
 visits the captive in his cell: it dwells by the 
 couch of the desolate and forsaken, as with all 
 who, however destitute of human aid, can never 
 cease to enjoy His. Let the wretched and mise- 
 rable then, hold up their fainting hearts there 
 is one who will never forsake them, who cannot 
 cease to provide for them, for he sees their wants 
 and compassionates their distress. When erring 
 humanity inflicts cureless evil cureless at least 
 as regards this world, let the afflicted impress it 
 upon their inmost souls, that there is another and 
 a better dwelling, where they come under the 
 immediate care of unceasing goodness and love, 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 51? 
 
 and where merciless oppression shall reign no 
 more. For earthly misery must find prompt re- 
 lief, when the mortal frame, with mortal cares, 
 are thrown off together. Again, let us think of 
 that pervading vision which pierces through the 
 thickest disguise that human perversity weaves 
 to snare its victims. Let each and all strive to 
 maintain in their souls the sleepless conviction 
 that every word, thought, and feeling, are known 
 to One, who sees through all things; let them 
 cherish it, and live and die in conformity with it. 
 The good and the wise need not pause in their 
 career, when they reflect that wisdom and good- 
 ness Supreme, appreciate their conduct, and 
 approve of it. A virtuous man will ever be soli- 
 citous to possess the suffrage of his fellows; but 
 whether he is fully able to earn it or not, he may 
 feel assured that there is One whose approbation 
 must certainly be conciliated, by the practice of 
 what is just and true. How expanding then, how 
 exalted the conception, that God is the all in 
 all that he is everywhere, and that he is eter- 
 nally present, and cognizant of all things ? What 
 topic can be urged more favourable to the inte- 
 rests of religion and morality what so well cal- 
 culated to raise our conceptions as to the infinite 
 majesty, wisdom, and power of the Almighty? 
 Let us strive then let us try to realize a persua- 
 sion that tends to elevate man to the highest ex- 
 cellence of which his nature is capable, and that 
 furnishes so exhaustless a source of consolation 
 and joy. To be ever animated by the belief that 
 we are in the presence of infinite wisdom and 
 
518 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 power, is one of all others the most alien to vice 
 and iniquity, as well as most favourable to those 
 superior moral and intellectual energies, that 
 should inspire a being whose destination is eter- 
 nity. It ought to be felt when we rise in the 
 morning, and when we lie down at night in 
 solitude as in society during the hours of labour 
 as in those of rest in sickness as in health in 
 earliest youth as in advanced age: in fine, the 
 pervading conviction, that we are in the never- 
 ceasing presence of the great Father and Pre- 
 server of life, should inspire us from the first dawn 
 of reason, to the last verge of earthly existence. 
 
 Let us have frequent communion with God 
 let us reflect on his goodness to us and to all, 
 his wisdom, and his boundless power. Let us 
 adore him let us praise him with praise that 
 flows from the heart, and let us be thankful for 
 the happiness which we enjoy, and that which is 
 in store. We cannot indeed, commune with the 
 Deity as we would with mortal man nor can 
 we expect that he will immediately reply to our 
 supplications and our praise, but we have ever 
 before us the inspiring spectacle of his works, and 
 the blessed manifestations of his ways. These 
 are addressed to us and to all men, and are they 
 not enough to actuate us with fervent, upspring- 
 ing devotion, gushing from the very depths of 
 the soul? Let us utter his praise in no set for- 
 mularies of words, but clothed in the ready 
 phrase of loving and devoted hearts. We should 
 feel as we should think for ourselves ; and those 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 519 
 
 who adore God within, will be at no loss for 
 expressions wherewith fitly to declare their love. 
 But this is a faculty which requires cultivation, 
 and many a willing heart is not at first fully able 
 to express all it feels. Nevertheless, each will 
 do what he can, and he will be aided by the pre- 
 cious records of the feelings of his fellow-men, 
 towards the Omnipotent Father of all. Even 
 when we have acquired the faculty of addressing 
 him for ourselves, the prayers and the praise of 
 the wise and the good, are pleasant and profitable 
 to peruse and to hear. The orisons of a grateful 
 heart are ever acceptable; but of what avail are 
 those arid expressions, which do not awake the 
 feelings lying latent in the soul? No, our ad- 
 dresses to the ineffable Parent should embark our 
 warmest, our most devoted affections for who is 
 so worthy of them, as the one great and almighty 
 Upholder of created things the equal Origi- 
 nator of light and life, as of everything that is 
 dear, or excellent, or true ? We should habituate 
 ourselves to daily prayer; morning and eve, the 
 accents of devotion and love should dwell on our 
 lips, and gush from our hearts. We should try 
 to feel our entire dependence on the one and 
 only source of all that we enjoy; at whose fiat 
 we come into existence, and by whose boundless 
 power we are enabled to maintain it. A grate- 
 ful heart will find much to praise, much to be 
 thankful for: even in the worst of situations, 
 there will be scope for gratitude. How much 
 desolation and distress are allayed and lessened, 
 
520 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 by fervent appeals to God, the afflicted alone 
 can say. We daily witness individuals to all 
 outward seeming plunged in the utterness of 
 destitution, who are yet resigned and tranquil, 
 and all from their immoveable faith in the justice, 
 the goodness, and the unlimited wisdom of God. 
 For must He not be wise, and just, and merciful; 
 and must not the equal Dispenser of all good, 
 redeem human misery, if not on earth, at least 
 in another world ? Oh, if men could only know 
 the consolation and the limitless joy, which arise 
 from an unceasing trust under adverse circum- 
 stances, in the ultimate providence of the Deity, 
 they would turn to him with a confidence that 
 nothing could lessen or destroy. A habit of 
 prayer and praise should be generated in earli- 
 est infancy, so that the heart, with each revolving 
 year, would grow stronger and stronger in the 
 act, better disposed, and better able to perform it. 
 Thus, the great Author of existence being ever 
 appealed to, and the thoughts and feelings ever 
 directed towards him, it would become our hap- 
 piness in life, and our consolation in the hour of 
 death. We should try to feel that he must needs 
 do what is best, and that both here and hereafter, 
 his divine ordinations must ever be right. The 
 unsullied purity of childhood lays it down as the 
 fittest period for laying the basis of an implicit 
 reliance on our Maker; it is then, that the first 
 fresh feelings of the heart, as awakened to earthly 
 parents, may be directed towards God, and the 
 untainted innocence of early youth, made the 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 521 
 
 vehicle of that precious devotion which is to reign 
 throughout eternity. Surely, the glowing emo- 
 tions thus directed, of this happy time, afford a 
 spectacle worthy of inspiring us with an un- 
 bounded delight, only perhaps to be surpassed by 
 that which we experience when man has cast off 
 fierce emotions and erring ways, and turns with 
 a contrite and willing heart to the only source of 
 peace and joy. Devotion to the Deity should 
 witness our utmost efforts to divest ourselves of 
 every sinful thought, of all vain passions and ill- 
 directed desires. We should strive in utter 
 annihilation of self, to reflect on our perfect de- 
 pendence on him, and on our enjoyment of the 
 countless blessings that flow, not from our deserts, 
 but his beneficence. We should task our intel- 
 lects to discern the actual relations which we 
 maintain towards him our littleness, and his 
 greatness our feebleness, and his might our 
 helplessness, and his maintaining power, The 
 heart must indeed be awakened, but so must the 
 understanding, that our devotion may not run 
 into error or fanaticism, or imagine anything that 
 could be unworthy of him. Let us never forget 
 that we must love God with intelligence and 
 purity of heart ; with probity, good faith, and the 
 unremitting exercise of all the excellencies of our 
 nature. He knows what is best, and will do it. 
 Let us ascertain his providence and submit. It 
 is his part to order and direct ours, to conform 
 and to praise. 
 
 It behoves us to study the providence of the 
 
522 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 Deity, and to make conformity to it our rule. 
 Were men to do so, the miserable anomalies that 
 subsist in the moral world, would for ever disap- 
 pear. We observe one universal principle obtain- 
 ing throughout creation, which is so much the 
 more perfect, the more we are able to see into it. 
 Could we but witness the entire, our love and admi- 
 ration would proportionably increase. The blem- 
 ishes which seem to our imperfect vision to ob- 
 scure it, would vanish into nothing contrasted 
 with the majesty of the mighty whole. But the 
 general solution already given, holds good in every 
 case that no imperfections are risked, unless to 
 obviate a greater evil, and to secure a vast pre- 
 ponderance of good. The power of option and 
 selection has been placed in our hands, which 
 could not be done without leaving a possibility of 
 incurring error. Now, it should be the unceasing 
 effort of all who are desirous of promoting the 
 happiness of their species, to demonstrate the or- 
 der of Providence, to inculcate submission to it, 
 and to point out the endless blessings that flow 
 from it. The will of the Deity is manifested con- 
 tinually, now, and yesterday, and for ever ; vary- 
 ing neither with times nor with seasons, but at 
 once immutable and universal. For it is framed 
 upon all the particulars that can possibly occur, 
 from the eternity which has preceded us, to that 
 which lies before. If any better order had been 
 possible, it must necessarily, in conformity with 
 the dictates of Supreme goodness and boundless 
 power, have taken place. For it flows from God, 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 523 
 
 and, consequently, is at once perfect and unal- 
 terable. Let our prayer then, to the Deity, be 
 not to modify his precious providence to suit our 
 limited views ; let our desire be to obey, rather 
 than to alter to submit, rather than to oppose. 
 Now, we should try to comprehend this provi- 
 dence ; to weigh it in our souls, and to imbue 
 ourselves with its excellence. Much we shall 
 never know more, we cannot know, yet we shall 
 at least be able to lift a corner of the mighty veil, 
 and to receive grounds the deepest and most in- 
 effable, for unlimited trust, consolation, and joy. 
 It is not a blind, undiscerning acquiescence that 
 is demanded of us, but one that is enlightened 
 and intelligent, and which flows not less from the 
 heart than the understanding. If we would feel 
 the comfort, we must seek to deserve it we can- 
 not have it, we cannot earn the reward without 
 labour, toil, and pains. Is not the gracious pro- 
 vidence of the Deity deserving of our most at- 
 tentive consideration : shall other knowledge be 
 deemed worthy of acquirement, and this, the best 
 and highest, since it affords the most perfect 
 ground of duty, and the most certain basis of 
 happiness, be disregarded? It is, indeed, de- 
 serving of our deepest study, for months, and days, 
 and years; during every interval that the cares 
 and struggles of life permit, until we have ar- 
 rived at firm and imperturbable attainments at- 
 tainments that will guide and comfort us through 
 life, and support us in the hour of death. Cer- 
 tain it is, that wherever we turn, whatever de- 
 
524 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 partment of nature we scan, the intelligent and 
 grateful heart will find innumerable tokens of a 
 universal and perfect provision embracing all 
 things, at once incapable of diminution or amend- 
 ment. Thus, the feeling and reflecting of every 
 class, are cheered by the never-ceasing evidence 
 of Divine wisdom and love. The dweller on the 
 deep, the way-faring man in fine, the student 
 and observer in every imaginable line, find the 
 thickly strewn proofs of sleepless regard and limit- 
 less power. How unspeakable the satisfaction, as 
 we wend our way through the tortuous paths of 
 life, to observe and to abide by the regulations of 
 Providence to love them in our hearts, and to 
 cherish them in our souls? Crosses and troubles 
 may assail us, and we may feel their sting, but 
 we have that within our breasts which blunts their 
 acrimony, and assures us of eventual comfort and 
 repose. We know we feel, that God is all-per- 
 fect and all-wise that he has our final happiness 
 in view, and that the trials and the vexations of 
 life, are but as filmy specks compared with the 
 good which is in store for us, and which we trust 
 and believe that we shall enjoy, through the end- 
 lessly recurring periods of eternity. Let us not 
 seek then, to alter the order of Providence let 
 us only strive to know it, and to make it the rule 
 and the guide of our lives. We have been granted 
 sufficient scope for every useful, every beneficial 
 purpose, an overflowing supply of everything that 
 is calculated to make us happy and wise. Let 
 us then, rivet the laws to which we have been sub- 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 525 
 
 jected, in our very souls ; let us abide by them in 
 sickness and in health, prosperity and adversity, 
 in fine, in all the varying relations of life, and 
 they will not forsake us in the hour of need. We 
 shall thus best enable ourselves to discharge our 
 duties, as we owe them to our fellow-creatures, 
 and to ourselves, as well as prepare for our transi- 
 tion to another form of existence. 
 
 We are under the strongest of all obligations, 
 to fulfil our duties to the Deity. Unless we do 
 this, though we may admit it passively, we live 
 without a sufficient practical acknowledgment of 
 his existence. Few are so hardy as directly to 
 deny the latter, but how many do so by their con- 
 duct indirectly; by the absence of charity and 
 love towards their fellows ; by the omission of 
 good acts and the commission of ill ; and by the 
 neglect of those daily sacrifices of the heart which 
 are indispensable to real religion ? We must re- 
 cognise God's attributes and mighty power, as 
 well as his innumerable relations to all created 
 things. We must adore him in our hearts, and 
 praise him in our souls not blindly or passively, 
 but with intelligence and love. For the love of 
 
 o 
 
 God, and the performance of his will, are the very 
 religion of the heart the religion of the virtuous 
 and moral man. Let us then cherish unbounded 
 reverence towards him let us refer all things 
 trustfully to him, as regards this life, and with 
 hope and confidence as respects the next. God 
 is good he is wise let us reflect then, on his 
 providence, his wisdom, and his goodness. If we 
 
526 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 act as rational beings, and carefully imbue our 
 minds with the endless instances of his beneficence 
 to us and to all ; if we keep alive within us the 
 flame of ardent devotion, yet tempered by the 
 sense of our infinite inferiority, and the boundless 
 respect and submission which we are to maintain, 
 we may then venture to approach him with the 
 offerings of our hearts. The other relations of 
 man are finite, but these are infinite others are 
 temporal, but these are eternal. Let us cherish a 
 strong sense of accountability towards God. He 
 has endowed us with certain moral and intellec- 
 tual capabilities, and we should cultivate these, 
 his gifts, to the utmost. If we do not, we shall 
 sooner or later be overtaken by the retributive 
 justice of Nature in other words, by the neces- 
 sary results accruing from the insufficient de- 
 velopment of our latent powers^, And this leads 
 to the question of education and of a provision 
 for the moral culture of the community, superior 
 to any that now exists. To a superficial observer 
 it might seem hard to make an innocent child 
 suffer from the neglect of parents and teachers 
 or a whole people, from the ill-regulated or in- 
 sufficient measures of government ; but what is 
 to be done? An almost boundless capacity has 
 been imparted to us, and if we will not avail our- 
 selves of it, can we hope to evade the results ? 
 The evils which accrue from bad or defective 
 training vice, ignorance, error, and strife, are 
 so many beacons to warn us into the adoption of 
 a better path. These unhappy results must ever 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 527 
 
 flow from similar causes, and cannot be obviated 
 unless by avoiding them. Misery and crime arise 
 from moral and intellectual ignorance, and must 
 be corrected by superior training. The institu- 
 tions of society almost inevitably constrain inferior 
 minds into the adoption of a multitude of habits, 
 adverse not only to correct and high-toned 
 morality, but to its essence the adoration of 
 God. Men will never generally worship the 
 Supreme Being with fervour and truth, until an 
 utter change in the present exclusive mode of edu- 
 cation shall take place. The few who receive the 
 best form of instruction, are insufficiently taught ; 
 the remainder who are comparatively neglected, 
 are nevertheless exposed to cruel and sanguinary 
 punishments for the commission of acts, which 
 moral causation amply demonstrates, must neces- 
 sarily follow the destitution and degradation 
 in which they have been left. This is an inver- 
 sion both of reason and morality; let all be in- 
 structed to the utmost, as regards essentials, and 
 we shall then witness a diminution of crime and 
 wretchedness, commensurate with the decline of 
 ignorance and error, and the upspringing of 
 knowledge and elevated sentiments. Cruel and 
 sanguinary wars, and miserable persecutions, 
 have been carried on by nations and sects in the 
 name of religion; as if the pure and holy spirit 
 which animates it, and without which it cannot 
 exist, ever dictated similar conduct. Fanati- 
 cism, ignorance, error, and bloodthirstiness, have 
 no claim to the appellation of religion, than which 
 
528 ON THE REGULATION OP THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 nothing is more just, more tolerant, or more for- 
 giving. True religion the un waning love of 
 God, and the practice of his will, is the life of the 
 soul ; without it, indeed, we may have the exte- 
 rior of men, but must want the singleness, the 
 purity, and the elevation of character, which re- 
 ligion alone can yield. Religion involves the dis- 
 charge of all our duties, though it be more 
 peculiarly the expression of our boundless love, 
 our adoration, and our gratitude, towards the Al- 
 mighty Author of Good; still, how can this take 
 place without that preparation for the task, which 
 is only to be ensured by the rigid performance of 
 everything that moral and intellectual energy, 
 self-respect, honour, justice, fortitude, and unceas- 
 ing integrity, demand of man? Oh, that all 
 could be brought to acknowledge that the un- 
 feigned love of God and man, and the offerings of 
 a pure, an upright, and a grateful heart, are con- 
 ditions which religion requires at our hands, and 
 without which, it cannot exist on earth. So, 
 devotion to the Deity and brotherly love, would 
 go hand in hand, and man would at length, be 
 included within the bonds of an everlasting peace. 
 Our duties thus branch into three great heads 
 those which we owe to ourselves, our fellows, 
 and the Deity. Their importance, in one sense, 
 is commensurate, but I would dwell more parti- 
 cularly on the first, because we are peculiarly re- 
 commended to our own care, and because without 
 self-respect, moral dignity, fortitude, temperance, 
 and energy, we cannot fulfil our duties to the 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 529 
 
 Deity, or to others. We must therefore, cherish 
 the moral man within, as this is the source of our 
 greatest happiness, and the contrary the origin of 
 our greatest misery. For if we are prejudiced, 
 or ignorant, or infected with bad passions, how is 
 it possible to love and assist our brethren, or to 
 tender homage to the Deity? Our active rela- 
 tions with our fellows are occasionally interrupted ; 
 but those which we hold with ourselves, are unceas- 
 ing. Let us then, seek knowledge, and all ex- 
 cellence, as well as sedulously cultivate those 
 admirable qualities, upon which moral superiority 
 and happiness depend. Let us love virtue for its 
 own sake, and carefully abstain from every gra- 
 tification that would tend to lessen its sanction. 
 We are not called upon to submit to evil when 
 we can remove it, but only to bear up against it, 
 when we cannot. External mischief may assail 
 us, but what is to destroy the constancy, or take 
 away the knowledge of the high-minded and intel- 
 lectual man ? The kingdom of the breast is our 
 own, but we are unable to regulate the currency 
 of outward events. Even in those cases in which 
 we can employ no means to shield ourselves from 
 injury, we have still the resource of elevated 
 principle, and the resort of the citadel within, 
 which neither bolts, nor bars, nor human might, 
 can force. We are not required to be rich, or 
 fortunate, or powerful but just, rational, tempe- 
 rate, and kind. If men would but bring it home 
 to their souls, that the best of all possessions might 
 be made immutably their own, and that neither 
 
 L L 
 
530 ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 tyranny, injustice, sickness, nor death itself, could 
 canker or destroy them, they would seek these 
 possessions with an avidity unhappily too rare. 
 I do not gainsay the just uses of wealth and power, 
 since they are great and obvious, but the abuse; 
 I would only insist on the supremacy of moral 
 and intellectual excellence. The adulation be- 
 stowed on the former, and the neglect, if not con- 
 tempt, enmity, and persecution, which so fre- 
 quently beset the latter, sufficiently point out the 
 ignorance and apathy which prevail on the subject 
 of the most important concerns of existence. Our 
 necessities, however, are great, and compel an 
 attention, which in limited minds limited as 
 to information and moral training, becomes ex- 
 clusive. This, however, demonstrates afresh the 
 insufficiency of existing education, and the in- 
 ferior care that is taken to ameliorate the con- 
 dition of our race. 
 
 The proper regulation of the feelings, affections, 
 and desires, is among the most important parti- 
 culars that conduct involves ; for if we entertain 
 no feelings which we ought to subdue, and wish 
 for nothing for which we ought not to wish, we 
 shall take the very means best calculated to en- 
 sure our happiness. Let us then, most earnestly 
 desire those things, which may not only with the 
 greatest certainty be procured, but of which the 
 possession is the most valuable just and well-di- 
 rected affections, knowledge, energy, fortitude, 
 moderation, and self-control. These are ends; 
 riches and power are but means means too, that 
 
ON THE REGULATION OF THE AFFECTIONS. 531 
 
 are principally directed to an increased supply 
 of the gratifications of sense. A wise man may 
 indeed, desire riches and power as instruments; 
 but he will not seek them as ends, much less as 
 the agents of extravagance and debauchery. It 
 has been so ordered, that the means which con- 
 duce to excellence, are in themselves, calculated 
 to promote it ; while those which minister to vice, 
 are further productive of the latter. It becomes 
 us then, to seek with our most powerful energies 
 the possessions that are eternal, and of which the 
 efficacy can never fade or decay. Let us indeed, 
 pursue the ordinary business of life, as men who 
 have a higher aim, temperately and industriously, 
 but with a sufficient reserve for the wants of our 
 everlasting nature. Let us acquire if we can, by 
 rational and steady industry, the requisites for 
 ministering to our just wants and those of others, 
 yet so as to meet the demands of the soul. The 
 former are necessary to secure our happiness, and 
 that of those who are dear to us, but not alone 
 necessary, for mental and moral, is even more 
 appalling than physical destitution. Let us then, 
 instil into all from earliest infancy, those precious 
 principles that are so deserving of our unceasing 
 attention let us elevate the soul to the contem- 
 plation and the practice of virtue ? so shall we 
 raise up men who will confer honour on our na- 
 ture, and destroy for ever, the vain illusion, that 
 some only, are capable of that excellence, which 
 is the distinctive prerogative and most glorious 
 attribute of humanity. 
 
532 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 ON THE BEST MEANS OF CULTIVATING THE FEEL- 
 INGS AND AFFECTIONS, AS WELL AS OF PERFECT- 
 ING THE MORAL POWERS. 
 
 I. IT has been urged again and again, that spe- 
 cific means must be had recourse to, for develop- 
 ing the feelings and moral powers; it is not 
 enough to trust to the unassisted provisions of 
 nature ; they must be carefully turned in given 
 directions. Our capabilities are enormous, but 
 their evolution is left in a great measure, to hu- 
 man care. Even the efforts made with this in- 
 tent, are productive of advantages that could not 
 otherwise be secured. To ensure the develop- 
 ment of the heart, the feelings must be duly cul- 
 tivated; for it has been shewn, that our moral 
 judgments are compounded of intellectual con- 
 clusions united with certain feelings. Now, these 
 could not be formed, nor could we decide in the 
 various conjunctures of life, without mental cul- 
 ture. The more perfect and diversified this is, so 
 much the more so, everything else alike, will our 
 moral judgments become. Adults improve by 
 reflection, action, intercourse with the world, oral 
 instruction, and the perusal of superior works; 
 but the foundation must be laid in childhood and 
 youth, by means of precept, example, and judi- 
 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 533 
 
 cious training. In both cases, the formation and 
 observance of practical good habits, are impera- 
 tively requisite. It is not less indispensable in 
 order to secure correct moral judgments, that the 
 heart and feelings should be assiduously culti- 
 vated. The man with little feeling is apt to 
 prove immoral, or at least, limited and restricted 
 as to his conceptions of duty ; the heart is neces- 
 sary to provide an impetus, and to yield scope to 
 the intellect, as well as to enforce and confirm 
 the dictates of both. Of how many facts in the 
 wide range of moral science, is the apathetic man 
 wholly ignorant, or dimly conscious? The most 
 sublime truths are pressed upon his attention in 
 vain; he is not perhaps, so much unwilling, as 
 unable to perceive them. He will reason coldly 
 but immoveably, against doctrines, the certainty 
 of which, a little feeling would instantly render 
 manifest. His heart is defective, but not his 
 head; and unless the former can be roused, it 
 will be impossible to influence the latter. Hence, 
 the error of that morality which appeals only to 
 the understanding, and on the other hand, the 
 success and the permanence even of erroneous 
 doctrines, when allied with the feelings and 
 grafted on the heart. Let us cultivate the affec- 
 tions and moral powers from the beginning ; let 
 us imbue the infant mind with the vital principles 
 of morality, and let us lay the foundation of the 
 love of virtue, not by force or constraint, but by 
 means of the caresses, the often renewed instruc- 
 tion, and the varied illustration, which cultivated 
 
534 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 
 
 hearts so well know how to employ. Above all, 
 let evil example be averted, and that which is 
 good, encouraged ; and so soon as it is practicable, 
 let us engage the child secretly and unostenta- 
 tiously, in deeds of charity, kindness, and love. 
 Let us shew him that every living thing is worthy 
 of his care ; but above all, his fellow-creatures ; 
 and first among them, his parents, his relatives, 
 and all those into whose immediate contact he 
 may come. Teach him to be grateful to those 
 who are instrumental in rescuing him from the 
 contamination of ignorance, error, and crime, and 
 in planting the seeds of knowledge and virtue in 
 his soul: but especially, imbue his heart with 
 boundless gratitude to the Author of Good from 
 whom all gifts come, and to whom, we can alone 
 owe the possession of anything that we enjoy. 
 Impress love and devotion towards the Deity 
 early and late, by every fitting and gentle means ; 
 and whenever the heart is softened, hasten to 
 embrace the precious opportunity for nurturing 
 that boundless submission towards the Divine 
 will, which should never languish or die. Teach 
 the child to express his thanks and his acknow- 
 ledgments in daily prayer, so that the habit thus 
 early created, may not experience decay. There 
 are a thousand ways of developing the feelings, 
 affections, and moral judgments, which intelligent 
 minds and feeling hearts will be ready to devise 
 ways, by means of which, inward emotions of 
 joy and delight may be so closely allied with the 
 sense of duty, as to enable it to overcome all the 
 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 535 
 
 trials, temptations, and sufferings of life. The 
 selfishness so natural in early infancy, must not 
 be rudely interfered with; it is a provision for 
 that helpless period, and a means, when properly 
 directed, of leading the soul to disinterested ex- 
 cellence. Attention should be gradually worn 
 off from matters of sense, and directed to those of 
 feeling and intellect, until that justly -laboured 
 empire between the two is established, which 
 should subsist in every well-regulated mind. 
 
 II. Not the offspring of the rich alone, should 
 thus be trained, but children of every class. The 
 everlasting interests of all should be attended to 
 with a firm, yet gentle hand; eradicating bad 
 passions, and implanting good in fine, employing 
 every means that earthly prudence and affection 
 can dictate, to favour the production of a pure 
 and unimpeachable morality. How many admi- 
 rable treatises are extant, with the contents of 
 which, so far as a judicious selection would ex- 
 tend, children might be made conversant? Mo- 
 rality should be instilled, not with a dry and arid 
 voice, but with the sweet and gentle tones that 
 issue from the heart, and of which, the impression 
 is not to be eradicated. Oh, let every child then, 
 whether of rich or poor, be impressed with the 
 beauty and the advantages of truth from earliest 
 infancy, and suffer not a single human being to 
 remain ignorant, much less vicious and immoral, 
 from the absence of that precious knowledge, 
 which it would be so easy to communicate to all. 
 It is impossible for vice, error, or ignorance, to 
 
536 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 
 
 disappear, if means are not made use of. If we 
 admit that knowledge is desirable, are we justified 
 in the avoidable delay of a single moment, in the 
 promotion of anything that tends to advance it? 
 If moral education be good for one, it is so for all ; 
 and if this be true, in the name of justice and 
 mercy in the name of suffering humanity, let it 
 extend to all. 
 
 II. The influence of public opinion with regard 
 to the improvement of society, is all-power- 
 ful. If it be elevated and enlightened, the com- 
 munity is sure to prosper; if, on the contrary, it 
 prove vicious and corrupt, the results will corres- 
 pond. Hence, one of the surest engines for 
 working good, is an elevated public opinion. The 
 latter is perpetuated in an erroneous form, by 
 faulty institutions, imperfect training, and checks 
 on the diffusion of knowledge. Intelligent and 
 moral-minded men, are called on to do all that 
 their individual influence will permit, to purify 
 and direct it, as it is to the exertions of such, that 
 the enlightenment which pervades the world is 
 mainly owing. The press should be again and 
 again appealed to ; and writings in favour of uni- 
 versal education, arrangements for bettering the 
 condition of the community, and for extending to 
 all the blessings of superior political institutions, 
 ought to be energetically diffused. These, in pro- 
 cess of time, would serve to create a high-toned 
 public feeling, fully sufficient to work out every 
 desirable change. Every restriction that has the 
 slightest tendency to impede the dissemination of 
 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 53? 
 
 useful information ought to be cast aside ; while no 
 class of the community should be excluded from 
 the blessings of knowledge. It is no less singular 
 than true, that most of the moral writings of the 
 ancients are rejected in our schools ; while others, 
 some of them most objectionable, are retained. 
 Thus Seneca, Plato, Epictetus, or Antoninus, are 
 hardly read ; yet many of their works might be 
 perused with lasting advantage. Even in our 
 own language, not to mention others, few read, 
 or at least study, so as to make their own, the 
 beautiful productions of a Cudworth, a Wollaston, 
 a Derham, a Ray, a Paley, a Ferguson, a Smith, 
 a Stewart, a Barbauld, or a Brown. The authors 
 whom I have mentioned, are worthy of crowns of 
 gold. Their names, and the names of all who 
 have thus served mankind, should be held in grate- 
 ful remembrance for ever ; while their works 
 should be circulated and perpetuated to the ut- 
 most. But it is not to the writings of such, that 
 we should wholly trust. Moral and religious 
 knowledge, with information relative to the works 
 of God, ought to be communicated to all. Thus, the 
 eternal principles of religion and morality would 
 be disseminated, while the pure fountains of truth, 
 freed from every admixture of gall and bitterness, 
 would spread abroad their sweet and precious 
 waters, to gladden and refresh to instruct and 
 to guide the hearts of all mankind. Why should 
 teachers of moral science be confined to the walls 
 of universities; such knowledge is required for 
 all the purposes of life? A frightful degree of 
 
538 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 
 
 ignorance, which nothing short of the diffusion 
 of moral and religious truth can dissipate, pervades 
 the community. Until education be properly at- 
 tended to, the politician and the philanthropist 
 exert themselves in vain. It is easy to perceive 
 that superior institutions cannot exist among 
 an ignorant and depraved community. Any plan 
 with regard to political renovation, which does 
 not include the best form of instruction for all, 
 must be impracticable, inasmuch as a vicious and 
 ignorant multitude can neither comprehend nor 
 carry it into execution. A few ardent and generous 
 spirits cannot permanently inspire with their own 
 glowing sentiments, the dull, the sensual, and the 
 debased. Universal liberty is only compatible 
 with universal knowledge and enlightenment. 
 How is it possible indeed, to universalize just and 
 free institutions, when the greater portion of every 
 great community in the world, is plunged in phy- 
 sical or moral destitution ? Some, in what might 
 be termed the fanaticism of their liberality, over- 
 look these facts, and would force a reformation 
 for which they have not paved the way. Let us 
 achieve it indeed, but let us include superior moral 
 and mental culture, as well as a better provision 
 for the material wants of all. The general dif- 
 fusion of sound moral and religious knowledge, 
 would terminate in the gradual introduction of 
 every measure that was further calculated to pro- 
 mote the well-being and happiness of mankind. 
 No reform without this can be real, and all at- 
 tempts to advance the one, should go hand in 
 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 53Q 
 
 hand with those that are calculated to promote 
 the other. It will thus be seen that violence can 
 never be the leading instrument of human ame- 
 lioration. Appeals to the sword indeed, are 
 sometimes rendered necessary by unhappy con- 
 tingencies; but when these have passed away, 
 the same necessity still recurs for individual effort 
 and social improvement. Moral and religious 
 knowledge is destined to be the mighty agent for 
 effecting a revolution in the fortunes of our race. 
 Peacefully and quietly it works its way through 
 the channels of opinion, banishing error, ignorance, 
 oppression, and crime; and shall continue to 
 spread with ever-enlarging circle, until at length, 
 its gentle folds involve the family of mankind. 
 
 IV. Existing regulations with regard to pro- 
 perty, and the distribution of wealth ; are in many 
 respects injurious to public well-being. The 
 right to property should be sacred, and subject 
 to the discretion of the individuals possessing it, 
 or the public expression of their will. It never 
 has been so however. In most countries vast 
 sums are yearly abstracted, if not by open vio-^ 
 lence, at least by tacit intimidation, and applied 
 to purposes frequently bearing not even a remote 
 reference to the public good. Superior moral 
 and intellectual motives do not generally govern 
 the distribution of wealth, and there are multi- 
 tudes to whom its mere possession, independent 
 of all use or rational enjoyment, is the highest 
 pleasure. Now, so long as such a misconception 
 as to the sources of human dignity takes place, bet- 
 
540 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 
 
 ter arrangements with regard to the production and 
 distribution of wealth, must remain difficult or im- 
 practicable. Assuredly, the physical, as well as 
 the moral condition of the great mass of man- 
 kind, is deplorably imperfect ; before this can be 
 altered however, prevailing ideas will require to 
 be modified. The world fortunately, must go 
 unceasingly onward, in the path which Provi- 
 dence has assigned, fulfilling the blessed and 
 happy destinies of our race. Again and again, 
 it must be urged, that the adoration which wealth 
 receives, should be transferred to knowledge and 
 moral worth; the minds however, of the large 
 majority of the existing generation, are so pre- 
 occupied, that the change as regards them, is not 
 to be expected. Nothing less than the cultiva- 
 tion of the moral powers of all, from the earliest 
 period, will suffice. Education indeed, must be 
 the ultimate resort, and last best hope of every 
 lover of his species. A few in advanced life, 
 may be reclaimed from error, but the mind in 
 youth adapts itself with perfect facility, to the 
 reception of all impressions, which ever after, are 
 retained with almost imperturbable firmness. 
 
 V. If error is perpetuated by associating with 
 those who are affected with it, how much more 
 will the adherents of truth, be comforted and sup- 
 ported by mixing with their fellows? To dwell 
 in the society, friendship, and esteem, of the wise 
 and good, affords much of the purest and most 
 unmixed happiness that life can yield. The su- 
 perior capabilities should be cultivated from in- 
 
ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 541 
 
 fancy, not in one sex, but in both not in one 
 class, but in all. There should be no monopoly 
 of knowledge, any more than of the light of 
 heaven; the one is not more necessary to the 
 physical, than is the other to the moral man. 
 Like all other monopolies, it counteracts its own 
 purposes, inasmuch as information confined to 
 the few, is infinitely less beneficial than if it were 
 common to all. Education is the common right 
 of all, and it is the bounden duty of society to see 
 that all obtain it. The omission is a crime a 
 crime against the individual, and against huma- 
 nity. At birth, the innocent babe cannot enforce 
 its rights; arrived at adult age, ignorant, and 
 perhaps depraved, the time for doing so has 
 passed away. The infant man is dependent on 
 others for the fulfilment of his claims; and assu- 
 redly, it is a duty as incumbent on society to 
 train up his soul to knowledge and virtue, as to 
 maintain uninjured his physical existence. Oh, 
 let not the soul dwindle and perish for the want 
 of that precious culture which raises man to his 
 highest dignity, nor contribute with a sparing 
 and scanty hand, to the development of those 
 noble qualities which elevate him .to that admi- 
 rable supremacy, of which his nature through 
 the bounty of Providence, has been rendered 
 capable. If so much is lost by the deficiency of 
 intellectual, how much evil must accrue from the 
 absence of moral culture? That the existing 
 apparatus of instruction is insufficient for its pur- 
 poses, let the daily register of human crime and 
 
542 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 
 
 suffering declare. Something in addition, of 
 greater efficacy must be resorted to; and first, 
 universal education, with moral and religious 
 culture, day by day, and if it were possible, hour 
 by hour. A single human being whose heart 
 and understanding remain uncultivated, incurs 
 the imminent risk of becoming an instrument of 
 misery to himself and others. Is it too much to 
 say that man cannot realize the happiness which 
 it is in his power to achieve, short of the moral 
 and intellectual development of every individual 
 of his race ? For if any continue ignorant or 
 vicious, the consequences must ramify over the 
 whole of society. It is the immediate interest of 
 all, that all should be happy, and that the intel- 
 lectual and moral powers should be cultivated 
 to the utmost. For if any omission on the part 
 of society be productive of erfbr or immorality, 
 the consequences, by the inevitable retribution of 
 nature, are felt by all. So much then, for the 
 motives which are to inspire us with untiring 
 energy in the task of renovating the condition of 
 society. And let those the wise and good of 
 their day those who so far as the better impul- 
 ses of our nature are concerned, are the vice- 
 gerents and the interpreters of Providence, do all 
 that in them lies, to fulfil its dictates to the ut- 
 most. Morality and religion are man's chief 
 strength his highest good the things in fine, 
 that minister to his greatest happiness ; and shall 
 we then, leave anything undone that is calculated 
 to advance them on earth? 
 
543 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE HEART AND MORAL 
 POWERS HERE AND HEREAFTER. 
 
 FROM the progressive improvement of the moral 
 powers in this world, we necessarily infer the con- 
 tinuance of the same process hereafter, accelerated 
 however, by the unbounded facilities and un- 
 ceasing employment of them, which shall then 
 subsist. At the same time, the former is among 
 the proofs of the existence of that hereafter, as 
 well as of the mighty Being by whom all things 
 are planned and ordered. Who can doubt that 
 such admirable qualities as those with which we 
 have been endowed, bear the impress of boundless 
 skill ? Great as is the devotion which the works 
 of nature inspire, and unlimited as is our faith in 
 their testimony, the beautiful and diversified pow- 
 ers of the human mind, yield the highest and 
 most superlative evidence. Even in this world, 
 the progress of humanity is destined to be great 
 and resplendent. It is impossible for the feelings, 
 the moral judgments, and the intellectual powers, 
 to go on realizing a continual progress, without 
 inducing the happiest changes in the condition 
 of mankind. In what else in truth, if not in this, 
 does their real welfare consist ; and if they have 
 been able to arrive at their present condition 
 
544 ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE FEELINGS. 
 
 from one of absolute ignorance, may we not with 
 still greater certainty, anticipate a further, and 
 more striking advance in coming times? As- 
 suredly, the civilization which is not vested in 
 the joint possession and universal cultivation of 
 the excellencies and powers of our being, must be 
 impermanent. If mental and moral culture, with 
 physical excellence, be confined to the few, it 
 cannot prosper, inasmuch as the only legitimate 
 end of civilization, is that all should be moral, 
 all intelligent, and all provided with the material 
 comforts of life. No community however, whe- 
 ther now, or in past ages, has realized these 
 conditions. If we look to the ancients, we find 
 partial civilization, tyranny, ignorance, super- 
 stition, and slavery, a state of things which largely 
 continues to the present day. Greece and Rome 
 in which the few alone enjoyed opulence and 
 mental culture, sank to the earth oppressed with 
 slavery, ignorance, sensuality, and never-ceasing 
 animosities. It will be difficult for modern na- 
 tions to escape the risk of intestine convulsion, 
 unless measures be taken to work that peaceful 
 moral revolution, by which all shall come to en- 
 joy their natural rights universal moral and in- 
 tellectual culture, and physical abundance. Out- 
 raged humanity resents the infringement of her 
 dues, by those hideous crimes and dreadful up- 
 heavings, which ever and anon, characterize so- 
 ciety, so improperly termed civilized. These are 
 so many tokens of the retribution of nature so 
 much fearful evidence that she has not been 
 
ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE HEART. 545 
 
 treated as she ought. Were things on a proper 
 basis, could such occurrences be: would it be 
 possible to witness the daily commission of theft, 
 violence, and the general prevalence of ignorance 
 and immorality? If the public could once be 
 convinced of the infinite importance of universal 
 education, the powerful energies now squandered 
 on matters of inferior moment, would take their 
 proper direction, and this inestimable good be 
 achieved for mankind. Sooner or later however, 
 it must come to this ; knowledge and moral cul- 
 ture shall no longer be confined to the few, while 
 truth, religion, and all excellence, shall spread 
 over the earth like the light of the sun, redeeming 
 the world from ignorance, misery, and sin. The 
 enlightened and moral-minded must unremittingly 
 exert themselves towards this great end; in time, 
 their numbers will increase, and the good which 
 they have sought to accomplish, will be realized. 
 Truth will eventually be cultivated for its 
 own sake, and the period must arrive in the 
 annals of humanity, when knowledge and wisdom 
 shall be persecuted no more. 
 
 The purification and elevation of the feelings 
 and affections, as well as our moral and intellectual 
 advancement, are caused by means, the operation 
 of which, though it may be retarded for a time, 
 can never be wholly suspended or done away 
 with. I do not here allude to the progress of this 
 nation or of that, of one community or of another, 
 but to that of the whole human family ; and this, 
 not for a brief or passing period, but for one 
 
 M M 
 
546 ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE HEART. 
 
 commensurate with the existence of our race. A 
 given people may advance or retrograde, but the 
 species is ever progressive ; yet, to a moral cer- 
 tainty, it would not be possible for a single people 
 to go back, provided its civilization were of the 
 right stamp. When sumptuous accommodation, 
 luxurious food, lofty edifices, and rich attire, ex- 
 tend only to the few, no wonder that the posses- 
 sion should crumble into dust. Baalbec, Thebes, 
 Persepolis, Carthage, and even Athens and Rome, 
 are now no more ; but if the power which founded 
 these great cities, had been directed to the culti- 
 vation of equal happiness, their existence would 
 have been enduring as their names. It is im- 
 possible for any community possessed of ordinary 
 physical resources, to be broken up, if the joint 
 happiness and joint cultivation of the moral and 
 intellectual powers of its members, be adequately 
 attended to. On the other hand, mere material 
 possessions will be insufficient to maintain national 
 existence beyond a certain period. If the few 
 who are endowed with superior energies if a 
 Phocion, an Aristides, a Brutus, a Cato, a 
 Hampden, a Washington, or a Kosciusko, were 
 able to effect so much by the mere stress of moral 
 courage, what, within the boundary of possibilities, 
 would be unattainable to a people composed of 
 such ? Now, there is no reason why whole com- 
 munities ay, and the world entire, should not 
 emulate the good qualities of these, and other brave 
 and patriotic men. The lover of his kind hopes 
 for the amelioration of all ; and however much he 
 
ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE HEART. 547 
 
 may endeavour to promote the immediate well- 
 being of those around, must feel that the general 
 happiness is inseparably connected. 
 
 The moral and intellectual, commensurately 
 with the physical progress of mankind, is a slow 
 but certain remedy for all the defects of their 
 position. God's government is just : he would 
 expose us to no evil, without at the same time, 
 furnishing an adequate remedy. If our capabili- 
 ties be not elicited, what can we expect to reap, 
 but the consequences of our neglect? The re- 
 ward, whether it reside in corporeal well-being, 
 intellectual, or moral excellence, must be wrought 
 for before it can be won. However painful the 
 process, the end is sweet in a word, if we will 
 not endure the cross, neither shall we wear the 
 crown. The labour and toil of exertion, however, 
 are allayed by the consideration of the object ; 
 but what is to alleviate ignorance, sin, and error, 
 with all their direful consequences? We are 
 subject to few physical, and to no moral evils, 
 that may not be removed if we will. Even the 
 former are not without their mitigation ; while the 
 enlightened and virtuous man is always able to 
 find support and refuge against unavoidable ills, 
 in his resignation to the will of a just and merci- 
 ful God. To subject us to gratuitous and need- 
 less misery, is a supposition at once so monstrous, 
 and so totally opposed to all that we are able to 
 conceive of the attributes of the Deity, as hardly 
 to demand the consideration of any rational mind. 
 There is no evil from which mankind, whether indi- 
 vidually or collectively, may not free themselves, 
 
548 ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE HEART. 
 
 if they will but exert those precious energies which 
 have been given them whereby to secure their 
 happiness. Their present condition, from the 
 long continuance of error, ignorance, superstition, 
 and misrule in a word, from the insufficient cul- 
 tivation of their actual capabilities, is such, that 
 it will require the efforts of successive generations, 
 all co-operating in the best direction, to raise their 
 position to the height which it should occupy. 
 There is no immediate prospect however, of these 
 being fully made meanwhile, it is out of the 
 power of individuals, or even of nations, to re- 
 medy defects that might otherwise be set aside. 
 Of necessity then, there will be much to encoun- 
 ter much scope for resolution, fortitude, and 
 forbearance. Still, the inward satisfaction ac- 
 cruing from what is right, will always alleviate, 
 and often compensate inflictions that may not be 
 wholly foregone. There are occurrences how- 
 ever, which no alteration in the state of society 
 can entirely obviate; among these are diseases, 
 and more especially, death. The frequency of 
 the former indeed, may be immeasurably dimin- 
 ished, but death will still ensue. If, however, we 
 examine this phenomenon so long enveloped in 
 the drapery of the grave, we find no cause for 
 dread. A change, which under the ordination 
 of Providence, removes us from an inferior to a 
 superior condition of existence, which illimitably 
 enlarges the scope of our faculties, and which 
 brings us from time to eternity, can be no evil, 
 as in truth it is not. 
 
 It is just to conclude, that as our actual con- 
 
ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE HEART. 549 
 
 duct influences our condition on earth, it must 
 continue to do so hereafter ; though, to what ex- 
 tent, the curtain impenetrable to mortal eyes, 
 renders it impossible to know. It is obvious, 
 however, that the relations of a virtuous and in- 
 telligent human being, with the wise and happy 
 spirits of another world, and the various objects 
 of instruction and delight which it will unfold, 
 must be very different from those of a perverse 
 and ignorant one. Nevertheless, the Deity is 
 merciful and good; and seeing the influence of 
 circumstances for good and for ill, we may ven 
 ture to hope and to believe that some remedial 
 process may be instituted, whereby all shall 
 eventually be enabled to assume a higher and a 
 better place. In the world to come, physical en- 
 joyments, and physical temptations, at the expense 
 of our own well-being or that of others, will cease, 
 and moral causes come solely into operation. 
 Such a state of things must act powerfully in behalf 
 of spiritual amelioration : and if we consider the 
 unlimited duration of eternity, and the momen- 
 tary continuance of earthly life, it affords grounds 
 for the presumption that the measureless facilities 
 which exist in the former, must sooner or later, 
 work their natural result, in the mental and moral 
 purification of all who shall come in contact with 
 them. Still, the inference holds good, that our 
 feelings, ideas, and actions, during our mortal ex- 
 istence, must powerfully modify our condition 
 hereafter; while at the same time, it yields fresh 
 incentives for the cultivation of that excellence, 
 
550 ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE HEART. 
 
 to which it is at once, the highest felicity, and 
 greatest glory of humanity, successfully to aspire. 
 Our material organs are a scaffolding for the 
 gradual spiritualization of the heart and moral 
 powers. That they are so, no one who has paid 
 sufficient attention to our nature and constitution, 
 can for a moment doubt. The body indeed, is a 
 garment for the soul, and when its purposes are 
 accomplished, being worn out or destroyed, is 
 cast aside. Through its instrumentality, we are 
 made acquainted with the bright and glowing 
 scenes of creation ; with the face of human kind, 
 and with the material evidence of Almighty power. 
 The mind by its means, receives the seeds of 
 knowledge, and is imbued with moral and reli- 
 gious truth, with human affections, and with the 
 love of God. Every arrangement connected with 
 it, discovers boundless wisdom and power. In 
 the first period of life, everything is sensual; 
 nothing is felt save the impulses which relate to 
 animal preservation. The gratification of these, 
 proves the source of various pleasures, which, 
 through the wonderful agency of association, give 
 rise to different affections. These, in their turn, 
 by the further continuance of the same process, 
 become more or less disinterested; and as they 
 relate to our parents, our children, our brethren, 
 our countrymen, and the family of mankind, are 
 reciprocally enhanced, and coalescing together, 
 become the origin of the highest and purest of all 
 affections the love of God. Their habitual 
 exercise and the steady performance of moral 
 
ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OP THE HEART. 551 
 
 duty, gradually associate them with every acces- 
 sary object. Thus, the love of duty is formed 
 and strengthened, until at length, its permanence 
 is secured without any reference to immediate 
 advantages, perhaps indeed, with the risk, if not 
 the certainty, of material loss and mental suf- 
 fering. As life advances, the intellect expands, 
 the judgment becomes clearer, and less liable to be 
 obscured by the mists of passion and prejudice, 
 while the affections are more extended. Indivi- 
 dual objects of love and tenderness are succes- 
 sively taken away, while animal pleasures and 
 propensities almost wholly cease, and give place 
 to moral habits, feelings, and pursuits. To a pro- 
 perly constituted mind, the vicissitudes, the mis- 
 fortunes, and the joys of life, afford ample scope 
 for reflection and improvement. Thus, sickness 
 as occurring in ourselves or others, and the 
 general aspect of human mortality, are eminently 
 calculated to impress our minds and hearts, with 
 a deep conviction of the fugitive and uncertain 
 tenure of earthly existence, and the necessity of 
 directing our attention to the one and only source of 
 all things our only hope and comfort the all- wise 
 and immutable God. Our love for humanity in the 
 aggregate, will increase, while that towards indi- 
 viduals will slacken and decay ; for we can no longer 
 love any, as we have loved our early and dearly 
 cherished friends our children, parents, hus- 
 bands, wives, brothers, and sisters. Such precious 
 relations can here, be reproduced no more, and 
 thus, our hearts come to long for the happy term 
 
552 ON THE PERFECTIBILITY OF THE HEART. 
 
 which is to enable us to enjoy them again, in the 
 boundless regions of eternity. There, we shall 
 meet the friends whom we have loved on earth, 
 and from whom no second death can sepa- 
 rate us. Thus, our thoughts and our feelings 
 become gradually spiritualized, purified, and ex- 
 alted, and we come to put our only trust and de- 
 pendance in the Author of life. It behoves us 
 indeed, to think often of those other scenes, to 
 which all must finally repair not with fear or 
 apprehension, but with tranquillity and joy; as a 
 home and as a final resting-place, prepared for us 
 by the great Father of all ; and to look forward to 
 them with the utmost energies of our souls ; so that 
 living or dying, we may enjoy the approbation of 
 our hearts, and the blessed consciousness that we 
 had lived as became beings placed in a flitting 
 state of existence, to prepare for a higher and 
 more exalted sphere, in another and more per- 
 manent world. 
 
553 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 
 
 OUR positive knowledge of futurity, so far as de- 
 tails are concerned, is glimmering and uncertain ; 
 not so however, as to the general scope and in- 
 tentions of Providence. Any minute or specific 
 information would turn us from that attention to 
 worldly affairs, which our earthly welfare de- 
 mands ; but to have excluded it altogether, would 
 have been adverse to that superior moral con- 
 duct, which the hope of an hereafter alone can 
 inspire. At the same time, this hope is only to 
 be generated by the active cultivation of heart 
 and understanding ; for without the latter to 
 direct, and the former to urge, it cannot be. The 
 prescience of moral, rests upon a basis equally 
 stable with that of physical events : the facts vary, 
 but the results are no less certain. If indeed, 
 there be any difference, it is that moral events 
 regarded as future, are the more certain of the 
 two. Worlds may pass away and be no more, 
 but moral truth, and the relations of spiritual 
 existences, must remain inviolate. In the phy- 
 sical sciences astronomy for example, we deter- 
 mine occurrences hundreds or thousands of years 
 in advance. With regard to moral science, the 
 phenomena upon which we reason, are of a dif- 
 
554 ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 
 
 ferent order in the one case, they relate to the 
 world without, in the other to that within; but 
 they are equally under the regulation of their 
 respective laws. The changes of the inner world, 
 in all the range of its wide domain, are subject 
 to the same order as those of the outer, of which 
 our sensations are the register and the index. 
 Human experience demonstrates in the most 
 striking manner, the moral attributes of the 
 Deity ; the conviction of their existence and con- 
 tinuance is irrefragable. God cannot cease to 
 be supremely wise and good ; and we must feel an 
 unswerving certainty, whether as regards this 
 state of being or the next, that we shall enjoy the 
 same enlightened and paternal care, and equal 
 manifestations of Almighty power. It is altoge- 
 ther impossible, wherever we may be, that the 
 Deity can act otherwise than in the manner that 
 shall most redound to our eventual happiness and 
 improvement. We cannot inspect the arrange- 
 ments which are prepared for us, but we may feel 
 assured that they are the best that boundless wis- 
 dom and love could devise : for are we not created 
 by God's own hand, and shall he not do what is 
 just and right by us ? He cannot have the faintest 
 interest or motive to make us his children and 
 his creatures, unhappy, whether in time or in 
 eternity ; but every conceivable inducement to the 
 contrary. We can determine nothing, except in 
 so far as it is conformable to the will of God, as 
 manifested in his providence, and to legitimate 
 inferences from his ascertainable attributes. So 
 
ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 555 
 
 long as we confine ourselves to this, human rea- 
 son itself a Divine gift, and intended to be made 
 use of, maintains its just position, while its con- 
 clusions on moral, are no less worthy of attention 
 than those on other subjects. It is impossible 
 that the universal aspirations of the great, the 
 good, and the wise, can be destitute of foundation. 
 The noble qualities of the heart and understand- 
 ing were given to instruct, and not to deceive; 
 and when we find the desires and the wishes of 
 mankind to centre in one common object the 
 hope and belief of a happy immortality, we can- 
 not for a moment suppose, that it is otherwise 
 than the sure and certain anticipation of so pre- 
 cious a reversion. For the wishes of the wise 
 and good, whether they regard the world in which 
 we live, or that to which we aspire, must ever in- 
 volve what is desirable ; and therefore as such, 
 and further, as the possible expression however 
 imperfect, of the will and intentions of the Deity, 
 we may infer the highest probability, if not the 
 entire certainty of their accomplishment. 
 
 Our ignorance and the want of reflection, have 
 invested the transition to which we give the name 
 of death, with needless terrors. That these are 
 not universal must be freely admitted, but then 
 they are little less so, else why the dusky pall, 
 the gnawing worm, the decaying relics of mor- 
 tality, and the other images of desolation and 
 dread, that we are wont to associate with it. The 
 body must indeed perish, but the soul lives ; then, 
 why dwell upon the useful and necessary processes 
 
556 ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 
 
 of the one, when the precious realities of the other 
 await our attention? If indeed, the immortal 
 spirit descended into the tomb, and were chained 
 to corruption and decay, or participated in them, 
 we might mourn, but it is far otherwise. The 
 materials of our frames serve a long succession of 
 animated being, after our earthly tenure has been 
 yielded up ; but the soul wings its way to other re- 
 gions, no more to be connected with the fleeting 
 combinations of matter. Then, why tie down our 
 thoughts and feelings thus, when the prospect of 
 everlasting life is opened out to us? We cannot 
 but bitterly grieve when severed from the objects 
 of our affection ; but they have not indeed pe- 
 rished, but have entered upon a new life, which is 
 to have no end. This is a consideration which 
 lulls the sting of sorrow, and blunts the barbed 
 arrow which pierces the soul. What would we 
 have would we live on in this world for ever, im- 
 mersed in the narrow circle of mortality, perhaps 
 the prey to numberless evils incurable, because 
 without end? Would we exclude from the scene 
 of life, the long series of coming generations full 
 of activity and joy, all sent to prepare like our- 
 selves, for a higher and more exalted sphere? 
 And would we debar ourselves and them, from 
 the expanding existence, the glowing delights, 
 and the extended sphere of duties which are in- 
 volved in a futurity ? No, let us ever be pre- 
 pared, and in cheerful anticipation of the change ; 
 let us connect it with happy images, and look 
 upon it, not as the avenue to darkness and gloom, 
 
ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 557 
 
 but as one to the regions of hope and joy. We 
 do not die, but are born to a new life : we shake 
 off the heavy impediments of matter which clog 
 our souls, and enter upon other and more glorious 
 relations, not only with the spiritual, but probably 
 with the material universe; and we part with an 
 instrument, beautiful, if we consider its peculiar 
 and comparatively inferior purposes, but every 
 way incapable of ministering to the wants of an 
 everlasting spirit. A perpetuity of earthly ex- 
 istence, ever associated with the same objects, and 
 with a limited scope for improvement, would be 
 dull and vapid, contrasted with the unlimited 
 range, and the boundlessly diversified occupa- 
 tions of a world to come. Incorrect concep- 
 tions indeed, as to our condition hereafter, 
 must necessarily invest it with an aspect widely 
 different from the reality ; but it may be safely 
 asserted, that any which do not include the 
 progressive improvement and final happiness 
 of all God's creatures, are at variance with the 
 clearest dictates of Divine providence, and un- 
 worthy of beings whose belief should be in full 
 accordance with the glorious future to which we 
 all aspire. Death is the portal to the blessed 
 realms of immortality the opening to light and 
 life, to peace and joy, not less than to endless 
 moral and intellectual advancement. We should 
 look to, and welcome it, as our last best refuge; 
 as removing the only obstacle to the happiness 
 and improvement of which we have been ren- 
 dered capable, and as placing an insuperable bar- 
 
558 ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 
 
 rier between us and all oppression, misery, 
 and sin. 
 
 It is doubtless, impossible for a limited crea- 
 ture like man, to conceive the details of the 
 spiritual world. We can only frame general con- 
 clusions, which if not enough to satisfy our long- 
 ings, prove at least sufficient to excite hope and 
 joy. We may be assured that nothing can occur 
 hereafter, in opposition to what we are able to 
 learn here, of the providence and attributes of 
 the Deity. God cannot contradict himself he 
 cannot cease to be beneficent, merciful, just, and 
 wise. This alone, is adequate to allay every dis- 
 quietude, and to console us under the pangs of 
 sickness, and in the prospect of immediate death. 
 We are enabled however, to experience the fur- 
 ther assurance, that those qualities of the heart 
 and understanding, the exercise and improvement 
 of which redound so much to our happiness here, 
 will continue to do so, to a still greater extent 
 hereafter. A capacity for developing them, has 
 not been bestowed in vain ; and the virtues and 
 the talents which we have nurtured with so much 
 care and assiduity, will survive the dissolution of 
 the mortal fabric, to expand still farther, in a 
 more extended sphere of action. Our conscious- 
 ness will persist after death as now, with the 
 feelings, the affections, and the ideas, which we 
 experience at present, but exalted, purified, and 
 perfected. We cannot know through what in- 
 strumentality, our perceptions will take place; 
 but however diversified, they will doubtless not 
 
ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 559 
 
 derange our identity, or produce any other than 
 a gradual accession to our feelings and informa- 
 tion. Then, as now, there will he the same 
 necessity for exertion, and for regulating our con- 
 duct by the objects which we may have in view. 
 The results however, will be greater than on 
 earth, since our faculties will be less limited, and 
 the range less bounded for their exercise. Nor 
 is it perhaps too much to hope, that our progres- 
 sive advancement in feeling and intellect, and our 
 ascent among the different orders of created in- 
 telligence, will be directly contingent on our indi- 
 vidual efforts. Now, the improvement of our 
 intellect and affections, must be boundless as time 
 and creation themselves. 
 
 There is much reason for arriving at the con- 
 clusion, that the phenomenal world our earth, 
 with the endless galaxies of mighty orbs, and their 
 diversified inhabitants, is infinitely inferior in ex- 
 tent and importance to the spiritual, which we 
 cannot see, unless in so far as our inward con- 
 sciousness yields us fugitive and uncertain glimpses 
 of it. A comparison between things dissimilar, 
 is made with difficulty ; but though imperfect, it 
 often serves to place the objects of it in a some- 
 what stronger light. Yet, when we reflect 
 upon the multitudinous, and perhaps never- 
 ending distribution of the stars, and think that 
 each like our own, is a nursery for immortal in- 
 telligences; that it has been so, and will be so, 
 to an extent which we are utterly unable to ap- 
 preciate : when we further reflect that this may 
 
560 ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 
 
 not be the sole means to which the Deity has re- 
 sorted for adding to the denizens of the spiritual 
 universe; and when we add to these, not only 
 that space is unlimited, but that it can oppose no 
 obstacle to the increase of thinking beings, with 
 the same mighty rapidity, and for ever, it over- 
 whelms the soul with unutterable emotions. 
 How the communication will be kept up between 
 the creatures thus variously produced, we cannot 
 imagine, nor is it necessary to inquire; doubt- 
 less, the all-powerful Author of their existence, 
 has regulated this with the same consummate 
 wisdom which he everywhere displays. The 
 common bond would seem to be one of intellect 
 and feeling, and must necessarily, though to a 
 widely varying degree, extend to all. In this 
 world we are under a physical, as well as an in- 
 tellectual and moral obligation ; in the next, we 
 shall be included under one which can have no 
 boundary save that between right and wrong. 
 Whether any delegated agencies shall subsist, it is 
 impossible to know; that it should be so how- 
 ever, is not unreasonable to suppose. If so, we 
 may feel assured that it is exclusively for good. 
 The production of gratuitous evil in the world to 
 come, any more than in this, is a supposition 
 which is adverse to all that we are able to con- 
 ceive, of boundless wisdom and power, as well as 
 to the precious conclusion at which all things 
 point that every created being shall eventually 
 go forward in a perpetual career of improvement. 
 This is altogether irreconcilable with the possi- 
 
ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 56l 
 
 bility of permanent misery or sin conditions not 
 less opposed to feeling and reason, than to the 
 visible manifestations of Divine goodness. Here- 
 after, as now, the highest motives to conduct will 
 be grounded on moral truth, of which the only 
 just criterion must be the will of God. Doubt- 
 less also, we shall be thrown in a greater or less 
 degree, on our own guidance, and permitted as 
 at present, to reap the satisfaction accruing from 
 our own approval and that of others. But what 
 pen can adequately enlarge on the ravishing 
 hope, the glorious expectation of a future an 
 eternal existence ? To live for ever to increase 
 unceasingly in knowledge and excellence, and to 
 maintain perpetual communion with wisdom and 
 goodness, as much transcend the powers of man 
 to imagine, as immortality itself transcends mor- 
 tality. Doubtless, sources of happiness await 
 us, of which in our present state of being, we can 
 form little conception : wonders, as much unlike any 
 thing which we now behold, as the particulars com- 
 prehended under the latter differ from each other. 
 This likewise enhances the expectation ; for if we 
 can picture to ourselves so much that is good and 
 desirable, what must the reality prove? What 
 infinite delight will there be in surveying the 
 boundless scenes of creation, and in investigating 
 the sources of our knowledge, and the nature of 
 our faculties? But these are things as to which 
 we can have, no certain knowledge. Some will 
 go further than others; while not a few will 
 look upon all conjectures respecting scenes so 
 
 N N 
 
562 ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 
 
 remote, as visionary and absurd. The opinion 
 of those however, who are so unhappy as to dis- 
 believe or doubt on the subject of futurity, can 
 be no criterion; and assuredly, with the well- 
 founded conviction that we shall take our facul- 
 ties and our knowledge along with us, it cannot 
 be improper to speculate in reason, on the con- 
 dition in which these may find exercise. It is 
 a source of innocent gratification to think upon 
 the state of our departed friends, before we 
 rejoin them for ever. And when about to quit 
 this werld, it affords joy and satisfaction to those 
 whom we leave behind, to hear us testify our 
 hopes and our assurances as to the future. Were 
 this more frequently done, it would strengthen 
 our convictions, and confirm our principles. Cer- 
 tainly, the tacit consent with which all mention 
 of death, and of the dead, is avoided, implies any 
 thing but that rational security, and tender hope, 
 with which we should regard futurity. Let us then 
 be men let us raise our hearts and souls with im- 
 plicit reverence and unbounded trust, towards the 
 Master of life to Him who is Lord both of the 
 living and the dead, and alike the wise, the just, and 
 the merciful Arbiter of every form of existence. 
 As a just, enlightened, and affectionate inter- 
 course with others, is among the highest pleasures 
 of this world ; so doubtless, in that which is to 
 come, much of our happiness will flow from an 
 unceasing communion with the wise and good. 
 It is not to be supposed that this will be limited 
 to those who inhabited the earth with us; it is 
 probable, nay certain, that it will extend to every 
 
ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 563 
 
 order of created intelligence. Thus, there will 
 be a scene of improvement objects of imitation, 
 admiration, and love, to an extent of which even 
 our feeble anticipations are adequate to inspire us 
 with rapture and joy. Nothing short of actual 
 fruition however, can yield us any sufficient con- 
 ception of that glorious condition to which it is 
 the solace of humanity to aspire. That it will 
 be in all respects, worthy of its Supreme Author, 
 we cannot doubt, and upon this blessed convic- 
 tion let us take our stand. It is indeed true, 
 that no gratification is so great as that which 
 accrues from the society of our kind, but then, 
 to enjoy this to the fullest extent, we must have 
 performed our duties we must be virtuous, we 
 must be intelligent, we must be wise. In the 
 world to come, it is not irrational to expect a 
 condition of things in some respects analogous, 
 and that the satisfaction arising from elevated in- 
 tercourse, will be contingent on the assiduity 
 with which our faculties are cultivated, and our 
 tasks fulfilled. How great then, will be the hap- 
 piness of maintaining perpetual communion with 
 superior beings; of growing in knowledge and 
 excellence, and of having our souls continually 
 uplifted to purer and higher conceptions, of the 
 infinite wisdom and goodness of God? But our 
 communication with others will not be restricted 
 to the interchange of ideas, but shall extend to 
 that of the feelings and affections. And if our 
 short career on earth is adequate to the produc- 
 tion of so much pleasure from this source, what 
 may we not expect from the boundless facilities, 
 
564 ON OUR CONDITION HEREAFTER. 
 
 and unlimited duration of an hereafter? This 
 indeed, is what no human eye has seen, what no 
 human tongue can tell. We pierce but dimly 
 into the mighty vista of futurity ; but we perceive 
 enough to raise our hearts with gushing praise 
 and boundless love to the only Source of life to 
 whom we owe our being, our happiness, our earthly 
 comfort, our present joys and hopes of future. 
 
 The third and last part of this work is now 
 complete. I have endeavoured to paint the 
 mind ; to shew the origin of our moral judgments, 
 feelings, and affections; to depict the excellen- 
 cies of which we are capable, and the defects to 
 which we are liable; to analyze the changes 
 which the various conditions of our being un- 
 dergo, and the laws by which they are re- 
 gulated: likewise, the influence of the heart on 
 the understanding, our various duties, and the 
 best means of advancing the moral welfare of 
 mankind ; and lastly, the progressive perfectibility 
 of our nature, our condition hereafter, and our 
 hopes of attaining to it. I have everywhere in- 
 sisted on the obligations of religion and morality ; 
 on man's duties to himself, to his fellows, and to his 
 Creator ; and to the best of my ability, have fulfilled 
 the three-fold intention of this work .the analysis 
 and detail of our physical, intellectual, and moral 
 constitution, and now conclude the task. That it 
 may be of some use to my fellows that it may serve 
 however feebly, to promote the cause of truth of 
 humanity, is my earnest, my only wish. 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR, 
 
 An Exposition of the Nature, Treatment, and Prevention 
 of Continued Fever, pp. 202. London: 1835. 
 
 OUR readers will perceive what pains Dr. M'Cormac has 
 bestowed upon his subject, and what learning he has brought 
 to bear upon every thing connected with fever. We beg to 
 recommend his work in the strongest terms. Dublin Medi- 
 cal Journal. 
 
 Doctor M'Cormac's work will be perused with great inte- 
 rest and advantage, in so far as he illustrates, with great learn- 
 ing arid ability, the observations and experience of all the 
 most eminent pyretologists, ancient and modern, foreign and 
 domestic. Dr. M'Cormac indeed, possesses the advantage 
 of personal experience, not only of the ordinary form of fever 
 in these countries, by his position as Physician to the Fever 
 Hospital of Belfast, but of the more rapid and formidable 
 variety of disease prevalent in Africa, and other tropical 
 countries. Minute and practical acquaintance with the pyre- 
 tological authors, not only of France, but of Italy and Ger- 
 many, has enabled him to illustrate his subject with a degree 
 of literary information, not very common in this country. 
 
 The author gives a clear and instructive statement of the 
 remedies most likely to prove beneficial in conducting fever 
 to a beneficial termination ; also, a very instructive summary 
 of the rules most likely to prevent the rise and propagation 
 of this disease. Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. 
 
 We strongly recommend Dr. M'Cormac's book, as an elabo- 
 rate and judicious review of facts and opinions, and withal a 
 philosophical and practically useful treatise on the subject of 
 fever. Medical Quarterly. 
 
It is really astonishing that the author could have condensed 
 such a fund of information within so small a compass. As a 
 compilation, this work is unequalled in our literature, and well 
 deserves a place in every medical library. London Medical 
 and Surgical Journal. 
 
 A very useful and interesting article might be formed by 
 a reviewer from this book, by simply taking from it, and as- 
 sembling in a compact form, the personal observations, and 
 previously unrecorded facts, which the author has scattered 
 through his pages, as the result of his own experience. We 
 commend the work to the profession, as an excellent expo- 
 sition of that species of bodily derangement which is known 
 by the name of Continued Fever. It is a long time since we 
 have met with a writer whose experience, learning, and judg- 
 ment, so well entitle him to discuss this hacknied subject, 
 and whose literary abilities have so ably served him in the 
 task Lancet. 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 28, line 8, for 2, read 3. 
 
 38, 27, for stints, read stunts. 
 75, _ 18, before go, insert will. 
 
 77, 21, for are, rearf is. 
 
 123, 5, ./or education, read recreation. 
 
 139, 20, insert VI. 
 
 145, 1, for has, read have. 
 
 - 204, 6, for zeal, read real. 
 
 - 261, - 30, /or 3, .read 4. 
 
 264, 15, /or 4, read 5. 
 
 - 337, 14, for I., m*d IV. 
 
 379, 14, inxert II., anrf a/fcr seriatim. 
 
 392, -27, for abrogation, read abnegation, 
 
 492, 24, d?k III. 
 
 539, 9, for II., read III. 
 
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