the young and vigorous for the feeble and decayed: that it is directly the means by which organised beings live, and indirectly makes way for the gratification of amativeness, philoprogenitiveness, and a variety of other faculties: that it admits of the race ascending in the scale of improvement, both in their organic and in their mental qualities: and finally, that the moral sentiments, when supreme in activity and enlightened by intellect, which perceives the design and consequences of the arrangement, are calculated to place Man in harmony with it; while religion disciplines all the faculties to cheerful submission to the will of God, and completes what reason leaves undone.

If the views now unfolded be correct, death in old age will never be abolished as long as Man continues an organised being; but pain and the frequency of premature death will decrease in the exact ratio of his obedience to the physical and organic laws. It is interesting to observe that there is already some evidence of this process being begun. About the middle of last century, tables of the average duration of life in England were compiled for the use of the life insurance companies; and from them it appears to have been then 28 years-that is, 1,000 persons being korn, and the years of their respective lives being added together, and divided by 1,000, the result was 28 to each. By recent tables it appears that the average is now greatly higher.*

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CHAPTER XI.

THE MORAL LAW IN SOCIAL AFFAIRS.

WE now proceed to consider the Moral Law, which is proclaimed by the whole faculties acting harmoniously; or, in cases of conflict, by the higher sentiments and the intellect acting harmoniously, and holding the animal faculties in subjection.

In surveying the moral and religious codes of different nations, and the moral and religious opinions of different philosophers, every reflecting mind must have been struck with their diversity. As Nature contains objects related to all the faculties, each individual may find facts and circumstances in harmony with his own combination of faculties; and, by omitting all discrepant truths, he may present a plausible array of authorities from Nature for his peculiar opinions. Hence, the particular views of Nature, and the particular code of morality and religion, which are most in harmony with the whole faculties of the individual, will appear to him to be the best, while he refers only to the dictates of his own mind as the standard of right and wrong.

But if we show that when several faculties conflict, the scheme of external creation is arranged in harmony with certain faculties in preference to others, so that enjoyment flows in upon the individual when his conduct is in conformity with some, and that evil overtakes him when he resigns himself to others, we shall prove that the suggestions of the former class of faculties are the morality and religion established by the Creator, and that individual men who support codes differing from His must necessarily be deluded by imperfections in their own minds. That constitution of mind, also, may be pronounced to be the best which harmonises most completely with the morality and religion established by the Creator. In this view morality becomes a science, and departures from its dictates may be shown to be practical follies, injurious to the interest and happiness of the individual.

Dugald Stewart has justly remarked that "the inportance of agriculture and of religious toleration to the prosperity of States, the criminal impolicy of thwarting the

kind arrangements of Providence by restraints upon commerce, and the duty of legislators to study the laws of the moral world as the ground-work and standard of their own, appear, to minds unsophisticated by inveterate prejudices, as approaching nearly to the class of axioms; yet, how much ingenious and refined discussion has been employed, even in our own times, to combat the prejudices which everywhere continue to struggle against them; and how remote does the period yet seem when there is any probability that these prejudices shall be completely abandoned!"*

The great cause of the long continuance of these prejudices is the want of an intelligible and practical philosophy of morals. Pefore ordinary minds can perceive that the world is really governed by Divine laws they must become acquainted with the nature of Man, physical, animal, moral, and intellectual, with the relations of the different parts of that nature to each other, and with the relationship of the whole to God and external objects. The present treatise is an attempt (a very feeble and imperfect one indeed) to arrive at a demonstration of morality as a science. The interests dealt with in the investigation are so elevating, and the effort itself is so delightful, that the attempt carries its own reward, however unsuccessful in its results.

Assuming, then, that in cases of conflict among the faculties of the mind the higher sentiments and the intellect hold the natural supremacy, I shall endeavour to show that obedience to the dictates of these powers is rewarded with pleasing emotions in the mental faculties themselves, and with the most beneficial external consequences; whereas disobedience is followed by deprivation of these emotions, by painful feelings within the mind, and by much external evil.

1. Obedience is accompanied by pleasing emotions in the faculties. It is scarcely necessary to dwell on the fact that every propensity, sentiment, and intellectual faculty, when gratified in harmony with all the rest, is a fountain of pleasure. How many exquisite thrills of joy arise from the moral faculties when gratified in accordance with the moral sentiments! Who that has ever poured forth the aspirations of hope, ideality, wonder, and veneration,

"Prelim. Dissert. to Ency. Brit.," p. 93, 8th Ed.

directed to an object in whom intellect and conscientiousness also rejoiced, has not experienced the deep delight of such an exercise? And who is a stranger to the grateful pleasures attending an active benevolence? Directing our attention to the intellect, what pleasures do we find to be afforded by the scenery of Nature, by painting, poetry, and music, to those who possess the combination of faculties suited to these objects! And how rich a feast does philosophy yield to those who possess, in a high degree, the reflecting faculties, combined with concentrativeness and conscientiousness! These exquisite rewards are attached by the Creator to the active exercise of our faculties in accordance with the moral law; and one punishment, clear, obvious, and undeniable, inflicted on those who neglect or infringe that law, is deprivation of these pleasures.

This is a consideration very little attended to; because men, in general, possess such an imperfect knowledge of the natural moral law that they have only a very slender experience of its rewards, and do not know the enjoyments they are deprived of by its infringement. Before its full measure can be judged of, the mind must be instructed in its own constitution, in that of external objects, and in the relationship established between it and them, and between it and the Creator. Until a tolerably distinct perception of the truths brought to light by a knowledge of these relationships be obtained, the faculties cannot enjoy repose nor can they act in full vigour and harmony.

While, for example, our forefathers regarded the marshfevers to which they were subject in consequence of deficient drainage of their fields, and the outrages on person and property attendant on the wars waged by the English against the Scots, or by one feudal lord against another on their own soil, not as the pre-ordained consequences of particular infringements of the organic and moral laws, to be removed by obedience to these laws, but as inscrutable dispensations of God's providence, which it was impossible for them to avert, and which it behoved them, therefore, meekly to endure the full enjoyment that the moral and intellectual faculties were fairly calculated to afford could not be experienced. Benevolence would be pained by the sufferings of the victims; veneration would regard God with doubts as to His goodness; and conscientiousness would suggest endless surmises of disorder and injustice in a scheme of creation under which such evils occurred.

and were left without a remedy-in short, the full tide of moral, religious, and intellectual enjoyment could not freely flow until views more in accordance with the constitution and desires of the moral faculties were obtained.

The same evil still afflicts mankind to a great extent. How is it possible for the Hindu, the Mussulman, the Chinese, and the savage American, while they continue to worship deities whose qualities outrage benevolence, veneration, and conscientiousness, and while they remain in profound ignorance of almost all the Creator's natural institutions, in consequence of infringing which they suffer evils without number how is it possible for such men to form even a conception of the gratifications which the moral and intellectual nature of Man is capable of enjoying when he is enlightened concerning the Creator's true character, and when it is exercised in harmony with the Divine institutions? This operation of the moral law is not the less real because many persons do not recognise it. Sight is not a less excellent gift to those who see because some men born blind have no conception of the extent of pleasure and of the advantage from which the want of it cuts them off.

The attributes of the Creator may be inferred from His works; but it is obvious that to arrive at the soundest views we must know His institutions thoroughly. To a grossly ignorant people, who suffer hourly from transgression of His laws, the character of the Deity will seem more mysterious and severe than to enlightened men who trace the principles of His government, and who, by observing His laws, avoid the penalties of infringing them. His attributes will appear to human apprehension more and more perfect and exalted in proportion as His works shall be understood. The low and miserable conceptions of God formed by the vulgar among the Greeks and the Romans were the reflections of their own ignorance of natural, moral, and political science.

Some persons, in their great concernment about a future life, are prone to overlook the practical direction of the mind in the present. When we consider the nature and the objects of the mental faculties, we perceive that a great number of them have the most obvious and undeniable reference to this life. We possess also benevolence, and moral and mental faculties, which, while they find scope for gratification in this world, may be adapted also to a higher sphere of existence. But the important consideration is that here on earth these two sets of faculties are combined;