creatures in misery are the only objects of benevolence, and that it has no function but to experience pity. It is a widespreading fountain of generous feeling, desiring not only the removal of pain, but also the maintenance and augmentation of enjoyment; and the happier it can render its objects, the greater are its satisfaction and delight. Its exercise, like that of all the other faculties, is a sort of pleasure to the individual himself; and the world seems well adapted for affording it scope. Every man has it in his power to confer benefits on others, by legitimately gratifying their various feelings and intellectual faculties without injuring himself.

VENERATION. The highest object of this faculty is the Divine Being, and the highest duty to which it can prompt us is obedience to His laws. I have assumed the existence of God as a fact capable of proof. The very essay in which I am now engaged is an attempt at an exposition of some of His attributes, as manifested in this world. If we find wisdom and benevolence in His works, unchangeableness and no shadow of turning in His laws, harmony in each department of creation; and if we discover that the evils which afflict us are much less the direct objects of His arrangements than the consequences of our ignorant_neglect of institutions really calculated to promote our enjoyment -then we shall acknowledge in the Divine Being an object whom we may love with all our souls, and reverence with the deepest emotions of veneration, and on whom hope and conscientiousness may repose with a perfect and unhesitating reliance. The exercise of veneration is attended with great positive enjoyment when the object is in harmony with our other faculties.

HOPE is given-and our understanding is enabled to penetrate into the future. This sentiment is gratified by the absolute reliance which we find reason to place on the stability, wisdom, and goodness of the Divine arrangements: its legitimate exercise, in reference to this life, is to give us a vivifying faith that good is attainable if we use the proper means. Hope is a powerful alleviator of our afflictions. When acting along with the love of life, it disposes to belief in a happy future state of existence; but it is the office of the intellectual faculties to investigate and decide on the evidence of this state.

IDEALITY is bestowed-and not only is external nature invested with exquisite loveliness, but a capacity for moral and intellectual refinement is given to us, by which we may

rise in the scale of improvement, and, at every step of our progress, reap direct enjoyment from this sentiment. Its constant desire is for "something more exquisite still." In its own immediate impulses it is delightful, and external nature and our other faculties respond to its call for gratification.

WONDER desires something new, and prompts us to admiration. When we contemplate Man endowed with intellect to discover the existence of a Deity, and largely to comprehend His works, we cannot doubt that wonder is provided with objects for its intensest exercise; and when we view him placed in a world where old things are continually passing away, and a system of renovation is incessantly proceeding, we see how vast a provision is made for the gratification of his desire of novelty, and how admirably it is calculated to impel his other faculties to action.

CONSCIENTIOUSNESS exists--and it has a wide field of exercise in regulating the rights and interests of the individual, in relation to other men and to society. The existence of selfish propensities and disinterested emotions demands a power to arbitrate between them, and to regulate both; and such is the sentiment of conscientiousness. To afford it full satisfaction, it is necessary to prove that all the Divine institutions are founded in justice. This is a point which many regard as involved in much obscurity: I shall endeavour, in this essay, to lift the veil in part; for to me, justice appears to flow through every Divine institution that is sufficiently understood.

One difficulty in regard to conscientiousness long appeared inexplicable; it was, how to reconcile with benevolence the institution by which this faculty visits us with remorse after offences are actually committed, instead of arresting our hands by an irresistible veto before sinning, so as to save us from the perpetration altogether. The problem is solved by the principle that happiness consists in the activity of our faculties, and that the arrangement by which good follows obedience to the natural laws, and evil disobedience, is more conducive to self-regulated activity than would have been a system in which choice, judgment, and self-action were superseded by a natural, irresistible, and ever-present restraining power, interposed at every moment when Man was in danger of erring.

If, for example, we desired to enjoy the gratification of

exploring a new country, replete with beautiful scenery and captivating natural productions; and if we found in our path precipices that gratified ideality, but which, if we neglected the law of gravitation, might occasion death; whether would it be more bountiful in Providence to send an invisible attendant with us, who, whenever we were about to approach the brink, should interpose a barrier, and fairly cut short our advance, without requiring us to bestow one thought upon the subject, and without our knowing when to expect it and when not—or to leave all open, but to confer on us, as He has done, faculties to comprehend the law of gravitation, eyes fitted to see the precipice, and cautiousness to make us dread falling over it-and then to leave us to enjoy the scene in perfect safety if we used these powers, but to suffer pain or death if we neglected to exercise them?

It is obvious that the latter arrangement would give far more scope to our various powers; and if active faculties are sources of pleasure, as will be shown in the next chapter, then it would contribute more to our enjoyment than the other.

Now, conscientiousness punishing after the fact is analogous, in the moral world, to what this arrangement would be in the physical. If intellect, benevolence, veneration, and conscientiousness do their parts, they will give intimations of disapprobation before the commission of offences, just as cautiousness will give intimations of danger at the sight of the cliff; but if these be disregarded, and we fall over the moral precipice, remorse will follow as punishment, just as pain is the chastisement for tumbling over the physical brink. The object of both institutions is to permit and encourage the most vigorous and unrestrained exercise of our faculties, in accordance with the physical, moral, and intellectual laws of nature, and to visit us with evil only when we transgress these limits.

FIRMNESS is bestowed-and the other faculties of the mind are its objects. It supports and maintains their activity, and gives determination to our purposes.

IMITATION is bestowed-and everywhere Man is surrounded by beings and objects whose actions and appearances it may benefit him to copy. It is highly useful to the young, in helping them to learn rapidly; and at all ages it enables us to assimilate our manners and feelings to those of the persons among whom we live.

The next class of faculties is the Intellectual.

The provisions in external nature for the gratification of the senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, taste, and feeling are so obvious, that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon them.

INDIVIDUALITY and EVENTUALITY, or the powers of observing things that exist and occurrences, are given-and history and science contain their objects. "All the truths which natural philosophy teaches depend upon matter of fact, and that is learned by observation and experiment, and never could be discovered by reasoning at all." Here, then, is ample scope for the exercise of these powers.

The faculties of FORM, SIZE, WEIGHT, LOCALITY, ORDER, and NUMBER are bestowed-and the sciences of geometry, arithmetic, algebra, geography, navigation, botany, mineralogy, zoology, anatomy, and various others, are the fields of their exercise. The first three sciences are almost entirely the products of these faculties; the others result chiefly from them, when applied to external objects.

The faculties of COLOURING, TIME, and TUNE are givenand these, aided by constructiveness, form, size, ideality, and other faculties, find scope in painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and the other fine arts.

LANGUAGE is given-and our faculties inspire us with lively emotions and ideas, which it enables us to communicate to others.

COMPARISON and CAUSALITY exist-and these faculties, aided by individuality, form, size, weight, and the others already enumerated, find ample gratification in natural science, and in moral, political, and intellectual philosophy. The general objects and affairs of life, together with our own feelings, conduct, and relations, are also the objects of the knowing and reflecting faculties, and afford them opportunities for exercise.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE SOURCES OF HAPPINESS.

HAVING presented a rapid sketch of the constitution of Man, and its relations to external objects, we are now prepared to inquire into the sources of his happiness, and the conditions requisite for maintaining it.

The first thing which attracts attention is that all enjoyment must arise from activity of the various systems of which the human constitution is composed. The bones, muscles, nerves, and digestive and respiratory organs, when exercised in conformity with nature, furnish pleasing sensations; while the external senses and internal faculties supply the whole remaining perceptions, emotions, and thoughts, which constitute life and rational existence. If these were habitually asleep or constitutionally inactive, life, for all purposes of enjoyment, might as well be extinct existence would be reduced to mere vegetation, without consciousness. If, then, wisdom and benevolence have been employed in constituting Man, we may expect to find the arrangements of creation calculated to excite his various powers, corporeal and mental, to activity. And, accordingly, the fact appears to me to be so. The stomach, for example, has been so constituted as to demand regular supplies of food, which can be obtained only by nervous and muscular exertion. The body has been created destitute of covering, yet standing in need of protection from the blasts of heaven; and raiment can be procured by moderate exercise of the mental and corporeal powers. Every faculty craves for gratification; but Nature presents us only with the elements of pleasure, which we must appropriate, combine, and apply by action, to our own advantage. In these arrangements, the design of supporting the various systems of the body in activity for the enjoyment of the individual is abundantly obvious.

Directing our attention to the Mind, we discover that individuality and the other perceptive faculties desire, as their means of enjoyment, to become acquainted with external objects; while the reflecting faculties long to know the dependencies and relations of all objects and