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CHAPTER V.

THE NATURAL LAWS AND HUMAN LIFE.

IF a system of living and occupation were to be devised for human beings, founded on the exposition of their nature now given, something like the following might be proposed.

1st, So many hours a day should be dedicated by everyone in health to the exercise of his nervous and muscular systems, in labour calculated to give scope to their functions. The reward of fulfilling this requirement of Nature is health and a joyous animal existence; the appointed consequences of neglect are disease, low spirits, and premature death.

2dly, So many hours a day should be spent in the sedulous employment of the knowing and reflecting faculties; in studying the qualities of external objects, and their relations; also the nature of animated beings, and their relations; with the view, not of accumulating mere abstract and barren knowledge, but of enjoying the positive pleasure of mental activity, and of turning every discovery to account, as a means of increasing happiness or of alleviating misery. The leading object should always be to find. out the relationship of every object to our own nature, organic, animal, moral, and intellectual, and to keep that relationship habitually in mind, as Divinely appointed with a view to our happiness. We should thereby render our acquirements gratifying to our various faculties. The reward of this conduct would be an increase of pleasure in the act of acquiring knowledge, and a great accession of power in reaping ulterior advantages from it.

3dly, So many hours a day should be devoted to the cultivation and gratification of our moral and religious sentiments-that is to say, in exercising these in harmony with intellect, and especially in acquiring the habit of admiring, loving, and yielding obedience to the Creator and His institutions. This last object is of vast importance. Intellect is_barren of beneficent fruit, however rich it may be in knowledge, until it be fired and prompted to act by moral and religious sentiment. In my view, knowledge by

itself is worthless and impotent, in comparison with what it becomes when vivified by lofty emotions. It is not enough that the intellect be informed; the moral and religious faculties must co-operate in applying the truths and in yielding obedience to the precepts which the intellect recognises

to be true.

As creation is one great system, of which God is the Author and Preserver, we may fairly presume that there is harmony among all its parts, and between it and its Creator. The human mind is a portion of creation, and its constitution must be included in this harmonious scheme. One grand object of the moral and intellectual faculties of Man, therefore, ought to be the study of the will of God, as manifested in His works.

Before science can rise to its highest dignity, and can shed on the human race its richest benefits, it must become religious that is to say, its facts, principles, and consequences must be viewed as proceeding directly from the Divine Being as a revelation of His will to the human race for the guidance of their conduct. Science, while separated from the moral feelings, is felt by the people at large to be cold and barren. It may be calculated to interest men of high intellectual endowments; but, as in the multitude the moral and religious sentiments greatly predominate in energy over the intellectual powers, it fails to interest them. On the other hand, before religion can exercise its full influence on practical conduct, it must become philosophical. Its doctrines must harmonise with the system of creation, and the order of Providence must be exhibited as enforcing its dictates.

While reason and religion are at variance, both are obstructed in producing their full beneficial effects. God has placed harmony between them, and it is only human imperfection and ignorance that have introduced discord. One way of cultivating the sentiments would be for men to meet and act together, on the principles which I am now endeavouring to unfold, and to exercise, in mutual instruction, and in united adoration of the great and glorious Creator, the intellectual faculties, and those of benevolence, veneration, hope, ideality, wonder, and conscientiousness.

The reward of acting in this manner would be a large increase of knowledge, and the communication of direct and intense pleasure to each other; for I refer to everyone who has ever had the good fortune to pass a day or an hour with

a really benevolent, pious, honest, and intellectual man, whose soul swelled with reverence for his Creator, whose intellect was replenished with knowledge of His works, and whose whole mind was instinct with sympathy for human happiness-whether such a day did not afford him the most pure, elevated, and lasting gratification he ever enjoyed ? Such an exercise, besides, would invigorate the whole moral and intellectual powers, and fit them more and more to discover and obey the Divine institutions.

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A knowledge of Mental and Moral Science is highly con ducive to this enjoyment of our moral and intellectual nature. No faculty is bad, but, on the contrary, each has a legitimate sphere of action, and, when properly gratified, is a fountain equally of profit and of pleasure; in short, Man possesses no feeling, of the right exercise of which an enlightened and ingenuous mind needs be ashamed. party of thoroughly practical philosophers, therefore, meet in the perfect knowledge of each other's qualities; they respect these as the gifts of the Creator; and their great object is to derive the utmost pleasure from their legitimate use, and to avoid abuse of them. The distinctions of country and education are broken down by unity of principle; the chilling restraints of cautiousness, self-esteem, secretiveness, and love of approbation, which stand as barriers of eternal ice between human beings in the ordinary intercourse of society, are gently removed; the directing sway is committed to benevolence, veneration, conscientiousness, and intellect; and then the higher principles of the mind operate with a delightful vivacity, unknown to persons deficient in confidence in the better qualities of human

nature.

Intellect, also, should be regularly exercised in arts, science, philosophy, practical business, observation, and reflection.

I have said nothing of dedicating hours to the direct gratification of the animal powers; not that they should not be exercised, but that scope for their activity is included in the employments already mentioned. In muscular exercises, combativeness, destructiveness, constructiveness, acquisitiveness, self-esteem, and love of approbation may all be gratified. In contending with and surmounting physical and moral difficulties, combativeness and destructiveness obtain vent; in working at a mechanical employment requiring the exertion of strength, these two faculties,

and also constructiveness and acquisitiveness, will be exercised; in emulation who shall accomplish most good, selfesteem and love of approbation will obtain scope. In the exercise of the moral faculties, several of these, and others of the animal propensities, are employed; amativeness, philoprogenitiveness, and adhesiveness, for example, acting. under the guidance of benevolence, veneration, conscientiousness, ideality, and intellect, receive direct enjoyment in the domestic circle. From their being properly directed, also, and from the superior delicacy and refinement imparted to them by the higher powers, they do not infringe the moral law, and leave no sting of repentance in the mind.

Finally, certain portions of time should be dedicated to food and to sleep.

All systems hitherto practised have been deficient in providing for one or more of these branches of enjoyment. In a community at Orbiston, in Lanarkshire, formed in the year 1825 on Mr. Owen's principles, music, dancing, and theatrical entertainments were provided; but the people soon became tired of these. Sufficient moral and intellectual instruction was not supplied. The novelty excited them, but there was nothing substantial behind. In ordinary society, very little either of instruction or of amusement is provided. The neglect of innocent amusement is a great error.

If there be truth in these views, they may throw some light on two important questions that have hitherto embarrassed philosophers in regard to the progress of human improvement. The first is, Why should Man have existed so long, and have made so small an advance on the road to happiness? It is obvious that the very scheme of creation which I have described implies that Man is a progressive being; and progression necessarily supposes lower and higher conditions of attainment and enjoyment. While men are ignorant, there is great individual suffering. This distresses sensitive minds, and seems inexplicable; they cannot conceive why improvement should so slowly advance.

I confess myself incapable of affording any philosophical explanation why Man should have been so constituted: neither can I or any man give a reason why the whole earth was not made temperate and productive, instead of being partially covered with barren sand and partially with eternal snow. When the inhabitants of Britain wore the skins of animals, and lived in huts and caves,

we may presume that in rigorous winters many of them suffered severe privations, and that some would perish from cold. If there had been among the sufferers a gifted philosopher, who observed the talents that were inherent in the people, although then latent, and who, in consequence, foresaw the splendid palaces and warm fabrics which their descendants would one day produce, he might well have been led to deplore the slow progress of improvement, and have grieved at the prevalence of so much intermediate misery. Yet the explanation that Man is a progressive being is all that philosophy can offer; and if this satisfy us as to the past, it should be equally encouraging in regard to the present and the future.

The difficulty is eloquently adverted to by Dr. Chalmers in his Bridgewater Treatise: "We might not know the reason," says he, “why, in the moral world, so many ages of darkness and depravity should have been permitted to pass by, any more than we know the reason why, in the natural world, the trees of a forest, instead of starting all at once into the efflorescence and stateliness of their manhood, have to make their slow and laborious advancement to maturity, cradled in storms, and alternately drooping or expanding with the vicissitudes of the seasons. But though unable to scan all the cycles either of the moral or the natural economy, yet we may recognise such influences at work as, when multiplied and developed to the uttermost, are abundantly capable of regenerating the world. One of the likeliest of these influences is the power of education, to the perfecting of which so many minds are earnestly directed at this moment, and for the general acceptance of which in society we have a guarantee in the strongest affections and fondest wishes of the fathers and mothers of families." *

Although, therefore, we cannot explain why Man was constituted a progressive being, and why such a being advances slowly, there is at least, as I have endeavoured to show, an adaptation of his faculties to his condition. If I am right in the fundamental proposition, that harmonious activity of the faculties is synonymous with enjoyment of existence, it follows that it would have been less wise and less benevolent towards Man, constituted as he is, to have given him intuitive perfect knowledge, thereby leaving his mental powers with diminished motives to activity, than to

*Vol. I., p. 186.