The Constitution of Man Considered in Relation to External Objects

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Carter and Hendee, 1829 - Body size - 310 pages

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Page 34 - And the conclusion is, that to allow no more to this superior principle or part of our nature, than to other parts; to let it govern and guide only occasionally in common with the rest, as its turn happens to come, from the temper and circumstances one happens to be in; this is not to act conformably to the constitution of man: Neither can any human creature be said to act conformably to his constitution of nature, unless he allows to that superior principle the absolute authority which is due to...
Page 268 - Never, perhaps, was witnessed a finer scene than on the deck of my little ship, when all hope of life had left us. Noble as the character of the British sailor is always allowed to be in cases of danger, yet I did not believe it to be possible that amongst forty-one persons not one repining word should have been uttered.
Page 28 - The same argument may be proposed in different terms, thus: contrivance proves design; and the predominant tendency of the contrivance indicates the disposition of the designer. The world abounds with contrivances ; and all the contrivances which we are acquainted with, are directed to beneficial purposes. Evil no doubt exists, but is never, that we can perceive, the object of contrivance. Teeth are contrived to eat, not to ache ; their aching now and then is incidental to the contrivance, perhaps...
Page 290 - God is related to the universe, as Creator and Preserver; the laws by which he created all things, are those by which he preserves them. He acts according to these rules, because he knows them; he knows them, because he made them; and he made them, because they are relative to his wisdom and power.
Page 268 - ... the ship received. We found by the well that she made no water, and by dark she struck no more. God was merciful to us, and the tide, almost miraculously, fell no lower.
Page 290 - Law, in its most general and comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action ; and is applied indiscriminately to all kinds of action, whether animate or inanimate, rational or irrational.
Page 252 - ... may, by rashness, ungoverned passion, wilfulness, or even, by negligence, make ourselves as miserable as ever we please. And many do please to make themselves extremely miserable,, ie to do what they know beforehand will render them so. They follow those ways, the fruit of which they know, by instruction, example, experience, will be disgrace, and poverty, and sickness, and untimely death.
Page 289 - Laws, in their most general signification, are the necessary relations arising from the nature of things. In this sense all beings have their laws: the Deity His laws, the material world its laws, the intelligences superior to man their laws, the beasts their laws, man his laws.
Page 153 - Pritchard states the result of his investigations to be, First, That the organization of the offspring is always modelled according to the type of the original structure of the parent ; and Secondly, ' That changes, produced by external causes in the appearance or constitution of the individual are temporary ; and, in general, acquired characters are transient ; they terminate with the individual, and have no influence on the progeny.
Page 252 - Now, in the present state, all which we enjoy, and a great part of what we suffer, is put in our own power. For pleasure and pain are the consequences of our actions ; and we are endued by the Author of our Nature with capacities of foreseeing these consequences.

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