"To improve and expand is ours, as well as to limit and defeat; But to create a thought or a thing is hopeless and impossible."1 Objection Answered. Some may object to this theory, and be ready to ask, Do you make man only an instrument? Do you place him in the same category with his reason, as the irrational animals with their instinct? Is not man a free and moral agent? Is he not a being capable of vast elevation in the proper exercise of his mental faculties? Will you divest him of the glory of his genius and mechanical skill? To this it is replied: Man is indeed, an instrument, though a free and moral agent. The gift of reason, though it constitutes him a free, does not necessarily render him an independent agent. He can reason, and plan, and operate upon given materials. He can appropriate and arrange them in accordance with a definite design; but all these operations, whether mental or physical, are conducted within given limits the limits of finite capacity and relative circumstances. No elevation or expansion of his intellectual faculties; no degree of physical capability, can raise him above the rank of a creature, or render him independent of the Almighty Creator. It is admitted that he rises transcendently above the most sagacious of “the 1 Proverbial Philosophy. beasts that perish;" but it is only by so many degrees in a finite scale, which, in its loftiest elevation, can bear no proportion to the infinite. He can, in his own appropriate sphere, work out the plans of infinite wisdom. He can, in the exercise of reason, discover, and apply what God has provided and bestowed for his sustenance and comfort; but this can never constitute him. proprietor, either of his own faculties and physical adaptations, or of those elements upon which his genius and skill have produced such vast transformations. He is to be viewed rather as the exhibitor than the original designer; as the servant disclosing the hidden riches of his master, rather than the proprietor setting forth his peculiar treasures. Indeed, the artizan and his work are both designed to shew forth the glory of one Divine Author. In the exhibition of redemption men are represented as "workers together with God," when they employ the means which infinite wisdom has prescribed; so, in like manner, the inventor of machinery, irrespective of his moral characteristics or designs, becomes a fellow-worker with God in the physical world— an instrument by which the divine plans for the benefit of the human race are accomplished. He stands in the position of one whose province it is to search out and display the boundless resources of the Divine Proprietor. He is commanded to "subdue the earth;" that is, by industry to discover, and to appropriate what infinite goodness has provided for the mitigation of the curse, and the physical renovation of a fallen world. It is freely admitted that the man who makes a discovery, or who invents an original machine, ought to enjoy the fruits of his labour, and ought to be honoured by his fellow-men as a public benefactor. But, when viewed in his relation to God, the author of all that is material in his machine, and of all that is mental in its plan and construction, he is only a servant, and, as such, cannot usurp the claims of his Master. While the labourer is worthy of his reward, and ought to be recognized by tokens of gratitude, the glory, in its high and proper sense, belongs to God. It is true, in the experience of the world, that at certain epochs peculiar discoveries have been made which have completely changed the currents of human history. With these discoveries stand associated distinguished names through coming generations. But how limited are the conceptions of the most celebrated philosophers or inventors of machinery? Sir Isaac Newton could scan the heavens, and calculate the distances, densities, and velocities of suns and systems, and yet he might be very ignorant of the method of constructing some of the simplest machines. James Watt could form his models, and study the powers of steam until he astonished the world by his locomotive engine, and yet, with regard to thousands of other problems in art and science, he might be profoundly ignorant. And thus it is found in every other department. Yet even one happy discovery is sufficient to render the name of the inventor illustrious, though the development of all will scarcely lead the human mind up to God the author. By the invention of one machine the entire stock of individual genius may be exhausted-the sands of life may be run out ere the invention has proved its utility. It is thus that many benefactors of the race have sunk in penury, while their discoveries have enriched the world. What is then the boasted genius of the most distinguished inventor, which is thus absorved and expended upon one solitary object, compared with the mind of the Infinite, which grasped from eternity, in one embrace of benevolence to man, the entire region of artificial phenomena? How vast that mind which is able to comprehend the entire system of things celestial and terrestrial, past, present, or yet to be unfolded! How amazing the wisdom and goodness of Him who created the earth for a holy being, and yet adapted it to the circumstances of his posterity as fallen! How wonderful that foreknowledge which adapted the material world to the mental constitution of the human race, so that man becomes at once the exponent of the physical world and the reflector of the spiritual! Nor is this the privilege of the distinguished philosopher only. Amid the thousand departments of science and art, of speculative philosophy and practical life, the humblest, as well as the most exalted genius, may comprehend at least some portion of the mechanical phenomena, and fulfil his mission by contributing his part to the production of the whole. It is thus that the one comprehensive plan of infinite wisdom furnishes scope for innumerable efforts for all varieties of taste and talent, while affording to each the distinguished privilege of furnishing his part in the accomplishment of the common design. Thus human interests and human genius harmoniously unite in the development of the world's resources-in filling up the original scheme of divine providence, while all are permitted "To join Their partial movements with the master wheel Viewed in this aspect, machinery becomes the type of mental and physical capabilities; and, consequently, if the work of art is admired, how much more will admiration rise in the contemplation of those mental powers and physical adaptations by which, from the elements of nature, the whole machinery of the world has been |