CHAPTER V.

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE THE MISERIES OF MANKIND REFERABLE TO INFRINGEMENT OF THE LAWS OF NATURE?

In the present chapter, I propose to inquire into some of the evils that have afflicted the human race; and whether they have proceeded from neglect of laws, benevolent and wise in themselves, and calculated, when observed, to promote the happiness of man; or from a constitution of nature so defective that he cannot supply its imperfections, or so vicious that he can neither rectify nor improve its qualities. The following extract from the journal of John Locke, contains a forcible statement of the principle which I intend to illustrate: "Though justice be also a perfection which we must necessarily ascribe to the Supreme Being, yet we cannot suppose the exercise of it should extend farther than his goodness has need of it for the preservation of his creatures in the order and beauty of the state that he has placed each of them in; for since our actions cannot reach unto him, or bring him any profit or damage, the punishments he inflicts on any of his creatures, i. e. the misery or destruction he brings upon them, can be nothing else but to preserve the greater or more considerable part, and so being only for preservation, his justice is nothing but a branch of his goodness, which is fain by severity to restrain the irregular and destructive parts from doing harm."Lord King's Life of Locke, p. 122.

SECT. I.-CALAMITIES ARISING FROM INFRINGEMENT OF THE PHYSICAL LAWS.

The proper way of viewing the Creator's institutions, is to look, first, to their uses, and to the advantages that flow

from using them aright; and, secondly, to their abuses, and the evils that proceed from this source.

In Chapter II., some of the benefits conferred on man by the law of gravitation are enumerated; and I may here advert to some of the evils originating from that law, when human conduct is in opposition to it. For example, men are liable to fall from horses, carriages, stairs, precipices, roofs, chimneys, ladders, and masts, and also to slip in the street-by which accidents life is often suddenly cut short, or rendered miserable from lameness and pain; and the question arises, Is human nature provided with any means of protection against these evils, at all equal to their frequency and extent?

The lower animals are equally subject to this law; and the Creator has bestowed on them external senses, nerves, muscles, bones, an instinctive sense of equilibrium, the sense of danger, or cautiousness, and other faculties, to place them in accordance with it. These appear to afford sufficient protection to animals placed in all ordinary circumstances; for we very rarely discover any of them, in their natural condition, killed or mutilated by accidents referrible to gravitation. Where their mode of life exposes them to extraordinary danger from this law, they are provided with additional securities. The monkey, which climbs trees, enjoys great muscular energy in its legs, claws, and tail, far surpassing, in proportion to its gravitating tendency, or its bulk and weight, what is bestowed on the legs and arms of man; so that, by means of them, it springs from branch to branch, in almost complete security against the law in question. The goat, which browses on the brinks of precipices, has received a hoof and legs that give precision and stability to its steps. Birds, which are destined to sleep on branches of trees, are provided with a muscle passing over the joints of each leg and stretching down to the foot, and which, being pressed by their weight, produces a proportionate contraction of their claws, so as to make them cling the faster, the greater their liability to fall. The fly, which walks and sleeps on perpendicular walls and the ceilings of rooms, has a hollow in its foot, from which it expels the air, and the pressure of the atmosphere on the outside of the foot holds it fast to the object on which the inside is placed. The walrus, or sea-horse,

which is destined to climb up the sides of ice-hills, is provided with a similar apparatus. The camel, whose native region is the sandy desert of the torrid zone, has broad spreading hooves to support it on the loose soil. Fishes are furnished with air-bladders, by dilating and contracting which they can accommodate themselves with perfect precision to the law of gravitation.

In these instances, the lower animals, under the sole guidance of their instincts, appear to be placed admirably in harmony with gravitation, and guaranteed against its infringement. Is man, then, less an object of love with the Creator? Is he alone left exposed to the evils that spring inevitably from its neglect? His means of protection are different, but when understood and applied, they will probably be found not less complete. Man, as well as the lower animals, has received bones, muscles, nerves, an instinct of equilibrium,* and the faculty of Cautiousness; but not in equal perfection, in proportion to his figure, size, and weight, with those bestowed on them:-The difference, however, is far more than compensated by other faculties, particularly those of Constructiveness and Reflection, in which he greatly surpasses them. Keeping in view that the external world, in regard to man, is arranged on the principle of the supremacy of the moral sentiments and intellect, we shall probably find that the calamities suffered by him from the law of gravitation, are referrible to predominance of the animal propensities, or to neglect of proper exercise of his intellectual powers. For example, when coaches break down, ships sink, or men fall from ladders, how generally may the cause be traced to decay in the vehicle, the vessel, or the ladder, which a predominating Acquisitiveness alone prevented from being repaired; or when men fall from houses and scaffolds, or slip on the street, how frequently should we find their muscular, nervous, and mental energies impaired by preceding debaucheries in other words, by predominance of the animal faculties, which for the time diminished their natural means of accommodating themselves to the law from which they suffer. The slater, in using a ladder, assists himself by the reflective powers; but, in walking along the ridge of a

* Vide Essay on Weight, Phren. Journ. vol. ii. p. 412.

house, or standing on a chimney, he takes no aid from these faculties; he trusts to the mere instinctive power of equilibrium, in which he is inferior to the lower animals,— and, in so doing, clearly violates the law of his nature that requires him to use reflection where instinct is deficient. Causality and Constructiveness could invent and provide means, by which, if he slipped from a roof or chimney, his fall might be arrested. A small chain, for instance, attached by one end to a girdle round his body, and having the other end fastened by a hook and eye to the roof, might leave him at liberty to move, and might break his fall in case he slipped. How frequently, too, do these accidents happen after disturbance of the mental faculties and corporeal functions by intoxication!

The objection will probably occur, that in the gross condition in which the mental powers exist, the great body of mankind are incapable of exerting habitually that degree of moral and intellectual energy, which is indispensable to observance of the natural laws; and that, therefore, they are, in point of fact, less fortunate than the lower animals. I admit that, at present, this representation is to a considerable extent just; but nowhere do I perceive the human mind instructed, and its powers exercised, in a degree at all approaching to their limits. Let any person recollect how much greater capacity for enjoyment and security from danger he has experienced, at a particular time, when his whole mind was filled with, and excited by, some mighty interest, not only allied to, but founded in, morality and intellect, than in that languid condition which accompanies the absence of elevated and ennobling emotions; and he may form some idea of what man will become capable of, when his powers shall have been cultivated to the extent of their capacity. At the present moment, no class of society is systematically instructed in the constitution of the mind and body, in the relations of these to external objects, in the nature of these objects, in the natural supremacy of the moral sentiments, in the principle that activity of the faculties is the true source of pleasure, and that the higher the powers the more intense the delight; and, if such views be to the mind what light is to the eyes, air to the lungs, and food to the stomach, there is no wonder that a mass of inert mentality, if I may use such

a word, should every where exist around us, and that numberless evils should spring from its continuance in this condition. If active moral and intellectual faculties are the natural fountains of enjoyment, and the external world is created with reference to this state; it is as obvious that misery must result from animal supremacy and intellectual torpidity, as that flame, which is constituted to burn only when supplied with oxygen, must inevitably become extinct when exposed to carbonic acid gas. Finally, if the arrangement by which man is left to discover and obey the laws of his own nature, and of the physical world, be more conducive to activity than intuitive knowledge, the calamities now contemplated appear to be instituted to force him to his duty; and his duty, when understood, will constitute his delight.

While, therefore, we lament the fate of individual victims to the law of gravitation, we cannot condemn that law itself. If it were suspended, to save men from the effects of negligence, not only would the proud creations of human skill totter to their base, and the human body rise from the earth and hang midway in the air; but our highest enjoyments would be terminated, and our faculties become positively useless, by being deprived of their field of exertion. Causality, for instance, teaches that the same cause will always, cæteris paribus, produce similar effects; and, if the physical laws were suspended or varied, so as to accommodate themselves to man's negligence or folly, it is obvious that this faculty would be without an object, and that no definite course of action could be entered upon with confidence in the result. If, then, this view of the constitution of nature were kept steadily in mind, the occurrence of one accident of this kind would stimulate reflection to discover means of avoiding others.

Similar illustrations and commentaries might be given, in regard to the other physical laws to which man is subject; but the object of the present essay being merely to evolve principles, I confine myself to gravitation, as the most obvious and best understood.

I do not mean to say, that, by the mere exercise of intellect, man may absolutely guarantee himself against all accidents; but only that the more ignorant and careless he is, the more will he suffer,—and the more intelligent and vi