in inevitable destruction every combustible object within its influence Farther, their successors, even when the necessity for close building had ceased, persevered in the original error; and, though well knowing that every year added to the age of such fabrics, increased their liability to burn, they not only allowed them to be occupied as shops filled with paper, spirits, and other highly combustible materials, but let the upper floors for brothels,-introducing thereby into the heart of this magazine of conflagration the most reckless and immoral of mankind. The consummation was the two tremendous fires of November 1824, (the one originating in a whisky-cellar, and the other in a garret-brothel,) which consumed the Parliament Square and a portion of the High Street, destroying property to the extent of many thousands of pounds, and spreading misery and ruin over.a considerable part of the population of Edinburgh. Wonder, consternation, and awe, were forcibly excited at the vastness of the calamity; and in the sermons that were preached, and the dissertations that were written upon it, much was said of the inscrutable ways of Providence, that sent such visitations on the people, enveloping the innocent and the guilty in one common sweep of destruction. According to the exposition of the ways of Providence which I have ventured to give, there was nothing wonderful, nothing vengeful, nothing arbitrary, in the whole occurrence. The only reason for surprise was, that it did not take place generations before. The necessity for these fabrics. originated in gross violation of the moral law; they were constructed in high contempt of the physical law; and, latterly, the moral law was set at defiance, by placing in them inhabitants abandoned to the worst habits of recklessness and intoxication. The Creator had bestowed on men faculties to perceive all this, and to avoid the calamity, whenever they chose to exert them; and the destruction that ensued was the punishment of following the propensities, in preference to the dictates of intellect and morality The object of the destruction, as a natural event, was to lead men to avoid repetition of the offences: but the principles of the Divine government are not yet comprehended. Acquisitiveness whispers that more money may be made of houses consisting of five or six floors under one root than of houses consisting of only two or three; and erec tions the very counterparts of the former, have since reared their heads on the spot where the others stood, and, soone or later, they also will be overtaken by the natural laws which never slumber or sleep. The true method of arriving at a sound view of calami ties of this kind, is to direct our attention, in the first in stance, to the law of Nature, from the operation of which they have originated; then to find out the uses and advantage of that law, when observed; and to discover whether or no the evils under consideration have arisen from violation o it. In the present instance, we ought never to lose sigh of the fact, that the houses in question stood erect, and the furniture in safety, by the very same law of gravitation which made them topple to the foundation when it was infringed; and that mankind enjoy all the benefits which result from the combustibility of the timber as fuel, by the very same law which makes it, when unduly ignited, the food of a destructive conflagration. This instance affords a striking illustration of the manner in which the physical and organic laws are constituted in harmony with, and in subserviency to, the moral law. We see clearly that the leading cause of the construction of such erections as the houses in the Old Town of Edinburgh, (with the deprivation of free air, and liability to combustion that attend them,) arose from the excessive predominance of Combativeness, Destructiveness, Self-Esteem, and Acquisitiveness, in our ancestors; and although the ancient personages who erected these monuments of animal supremacy had no conception that, in doing so, they were laying the foundations of a severe punishment to themselves and their posterity, yet when we compare the comforts and - advantages that would have accompanied dwellings constructed under the inspiration of Benevolence, Ideality, and enlightened Intellect, with the contaminating, debasing, and dangerous effects of their actual workmanship, we perceive most clearly that our ancestors were really the instruments of chastising their own transgressions, and of transmitting that chastisement to their posterity so long as the animal supremacy shall be prolonged. Another example may be given. Men, by uniting under one leader, may, in virtue of the social law, acquire prodigious advantages to themselves, which singly they could not obtain; and, as formerly stated, the condition under which the benefits of that law are permitted is, that the leader shall know and obey the natural laws connected with his enterprise: If he neglect these, then the same principle which gives the social body the benefit of his observing them, involves it in the punishment of his infringement; and this is just, because, under the natural law, the leader must necessarily be chosen by his followers, and they are responsible for not attending to his natural qualities. Some illustrations of the consequences of neglect of this law may be stated, in which the mixed operation of the physical and moral laws will appear. During the French war, a squadron of English ships was sent to the Ba'tic with military stores, and, in returning home up the North Sea, they were beset, for two or three days, by a thick fog It was about the middle of December, and no correct knowledge of their exact situation was possessed. Some of the commanders proposed lying-to all night, and proceeding only during day, to avoid running ashore unawares. The commodore was exceedingly attached to his wife and family, and, stating his determination to pass Christmas with them in England if possible, ordered that the ships should sail straight on their voyage. The very same night they all struck on a sand-bank off the coast of Holland; two ships of the line were dashed to pieces, and every man on board perished The third shin, drawing less water, was forced over the bank by the waves and stranded on the beach; the crew was saved, but led to a captivity of many years' duration. Now, these vessels were destroyed under the physical laws; but this calamity owed its origin to the predominance of the animal over the moral and intellectual faculties in the commodore. The gratification which he sought to obtain was individual and selfish; and, if his Benevolence, Veneration, Conscientiousness, and Intellect, had been as alert as his domestic affections, and carried as forcibly home to his mind the welfare of the men under his charge as that of his own family; nay, if these faculties had been sufficiently alive to see the danger to which he exposed even his own life, and the happiness of his wife and children,- he never could have followed the precipitate course which consigned himself, and so many brave men, to a watery grave, within a few hours after his resolution was formed. This Some years ago, the Ogle Castle East Indiaman was offered a pilot coming up the Channel, but the captain refused assistance, professing his own skill to be sufficient. In a few hours the ship ran aground on a sand-bank, and every human being on board perished in the waves. accident also arose from the physical laws, but the unfavorable operation of it sprang from Self-Esteem, pretending to knowledge which the intellect did not possess; and, as it is only by employing the latter that obedience can be yielded to the physical laws, the destruction of the ship was indirectly the consequence of the infringement of the moral and intellectual laws. An old sailor, whom I met on the Queensferry passage, told me, that he had been nearly fifty years at sea, and once was in a fifty-gun ship in the West Indies. The captain, he said, was a 'fine man;' he knew the climate, and foresaw a hurricane coming, by its natural signs;-on one occasion in particular, he struck the topmasts, lowered the yards, lashed the guns, and made each man supply himself with food for thirty-six hours; and scarcely was this done when the hurricane came. The ship lay for four hours on her beam-ends in the water, but all was prepared; the men were kept in vigor during the storm, and fit for every exertion; the ship at last righted, suffered little damage, and proceeded on her voyage. The flect which she convoyed was dispersed, and a great number of the ships foundered. Here we see the benefits accruing from the supremacy of the moral and intellectual faculties, and discover to what a surprising extent these present a guarantee even against the fury of the physical elements in their highest state of agitation. A striking illustration of the kind of protection afforded by high moral and intellectual qualities, even amidst the most desperate physical circumstances, is furnished by the following letter written by the late Admiral Lord Exmouth to a friend. Why do you ask me to relate the wreck of the Dutton?' says his Lordship. 'Susan, (Lady Exmouth,) and I were driving to a dinner-party at Plymouth, when we saw crowds running to the Hoe; and learning it was a wreck, I left the carriage to take her on, and joined the crowd. I saw the loss of the whole five or six hundred men was inevitable without somebody to direct them, for the last officer was pulled on shore as I reached the surf. I urged their return, which was refused; upon which I made the rope fast to myself, and was hauled through the surf on board,- established order, and did not leave her until every soul was saved but the boatswain, who would not go before me. I got safe to shore, and so did he, and the ship went all to pieces.' Indeed, there is reason to believe that the human intellect will, in time, be able, by means of science and observation, to arrive at a correct anticipation of approaching storms, and thus obtain protection against their effects. The New Zealanders, it is said, predict the changes of the weather with extraordinary skill. 'One evening, when Captain Cruise and some of his friends were returning from a long excursion up one of the rivers, although the |