obstacles to improvement is, that many of the race aro contented with these enjoyments, and consider it painful to be compelled to seek higher sources of gratification. But to the animal nature of man have been added, by a bountiful Creator, moral sentiments and reflecting faculties, which not only place him above all other creatures on earth, but constitute him a different being from any of them, a rational and accountable creature. These faculties are his best and highest gifts, and the sources of his purest and intensest pleasures. They lead him directly to the great objects of his existence, obedience to God, and love towards his fellow men. But this peculiarity attends them, that while his animal faculties act powerfully of themselves, his rational faculties require to be cultivated, exercised, and-instructed, before they will yield their full harvest of enjoyment.

The Creator has so arranged the external world as to hold forth every possible inducement to man to cultivate his higher powers, nay almost to constrain him to do so. The philosophic mind, in surveying the world as prepared for the reception of the human race, perceives in external nature, a vast assemblage of stupendous powers, too great for the feeble hand of man entirely to control, but kindly subjected, within certain limits, to the influence of his will. Man is introduced on earth, apparently helpless and unprovided for as a homeless stranger; but the soil on which he treads is endowed with a thousand capabilities of production, which require only to be excited by his intelligence, to yield him the most ample returns. The impetuous torrent rolls its waters to the main; but as it dashes over the mountain-cliff, the human hand is capable of withdrawing it from its course, and rendering its powers subservient to his will. Ocean extends over half the globe her liquid plain, in which no path appears, and the rude winds oft lift her waters to the sky; but there the skill of man may launch the strong-knit bark, spread forth the canvas to the gale, and make the trackless deep a highway through the

world. In such a state of things, knowledge is truly power: and it is highly important to human beings to become acquainted with the constitution and relations of every object around them, that they may discover its capabilities of ministering to their own advantage. Farther, where these physical energies are too great to be controlled, man has received intelligence by which he may observe their course, and accommodate his conduct to their influence. This capacity of adaptation is a valuable substitute for the power of regulating them by his will. He cannot arrest the sun in its course, so as to avert the wintry storms, and cause perpetual spring to bloom around him; but, by the proper exercise of his intelligence and corporeal energies, he is able to foresee the approach of bleak skies and rude winds, and to place himself in safety from their injurious effects. These powers of controlling nature, and of accommodating his conduct to its course, are the direct results of his rational faculties; and in proportion to their cultivation is his sway extended. Man, while ignorant, is in a helpless condition. But let him put forth his proper human capacities, and he then finds himself invested with the power to rear, to build, to fabricate, and to store up provisions; and by availing himself of these resources, and accommodating his conduct to the course of nature's laws, he is able to smile in safety beside the cheerful hearth, when the elements maintain their fiercest war abroad.

Again: We are surrounded by countless beings, inferior and equal to ourselves, whose qualities yield us the greatest happiness, or bring upon us the bitterest evil, according as we affect them agreeably or disagreeably by our conduct. To draw forth all their excellences, and cause them to diffuse joy around us-to avoid touching the harsher springs of their constitution, and bringing painful discord to our ears-it is indispensably necessary that we know the nature of our fellows, and act with a habitual regard to the relations established by the Creator between ourselves and them.

Man, ignorant and uncivilized, is a ferocious, sensual, and superstitious savage. The world affords some enjoyments to his animal feelings, but it confounds his moral and intellectual faculties. External nature exhibits to his mind a mighty chaos of events, and a dread display of power. The chain of causation appears too intricate to be unravelled, and the power too stupendous to be controlled. Order and beauty, indeed, occasionally gleam forth to his eye from detached portions of creation, and seem to promise happiness and joy; but more frequently, clouds and darkness brood over the scene, and disappoint his fondest expectations. Evil seems so mixed up with good, that he regards it as either its direct product, or its inseparable accompaniment. Nature is never contemplated with a clear conception of its adaptation to the purpose of promoting the true enjoyment of the human race, or with a well founded confidence in the wisdom and benevolence of its Author. Man, when civilized and illuminated by knowledge, on the other hand, discovers in the objects and occurrences around him, a scheme beautifully arranged for the gratification of his whole powers, animal, moral, and intellectual; he recognises in himself the intelligent and accountable subject of an all-bountiful Creator, and in joy and gladness desires to study the Creator's works, to ascertain his laws, and to yield to them a steady and a willing obedience. Without undervaluing the pleasures of his animal nature, he tastes the higher, more refined, and more enduring delights of his moral and intellectual capacities, and he then calls aloud for education as indispensable to the full enjoyment of his rational powers.

If this representation of the condition of the human being on earth be correct, we perceive clearly the unspeakable advantage of applying our minds to gain knowledge of our own constitution and that of external nature, and of regulating our conduct according to rules drawn from the information acquired. Our constitution and our position equally imply, that the grand object of our existence is,

not that we should remain contented with the pleasures of mere animal life, but that we should take the dignified and far more delightful station of moral and rational occupants of this lower world.

If the physical history of the globe clearly indicates progression in an advancing series of changes, the civil history of man equally proclaims the march, although often vacillating and slow, of moral and intellectual improvement. To avoid too extensive an inquiry, unsuitable to an introductory discourse, let us confine our attention to the aspects presented by society in our native country.

At the time of the Roman invasion, the inhabitants of Britain lived as savages, and appeared in painted skins. After the Norman conquest, one part of the nation was placed in the condition of serfs, and condemned to labor like beasts of burden, while another devoted themselves to war. They fought battles during the day, and in the night probably dreamed of bloodshed and broils. Next came the age of chivalry. These generations severally believed their own condition to be the permanent and inevitable lot of man. Now, however, have come the present arrangements of society, in which millions of men are shut up in cotton and other manufactories for ten or twelve hours a-day; others labor under ground in mines; others plough the fields; while thousands of higher rank pass their whole lives in idleness and dissipation. The elementary principles, both of mind and body, were the same in our painted ancestors, in their chivalrous descendants, and in us, their shopkeeping, manufacturing, and moneygathering children. Yet how different the external circumstances of the ndividuals of these several generations! If, in the savage state, the internal faculties of man were in harmony among themselves, and if his external condition was in accordance with them, he must then have enjoyed all the happiness that his nature admitted of, and must have erred when he changed;—if the institutions and customs of the age of chivalry were calculated to gratify

is whole nature harmoniously, he must have been unhap py as a savage, and must be miserable now;-if his present condition be the perfection of his nature, he must have been far from enjoyment, both as a savage and as a feudal warrior; and if none of these conditions have been in accordance with his constitution, he must still have his happiness to seek. Every age, accordingly, has testified that it was not in possession of contentment; and the question presents itself, If human nature has received a definite constitution, and if one arrangement of external circumstances be more suited to yield it gratification than another, what are that constitution and that arrangement? No one among the philosophers has succeeded in informing us.If we in Britain have not reached the limits of attainable perfection, what are we next to attempt? Are we and our posterity to spin and weave, build ships, and speculate in commerce, as the highest occupations to which humai nature can aspire, and persevere in these labors till the end of time? If not, who shall guide the helm in our future voyage on the ocean of existence? and by what chart of philosophy shall our steersman be directed? The British are here cited as a type of mankind at large; for in every age and every clime, similar races have been run, and with similar conclusions. Only one answer can be returned to these inquiries. Man is evidently a progressive being; and the Creator, having designed a higher path for him than for the lower creatures, has given him intellect to discover his own nature and that of external objects, and left bim, by the exercise of that intellect, to find out for himself the method of placing his faculties in harmony among themselves, and in accordance with the external world. Time and experience are necessary to accomplish these ends, and history exhibits the human race only in a state of progress towards the full development of their powers, and the attainment of rational enjoyment.

As long as man remained ignorant of his own nature, he could not, of design, form his institutions in accordance