ly to light. We may then advantageously compare them, and use the one as a means of elucidating or correcting our views of the other.

To the best of my knowledge, there is not one practical result of the natural laws expounded in the subsequent pages, which does not harmonize precisely with the moral precepts of the New Testament. Indeed, this work has been characterized by some individuals as the philosophy of Christian morality, because they regard it as exhibiting the natural foundations of the admirable precepts which in the New Testament are taught only dogmatically. It is objected, however, that, by omitting the sanction of future reward and punishment, this treatise leaves out the highest, best, and most efficacious class of motives to virtuous conduct. This objection is founded on a misapprehension of the object of the book. It is my purpose to show, that the rewards and punishments of human actions are infinitely more complete, certain, and efficacious, in this life, than is generally believed; but by no means to interfere with the sanctions to virtue afforded by the prospect of future retribution. It appears to me that every action which is morally wrong in reference to a future life, is equally wrong and inexpedient with relation to this world; and that it is of essential advantage to virtue to prove this to be the case. Having observed a great tendency in many religious men to overlook the importance of understanding the moral administration of this world, and to turn their attention too exclusively to the next, I have endeavored to present the administration of the present world in a clear light, calculated to arrest attention, and to draw towards it that degree of consideration to which it is justly entitled This proceeding will be recognised as the more necessary, if one principle largely insisted on in the following pages shall be admitted to be sound, viz. that religion operates on the human mind, in subordination, and not in contradiction, to its natural constitution. If this view be well founded it will be indispensable that all the natural conditions

required by the human constitution as preliminaries 13 moral and religious conduct be complied with, before any purely religious teaching can produce its full effects. If, for example, an ill-constituted brain be unfavorable to the appreciation and practice of religious truth, it is not an unimportant inquiry, whether any, and what, influence can be exercised by human means in improving the size and proportions of the mental organs. If certain physical carcumstances and occupations, such as insufficient food and clothing, unwholesome workshops and dwelling-places, diet, and severe and long protracted labor,-have a natural tendency to blunt all the higher feelings and faculties of the mind, in consequence of their influence on the nervous system in general, and the brain in particular,-and if religious emotions cannot be experienced with full effect by individuals so situate,-the ascertainment, with a view to removal, of the nature, causes, and effects, of these impediments to holiness, is not a matter of indifference This view has not been systematically adopted and pursued by the religiou instructors of mankind in any age, or any country, and, in my humble opinion, for this sole reason, that the state of moral and physical science did not enable them either to appreciate its importance, or to carry it into effect. By presenting Nature in all her simplicity and strength, a new impulse and direction may perhaps be given to their understandings; and they may be induced to consider whether their universally confessed failure to render men as virtuous and happy as they desired, may not to some extent have arisen from theit non-fulfilment of the natural conditions instituted by the Creator as preliminaries to success. They have complained of war waged, openly or secretly, by philosophy against religion; but they have not duly considered whether religion itself warrants them in treating philosophy and al its dictates with neglect in their instruction cf the people True philosophy is a revelation of the Divine Will mani fested in creation; it harmonizes with all truth, and can not with impunity be neglected.

27

CHAPTER I

ON NATURAL LAWS.

IN natural science, three suojects of inquiry may be dis tinguished: 1st, What exists? 2dly, What is the purpose or design of what exists? and, 3dly, Why was what exists designed for such uses as it evidently subserves?

It is matter of fact, for instance, that arctic regions and the torrid zone exist that a certain kind of moss is abundant in Lapland in winter,—that the rein-deer feeds on it, and enjoys health and vigor in situations where most other animals would die; that camels exist in Africa,-that they have broad hoofs, and stomachs fitted to retain water for a considerable time, and that they flourish amid arid tracts of sand, where the rein-deer would hardly live for a day. All this falls under the inquiry, What exists?

In contemplating these facts, the understanding is naturally led to infer that one object of the Lapland moss is to feed the rein-deer, and that one purpose of the deer is to assist man; and that broad feet have been given to the camel to allow it to walk on sand, and a retentive stomach to fit it for arid places in which water is found only at wide intervals. These conclusions result from inquiries into the uses or purposes of what exists; and such inquiries constitute a legitimate exercise of the human intellect.

But 3dly, we may ask, Why were the physical elements of nature created such as they are? Why were summer, autumn, spring, and winter introduced? Why were animals formed of organized matter? Why were trackless wastes of snow and burning sand called into existence? These are inquiries why what exists was made such as it is, or into he will of the Deity in creation.

Now, man's perceptive faculties are adequate to the first

inquiry, and his reflective faculties to the second; but it may well be doubted whether he has powers suited to the third. My investigations are confined to the first and second, and I do not discuss the third.

It cannot be too much insisted on, that the Creator has bostowed definite constitutions on physical nature and on man and animals, and that they are regulated by fixed laws A law in the common acceptation, denotes a rule of action; it implies a subject which acts, and that the actions or phenomena which that subject exhibits take place in an established and regular manner; and this is the sense in which I shall use it, when treating of physical substances and beings. Water, for instance, when at he level of the sea, an combined with that portion of heat indicated by 32° of Fahrenheit s thermomete, freezes or becomes solid; when combined with the rtion denoted by 212° of that instrument, it rises into vapor or steam. Here water and heat are the substances, and the freezing and rising in vapor are the appearances or phenomena presented by them; and when we say that these take place according to a law of Nature, we mean only that these modes of action appear, to our ntellects, to be established in the very constitution of the water and heat, and in their natural relationship to each other; and that the processes of freezing and rising in vapor are constant appearances, when they are combined in these proportions, other conditions being the same.

The ideas chiefly to be kept in view are, 1st, That all substances and beings have received a definite natural constitution; 2dly, That every mode of action, which is said to take place according to a natural law, is inherent in the constitution of the substance or being; and, 3dly, That the mode of action described is universal and invariable, whereever and whenever the substances or beings are found in the same condition. For example, water, at the level of the sea, freezes and boils at the same temperature, in China, in France, in Peru, and in England; and there is no exception to the regularity win which it exhibits these appcar

ances, when all its other conditions are the same This ast qualification, however, must constantly be attended to in all departments of science. If water be carried to the top of a mountain 20,000 feet high, it will boil at a lower temperature than 212°; but this depends on its relationship to the air, and takes place also according to fixed and ir variable principles. The air exerts a great pressure on water At the level of the sea the pressure is every where nearly the same, and in that situation the freezing and boiling points correspond all over the world; but on the top of a high mounain the pressure is much less, and the vapor, not being held down by so great a power of resistance, rises at a lower temperature than 212° But this change of appearances does not indicate a change in the constitution of the water and the heat, but only a variation in the circumstances in which they are placed; and hence it is not correct to say, that water boiling on the tops of high mountains, at a lower temperature than 212°, is an exception to the general law of Nature. There are no exceptions to the laws of Nature; for the Creator is too wise and too powerful to make imperfect or inconsistent arrangements. The error is in the human mind inferring the law to be, that water boils at 212° in every altitude; when the real law is only that it boils at that temperature, at the level of the sea, in all countries,— and that it boils at a lower temperature the higher it is carried, because then the pressure of the atmosphere is less.

Intelligent beings are capable of observing nature and of modifying their actions. By means of their faculties, the laws impressed by the Creator on physical substances become known to them; and, when perceived, constitute laws to them, by which to regulate their conduct. For example, it is a physical law, that boiling water destroys the muscular and nervous systems of man. This is the result purely of the constitution of the body, and the relation between it and heat; and man cannot alter or suspend the law. But whenever the relation, and the consequences of disregarding it, are percei ed, the mind is prompted to avoid infringo