inent, in order to shun the torture attached by the Creator to the decomposition of the human body by heat. Similar views have long been taught by philosophers and divines. Bishop BUTLER, in particular, says:-' An Author of Nature being supposed, it is not so much a deduction of reason as a matter of experience, that we are thus under his government: under his government in the same sense as we are under the government of civil magistrates Because the annexing pleasure to some actions, and pain to others, in our power to do or forbear, and giving notice of this appointment beforehand to those whom it concerns, is the proper formal notion of government. Whether the pleasure or pain which thus follows upon our behavior, be owing to the Author of Nature's acting upon us every moment which we feel it, or to his having at once contrived and executed his own part in the plan of the world, makes no alteration as to the matter before us. For, if civil magistrates could make the sanctions of their laws take place, without interposing at all after they had passed them, without a trial and the formalities of an execution; if they were able to make their laws execute themselves, or every of fender to execute them upon himself, we should be just in the same sense under their government then as we are now; but in a much higher degree and more perfect manner. Vain is the ridicule with which one foresees some persons will divert themselves, upon finding lesser pains considered as instances of Divine punishment. There is no possibility of answering or evading the general thing here intended, without denying all final causes. For, final causes being admitted, the pleasures and pains now mentioned must be admitted too, as instances of them. if they are, if God annexes delight to some actions and uneasiness to others, with an apparent design to induce us to act so and so, then he not only dispenses happiness and Inisery, but also rewards and punishes actions. If, for example, the pain which we feel upon doing what tends to .he destruction of our bodies, suppose upon too near ap And proaches to fire, or upon wounding ourselves, be appointed by the Author of Nature to prevent our doing what thus tends to our destruction; this is al.ogether as much an instance of his punishing our actions, and consequently of our being under his government, as declaring, by a voice from heaven, that if we acted so He would inflict such pain upon us, and inflicting it whether it be greater or less.'* If, then, the reader keep in view that God is the Creator; that Nature, in the general sense, means the world which He has made,-and, in a more limited sense, the particular constitution which He has bestowed on any special object, of which we may be treating,—and that a law of Nature means the established mode in which the actions and phenomena of any creature or object exhibit themselves, and the obligation thereby imposed on inteligent beings to attend to it, he will be in no danger of misunderstanding my meaning. Every natural object has received a definite constitution, in virtue of which it acts in a particular way. There must, therefore, be as many natural laws, as there are distinct modes of action of substances and beings, viewed by themselves. But substances and beings stand in certain relations to each other, and modify each other's action, in an established and definite manner, according to that relationship; altitude, for instance, modifies the effect of heat upon water. There must, therefore, be also as many laws of Nature, as there are relations between different substances and beings. It is impossible, in the present state of knowledge, to elucidate all these laws: numberless years may elapse before they shall be discovered; but we may investigate some of the most familiar and striking of them. Those that most readily present themselves bear reference to the great classes into which the objects around us may be divided, namely, Physical, Organic, and Intelligent. I shall there • BUTLER'S Works, vol. i. p. 44. The remarks of other authors on the Laws of Nature will be found an the Appen x No. I. p. 395. fore confine myself to the physical laws, the organic laws and the laws which characterize intelligent beings. 1st, The Physical Laws embrace all the phenomena of mere matter: a heavy body, for instance, when unsupport. ed, falls to the ground with a certain accelerating force, in proportion to the distance which it falls, and its own density; and this motion is said to take place according to the law of gravitation. An acid applied to a vegetable blue color, converts it into red, and this is said to take place according to a chemical law. 2dly, Organized substances and beings stand higher in the scale of creation, and have properties peculiar to themselves. They act, and are acted upon, in conformity with their constitution, and are therefore said to be subject to a peculiar set of laws, termed the Organic. The distinguishing characteristic of this class of objects is, that the individuals of them derive their existence from other organized beings, are nourished by food, and go through a regular process of growth and decay. Vegetables and animals are the two great subdivisions of it. The organic laws are different from the merely physical: a stone, for example, does not spring from a parent stone; it does not take food; it does not increase in vigor for a time, and then decay and suffer dissolution; all which processes characterize vegetables and animals. The organic laws are superior to the merely physical. A living man, or animal, may be placed in an oven, along with the carcase of a dead animal, and remain exposed to a heat which will completely bake the dead flesh, and yet come out alive, and not seriously injured. The dead flesh is mere physical matter, and its decomposition by the heat nstantly commences; but the living animal is able, by its organic qualities, to counteract and resist, to a certain extent, that influence. The Organic Laws, therefore, mean the established modes according to which all phenomena connected with the production, health, growth, decay, and death, of vegetables and animals, take place In the caso of each animal or vegetable of the same kind, their action is always the same, in the same circumstances. Animals are the chief objects of my present observations. 3dly, Intelligent beings stand yet higher in the scale than mercly organized matter, and embrace af animals that have distinct consciousness, from the lowest of the inferior creatures up to man. The two great divisions of this class are Intelligent and Animal—and Intelligent and Moral creɛtures. The dog, horse, and elephant, for instance, belong to the former class, because they possess some degree of intelligence, and certain animal propensities, but no moral feelings; man belongs to the second, because he possesses all the three These various faculties have received a definite constitution, and stand in determinate relationship to external objects: for example, a healthy palate cannot feel wormwood sweet, nor sugar bitter; a healthy eye cannot see a rod partly plunged in water straight-because the water so modifies the rays of light, as to give to the stick the appearance of being crooked; a healthy sentiment of Benevolence cannot feel gratified with murder, nor a healthy Conscientiousness with fraud. As, therefore, the mental faculties have received a precise constitution, have been placed in fixed and definite relations to external objects, and act regularly; we speak of their acting. according to rules or laws, and call these the Moral and Intellectual Laws. Several important principles strike us very early in at tending to the natural laws, viz. 1st, Their independence. of each other; 2dly, That obedience to each of them is attended with its own reward, and disobedience with its own punishment; 3dly, That they are universal, unbending, and invariable in their operation, 4thly, That they are in harmony with the constitution of rian. 1. The independence of the natural laws may be illus. trated thus:—A ship flcats because a part of it being im mersed displaces a weight of water equal to its whole weight leaving the rema n above the fluid. A ship therefore, will float on the surface of the water as long as these physical conditions are observed; no matter although the men in it should infringe other natural laws-as, for example, although they should rob, murder, blaspheme, and commit every species of debauchery: and it will sink whenever the physical conditions are subverted, however strictly the crew and passengers may obey the moral laws In like manner, a man who swallows poison, which destroys the stomach or intestines, will die, just because an organic law has been infringed, and because it acts independently of others; although he should have taken the drug by mistake, or have been the most pious and charitable indi vidual on earth. Or, thirdly, a man may cheat, lie, steal, tyrannise, and, in short, break a great variety of the moral laws, and nevertheless be fat and rubicund, if he sedulously observe the organic laws of temperance and exercise; while, on the other hand, an individual who neglects these, may pine in disease, and be racked with torturing pains, although at the very moment he may be devoting his mind to the highest duties of humanity. 2. Obedience to each law is attended with its own reward, and disobedience with its own punishment. Thus the mariners who preserve their ship in accordance with the physical laws, reap the reward of sailing in safety; and those who permit a departure from them, are punished by the ship sinking. People who obey the moral law, enjoy the intense internal delights that spring from active moral faculties; they render themselves, moreover, objects of affection and esteem to moral and intelligent beings, who, in consequence, confer on them many other gratifications. Those who disobey that law, are tormented by insatiable desires, which, from the nature of things, cannot be grati fied; they are punished by the perpetual craving of what ever portion f moral sentiment they possess, for higher enjoyments, which are never attained; and they are objects of dislike and malevolence to therings of similar disDositions with themselves on them the evi'a |