who have been engaged in them, that it may long be a matter of considerable doubt with such persons, whether, even amidst all the confusion they have created, they are not still entitled to consider themselves as co-operators with Divine Providence for the final production of great good to their fellow-creatures;and the true character of their designs, is thus not ascertained till the mists of passion have vanished from their eyes and they are in a condition to look with more calm consideration on the scene of desolation, which they at last perceive to be spreading around them, and to have proceeded from the very causes to which, in their short-sightedness or folly, they once looked only for renovated beauty to all the landscape of life.

Another law, consequently, which may be deduced from the preceding, is, that changes for good in the human condition may naturally be expected to be much more enduring than those whose natural tendency is to produce confusion and evil. For these latter are out of harmony with the scheme which Divine Providence is carrying forward-are, in truth, temporary interruptions to the progress of that scheme and have a necessary tendency to entail distress and misery on all who are within the sphere of their operation-and must, therefore, give incessant occasion to exertions more

or less successful, to remove their pressure, and to restore the condition of human life to a more natural and less oppressive state. They are like tempests in the material world-or diseases in the bodily constitution of man-which always tend towards their own extinction-and which cannot last for a very long period, without either exhausting their energies, or giving way before the natural play of the beneficent and healthy impulses which, throughout all nature, are the true instruments, by means of which the Supreme Ruler of life conducts the affairs of his government. But, changes for good are in accordance with the plan of Providence--and unless wilfully broken up by the restlessness, or ignorance, or folly of men-who, indeed, are subject to occasional fits of derangement, which prompt them to quarrel even with their best blessings-have a natural tendency to incorporate themselves with the entire order of nature-and to shed a healthy and invigorating impulse through all the forms of private-of domestic-and of public life.

Another very important consideration to be kept in view by those who are in the midst of actual changes, or who are called to the anticipation of them, is, that the character of all such great alterations is to be determined, not by the vague professions which men make of their ul

timate intentions-but by the measures to which they actually have recourse, and by the direction which these measures seem evidently to be taking. We proceed, in stating this rule, upon the supposition, that men may be quite sincere in their vague anticipations of the good to be produced by the measures to which they give their sanction—but we insist, at the same time, that the human imagination, when employed in the anticipation of future results, is at once one of the most excitable, and, at the same time, delusive, of all powers-and, at any rate, that the ultimate purposes and tendencies of any great change, are, in almost all cases, beyond the cognizance of those limited powers with which man is gifted,—and imply, when too decidedly asserted, a presumptuous interference, on his part, with the procedure of a wisdom and foresight infinitely above his own. We also insist, that good never, in any case, requires to be effected by means which are obviously evil-and that, therefore, when such evil is resorted to, under whatever pretences and however sincerely intended for ultimate good, disaster and humiliation, and a long train of unforeseen miseries, are certainly in preparation-and that amidst all our darkness, we have thus an infallible standard, by which to judge of

the true character of any proposed change-namely, the line of conduct to which it directs its adherents and the unavoidable consequences to which, in the prosecution of that course, they must expose themselves or their successors.

And from all this, it follows, in the last place, that the duty-the incumbent duty of every man, amidst such events, is to take care, that his own measures, or those to which he gives his approbation, be, at the present, and at each successive moment, such as he can justify, on their own grounds, to his own mind-leaving it to Divine Providence to bring forth the issue and never permitting himself to believe, that any thing but evil can arise---whatever may be the vague suggestions of his imagination-from methods that are obviously evil.

It is true that the purpose of Divine Providence ---and the ultimate result of his operations---is to bring good out of evil--" that even the wrath of man is made to praise him--and that he turneth the hearts of men as he doeth the rivers of water" -but human wrath-and human error-and human commotion, are not, therefore, things to be approved of by man-nor are the courses to which they lead such, as in the short-sightedness of his

views, he can be justified in furthering. If it were otherwise, then would there be, not only an apology, but a justification, for all the evil that has ever had a place in the public or in the private doings of the human race--and therefore, while it is true, that God overruleth all evil for good, we are not authorized in choosing evil, that good may come--but rather our duty is to co-operate with the ultimate purposes of Providence, by pursuing in our individual and private courses, that good and orderly progress to which it is the intention of Providence to make all temporal evil to conduce. If we do evil, either in our private or public capacities, we must reap the fruit of our doings, however Divine Providence may eventually make our evil to subserve his purposes ;---but if we choose that way which God approves, then we become fellow-workers with him, in the grand scheme which he is carrying forward-and all things, both present and future, will work together to us for good. In a word, in whatever circumstanceswhether public or private, we may find ourselves,

our duty is to do that which we perceive at the time, and on a comprehensive consideration of all circumstances, to be right-and to leave it to a higher wisdom than ours to bring forth its own infi