had, through his efforts, been unfolded, shall fing the fong of their own redemption, and pouring forth praises to God and to their Saviour, fhall repeat his new name in heaven, give thanks for his earthly virtues, as the chofen inftruments of divine mercy to themselves, and not seldom perhaps turn their eyes toward him, as from the fun to its image in the fountain, with secondary gratitude and the permitted utterance of a human love! Were but a hundred men to combine a deep conviction that virtuous habits may be formed by the very means by which knowledge is communicated, that men may be made better, not only in confequence, but by the mode, and in the process, of inftruction; -were but a hundred men to combine that clear conviction of this, which I myself at this moment feel, even as I feel the certainty of my being, with the perfeverance of a Clarkfon or a Bell, the promises of ancient prophecy would disclose themselves to our faith, even as when a noble castle hidden from us by an intervening mist, discovers itself by its reflection in the tranquil lake, on the opposite shore of which we ftand gazing.* What an awful duty, what a nurse of all other, the fairest virtues, does not hope become! We are bad ourselves, because we defpair of the goodness of others. If then it be a truth, attested alike by common * This is, I fear, too complex, too accidental an image to be conveyed by words to thofe, who have not seen it themselves in nature. 1830. feeling and common sense, that the greater part of human misery depends directly on human vices and the remainder indirectly, by what means can we act on men fo as to remove or preclude these vices and purify their principle of moral election? The question is not by what means each man is to alter his own character - in order to this, all the means prescribed and all the aidances given by religion, may be neceffary for him. Vain, of themselves, may be the fayings of the wife In ancient and in modern books inrolled Unless he feel within Some fource of confolation from above, This is not the queftion. Virtue would not be virtue, could it be given by one fellow-creature to another. To make use of all the means and appliances in our power to the actual attainment of rectitude, is the abstract of the duty which we owe to ourselves: to supply those means as far as we can, comprizes our duty to others. The question then is, what are these means? Can they be any other than the communication of knowledge, and the removal of those evils and impediments which prevent its reception ? It may not be in our power to combine both, but it is in the power of every man to contribute to the former, who is sufficiently informed to feel that it is his duty. If it * Samfon Agonistes. be said, that we should endeavour not so much to remove ignorance, as to make the ignorant religious ;-religion herself, through her facred oracles, anfwers for me, that all effective faith pre-fuppofes knowledge and individual conviction. If the mere acquiefcence in truth, uncomprehended and unfathomed, were fufficient, few indeed would be the vicious and the miferable, in this country at least, where speculative infidelity is, God be praised! confined to a small number. Like bodily deformity, there is one instance here and another there; but three in one place are already an undue proportion. It is highly worthy of observation, that the inspired writings received by Christians are distinguishable from all other books pretending to inspiration, from the scriptures of the Brahmins, and even from the Koran, in their strong and frequent recommendations of truth. I do not here mean veracity, which cannot but be enforced in every code which appeals to the religious principle of man; but knowledge. This is not only extolled as the crown and honour of a man, but to seek after it is again and again commanded us as one of our most facred duties. Yea, the very perfection and final blifs of the glorified spirit is represented by the Apostle as a plain aspect, or intuitive beholding, of truth in its eternal and immutable fource. Not that knowledge can of itself do all! The light of religion is not that of the moon, light without heat; but neither is its warmth that of the ftove, warmth without light. Religion is the fun, the warmth of which indeed fwells, and ftirs, and actuates the life of nature, but who at the fame time beholds all the growth of life with a master-eye, makes all objects glorious on which he looks, and by that glory vifible to all others. But though knowledge be not the only, yet that it is an indispensable and most effectual, agent in the direction of our actions, one confideration will convince us. It is an undoubted fact of human nature, that the sense of impoffibility quenches all will. Sense of utter inaptitude does the fame. The man fhuns the beautiful flame, which is eagerly grasped at by the infant. The sense of a disproportion of certain after-harm to present gratification produces effects almost equally uniform: though almost perishing with thirst, we should dash to the earth a goblet of wine in which we had seen a poison infused, though the poison were without taste or odour, or even added to the pleasures of both. Are not all our vices equally inapt to the universal end of human actions, the fatisfaction of the agent? Are not their pleasures equally difproportionate to the after-harm? Yet many a maiden, who will not grasp at the fire, will yet purchase a wreath of diamonds at the price of her health, her honour, nay, and she herself knows it at the moment of her choice,―at the facrifice of her peace and happiness. The fot would reject the poifoned cup, yet the trembling hand with which he raifes his daily or hourly draught to his lips, has not left him ignorant that this too is altogether a poison. I know it will be objected, that the confequences foreseen are lefs immediate; that they are diffused over a larger fpace of time; and that the flave of vice hopes where no hope is. This, however, only removes the question one step further: for why should the distance or diffufion of known confequences produce fo great a difference? Why are men the dupes of the present moment? Evidently because the conceptions are indistinct in the one case, and vivid in the other; because all confused conceptions render us restlefs; and because reftleffness can drive us to vices that promise no enjoyment, no not even the ceffation of that restlessness. This is indeed the dread punishment attached by nature to habitual vice, that its impulfes wax as its motives wane. No object, not even the light of a solitary taper in the far distance, tempts the benighted mind from before; but its own reftleffness dogs it from behind, as with the iron goad of deftiny. What then is or can be the preventive, the remedy, the counteraction, but the habituation of the intellect to clear, diftinct, and adequate conceptions concerning all things that are the poffible objects of clear conception, and thus to referve the deep feelings which belong, as by a natural right to those obscure ideas * * I have not expreffed myself as clearly as I could wish. But the truth of the affertion, that deep feeling has a tendency to combine with obscure ideas, in preference to diftinct and clear notions, may be proved by the history of fanatics and fanaticism in all ages and countries. The odium theologicum is even proverbial: and it is the common complaint of philofophers and philofophic historians, that the |