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OPPOSITION 

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OPPOSITION, is wont to be regarded as an evil of no ordinary magni- 

 tude by every will, every power, every authority, and yet it is to the 

 constant operation of this principle, that every will, power, and autho- 

 rity, are indebted for their existence and preservation. Indeed, if 

 ceasing to look at things with a hurried and superficial glance, we 

 extend our sphere of observation, we shall find this great principle most 

 universally predominant throughout the combinations of the natural and 

 moral world, and most strongly identified with the laws which govern 

 their being, and regulate their motions according to that stupendous 

 rule of Providence which delights in drawing harmony and order, out 

 of discord and confusion. By it the celestial bodies are held in their 

 course, and the elements which surround us kept alive and invigorated. 

 Light could not exist without shadow. It is the contrast which gives 

 relief to objects. If fire encounter nothing but such a light material as 

 straw, it is instantly extinguished, the resistance of a hard substance 

 like wood, is necessary to strengthen and preserve it. If we look at 

 the moral world, the recurrence of this principle is still more striking. 

 Man seems born to struggle with difficulties, opposition is essential to 

 the growth and developement of the powers of his body and mind. 

 Every thing that surrounds him is rugged and untractable, and it is 

 only by continual exertion, that he can succeed in overcoming the diffi- 

 culties which stand between him and the gratification of his desires. 

 His wants are perpetually impelling him to exertion, and by this con- 

 tinual exercise his faculties ripen to perfection, and are by the same 

 means preserved in vigour. On the magnitude of the opposition 

 depends the degree of honour to be awarded to its being surmounted. 

 The joys of the husbandman, the glories of the conqueror, the happiness 

 of tbe lover, all rise into importance, in proportion to the magnitude of 

 the opposition which has been overcome in the attainment of their 

 several objects. Again, let us consider education, what is its scope and 

 qbject? Its chief merit seems to consist in the opposition of a strong 

 and wise master, to the unsteadiness, caprice, and idleness of infancy. 

 The man differs but little from the boy, men are but grown up children ; 

 the continual urgency of a powerful opposition is necessary to withhold 

 him from blindly abandoning himself to the passions and selfishness of 

 his nature; heedless of consequences, he would rush forward to snatch 

 the pleasure which lies within his reach; and to keep him within 

 bounds, to restrain and regulate his motions, the strong checks of 

 religion and society are called in, and force all private interests to be 

 merged in those of the community at large. 



On the other hand, the ministers of that religion, the organs of that 

 law, the instruments of that authority, armed with religious, civil, and 

 military power, would be liable to swerve from their appointed course, 

 would lead the human race after them in their eccentricities, direct it 

 according to their caprices, and thus reduce it to slavery ; if the neces- 

 sary and formidable opposition of virtue, and the cry of public opinion, 

 did not enlighten their reason and regulate them in their course. 



In this single principle, is comprehended the whole mystery of 

 society. As long as a society possesses within itself the different con- 



