260 Of the delation of Tradition to Falcetiology. 



seological, may occur in any of the palsetiological sciences. 

 We may have to compare and to reconcile the evidence of exist- 

 ing phenomena with that of historical tradition. But under 

 some circumstances this process of concihation may assume an 

 interest of another kind, on which we will make a few remarks. 



3. Natural and Providential History of the World, — 'We may 

 contemplate the existence of Man upon the earth, his origin 

 and his progress, in the same manner as we contemplate the 

 existence of any other race of animals ; namely, in a purely 

 palsetiological view. We may consider how far our knowledge 

 of laws of causation enables us to explain his diffusion and mi- 

 gration, his differences and resemblances, his actions and works. 

 And this is the view of man as a member of the natural course 

 of things. 



But man, at the same time the contemplator and the subject 

 of his own contemplation, endowed with faculties and powers 

 which make him a being of a different nature from other ani- 

 mals, cannot help regarding his own actions and enjoyments, 

 his recollections and his hopes, under an aspect quite different 

 from any that we have yet had presented to us. We have 

 been endeavouring to place in a clear light the Fundamental 

 Ideas, such as that of Cause, on which depends our knowledge 

 of the natural course of things. But there are other Ideas to 

 which man necessarily refers his actions ; he is led by his na- 

 ture, not only to consider his own actions, and those of his 

 fellow-men, as springing out of this or that cause, leading to 

 this or that material result; but also as good or bad, as what 

 they ought or ought not to be. He has Ideas of moral rela- 

 tions as well as those Ideas of material relations with which we 

 have hitherto been occupied. He is a moral as well as a na- 

 tural agent. 



Contemplating himself and the world around him by the 

 light of his Moral Ideas, man is led to the conviction that his 

 moral faculties were bestowed upon him by design and for a 

 purpose ; that he is the subject of a moral government ; that 

 I^Jie course of the world is directed by the Power which go- 

 verns it, to the unfolding and perfecting of man's moral na- 

 ture ; that this guidance may be traced in the career of indi- 

 viduals and of the world ; that ther<i is a providential us weli 

 M a natural course of thinge. 



