5f)0 On Naiitrcl a?id Moral Philosophy/, 



most proper to the attainment of the end, and 

 furnishing a constant field of wise, salutary or 

 beneficent activity to man. This is, perhaps, 

 a compleat summary of the whole province of 

 reason, in which, the discovery and the appli- 

 cation of means to an end constitute its most 

 important office, every other attribute of intel- 

 lect being only preparatory thereto. Intellect, 

 however, suggests no end ; she is but the servant, 

 the minister to those other qualities of the mind, 

 which interest it in the beautiful, the sublime, 

 the useful and the moral. But whatever judg- 

 ment be formed of intellect, the capacity, the 

 elements, the principle, from which all its 

 functions emanate, must be born with the 

 man, must be a part of his primary constitu- 

 tion. That he has this capacity, this principle, 

 is a fact not to be disputed ; that in this provi- 

 sionary furniture he is of all the beings within 

 his ken either absolutely singular, or compa- 

 ratively so, every other display when con- 

 trasted with his passing into evanescence, is 

 also a fact beyond all contradiction. And if 

 iiot boYn with him. If not provided for him by 

 that being from whom the provisionary fur- 

 niture of every thing else has appeared to issue, 

 who will presume to ascertain the period at 

 which, the capacity is received by him, and affirm 

 that he is sensible of its communication ? But 



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