o94. On Natural and Moral Philosophy. 



operate to the ultimate purpose for which mind 

 and moral mind are in any degree at first con- 

 ferred; and therefore are also, which, may 

 counteract, pervert, and almost destroy this 

 purpose. But of these I take no notice ; first, 

 because there is nothing singular in this, since 

 in. every direction of man and of his mind, there 

 are both favourable and unfavourable attendant 

 circumstances ; and secondly, because a com- 

 plete system of mind and moral is very far from 

 being my object. I wish only to establish a 

 first leading principle, as the foundation of all 

 subsequent enquiry in moral, as a safe guide to 

 every one, who would modestly and soberly 

 philosophise on man ; and, if this principle be 

 founded in the truth of nature, enable him to 

 detect the falsity of other theories, which are 

 derived from other principles.* 



I receive it therefore as a concessnm that 

 mind in man has an elementary moral con- 



* It is a question not impertinent to the object of this essay, 

 *' Whence originate these finer and more elegant tastes 

 of man, this delight in the orderly, the beautiful, the 

 splendid and the sublime ? Whence, indeed, but from the 

 designing hand of his Creator, who intending for him the 

 moral as the highest perfection of mind, prepares liim tp 

 feel and to enjoy the still more beautiful and sublime of 

 moral by a delicate gradation of tastes, which to him alone 

 of all the animals that inhabit this globe are appropriate, 

 which themselves have nothmg of the animal .character. 



