c National Miiseum. 20S 



jince of any mode of being may be as that of an artist to a ma- 

 chine : but the relation of an adequate power to the welfare 

 and happiness of intellectual beings is a moral relation ; a 

 relation either identical with, or analogous to, sympathy, or 

 benevolence, or care to produce present good, or a pruden- 

 tial view to future benefits. Such relation must proceed 

 from superior to inferior power and intelligence. 



26. Experience and consciousness, then, demonstrate our 

 relations to a power stupendous and immeaiurabie ; the au- 

 thor of all relations to life, thought, and voluntary power: 

 a power that regards our happiness ; that has contemplated 

 prospectively our welfare in futurity ; the welfore of the maa 

 ere the fcetus was perfect in the womb ; that has limited the 

 relations of our form to life, and thought, and voluntary 

 power, and placed there 'the limits of physical experience. 



The state of life, and thought, and voluntary power, be- 

 yond these limits muKt be sought in tfie page of Revelation, 

 which can alone elucidate those hieroglyphics in the book of 

 nature, which conjecture, aided by analogy, may partiallr 

 explore, but which appear, for the most part, to lie beyond 

 the reach of our unassisted faculties. 



• 27. We never fail to connect the idea of moral duty with 

 that of the.moral relation of inferior to superior intelligence. 

 The wqnts of our nature compel us to be social beings ; i. c. 

 place us in various moral relations one to another. The 

 power that has thus placed us, has, by this act, ordained 

 every moral duty, imposed every moral obligation. The 

 welfare of all human beings is made to depend on the general 

 observance of thcs^ obligations, the performance of these 

 duties, 



28. We know from experience and consciousness tha^ 

 our relations to all objects around us are adapted to the coht 

 tinual excitement of moral emotion. All nature teems with 

 objects of delight ; we are organized to receive it, &c. These 

 itlations are as plain as those of lungs to air, and limbs to 

 motion. We are matlc to depend on others for our happi- 

 ness : we demand their eflbrls to cflect it, and feel theiv 

 claim on us for similar exertion. Sympathy urges us to 

 4Ct before reason can adjust the measurement of right. 



