SOi On the Esiahtishmetit of a Ncdional Museum. 



We owe our being and our well-being to a superior power, 

 which has ordained that our happiness shall principally de- 

 pend upon our own exertions. WisdoiTi to discern and choose 

 Jjetween good and evil, is, perhaps, sufficiently attainable by 

 all ; and gratitude for the various good presented to our 

 reach, affords a constant bias to that course of action which 

 best suits the state in which we find ourselves placed by the 

 ali- disposing Power. 



29. But, Why are we compelled to choose between good 

 Hnd evil ? 



Why is evil permitted to exist ? 



Why are we limited in faculties ? 



Why in duration of form ? 



Why are we in any respect as we are ? 

 No objects of sense or consciousness, from which alone 

 we derive knowledge, furnish us with answers to these ques- 

 tions. We must again seek light from revelation. 



30. Let us contemplate with attention the relations of our 

 forms to life, thought, and voluntary power, and to the 

 limited continuance of our mode of being ; the relations of 

 individuals to each other, and to the continuance of the 

 species; the relations of different parts of nature to anima- 

 ted beings ; the food adapted to peculiar organs ;-the organs 

 to peculiar food ; peculiar forms to various elements, or dif- 

 ferent regions of the earth ; the tendency of various objects 

 to excite our emotions ; the tendency of our natures to be so 

 affected ; the display of wisdom and wonderful contrivance 

 in the varieties of creation ; of power in the rrjagnitude of 

 •worlds, and tlie extent of their relations : — let us train our 

 thought to meditate on our relation to the mighty Author of 

 these boundless wonders. Can minds thus habitually exer- 

 cised be disunited ? Can moral duties be neglected by 

 those who reflect on the Author of all moral relations? 

 Would not all party-differences be absorbed, all base pro- 

 pensities be over^vheiaicd by the magnitude of the one glo- 

 rious object of our contemplation? Would not wisdom 

 result from the constant contem'plation of the Ibuntain of 

 all wisdom ? Would not benevolence flow throughout all 

 beings from the contemplation of benevolence wide as the 



universe. 



