Prudence. 253 



and the man is driven in this direction or in that 

 according to the subordinate impulse that has usurp- 

 ed supreme power. The man is made a curse to 

 the world, and a ruin, by being under the control 

 of some appetite or instinct, which he knows he 

 ought to control, or which the common judgment 

 of the world declares he ought. We begin at this 

 point to see what a wide difference there is be- 

 tween man, — when we consider his whole nature, — 

 and the highest even, of the lower animals. For 

 the perfection of animals, no such power of com- 

 prehension, as we have described, is needed. Their 

 relations to the world are simple, and are fixed in 

 the best manner by impulse. The relations of man, 

 on the other hand, are of the most complex nature, 

 so that it may be said, that each man has a mission, 

 something to do in the world different from what 

 every other one has to do. 



New spheres of activity open before him, and as 

 he enters each, there has often to be an entire new 

 use of some lower activity, or an entire new adjust- 

 ment of all the lower activities, — some being re- 

 pressed which were formerly stimulated, and others 

 brought intO/ activity that were formerly kept in 

 abeyance. 



Now we can conceive of a being having all the 

 lower activities, and the comprehension, that be- 

 longs to man, simply as a rational being, and these 

 powers alone, with will. Such a being, with the 

 capacity of enjoyment and suffering, through the 

 sensibility connected with all these lower activities, 

 would become, in his highest estate, a prudent be- 



