THE PHILOSOPHY OF A FUTURE STATE. 



sitj of space and of duration, and the knowledge 

 we are capable of acquiring respecting the dis 

 tant regions of the universe, are strong presump 

 tions and evidences of the eternal destination of 

 man. 



If the universe consisted solely of the globe on 

 which we dwell, with its appendages, and were 

 the spaces with which it is surrounded nothing 

 more than an immense void, it would not appear 

 surprising were the existence of man to terminate 

 in the tomb. After having traversed this earthly 

 ball for eighty or a hundred years, and surveyed 

 all the varieties on its surface ; after having ex 

 perienced many of the physical and moral evils 

 connected with its present constitution, and felt 

 that &quot; all is vanity and vexation of spirit,&quot; and 

 that no higher prospect, and no further scope for 

 the exercise of his faculties were presented to 

 view ; he would be ready to exc aim with Job, 

 &quot; I loathe it, I would not live alway ; let me 

 alone, for my days are vanity : my soul chooseth 

 strangling and death, rather than my- Ufe.&quot; 

 To run the same tiresome round of giddy plea 

 sures, and to gaze perpetually on the same un 

 varied objects, from one century to another, 

 without the hope of future enjoyment, would af 

 ford no gratification commensurate with the de 

 sires and capacities of the human mind. Its 

 powers would languish, its energies would be 

 destroyed, its progress to perfection would be for 

 ever interrupted, and it would roam in vain 

 amidst the surrounding void in quest of objects 

 to stimulate its activity. 



But, beyond the precincts of this earthly scene, 

 ie a wide and unbounded prospect lies before us ;&quot; 

 and the increasing light of modern science has 

 enabled us to penetrate into its distant regions, 

 and to contemplate some of its sublime arid 

 glorious objects. Within the limits of the solar 

 system of which our world forms a part, there 

 have been discovered twenty-nine planetary bo 

 dies, which contain a mass of matter more than 

 two thousand five hundred times greater than the 

 earth, besides the numerous comets, which are 

 traversing the plenetary regions in all directions, 

 and the immense globe of the sun, which is like 

 a universe in itself, and which is five hundred 

 times larger than the earth and all the planets 

 and comets taken together. These bodies differ 

 from each other in their magnitude, distances 

 and motions, and in the scenery with which their 

 surfaces are diversified ; and some of them are 

 encircled with objects the most splendid and su 

 blime. They appear to be furnished with every 

 thing requisite for the accommodation of intel 

 lectual beings, are capable of containing a 

 population many thousands of times greater than 

 that of our world, and are doubtless replenished 

 witn myriads of rational inhabitants. Within 

 the limits of this system the soul of man would 

 find full scope for the exertion of all its powers, 

 capacities and activities, during a series of ages. 



Our views of the universe, however, are not 

 confined to the system with whicn we are more 

 immediately connected. Every star which twin 

 kles in the canopy of heaven, is, on good grounds, 

 concluded to be a sun, and the centre of a mag 

 nificent system similar to our own ; and perhaps 

 surrounded with worlds more spacious and splen 

 did than any of the planetary globes which we 

 are permitted to contemplate. Nearly a thou 

 sand of these systems are visible to every ob 

 server, when he directs his eye, in a clear winter s 

 night, to the vault of heaven. Beyond all that is 

 visible to the unassisted eye, a common telescope 

 enables us to discern several thousands more. 

 With higher degrees of magnifying power, ten 

 thousands more, which lie scattered at immea 

 surable distances beyond the former, may still be 

 described. With the best instruments which art 

 has hitherto constructed, many millions have 

 been detected in the different regions of the sky 

 leaving us no room to doubt, that hundreds of 

 millions more, which no human eye will ever dis 

 cern in the present state, are dispersed through 

 out the illimitable tracts of creation. So that no 

 limits appear to the scene of Creating Power, arid 

 to that vast empire over which the moral govern 

 ment of the Almighty extends. Amidst this 

 boundless scene of Divine Wisdom and Omnipo 

 tence, it is evident, that the soul might expatiate 

 in the full exercise of its energies, during ages 

 numerous as the drops of the ocean, without 

 ever arriving at a boundary to interrupt its ex 

 cursions. 



Now, it ought to be carefully remarked, in the 

 first place, that God endowed the mind of man 

 with those faculties by which he has been ena 

 bled to compute the bulk of the earth, to deter 

 mine the size and distances of the planets, and to 

 make all the other discoveries to which I now 

 allude. In the course of his providence he led 

 the human mind into that train of thought, and 

 paved the way for those inventions by means of 

 which the grandeur and extent of his operations 

 in the distant regions of space have been opened 

 to our view. It, therefore, appears to have been 

 his will and intention, that the glories of his em 

 pire, in the remote spaces of creation, should be, 

 in some measure, unveiled to the inhabitants of 

 our world. 



Again, when the soul has once got a glimpse 

 of the magnificence and immensity of creation, 

 it feels the most ardent desire to have the veil, 

 which now interposes between us and the re 

 mote regions of the universe, withdrawn, and 

 to contemplate at a nearer distance the splen 

 dours of those worlds whose suns we behold 

 twinkling from afar. A thousand conjectures 

 and inquiries are suggested to the mind, in re 

 lation to the systems and worlds which are dis 

 persed through the immensity of space. Ar 

 all those vast globes peopled with inhabitants? 

 Are they connected together, under the govw- 



