PROOFS FROM THE LIGHT OF NATURE. 



went indeed, but are in a manner folded up, and 

 have no proper exercise or use in their present 

 confinement. Let us suppose some intelligent 

 spectator, who never had any connexion with 

 man, nor the least acquaintance with human af 

 fairs, to see this odd phenomenon, a creature 

 formed after such a manner, and placed in a si 

 tuation apparently unsuitable to such various 

 machinery, must he not be strangely puzzled 

 about the use of his complicated structure, and 

 reckon such a profusion of art and admirable 

 workmanship lost on the subject : or reason by 

 way of anticipation, that a creature endued with 

 such various yet unexerted capacities, was des 

 tined for a more enlarged sphere of action, in 

 which those latent capacities shall have full play ? 

 The vast variety and yet beautiful symmetry and 

 proportions of the several parts and organs with 

 which the creature is endued, and their apt co 

 hesion with and dependence on the curious re 

 ceptacle of their life and nourishment, would 

 forbid his concluding the whole to be the birth of 

 chance, or the bungling effort of an unskilful ar 

 tist ; at least, would make him demur a while at 

 so harsh a sentence. But if, while he is in this 

 state of uncertainty, we suppose him to see the 

 babe, after a few successful struggles, throwing 

 off his fetters, breaking loose from his little dark 

 prison, and emerging into open day, then unfold 

 ing his recluse and dormant powers, breathing 

 in air, gazing at light, admiring colours, sounds, 

 and all the fair variety of nature ; immediately his 

 doubts clear up, the propriety and excellence of 

 the workmanship dawn upon him with full lustre, 

 and the whole mystery of the first period is un 

 ravelled by the opening of this new scene. Though 

 in this second period the creature lives chiefly a 

 kind of animal life, that is, of sense and appetite, 

 yet by various trials and observations he gains 

 experience, and by the gradual evolution of the 

 powers of the imagination he ripens apace for 

 an higher life, for exercising the arts of design 

 and imitation, and of those in which strength or 

 dexterity are more requisite, than acuteness or 

 reach of judgment. In the succeeding rational 

 or intellectual period, his understanding, which 

 formerly crept in a lower, mounts into an higher 

 sphere, canvasses the natures, judges of the re 

 lations of things, forms schemes, deduces con 

 sequences from what is past, and from present as 

 well as past collects future events . By this suc 

 cession of states, and of correspondent culture, 

 he grows up at length into a moral, a social, and 

 a political creature. This is the last period at 

 which we perceive him to arrive in this his mor 

 tal career. Each period is introductory to the 

 next succeeding one ; each life is a field of ex 

 ercise and improvement for the next higher one ; 

 the life of the fcetus for that of the infant, the 

 life of the infant for that of ihe child, and all the 

 lower for the highest and best. 

 &quot; But is this the last period of nature s pro 



gression ? Is this the utmost extent of her plot, 

 where she winc.s up the drama, and dismisses the 

 actor into eternal oblivion ? Or does he appear 

 to be invested with supernumerary powers, which 

 have not full exercise and scope even in the last 

 scene, and reach not that maturity or perfection 

 of which they are capable, and therefore point 

 to some higher scene, where he is to sustain an 

 other and more important character, than he has 

 yet sustained ? If any such there are, may we 

 not conclude from analogy, or in the same way 

 of anticipation as before, that he is destined for 

 that after part, and is to be produced upon a 

 more august and solemn stage, where his sub- 

 limer powers shall have proportioned action, and 

 his nature attain its completion.&quot;* 



In illustrating the preceding arguments, I have 

 shown that man is possessed of desires which 

 cannot be fully gratified, and of moral and intel 

 lectual powers which cannot be fully exercised in 

 the present world, and consequently, we have the 

 same reason to conclude, that he is destined to a 

 higher scene of existence, as we would have, 

 from beholding the rudiments of eyes and ears in 

 the embryo in the womb, that it is destined to 

 burst its confinement, and to enter into a world, 

 where sounds, and light, and colours will afford 

 ample scope for the exercise of these organs. 



SECTION VII. 



ON THE APPREHENSIONS AND FOREBODINGS 

 OF THE MIND, WHEN UNDER THE INFLU 

 ENCE OF REMORSE. 



The apprehensions of the mind, and its fear 

 ful forebodings of futurity, when under the in 

 fluence of remorse, may be considered as inti 

 mations of a state of retribution in another 

 world. 



As the boundless desires of the human mind, 

 the vast comprehension of its intellectual facul 

 ties, and the virtuous exercise of its moral pow 

 ers, are indications of a future state of more 

 enlarged enjoyment, so, those horrors of con 

 science which frequently torment the minds of 

 the wicked, may be considered as the forebod 

 ings of future misery and wo. For it appears 

 as reasonable to believe, that atrocious deeds 

 will meet with deserved opprobrium and punish 

 ment in a future state, as that virtuous actions 

 will be approved of and rewarded ; and, conse 

 quently, we find, th?.t all nations who have be 

 lieved in a future state of happiness for the 

 righteous, have also admitted that there are fu 

 ture punishments in reserve for the workers of 

 iniquity. Every man has interwoven in his con 

 stitution a moral sense which secretly condemn* 



Pordyce. 



