Chap. I. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 7J, 



by intelligence, we are guided by an opinion which we have form- 

 ed that the action is good, by which I mean contributing to our 

 happinefs ; whereas if the opinion we form is wrong, and if the 

 adtion be truly not good^ but cvil^ then we fo far make ourfelves 

 miierable. So that upon the ufe we make of our intelligence de- 

 pends our happinefs or mifery in this lifej and I may add alfo in 

 the life to come. If we employ our intelligence in ftudying to do 

 all the good we can to our fellow creatures, and if we cultivate it by 

 arts, fciences, and philolophy, the fummit of which, and of all hu- 

 man knowledge, is Theology ; (for, by the ftudy of it, we are en- 

 abled to form fome idea of God, and to learn that he is the author 

 of all things in the univerfe) ; and if we fludy the wifdom and 

 goodnefs which he has fliown in his works, the contemplation of 

 which wifdom and goodnefs is the greateft happinefs that the intel- 

 ledlual nature can enjoy, then we arc, by this ufe of our intelledl, 

 as happy as we can be in this life. But, on the contrary, if we em- 

 ploy it only in procuring means to indulge the plsafures of fenfe,. 

 or to feed our vanity, we are miferable. And there are two paf- 

 fions, for the gratifying of which if we employ our intelledt, ([ 

 mean avarice and ambition), we are not only miferable, but the moil 

 mifchievous animal upon this earth; for our intellect, when it is fo 

 employed, makes us much more mifchievous than any other animal 

 which has not the ufe of that faculty. Now ambition is the defire of 

 power and pre-eminence ; and avarice, which is the defire of wealth, 

 is feldom or never feparated from ambition, fmce wealth does in 

 fome degree give power and pre-eminence: And thefe two, joined to- 

 gether, have not only been the caules of moft deilrudlive wars, but 

 have produced thole great empires, which have de^lroyed fo many 

 of the human fpecies and may be faid to have defolated the earth. 



Nor fiiould we be furprifed that our weak and imperfed intelled' 



fi^ould be fo much perverted, and applied to fuch iniproper ufes, if 



Vol. VI. K we 



