INTRODUCTION. XV 



condary qualities alone obtained by artificial 

 means, are the objects of our present inquiries. 

 Instead of contemplating the attributes of the 

 Creator, from the works of creation, it is 

 through the medium of unnatural phenomena 

 alone, that natural phenomena are attempted 

 to be explained, I complain that the present 

 system of what is called philosophy, is an arti- 

 ficial, not a natural one; and that the very 

 first dictum, or aphorism, proclaimed by LORD 

 BACON, in his NOVUM ORGANUM, is altoge- 

 ther violated by our philosophers. " Homo 

 Naturae minister et interpres, tan turn facit & 

 intelligit, quantum de naturae ordine, re vel 

 mente observaverit; nee amplius scit aut po- 

 test." 



I complain, that instead of making (as true 

 philosophy must ever tend to do,) man reli- 

 gious, the present system is at variance with 

 religion, and deprives him of the benefits, and 

 of the comforts which religion is calculated to 

 bestow : that instead of leading man to God, 

 it estranges God from man, and separates, to 

 the utmost possible distance, (if I may be 

 allowed the expression,) the soul from the 

 Deity. 



The Chapter which treats of Organic Life, 

 or the means by which the ends of existence 

 are attained, is, for the most part, a Syllabus 



