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B I M A N A. 



that systern ; and that, in order that trie accomplish- 

 ment of this end and purpose may bo sure, we find 

 nil the species in all their varieties acting upon, or, as 

 we may express it, governed by, instincts, which are 

 as constant and immutable as the laws of inorganic 

 matter. 



The induction is often (generally indeed) a long 

 one, and therefore we become impatient for the con- 

 clusion ; and rilling up, by analogies drawn from our- 

 selves, those chasms which our ignorance leaves void, 

 we come to a wrong one. We impute design on the 

 part of the creature itself, in cases where, if we stu- 

 died them a little more intimately and attentively, we 

 should find no more self-design than we can suppose 

 there is in the parts of the earth adhering so as to form 

 our globe, or in the motions of that globe upon its 

 axis, and round the centre of gravity of the solar 

 system. All material movements, whether of a planet 

 in its orbit, the mightier movement of a system of planets 

 in space, or the pulse in the smallest insect, or the 

 motion of growth in the minutest body, belong to 

 the same general class ; and, how much soever they 

 may vary in their details, they have one law which is 

 general and the same to all they are not the result 

 of any purposes in those creatures, animate or inani- 

 mate, by which they are displayed. We do see the 

 most perfect design in every action which takes place, 

 and every phenomenon which presents itself in na- 

 ture. We do also find wisdom, and wisdom which, 

 when once we are able to see it, we never can enough 

 admire, in all and every part of nature. But the 

 design which we trace is the Creator's design ; and the 

 wisdom which we see is His wisdom. 



It is not in the superiority of the design and the 

 wisdom alone that we see that such must be its origin. 

 If the proof rested upon that, its foundation would 

 be very unstable. We are, no doubt, in the habit ot 

 saying that we see demonstrations of infinite Wisdom, 

 but that is the arrogance of our own self-deceit. We 

 vrc finite in all our perceptions, mental or bodily, and, 

 therefore, we cannot, in the nature of things, perceive 

 or comprehend infinitude. The word itself is a 

 negative a name for that of which we are ignorant, 

 and we cannot found a definition or form an explana- 

 tion upon it. But still we can no more doubt the infi- 

 nite than we can doubt our own existence ; for we 

 are hemmed in by the infinite in all our studies of the 

 finite, whether they be more or less profound. This 

 feeling accommodates itself to the capacity of every 

 one who thinks ; for, whether it be more near or more 

 remote, the end of what we know is to us the begin- 

 ning of infinitude. 



The perfect harmony and adaptation to each other 

 of all the parts of material nature is of itself sufficient 

 proof that there can be purpose or will (for what we call 

 will is nothing but forethought purpose) in none oi 

 them ; because of themselves they could not preserve 

 the harmony, unless each of them knew all that ex- 

 isted or could happen. Either, therefore, we must 

 suppose every creature, nay, every atom of matter, 

 to be endowed with omniscience, in other words to 

 be a god, or we must admit that the whole obey the 

 law of One God, and obey it, not as a matter of 

 knowledge and judgment, but as a part of their very 

 natures, which it would be absurd to suppose thai 

 they have, or can have, any disposition or tendency 

 to resist. The doctrine which would endow matter 

 with the attributes of godhead is perfectly unte- 

 nable ; and it is so, for this very simple and obvious 



reason, that there cannot possibly be two infinitudes 

 of wisdom and power any more than there can be two 

 nfinitudes of space, or two eternities of duration. 

 Whatever is infinite, that is, unknown and unknow- 

 able, as the phenomena of matter are known or know- 

 able, must be infinite in all its attributes and in its 

 essence, and that essence must in itself be one, in 

 whatever mode or modes, or by whatever agency, its 

 attributes may be manifested to us. 



We are, therefore, to consider the material crea- 

 tion as one system, the workmanship of one Author, 

 and sustained by one system of laws, which we may, 

 without impropriety, call the General Providence of 

 that Author. As such, all its parts change together, 

 or at least in proportion as their nature yields to those 

 circumstances which produce the change ; and there 

 is not among all the varied creatures a single race 

 that can of itself either hasten its increase or pro- 

 tract its extinction. -All creatures which require food 

 can seek and find that food ; but not even those 

 which we regard as the most sage and the most power- 

 ful can in any way directly augment the quantity 

 of that food, thougn, taken along with other circum- 

 stances they may be, and often are, the causes 

 of its increase.. Beyond the range of their instincts 

 they have no power ; they yield to circumstances ; 

 and when these press sufficiently upon them they be- 

 come extinct, without any of that self-destruction by 

 means of which the human race, considered as one 

 species, make their lands desolate. When we take 

 this view of material nature, and it is the only rational 

 view which we can take, it becomes necessary to se- 

 parate man from the other animated tribes ; and then 

 the study both of him and them becomes consistent, 

 instructive, and free from embarrassment. To do this 

 is merely taking a step similar to other steps which 

 have been taken, greatly to the advantage of the 

 science, both as a rational exercise for the human 

 powers, and as a means of acquiring facts and principles, 

 the applications of which are useful in the business of 

 life. There was a time when, not only many of the 

 specific distinctions in all the three kingdoms of na- 

 ture were unknown or misunderstood, but when it 

 was the habit, even with those who were considered 

 as learned, to confound minerals, animals, and vege- 

 tables, especially in those obscure cases where the 

 properties of neither are well understood ; and not 

 only this, but a disposition has been shown to endow 

 the globe itself with a living, and in some sort an 

 intellectual principle, an anima mundi, or soul of 

 the world, which gave its motions not to our earth 

 merely, but to the whole system of nature, and was 

 at the same time the life of every individual creature. 

 This, though to us it appears an absurdity, was really 

 a direct acknowledgment of the existence of the 

 Creator, and of the operation of that system of laws 

 emanating from him, which we have called his Ge- 

 neral Providence. It was merely the feelings con- 

 fessing the power of the Creator, while the mind was 

 too ignorant for forming any thinr like a correct 

 notion of him. It was, in short, an idol, only not a 

 material one, or at least one not made by the hands 

 of the artists ; and where the light, of revelation has 

 not come, it seems to be a general law of human 

 nature that God, when first confessed and sought 

 after, is shadowed forth by idols. Those idols, too, 

 are imagined in accordance with the leading habits 

 of the people : among barbarous savages we have the 

 god all terror and the worship all blood ; and so on 



