THE UTILITY 



OF 



THE KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE, &c. 



CIVILIZATION may be defined to be that state of human 

 existence, in which Man so disposes the objects of nature which 

 are subject to his use, as to enable him either to controul, or 

 to evade, the action of those natural powers which would other- 

 wise injure him, or interfere with his supremacy over those 

 impediments to his happiness which are inseparable from his 

 material constitution ; and for the final cause, that, being in the 

 one case enabled to substitute those powers for his own bodily 

 labour, and in the other, relieved from their injurious opera- 

 tion, he may, by the cultivation of his higher intellectual and 

 moral faculties, so increase in wisdom and goodness, as to at- 

 tain the highest degree of happiness he is capable of enjoying; 

 both in this world, and in a future eternal state. The Civiliza- 

 tion attained, is proportionate to the degree of perfection with 

 which those natural powers are controuled, or made subser- 

 vient to the welfare of mankind ; and all those secular pursuits 

 of the human race which tend to augment the true happiness 

 of the individual, while they contribute at the same time to the 

 welfare of society at large, are resolvable, either directly or in- 

 directly, into the controul or resistance of the powers of nature, 

 the acquisition of that degree of knowledge concerning them, 

 which is necessary, effectually to subdue them, or to counteract 

 their injurious influence, or the review and illustration of the 

 Moral History of Man. Such, I conceive, if we regard the 

 entire human race, are the ends for which every department of 

 natural knowledge, whether of quantity and form, of substance, 

 or of organized being, every species of profane literature, and 

 all the arts of life, are cultivated. Everything man has in vie\\ 

 as desirable, in any condition of existence, is designed by him 

 either to contribute to his well-being in this world, to the 

 healthy and secure enjoyment of all his means of gratification. 



