train, carry desolation abroad while decay arid 

 death fill the world with mourning. 



Before we can safely interrogate nature, there- 

 fore, there is a previous question of unspeakable 

 difficulty to be settled ; namely, what is the end 

 that Providence has in view in the present mys- 

 terious order of things ? Perfection is not here. 

 Happiness is not here. What then ? The an- 

 swer, in one word, is, "A school of discipline to 

 train mortal man for immortality ; " arid that 

 answer cannot readily be extorted from nature 

 it is only to be clearly read in the book of Reve- 

 lation. 



We have thus obtained a principle, which 

 opens a new view of the various relations of 

 mind and matter, and renders the investigation, 

 though not free from difficulties, at all events in 

 some of its bearings, within the grasp of human 

 intellect. The adaptations which we now look 

 for are of a lower kind ; they are not perfect, but 

 apposite not absolute, but relative. We expect 

 a system which may train weak and erring crea- 

 tures, by various gradations, to excellence, and 

 may fit them, by the combined operation of 

 moral and physical means, for a higher state of 

 existence ; embracing evil, but overruling it for 

 good; employing pain, disappointment, calamity, 

 and even death itself; but converting them into 

 instruments of happiness and immortality. 



Such a system is necessarily more obscure 

 and more complicated than that which excludes 

 the agency of evil ; and, on tracing its operation, 



