26 Philosophy of the Human Mind. 



only particular maxims, which individuals might 

 prescribe to themselves as the rule; of their conduct. 

 To these universal moral laws, practical reason 

 commands our implicit obedience, without any 

 regard to our inclinations or views of advantage. 

 These are indeed sometimes at variance with the 

 dictates of duty, but, in order to diminish their in- 

 fluence as obstacles to virtue, our practical reason 

 must determine us firmly to believe the existence 

 of the Deity, and of a future state in which our 

 happiness will be proportioned to our internal 

 worth. This is what our philosopher calls rational 

 faith, as it is independent of all knowledge of its 

 object ; for the principles of religion can be neither 

 demonstrated nor disproved by theoretical reason, 

 but are mere postulates of practical reason; and 

 the only theology that is really founded on our 

 understanding, is moral theology, which depends 

 on moral principles. " r 



The complaint that all this is obscure and scarcely 

 intelligible, will probably be made by every reader. 

 An English philosopher tells us, that it would re- 

 quire more than ordinary industry and ingenuity 

 to make a just translation, or a satisfactory ab- 

 stract of the system in question, in our language; 

 that for this purpose a new nomenclature, more 

 difficult than that of the Linnsean Botany, must be 

 invented. This circumstance itself affords strong 

 presumption against the rationality and truth of 

 the Kantian philosophy, Locke and Newton 

 found little difficulty in making themselves under- 

 stood. Every man of plain good sense, who is 

 used to inquiries of that nature, readily compre- 

 hends their systems, in as little time as it requires 

 to peruse their volumes. Even Berkeley and 



r The above brief account of the Kantian system of Pnevmatotogy Is cx» 

 traded from a British Literary Journal. 



