274 THE POSITION OF MAN IN THE SCALE OF BEING. 



of view we have now attained, we cannot divest ourselves of 

 the conviction that our spiritual principle, which enables us, in 

 virtue of our forms of thought, to ascertain the laws of God in 

 the works of creation, and which also, in virtue of our moral 

 intuitions, indicates to us those personal and relative duties, 

 by the performance of which we can alone retain our simili- 

 tude to the Divine nature, could have been bestowed upon us 

 for any other ends than our own welfare and the fulfilment 

 of a Divine purpose. 



We have now reached a point from which we may legiti- 

 mately examine the question as to the position, of man in the 

 scale of being. 



The previous part of the course has been devoted to the 

 elucidation of the following principles : — 



1st, That the specific character, as well as structure, general 

 economy, and final purpose of an animal are fundamentally 

 conditioned in its instinctive, conscious, or psychic principle ; 

 or, in other words, an animal is an organism. 



2d, That the distinctive character of man consists in the 

 subordination of his organism to his human spiritual 

 principle. 



3d, That man owes to his spiritual principle that self- 

 conscious intelligence on which depends his sense of 

 responsibility ; and 



4:tJi, That the animal kingdom consists of a series of mere 

 individuals ; humanity, again, of a community of persons. 



If you keep these principles fully in view, you will per- 

 ceive that those duties to be fulfilled, which collectively con- 

 stitute the personality of a man, are totally different in kind 

 from the instinctive actions of an animal individual. But as 

 the duties fulfilled by a man are as essential to his welfare 

 in his extended sphere as the instinctive actions of an animal 

 are to its welfare in its limited area, so the recognition of his 

 spiritual principle, in which consists the intellectual and 



