228 MEMOIR OF JOHN WILSON. 



these various reminiscences I shall give three, in the order of the 

 dates to which they respectively relate, viz., 1830, 1837, and 1850, 

 interposing first two characteristic records of earlier relations 

 between the Professor and his students. 



therefore it becomes necessary to consider, in the first place, what we are able to know of the 

 Attributes of that Great Being to whom he owes his Fikst Duty, — a duty which is the foundation 

 of all others. 



" The utmost powers of the human mind have always been directed upon this great object. Its 

 Intelligence desires to know the Origin of all things. Its Moral Understanding impels it to seek 

 the Author of all order and law. Its Love and Happiness carry it towards the Giver of all good. 



"The chief doctrines which are held concerning the Being and Attributes of Deity, men have 

 conceived might be established by two methods; the first is that which deduces them from the 

 absolute necessity of things, prior to all consideration of the effects in which they are manifested, 

 — the Argument or Demonstration d priori. The other method is that to which nature con- 

 tinually constrains us, which may be going on in our minds at every moment, an evidence and 

 conviction collecting upon us throughout life. It deduces the Existence and Attributes of God 

 from their effects in his works, which our Reason can ascribe to no other origin. It reasons from 

 effects to the cause, and is therefore termed the Argument d posteriori. 



"The great points established by both these modes of argument are, in the first place, the Ex- 

 istence of God, his Power, and his Wisdom. These may be called the Attributes which our Intel- 

 ligence compels us to understand, and for which that faculty is sufficient. But there are other 

 perfections which as nearly concern us, and to the contemplation of which we are called by other 

 faculties of our being — His Love, Justice, and Righteousness. 



"And here it appears necessary to vindicate the argument of the Evidence of Design from the 

 misrepresentations and sophistries of certain writers by whom it has been impugned, and to ex- 

 pose the unphilosophical and impious spirit of their skepticism. 



"When we have considered the grounds on which our natural reason is convinced of these attri- 

 butes, the relations of Man to God are manifest, and his Duties rise up in all their awful magni- 

 tude to our minds. 



" From this part of the Second Division of our Course, which belongs to Natural Theology, we 

 go on to consider the relations and duties op man to his fellow-creatures. 



"The division of these relations, with their duties, is determined upon two grounds, being op- 

 posed to each other, in one respect, as they are Public or Private, and, in another, as they are 

 simply natural, or of human adoption and institution. 



" By the private relations, we understand those by which a man is united to the members of his 

 own family, household, and kindred, as a son, a father, a brother, a kinsman, a master, a servant, a 

 friend. Under each of these relations, the particular circumstances attending it, which constitute 

 the grounds of obligation, are considered, and the duties arising from them explicitly and fully 

 stated, under the head of Household Laws. 



"By the Public Relations, we are led to consider him as a Member of a Political Body. 

 There is here a twofold relation— that of Rulers and Subjects. We shall have to treat of the 

 Duties belonging to both ; as of Rulers, their first and especial duty to maintain the Indhpend- 

 ence of the Community among other States, and Good Government within their own ; as of 

 subjects, the duties of Allegiance and Obedience; and here will have to be stated the grounds 

 of obligation on rulers and subjects, namely, Mutual Benefits; and their duty to their Common 

 Country. 



" In the course of these inquiries, questions of vast importance arise as to the Origin and 

 Grounds op Government ; the Principles op Legislation ; the Principal Forms which Po- 

 litical Government has assumed among different nations ; and their various adaptation to the 

 essential ends for which they were constituted. 



" In this Division of the Course, all those various Theories are strictly examined, which have 

 been offered at different times, of the Nature of Virtue, and the Grounds of Moral Obligation — 

 from Plato and Aristotle, to Stewart and Brown ; and especial attention is paid to the Moral Phi- 

 losophy of Greece. 



