251 



BOOK III. 



RELIGIOUS VIEWS. 



THE contemplation of the material universe ex- 

 hibits God to us as the author of the laws of 

 material nature ; bringing before us a wonderful 

 spectacle, in the simplicity, the comprehensive- 

 ness, the mutual adaptation of these laws, and in 

 the vast variety of harmonious and beneficial 

 effects produced by their mutual bearing and 

 combined operation. But it is the consideration 

 of the moral world, of the results of our powers 

 of thought and action, which leads us to regard 

 the Deity in that light in which our relation to 

 him becomes a matter of the highest interest and 

 importance. We perceive that man is capable 

 of referring his actions to principles of right and 

 wrong; that both his faculties and his virtues 

 may be unfolded and advanced by the discipline 

 which arises from the circumstances of human 

 society ; that good men can be discriminated from 

 the bad, only by a course of trial, by struggles 

 with difficulty and temptation ; that the best men 

 feel deeply the need of relying, in such conflicts, 

 on the thought of a superintending Spiritual 

 Power ; that our views of justice, our capacity for 

 intellectual and moral advancement, and a crowd 



