MENTAL AND COBPOREAL. 



ledge which the divine hand (no doubt for the 

 wisest of purposes) has withheld from his com- 

 prehension, man has more rationally directed his 

 attention to the science of the human mind, as 

 derived from experience ; and investigating the 

 powers of the understanding with the moral 

 results, the tendency and influence of the pas- 

 sions, and the controul over them which religion 

 has established ; he has displayed that erudition 

 and research, and that knowledge of the human 

 mind in all its intricacies, that at once stamp 

 upon his character intellectual attributes of the 

 highest order, and such as the most fastidious 

 sceptic can never impugn. In confirmation of 

 this, the writings of our own distinguished coun- 

 trymen, independently of those of other nations, 

 afford the most illustrious examples. 



Having endeavoured to trace the progress of 

 the human intellect from its earliest dawn to the 

 highest degree of perfection to which it appears 

 to have reached, and to shew that the latter is 

 rarely attained, but by education and long ex- 

 perience ; it would be imposing on the under- 

 standings of this enlightened assembly, to deem 

 it necessary to draw a comparative distinction 

 between the intellectual attributes of man and the 

 brute species, or to suppose for one moment that 

 they are only shades or approximations of one 

 and the same system. I shall, therefore, with- 

 out further comment, proceed to the moral and 



