244 VESTIGES OF THE 



The philosophical principle on which the scheme proceeds 

 seems to be simply this, that amongst a given (large) 

 number of persons of good character, there will be, within 

 a year or other considerable space of time, a determinate 

 number of instances in which moral principle and the 

 terror of the consequences of guilt will be overcome by 

 temptations of a determinate kind and amount, and thus 

 occasion a certain periodical amount of loss which the 

 association must make up. 



This statistical regularity in moral afiairs fully estab- 

 lishes their being under the presidency of law. Man is 

 now seen to be an enigma only as an individual ; in the 

 mass he is a mathematical problem. It is hardly neces- 

 sary to say, much less to argue, thnt mental action, being- 

 proved to be under law^, passes at once into the category 

 of natural things. Its old metaphysical character vanishes 

 in a moment, and the distinction usually taken between 

 physical and moral is annulled. This view agrees with 

 what all observation teaches, that mental phenomena 

 flow directly from the brain. They are seen to be depen- 

 dent on naturally constituted and naturally conditioned 

 organs, and thus oliedient, like all other organic phe- 

 nomena, to law\ And how wondrous must the constitu- 

 tion of this apparatus be, which gives us conciousness of 

 thought and of affection, which makes us familiar with 

 the numberless things of earth, and enables us to rise in 

 conception and connnunion to the councils of (lod himself ! 

 It is matter which forms the medium or instrument — a 

 little mass which, decomposed, is but so much common 

 dust; yet in its living constitution, designed, formed and 

 sustained by Almighty Wisdom, how admirable its cha- 

 racter ! how reflective of the unutterable depths of tliat 

 Power by which it was so foi'med, and is so sustained ! 



In the mundane economy, mental action takes its place 



