28o VESTIGES OF THE 



which they give to our own conscientiousness and bene- 

 volence. On the other liand, when we endeavour to pro- 

 mote the efforts of our fellow-creatures to attain happi- 

 ness, we produce a reaction of the contrary kind, the 

 tendency of which is towards our own benefit. The one 

 course of action tends to the injury, the other to the 

 benefit of ourselves and others. By the one course, the 

 general design of the Creator towards his creatures is 

 thwarted ; by the other it is favoured. And thus we can 

 readily see the most substantial grounds for regarding all 

 moral emotions and doings as divine in their nature, and 

 as a means of rising to and communing with God. 

 Obedience is not selfishness, which it would otherwise be 

 — it is worship. The merest barbarians have a glimmer- 

 ing sense of this philosophy, and it continually shines out 

 more and more clearly in the public mind, as a nation 

 advances in intelligence. Nor are individuals alone con- 

 cerned here. The same rule ajjplies as between one 

 great body or class of men and another, and also ])etween 

 nations. Thus, if one set of men keep others in the con- 

 dition of slaves — this being a gross injustice to the 

 subjected party, the mental manifestions of that party to 

 the masters will be such as to mar the comfort of their 

 lives; the minds of the masters themselves will be 

 degraded by the association with beings so degraded; 

 and thus, with some immediate or apparent benefit from 

 keeping slaves, there will be in a far greater degree an 

 experience of evil. So also, if one portion of a nation, 

 engaged in a particular department of industry, grasp at 

 some advantages injurious to the other sections of the 

 people, the first effect will be an injury to those other 

 portions of the nation, and the second a reactive injury 

 to the injurers, making their guilt their punishment. 

 And so when one nation connnits an aggression upon 



