Essential and Distinctive Attributes of Man. 181 



may continue to be improved, from whatever cause they are sup- 

 posed to arise, is agreeable to the analogy of habit in man, and is 

 probably governed by the same or similar laws : even the vege- 

 table kingdom is subject to an analogous law of improvement. 



It is impossible to contemplate a God without regarding Crea- 

 tion as a medium in which he is continually operating. Man in 

 common with the Brute is a subject of Creation ; he is therefore 

 a continual recipient of Divine Influence, but in a mode differing, 

 not in degree only, but in kind, as respects his conscious life. 

 The difference between created beings does not, therefore, consist 

 in their existing independently ; but in the qualify and nature of 

 their consciousness with respect to the modifications of life they 

 continually receive. It is in this respect that Man differs from 

 the Brute: — not that the high powers he possesses are his own in 

 such a sense as not to be derived momentarily from a First Cause; 

 but that he is so constituted as to be blessed with freedom in their 

 exercise, accompanied with such a consciousness as would arise 

 from their being actually self-derived; — such consciousness being 

 an essential part of his nature as a free Agent ; — although a sense 

 of dependance on a Superior Power, for every moment's exercise 

 and possession of his endowments, is ever pressing upon his con- 

 viction : — this it is that leads him to regard himself as the subject 

 of a higher Intelligence than what he calls his own ; and to feel, 

 while he traverses the works of Creation, that lie is more imme- 

 diately allied to its Author. There can be no doubt, that, in 

 this sense, the Deity is more immediately present in the Human 

 sphere of existence than in that of the Brute ; and hence it would 

 seem that the Divine Influence must pervade all lower modes of 

 existence, in relative succession, or, more or less mediately : from 

 which circumstance we may account for the various and beautiful 

 analogies with which Creation is filled, and which though as yet 

 but imperfectly recognized, continue to present themselves. 



Intelligence operating in modes analagous must pervade the 

 course of nature, giving birth to principles of Life and Motion : 

 Nature would otherwise become a chaos. — Without it not a plant 

 could flourish, nor a crystal be formed. — And as it must embrace 

 Moral and Rational as well as Natural Ends, it would appear 



