On Mystery. 223 



penence, or strange to our manner of conception. Since all 

 events are equally mysterious, we ought, as philosophers, on 

 equal testimony, to believe one thing as readily as another, 

 and upon sufficient testimony, to believe any thing that is not 

 absurd. Pure spiritual existence is much more simple in the 

 conception, than the complex manner in which we exist, and 

 we may easily suppose that when the rumour of man's crea- 

 tion reached the other world, some sceptical spirit may have 

 entered into a disquisition on the possibility of such a mode of 

 being. It must have appeared, if not impossible and absurd, 

 at least highly improbable, and testimony alone could have 

 been appealed to, by his fellows, who knew T as little of the 

 nature of the case as himself. 



The feeling excited by mystery, is, as I have said, a union of 

 wonder and curiosity, and when the mystery is deep, becomes 

 a sublime, and at the same time a humbling emotion. Hav- 

 ing, as we have seen, its foundation in a principle of order, 

 and always implying the conviction of this, it necessarily in- 

 volves the higher powers of intellect, and affords, what phi- 

 losophers have sometimes been at a loss to find, a ground of 

 distinction between man and the brutes. We may therefore 

 esteem it, notwithstanding it implies ignorance, an evidence 

 of our dignity. It is obvious also, that it must most frequently 

 arise in contemplative and philosophic minds. 



Of its uses, we may say, that as it is, in great minds, a deep 

 and absorbing feeling, it gives a powerful stimulus to physical 

 inquiry. That it enters largely into the devotions of the pious, 

 and affords an occasion for the exercise of the highest possi- 

 ble faith, and the most sublime confidence in the divine ad- 

 ministration ; and that without it, the present state, as a scene 

 of discipline, would be essentially changed. Even in the way 

 of argument, important conclusions may sometimes be dedu- 

 ced from it, as that for a future state of rewards and punish- 

 ments from the mystery of the present mode of administra- 

 tion. 



Of the essence of mind or matter we have not, and perhaps 

 no finite being can have the power of forming an elementary 

 conception. But aside from this, we see from what has been 

 said, that the intelligence and experience, which we may hope 

 for hereafter, may enable us to solve all those difficulties, 

 which we now term the mysteries of Providence, to reduce 

 every physical fact to its general law, (consequently to behold 

 the universe without an anomaly,) and to refer all general laws 



