332 



ON THE NATURE AND 



has been to conciliate discordant opinions, and to connect popular belief with 

 philosophy. 



But I have also aimed at a much hig^her mark ; and have followed up the 

 aim through the general train of reasoning- introduced into the preceding divi- 

 sions of this course of instruction. I have endeavoured to show, that though 

 every part of the visible creation is transient and imperfect, every part is in a 

 state of progression, and striving at something more perfect than itself; that 

 the whole unfolds to us a beautiful scale of ascension, every division harmo- 

 niously playing into every other division, and, with the nicest adjustment, 

 preparing for its furtherance. The mineral kingdom lays a foundation for the 

 vegetable, the vegetable for the animal : infancy for youth, youth for man- 

 hood, and manhood for the wisdom of hoary hairs. We have hence strong 

 ground, independently of that furnished us by Revelation, for concluding that 

 the scene will not end here : that we are but upon the threshold of a vast and 

 incomprehensible scheme, that will reach beyond the present world and run 

 coeval with eternity. The admirable Bishop of Durham, to whose writings I 

 have already occasionally adverted, pursues this argument with great force 

 in his immortal Analogy, and shows, with impressive perspicuity, the general 

 coincidence of design that runs throughout the natural and the moral govern- 

 ment of Providence, all equally leading to a future and more perfect state of 

 things. " The natural and moral constitution and government of the world," 

 says he, " are so connected as to make up together but one scheme ; and it is 

 highly probable that the first is formed and carried on merely in subserviency 

 to the latter; as the vegetable is for the animal, and organized bodies for 

 minds. — Every act, therefore, of divine justice and goodness may be supposed 

 to look much beyond itself, and its immediate object may have some refer- 

 ence to other parts of God's moral administration and to a genuine moral 

 plan; and every circumstance of this his moral government may be adjusted 

 beforehand, with a view to the whole of it. — It is hence absurd, absurd to the 

 degree of being ridiculous, if the subject were not of so serious a kind, for 

 men to think themselves secure in a vicious life; or even in that immoral 

 thoughtlessness, which far the greatest part of them are fallen into."* 



LECTURE II. 



ON THE NATURE AND DURATION OF THE SOUL, AS EXPLAINED BY POPULAR TRA- 

 DITIONS, AND VARIOUS PHIOSOPHICAL SPECULATIONS. 



We have entered upon a subject in which human wisdom or imagination 

 can afford us but very little aid ; and I have already observed, that I have 

 rather touched upon it, in order that, with suitable modesty, we may know 

 and acknowledge our own weakness, and apply to the only source from 

 which we can derive any real information concerning it, than to support any 

 hypothesis that can be deduced from either physical or metaphysical investi- 

 gations. " The science of abstruse learning," observes Mr. Tucker, and no 

 man was ever better qualified to give an opinion upon it, " when completely 

 attained, is like Achilles's spear, that healed the wounds it had made before. 

 It casts no additional light upon the paths of life, but disperses the clouds 

 with which it had overspread them. It advances not the traveller one step 

 in his journey, but conducts him back again to the spot from whence he had 

 wandered."! But if it do not discover new truths, it prepares, or should pre- 

 pare, the mind for apprehending those that are already in existence with a 

 greater facility, and far more accurately appreciating their value. 



In our last lecture we took a glance at several of the discordant opinions, 



* Analysis of Religion, Natural and Revealed, part i. ch. vii. p. 148, 149. 165. edit. 1802. 

 J t Light of Nature Pursued, chap, xxxii. 



