399 
tripos offers. In Dublin, I believe, Stewart's “ Outlines" are 
got up. In London, a few books of one-sided and utilitarian 
bias are, or have been, prescribed. In Durham it is not 
thought of, or in any of the theological colleges. In Scotland 
more attention is paid to it, for it forms part, I believe, of the 
curriculum in all the universities for ordinary graduation. But 
it is a grave error to suppose that it has been, or can be, 
superseded by the utterances of revelation. To say that it 
has been, or can be, superseded, is to affirm either the useless- 
ness of its facts as a department of study, or to deny that it 
furnishes of itself and alone a legitimate object of study at 
all. But it rests upon facts in human nature, and this is not 
an age when any facts ought to be left unnoticed. Our duty 
is to investigate, and take the consequences of investigation. 
If this course land us in results that do not seem to harmonize 
with the utterances of revelation, then, before we proclaim any 
discrepancy, let us remember that we are not infallible, and 
begin to verify every step of the course we have taken. I 
feel persuaded that in principle, and in facts of detail, the 
New Testament will be found an exponent of the purest 
ethics. 
THE SPRINGS OF MORAL ACTION. 
“ But do not those impulses which lead and urge men for- 
wards, spring from affections and evils?" — ra Se dyovra kcii 
tXkOVTa &a 7ra0/j/idroji> te /ecu vocnj/udrwv i TapciyiyvETiti.* Aris- 
totle, referring to Plato's classification, mentions five powers 
of the soul, — the vegetative, the sensitive, the appetitive, the 
motive, and the intellective, and this did not add to his own 
clearness or perspicuity upon the subject. Plato's “ reason, 
desire, and anger," — desire being manifold in form, was a 
better classification. But human actions may be said to 
spring from certain impulses of an implanted kind, such as 
those which underlie instinct, appetite, desire, passion, 
emotion, affection, disposition, and opinion. Disposition and 
opinion are not, as manifested among men, implanted, still 
they exist in all in a primitive type or form, ready for develop- 
ment when external circumstances call them forth. An d 
here I may remark that experience and observation, as 
regards these parts or facts of human nature, wonderfully 
cioncide with the statements of revelation. With the greatest 
accuracy we might take up these statements and compare 
* Rtpub., lib. iv. cap. 15. 
