362 
161. It seems to be undeniable, that in dealing witb realities 
there must be that within us which corresponds with them. 
No critical analysis can supply the place of this. It is the 
possession of eyesight, and not any investigation of the laws 
of light and vision, or evidence as to their operation, that will 
enable us to behold the phenomena around us. The 
morT and surest processes of reasoning, or the clearest deduc- 
ledle. kQ0W " tions of science, could not convey to one born blind 
our knowledge of colour, or of the beauty of form. 
So in morals ; the good man understands goodness ; but he 
whose conscience is debased has but imperfect perceptions of 
virtue ; while he who is wholly vicious will comprehend 
nothing that is noble, and disbelieve the very existence of 
purity. — In the same way it is taken as a sufficient account of 
some men's dislike of poetry, that they have but little imagi- 
nation; or of the inaptitude of the multitude for accurate 
thought, that they are “practical" in their occupations: so 
also will the objects of Revelation seem to stand related to our 
capacity. 
162. If we had nothing in us capable of Religion, man would 
never have continuously aimed at another life beyond this 
present, he would not have believed in it, or prepared for it. 
There is ever a subtle alliance of our hopes, and our intel- 
lectual consciousness, and our moral perceptions, which is not 
unfitly condensed in the familiar definition, that “ faith is the 
hypostasis of things hoped-for, the tXzyxog °f things unseen." 
XXII. 
163. No honest examiner of human nature will suppose from 
what has been thus said, that the Responsibility of the less 
capable conscious agent is questioned in any depart- 
ment of Deontology ; nor that the duty of reason is 
undervalued, even in the least capable. The argu- 
ment for a higher moral knowledge, and augmented 
but exhibited facts of our nature. All are con- 
cerned in knowing and doing right : — and some may attain it 
in a higher degree ; though few are capable of rendering a 
complete account of the grounds either of faith, or duty. 
Even they who are best qualified are aware that they have 
perceptions and convictions, both as to Virtue and Religion, 
far deeper than any external reasons, and as distinct from such 
Keasonin 
not disparage 
by Faith. 
power, 
