774 
AN ESSAY ON THE FUTURE EXISTENCE 
unquestionably opposes no natural or necessary obstacle to further 
progress; on the contrary, by cherishing as a vital principle an 
unbounded spirit of inquiry and ardency of expectation, it unfetters 
the mind from prejudices of every kind, and leaves it open and 
free to every impression of a higher nature which it is susceptible 
of receiving ; guarding only against enthusiasm and self-deception 
by a habit of strict investigation, but encouraging rather than sup- 
pressing every thing that can offer a prospect or a hope beyond the 
present obscure and unsatisfactory state. 
We have already taken a faint and distant yet glowing glimpse 
of a buried world, and the scene which we have viewed has been 
one of wild and fearful grandeur, telling us, as plain as tongue can 
speak, of 
“ The days which have elapsed, 
Hid in the mighty cavern of the past, 
That rise upon us only to appal 
By indistinct and half-glimpsed images ; 
Mighty, gigantic, huge, obscure, remote.” 
We will now direct your attention upwards, and, behold! you 
have unfolded to your view the most striking displays of the per- 
fections of the Deity and the grandeur of his omnipotence. You 
will have set before you objects of overpowering magnitude and 
sublimity, demonstrating the unlimited extent and magnificence of 
the universal empire of the Almighty, and shewing that the great 
Father of all has it in his power to distribute , endlessly diversi- 
fied streams of felicity among every order of living beings through- 
out all the revolutions of eternity. To the man that can doubt the 
truth of this, and would ask, Where is the region to which de- 
parted spirits of beasts migrate ] Where are their souls to have 
their place of beatitude ? I would reply — 
“ Look upon yon starry vault ; 
Survey the countless gems which richly stud 
The night’s imperial chariot : telescopes 
Will shew thee myriads more numerous 
Than the sea sand. Each of those little lamps 
Is the great source of light, the central sun, 
Round which some other mighty sisterhood 
Of planets travel — every planet stocked 
With living beings impotent as thee. 
Now, proud man ! now, where is thy greatness fled ? 
What art thou in the scale of universe ? 
Less, less than nothing.” 
Yet of you the God who built this wondrous frame of worlds is 
careful, as well as of the meanest creature alive ; “ for, are not 
two sparrows sold for a farthing, and even one of them cannot fall 
to the ground without your Father]” 
In a subject of this kind it is impossible for us to convey, as we 
