CONCLUSION. 
293 
casions, it is a matter of incalculable use to feel our foun¬ 
dation; to find a support in argument for what we had taken 
up upon authority. In the present case, the arguments 
upon which the conclusion rests, are exactly such as a 
truth of universal concern ought to rest upon. “ They are 
sufficiently open to the views and capacities of the unlearn¬ 
ed, at the same time that they acquire new strength and 
lustre from the discoveries of the learned.” If they had 
been altogether abstruse and recondite, they would not 
have found their way to the understandings of the mass of 
mankind; if they had been merely popular, they might 
have wanted solidity. 
But, secondly, what is gained by research in the stability 
of our conclusion, is also gained from it in impression. 
Physicians tell us, that there is a great deal of difference 
between taking a medicine, and the medicine getting into 
the constitution. A difference not unlike which, obtains 
with respect to those great moral propositions, which ought 
to form the directing principles of human conduct. It is 
one thing to assent to a proposition of this sort; and another, 
and a very different thing, to have properly imbibed its in¬ 
fluence. I take the case to be this: Perhaps almost every 
man living has a particular train of thought, into which his 
mind glides and falls, when at leisure from the impressions 
and ideas that occasionally excite it; perhaps, also, the 
train of thought here spoken of, more than any other thing, 
determines the character. It is of the utmost consequence, 
therefore, that this property of our constitution be well reg¬ 
ulated. Now it is by frequent or continued meditation upon 
a subject, by placing a subject in different points of view, 
by induction of particulars, by variety of examples, by ap- 
plying principles to the solution of phenomena, by dwelling 
upon proofs and consequences, that mental exercise is drawn 
into any particular channel. It is by these means, at least, 
that we have any power over it. The train of spontaneous 
thought, and the choice of that train, may be directed to 
different ends, and may appear to be more or less judiciously 
fixed, according to the purpose, in respect of which we con¬ 
sider it: but, in a moral view, I shall not, I believe, be con¬ 
tradicted when I say, that, if one train of thinking be more 
desirable than another, it is that which regards the pheno¬ 
mena of nature with a constant reference to a supreme 
intelligent Author. To have made this the ruling, the habit¬ 
ual sentiment of our minds, is to have laid the foundation 
of everything which is religious. The world thenceforth 
Aa* 
