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and, if this principle be founded in the truth of nature, enable him to detect the falsity of other theories, which are derived from other principles *.

I receive it therefore as a concessum, that mind in man has an elementary moral constitution, provisionary for its future display, and that there is a perfect similarity of plan in the adaptation of every being and order of beings in the universe for answering the purpose contemplated by its author. I have, indeed, so far as regards moral, produced no

* It is a question not impertinent to the object of this essay, "Whence originate these finer and more elegant tastes of man, this delight in the orderly, the beautiful, the splendid, and the sublime? Whence, indeed, but from the designing hand of his Creator, who, intending for him the moral as the highest perfection of mind, prepares him to feel and to enjoy the still more beautiful and sublime of moral by a delicate gradation of tastes, which to him alone of all the animals that inhabit this globe are appropriate, which themselves have nothing of the animal character, yet in him can associate with every animal indulgence, and thence derive to the very nature which he has in common with the lower orders of being that chastened grace and dignity, which we have noticed,

other

other argument in favour of this conclusion. beside analogy; but then it is analogy so singular, that if the statement on which the analogical inference depends be admitted as a fact, and any one shall deny the conclusion, we may venture to assert, that it is not his mind, but his voice that pronounces the rejecting NO. There are other corroborating arguments, which lead to the same conclusion, but, on account of the extent to which they would carry the subject, are more proper to be introduced into a regular composition, which contemplates the whole, than into an essay, which contemplates only a part. If I were even disposed to extend my view, the limits of time assigned to the pers read before this Society do not admit of it.

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It is this principle, common to every order of created beings, which constitutes the connexion that I meant to insist upon, because, if true, it connects ab origine the theories of body and mind, it suggests a common mode of investigating the theories of both, and by

one

one and the same process establishes a sound and true philosophy in both.

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It will not

be necessary, therefore, to dwell long on the object presented in the title of this essay. The connexion, which in this title I had in view, is a direct inference from the conclusion, that I have endeavoured to establish. If the economy of the natural and moral world be in the designing mind of the Creator conducted in one common mode, there can be but one mode to man of entering into the views of the Creator, of investi gating the nature, the characteristic difference, the end, the fitness of every being whom he has subjected to the view of man. The rational world is at length convinced, that in natural philosophy no true theory is to be derived from bold conjecture. To arrive at truth, man must reason upwards, and not downwards. He must begin with what he does know, in order to discover what à priori it is not possible he should know; he must retrace the steps of the great artificer, by following him in his works.

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He must store up facts; compare, digest them; separate those which are consequent from those which are antecedent, and thus in a regular gradation arrive at the knowledge of those qualities in every order of beings, which have no antecedent, which terminate his inquiry, which he must admit as the elements, the inherent nature of every order. These being admitted as data, he may then safely reason downwards, and thence, as a sufficient cause, satisfactorily account for every phænomenon, and seize to his use, and apply to the most substantial and gratifying purposes, the solid knowledge which he has acquired.

In this manner has natural philosophy been successfully prosecuted for a long period of years, and the secrets of Nature been explored with honour and with advantage. The fossilist, the botanist, the agriculturist, the horticulturist, the anatomist, the physician, the philosopher, in a large sense, who comprehends all these departments; and last, though not least, the chemist, have learnt to

tread

tread in this path, and have contributed to rescue philosophy from the disgrace of arbitrary and misshapen theories. The philosophy of mind and moral invites man to the discovery of their more important and sacred truths only in the same road. As the principle, which has at length prevailed on man to quit the road of conjecture in natural philosophy, in quitting which, if at all, natural philosophy can alone be perfected; as this principle, viz. an elementary constitution in every being, is common to mind and the subject of moral, there is, there can be, no other means of arriving at the truth of Nature in this interesting subject, but by the same analytic process as in all the departments of natural philosophy. We must admit, that there is an elementary principle of moral in the mind of man; and to discover the character of this principle, we must attempt what I have observed to be so successfully accomplished in the philosophy of matter. We must collect all the phænomena of the human mind, the great

facts,

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