systems; but chiefly, to supply the necessities of the HUMAN RESIDENT, and to exercise the various powers, moral and physical, with which his mind and his frame were severally endowed. To him, therefore, the Creator was pleased to assign the "DOMINION" over His new-created earth. With this last article in the "history of Creation," commences the "history of Man," in the Book of Revelation. In this latter history, it is indeed true, that the historian "confines his details to Man, and "to the dealings of Divine Providence in regard to him," but, we have had full demonstration in the preceding pages, how remote from the fact is the position, that in the former history also the historian confines his details to the same object, and " passes 66 over in silence the operations antecedent to the crea"tion of animals and vegetables :" for, Man is the last and terminating subject in that first pregnant and comprehensive history, of the Creation and primitive ordination of our Globe. And here, in considering this first article in the history of Man, it will be specially expedient to notice the effect continually resulting from the practice to which I have already adverted', of pursuing physics as a branch of science complete in itself, and not necessarily requiring an association with morals: a practice, common among those who are immersed in the studies of the natural sciences, who appear to conduct them 1 See above, p. 129, 130. under a jealousy of morals, and under a settled principle, that the spheres of the two philosophies are entirely distinct and independent of each other; so that any interference of morals in the sphere of physics, is an usurpation, and an infringement of the rights of the latter. By this melancholy estrangement, the due and natural subordination of the latter to the former, which Newton inculcated and which right reason asserts, becomes in a great degree dissolved; and physics, confidently advancing alone in a state of misguidance, become sterilised of their noblest and richest fruits. This must be the case, when GOD is not habitually regarded as the first physical principle, as He was regarded by Newton; but only as the first moral principle, and therefore pertaining to quite another branch of mental contemplation. In this defective condition of the mind, "Tortive and errant from its course of growth," but which is fatally mistaken for direct and vigorous advancement, the moral feelings that are sometimes roused, and, as it were, mechanically compelled into action in the physical contemplator by the grandeur and sublimity of the objects which he witnesses, are vague, confused, and indigested; and the terms in which they are enounced, betray the crudity and imperfection of the conceptions from which they emanate. I shall illustrate the case to which I allude, by producing an example of this semi-moral sentiment; which, though it is common even to commonplace among physical philosophers, I particularly select, because it is the expression of one of the most able and most deservedly celebrated mineralogists of our time. 66 "If, in the midst of such meditations, (says "this eminent naturalist,) the idea of the little beings which crawl upon the surface of this globe presents itself to the mind; if it compares their "duration with the great epochas of nature, how "will it be astonished, that, occupying so small a 66 66 place both in space and time, they could believe "that they were the sole end of the creation and "of the universe? It is here (he exclaims, "namely, on the summit of Ætna which inspired "these reflections,) that the philosopher ought to "build the Temple of Wisdom; to say, with the "Chanter of Nature', "Suave mari magno, &c.2" i. e. 'Tis pleasant, when the seas are rough, to stand Not 'cause he's troubled, but 'tis sweet to see Those cares and fears from which ourselves are free! CREECH. It is not difficult to discern, from whence this physico-moral effusion springs, and whither it 1 SAUSSURE, Voyages dans les Alpes, tom. i. Disc. Prél. p. 6, 7. 2 LUCRETIUS, ii. 1. tends. And, indeed, how is it possible that the philosopher should entertain a persuasion, that the "DOMINION" over the vast theatre which he surveys from Etna had been consigned in all formality by its Creator to the little crawling beings which he describes in the landscape below; whilst his wisdom is engaged in chanting with the Chanter of Nature, who only chanted that he might disclaim an intelligent Creator and Constructor of that theatre? Why the animated mineral geologist should have pitched upon the particular stave which he here selects for celebration, does not very clearly appear. That the adventurous traveller, who after much toil and hazard has reached a place of refuge upon the summit, should sing it, we might perhaps be able to comprehend; but, why the "philosopher" is to sing it, and especially in the "Temple of Wisdom," I must protest, for one, I cannot in the least degree comprehend. There may possibly, however, appear to some minds, on the first perusal of this reflection, a mixed character of sublimity and humility, of profound thought, and of devout sentiment; but, upon a nearer inspection, and an accurate analysis, all those characters will dissolve and disappear. It may therefore not be amiss, to pursue the analysis. Though the author uses the words creation and universe, yet it is evident from the context, that his mind intended no more by those terms than the expanse of earth exposed to his contemplation from the crests of the loftiest mountains; upon which, it is certain that the spiritual affections of the soul experience instinctively an ascending tendency, which is presently counteracted and depressed in the sensitive affections, by a consciousness of weakness and inferiority. The reflection conveys a censure upon all those who think, that the little being can be the chief object, with a view to which this earthly system of creation was originally framed: for, no one ever yet imagined, that he was the chief object of the entire creation and unbounded universe; and it founds that censure, exclusively, upon the relative magnitudes and durations of the vast features of the globe, and of the small human beings who inhabit, or as he expresses himself, who "crawl" upon it. Now, the vast magnitudes are mountains, and the small magnitudes are men; and it argues, that the disparity of those magnitudes and of their durations is so excessively great, that it is irrational and stupid to suppose, that the larger can be subservient to the ends of the smaller. But, if there is any sense or virtue in this reflection, it must consist in duly estimating the relative importance of the two magnitudes and durations; and, in concluding logically, the comparative insignificancy of the smaller. And it will then necessarily follow, that the insignificancy of the smaller would lessen, in the same proportion in which it might increase in bulk. If the little beings therefore were to be magnified in the proportions of 2, 3, 4, &c., their |