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MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE ADVANTAGES ARISING FROM THE STUDY OF
MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

WE receive pleasure from the contemplation of nature only as it suggests in one way or other, some attribute of mind; and when the natural philosopher is most deeply engaged in his researches, the high satisfaction which forms the stimulus and the reward of his labour, is the result either of the successful exercise of his own faculties, or of observing the continual manifestation of that Supreme and Eternal Mind which gave matter its being and its laws. The forms of nature, however beautiful or sublime, are only interesting as they suggest some pleasing images with which they are directly or remotely associated, and as they awaken in us the thoughts of the power, and the wisdom, and the goodness of an Almighty Creator. What were a universe of matter but shapeless magnitude, without the living spirit of such a Being to beautify and arrange it, or without the existence of intelligences capable of deriving pleasure from the view

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