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Would that these latter observations were more generally acknowledged! that they could be brought to pervade society, and, as it were, with all the power of an original instinct, to govern all its operations! This is the great want of our day. To the thoughtful and far- and fore-seeing, it indicates our greatest danger. In days gone by, an unholy, and therefore only a pretended, regard to truth, produced the monster bigotry, whose iron hoof trod down into waste the fairest fields of the church, and whose insatiate appetite could only be gratified by devouring those who presented the genuine characteristics of Christ's sheep, hearing his voice, and following him. By the revival of truth itself, the great law of truth has been recovered. It is to be spoken in love. Charity is the only fitting medium of its expressions and developments. The horrid, mis-shapen, huge monster, for hatred of love deprived of all light, truth refuses to acknowledge as her servant, and dismisses to the train of that narrow-minded, obstinate self-will, who, usurping the prerogatives of royalty, stamp on mere personal opinion the image and superscription of truth, and pretending to do her homage, are all the while haughty idolaters of themselves. But, unhappily, the mind of man seems now only to move from curvature to curvature; to spring from curvature in one direction as by the force of rebound to curvature in the opposite direction, both being departures, equal to each other, from the true and straight line. Charity is now said to be the order of the day; but it is a spurious charity, not less alien from the truth, and, if possible, more hostile to it, than the bigotry which it professes to have superseded. We say, professes to have superseded, for it is no more than profession. Equal bigotry is now shown in opposition to the truth, as formerly was shown in supporting it. And the more important the truth, the more virulent the opposition. One property of charity does it alone exhibit, "Perfect love casteth out fear." And wherever this charity is complete, even the fear which produces modesty is cast off, and there only remains a bold, unblushing hatred of the truth, a fearless, reckless antagonism to it. Go to unhappy France, or take those in our own country whom French charity has inoculated, and who have thoroughly taken the infection; and this is the chief symptom. The most threatening evil of the present day is found in its latitudinarianism. It is by this that the revival of exploded error is promoted. It leads to the elevation of Popery, that is, spiritual despotism, just as revolutionary licentiousness, or false liberty, conducts, through lawless anarchy, to military power and political despotism. Latitudinarianism is the surest ally of bigotry; and whatever the ostensible grounds of the friendship between them, he is blind who sees not that the friendship exists. We would, therefore, echo and re-echo the warning voice of Dr. Hamilton: "Truth is the only standard of benevolence and source of sympathy." "He who discourses of truth in its

severest aspects, promotes all the good which alone can be found in truth, and which truth alone can secure." Let all pretensions to benevolence and sympathy be tried by this test. The value of a promissory note is to be estimated, not primarily by the figure impressed upon it, but by the ability of the issuer to make it good. We may rest assured of this, that "vanity, error, and falsehood are the causes of misery, and beacons of peril."

We cannot follow Dr. Hamilton through the entire argument of this first lecture it will be sufficient to say, that he finds in human nature all the constituents which blend in the grand idea of moral agency. To some of the expressions occurring in the progress of the demonstration we should be inclined to demur; but we are the less inclined to argue the demurrer, because we agree in the general conclusion, and because, perhaps, the difference would be found to exist less in the precise point in the reasoning, than in the formal utterance which is given to it. For ascertaining what man is, undoubtedly man himself must be examined. But unhappily every individual subject brought to the dissecting board, viewed merely in reference to itself, only furnishes preparation for morbid anatomy. Many mental philosophers, overlooking this, have fallen into grievous errors. They have studied man as he is. We need the guidance of revelation here, to show us man as he was, and as he should be. We want to be enabled to distinguish the morbid from the sound, that which belongs to the fallen child of Adam, and that which belongs to the original divine image.

We shall give one or two detached passages. The one which refers to the awful grandeur of the human soul, Dr. Hamilton himself, with all the splendour and force which have characterized his former compositions, never surpassed. And it is as instructive as it is beautiful.

There is but one thing in the created universe essentially great, or worthy of infinite greatness. Others are things of space and time. They are not the full conception of the Creator, but only preparation for that which is. They are the hidings of his power. It is not light,

the first-born of his omnific word. It is not life, teeming in its countless structures and sensibilities. It is not harmony, floating from sphere to sphere. It is not sun and planet, matter in any of its forms and conditions, whatever its immensity, or whatever its beauty: it is not to be found in the furniture of mountains, mines, or seas. It has not sign in height or depth. What is this mightiest production of boundless wisdom, power, and benignity? It is Mind, intelligent, reflective, account. able, immortal mind! The Self-Existent "hath made us this soul! "

Mind is the only medium for the divine glory. This glory consists of certain manifestations which Jehovah gives of himself. He does skilfully, wonderfully, benevolently. He imprints on every side his signatures and characteristics. They are inscribed on the firma

ment, they fill the earth. But all hitherto is unconscious and unreasoning. Until now there is nothing to observe and appreciate. There is no power of intellectual sympathy. Matter does not investigate matter. World does not admire world. Star does not confess

the loveliness of star. There is yet wanting a faculty which these do not include. Let this essence be created, and all the marks and proofs of this glory may be recognised. That which is taught, is learnt. That which is revealed, is understood. That which is impressed, is received. The Creator is acknowledged and adored. The orbs of heaven, which always declared his glory and showed his handiwork, have now found an ear on which to choir and an eye on which to gleam. The volumes of instruction, which could not peruse and meditate themselves, are now searched by that which best resembles their Author, by that which can interpret their meaning.

Mind is the only capacity for divine enjoyment. Our Maker loves to communicate of his happiness. He blesses his inferior portion of creatures with no

mean measures of good. The insect riots
through its blithesome hour. The birds
sing among the branches. In the great

and wide sea leviathan was made to
play. But these cannot share in any
high and pure delight,-in the love of
truth, the complacency of excellence,
the pursuit of holiness. Nothing in
them can correspond to these qualities.
God has, however, made mind in his
image. It contains a similar, though
most unequal, susceptibility of blessed-
ness. He can enable it to "drink of
the river of his pleasures." He can bid
it "enter into his joy." He conde
scends to appropriate it as his own true
nature and description:
66 My soul!"
"God is a Spirit: "that which is not
can have no fellowship with him!

Mind is the only subject of motive in the performance of the divine will. Those worlds which roll in the concave of heaven received a first and complex impulse, which gave them their revolutionary sweep and rotatory axis. Certain principles perpetuate that impulse; and those worlds obey it still. A tom cleaves to atom as they originally cohered. But in these larger or smaller works of creation there can be no moral

disposition. They yield to neither love nor fear. They can only be passive to mechanical forces. Mind alone knows respect for authority, love of excellence, sense of gratitude, dread of retribution. It alone is moved by considerations of right and wrong, of good and evil. It alone entertains the ideas of duty and of obligation.

Mind has a fearful power. It can sin. The stars of the sky might rush into wild eccentricity, the lion might lash itself into unknown fury, the serpent might spring with unprecedented treachery; but who would charge them with sin? There is, however, nothing incongruous, irreconcilable in "the sin of the soul!"

Mind has a tremendous susceptibility. It may suffer punishment. It may be made conscious of infinite displeasure and opposition. It may be wrecked in all its highest interests and hopes. All things else fulfil their course. None fail. None are frustrated. But this, in its defeat and perversion, may draw down on itself an insupportable misery. It may be undone by its own undoing!

(Page 8.)

To the last two paragraphs the reader will allow us to recall his particular attention; and that because of their practical importance. "Mind has a fearful power" indeed; for "it can sin." Misery, pollution, and deformity, thus take the place of the felicity, holiness, and beauty which constitute the design of the Creator. And horrible an evil as is sin, even this statement covers not the whole case. There is the enormity of the guilt which is thus incurred. Sin is a most wicked thing. It is created will rebelling against the will of the Creator; and man thus does what the Creator would not have him do. It is a real, a successful resistance to the will of God; the employment of the greatest power conceivable in created intelligence, in the very worst of all pursuits, and for the very worst of all objects. The mystery is awfully great, but the fact is awfully plain. Man can sin, for he has sinned, and still does sin; and that this is a real, defying opposition to the will of God, is plain from this, that He, the Allloving, takes vengeance on sin, punishing the sinner with everlasting destruction and torment,-not surely for the mere display of sovereign power, but for the stern, but necessary, vindication of holiness the most immaculate, and righteousness the most equitable. We should not only avoid it carefully,-so great is the evil that this is saying little ;-we should never cease to cultivate a feeling of the most abhorring aversion in relation to it; so that that abhorrence might possess all the power of an essential instinct. Made in the image of God, our constant aim should be, to regard sin as God himself regards it. The language of John might properly be extended to every single author employed in the penmanship of the sacred volume, and from every page of revelation the warning voice be heard: "My little children, these things write I unto you, THAT YE SIN NOT!""

In passing, we may just notice, among Dr. Hamilton's definitions, his reference to the divine will. Had consistent attention been paid to the truths which it enunciates, whole volumes of angry controversy would have been prevented.

By the will of God we may express distinct, but not repugnant, ideas. It cannot always stand for an unalterable one. There is a will, a good pleasure, which he may or may not exercise;

there is a determinate will which must prevail, however opposed; there is a moral will that may be withstood, but which is always provided with the means of vindication. (Page 10.)

Nor should we object to the following definition of sovereignty, when distinctly stated as the only reason furnished to us of any of the divine proceedings. Neither may the disputant assume it as a shelter from difficulty, or a shield against argument; nor the student meet it, when plainly declared, in any other feeling than of humble and devout submission.

By sovereignty, we point out that form of divine will which solely respects gratuitous good. [We should prefer its reference to any divine proceeding.] It consults no law, known to us, in its disposals. The word cannot be predicated of justice. It is mere favour or mercy. It is, in our use of it, a mere

negative term. It supposes not that God thus acts without reasons, but simply confesses that they are unknown. It is as far removed from merit in those to whom it is directed, as from compulsion in Him who exercises it.

(Page 10.)

That in man there is the personal union of matter and spirit, mutually related and wonderfully combined, Dr. Hamilton shows by the usual, but most unanswerable, course of argument, that we have two classes of utterly irreconcilable phenomena, the reference of which to distinct causes is required by every law of correct reasoning. As a specimen of his style in severer argument, the following extract may be given. Even here the poet mingles with the acute logician, in aid, however, of the discursive process, which becomes more clear and cogent by becoming more beautiful.

We do not think that these reasonings are at all weakened by any proofs of the influence which is exerted by the human frame upon the intelligent principle. We are prepared for such a fact, and freely confess it. The body is the machine of the mind: its irregularity must disturb the agent. If the medium of vision be dim and distorting, the eye can only thus apprehend the object. But we may argue the converse. The mind is infantile with the body: why not rather say, The body is infantile with the mind? Let the soul be apprized of some danger, a danger which the senses cannot mark, and though the health and energy of the man until that moment is complete, you shall see the appetite fail, the cheek blanch, the strength wane: you may see, if the struggle be sufficiently fierce, the convulsions of death itself. There is often the working of a mind upon a material too frail to bear it. A supernatural and superstitious terror

seizes upon its victim, an idle and fanatical imagination only; but no poison could spread more surely, could operate more fatally, even were the venom really in his veins. Nor can any statement be more gratuitous than that mental insanity proves the entire dependence of mind upon organization. When pulsation is fevered, and overspeeds all the wheels of life, stimulating the nervous influence beyond its proper control, delirium ensues.

The mind is abused with the impressions of diseased organs. Sensation is vitiated. But even then the mind is not infrequently conscious of the default, and will vigorously argue against it. In settled madness, the mind may inhabit a perfectly sound body, enjoying high health, and reaching old age. There is neither organic nor functionary disease. There is no morbid structure nor physiology. The disease is, therefore, in the mind. Why may we not speak of the derangement of intellect as its ill,

as of that of flesh with all the ills that it is heir to? Why may not there be its peculiar disease, its idiopathy? And if we needed to confirm the independence of the thinking principle on its material covering, we might dwell upon its victories over sorrow and temptation: we might unfold the scene of death! How strong has it proved itself amidst that fall, how spiritual amidst that decay, how glorious amidst that eclipse! Its greatness had not until then been proved, nor its triumphs signalized ! It is its dawn of a brighter existence ! It is its theatre of consummated achievement!

Perhaps nothing more entirely agrees with our argument than that the mind is so little aware of the bodily instruments and their operations. Some of these are below any consciousness, in its widest meaning. The contraction of the heart in forcing the circulation of the blood, the cause of the temperature of that fluid, the process by which the pure

air we inhale imparts some quality of renovation to it in its passage through the lungs, the propelling power which repeats this passage seventy times in the minute, for the whole course of our lives, -these vital acts are very imperfectly explained. If we were of one simple nature, why should we not be conscious of all these movements ? Why does consciousness extend to nothing, with the exception of a few sensations which are really mental, but to the subjects and elements of thought? On the supposition that the body is only the organ of the mind, there seems to be a fitness in these blind and independent laws. There is little necessity for scanning them. They would not be included in proper consciousness. The spirit may know and examine itself; but its ministering attendants wait upon it with a mute mysteriousness and inexplicable reserve. (Page 29.)

Having ascertained the accountability of man, Dr. Hamilton notices some plausible objections against the doctrine. One of them relates to the power of circumstances. With an extract containing some valuable remarks on this subject, to which we request the reader's very serious attention, we close our observations and selections for the present Number.

Another opposition is raised to the accountability of man from the circumstances in which he is placed. Their power is alleged to be in assimilating and formation, that his character must be shaped by them. He is supposed to be always within a sphere of attraction, within the sweep of a vortex, out of which he cannot escape. A process is affirmed to be always going on from without, changing to itself all the determinations of the mind. But this theory passes by unexplained the cause that circumstances exist. They do not exist independent of us. For by thein are not intended the scenes and operations of material nature, but our social opinions and practices, in custom, in institution, in amusement, in expectation, in requirement, in law. They are made and moulded by us. The fashion of the world is its own tyrannous demand. Circumstances may be stamped with an evil character, and charged with an injurious influence; but they are shaped on our forge. And withal, circumstances are generally more on the part of virtue than individual taste would choose. They are often, in many of their forms and distributions, salutary and counteracting. They interpose difficulty and scandal between the tempted and the temptation. They are safeguards of morality, and

VOL. III.-FOURTH SERIES.

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have grown out of social reflection and experience. They are built upon the general conviction, that "righteousness exalteth a nation." They offer resistance to appetite, and entrenchment against exaction. They are checks producing shame and repressing selfishness. They are nearly always favourable to the general decency and order. Every man addicted to vice feels in them a restraint. Therefore multitudinous life is so incomparably more regulated than insulated life. No community can be great and good without the force of opinion, and that opinion must be on the side of what is great and good. It is written of the wicked, They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God." Their guilt is not in conforming to others, and in yielding to external arrangements: it is their own circumstances, their own "doings," lying altogether in their power, which they will not "frame." "Their heart gathereth iniquity." Circumstances merely reflect ourselves.-We are aware that a more fearful aspect of circumstances has been exhibited on every stage of the pagan world. There is often a concentration of the worst vices of our nature. But what is this, save the ascendancy of their depraved taste and temper? It is the will of the Gentiles." Such a state is pronounced

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