in the windings of a subterraneous grotto, and preferring the glimmering of a taper to the full blaze of the orb of day. It is, to forsake "the fountain of living waters, and to hew out to ourselves broken and empty cisterns, that can hold no water." In order to invigorate and expand this affection in the mind, it is requisite that we take a comprehensive view of all the manifestations of that Being towards whom it is directed, as exhibited in the history of his operations recorded in the volume of Inspiration; in the details of his moral government among the nations, both in ancient and in modern times, which may be collected from the writings of historians, voyagers, travellers, and missionaries; in the economy of the inferior, tribes of animated beings; in the diversified scenery of nature around us in our terrestrial system; and in the sublime movements that are going forward, among distant worlds, in the firmament of his power for, the more we know of the manifestations. of the Creator, the more acquaintance shall we have of the Creator himself; and, in proportion as our knowledge of his character is enlarged, in a similar proportion will our love be ardent and expansive. Such extensive views and contemplations are indispensably requisite, in order to a full recognition of the divine injunction: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy strength, and with all thine understanding." This is the first and the great commandment. CHAPTER II. SECOND PRINCIPLE OF MORAL ACTION---LOVE TO ALL SUBORDINATE INTELLIGENCES. IN the commencement of the last chapter, I had occasion to remark that, strictly speaking, the fundamental principle or affection which gives birth to all the ramifications of moral action, is but one, namely, Love. This noble affection may be considered as dividing itself into two great streams, one directing its course towards the Creator, as the supreme Source of all felicity, and the other expanding itself towards all the intellectual beings which he has formed. Having, in the preceding pages, endeavoured to illustrate the foundation and the reasonableness of the principle of love to God, from a consideration of his perfections, character, and relations, and having described some of those kindred affections by which its existence in the minds of moral agents is manifested,-I shall now endeayour to exhibit the foundation, and the reasonableness, of that modification of love which is directed towards created intelligences, and which may be termed the second principle of moral action-THOU SHALT LOVE THY NEIGHBOUR AS THYSELF. Taking it for granted that this is the fundamen tal law prescribed by the Creator for regulating the conduct of intelligent beings towards each other-because the supreme Lawgiver has proclaimed it as such in the revela tion which he has given us of his will-I shall endeavour to exhibit the reasonableness and the beauty of this amiable principle-from the nature of man, and the relations in which all the individuals of the human race stand to each other-from the happiness which would flow from the uniform operation of this principle-and from the misery which would inevitably ensue were it completely eradicated from the minds of moral agents. Before proceeding to the illustration of these particulars, it may be proper to remark, that, by "our neighbour," is to be understood,-men of every nation, and of every clime, whether they avow themselves as our friends or our enemies, and whatever may be their language, their religion, their rank, or station. The inhabitants of New Zealand, of Patagonia, of New Holland, of the Ladrones, of Kamtschatka, or of Greenland, are our neighbours, in the sense intended in the divine injunction above-quoted, as well as those who reside in our own nation, and in our more immediate neighbourhood. For, with all these, and other tribes of mankind, we may happen to have intercourses, either directly or indirectly; and towards them all we ought to exercise an affection analogous to that which every man exercises towards himself. This we are decisively taught by our Saviour in the parable of the good Samaritan, in which it is clearly shown, that, under the designation of neighbour, we are to include even our bitterest enemies. His Apostles avowed the same sentiment, and taught, that, in the bonds of Christian love, no distinction should exist between "Jews and Greeks, Barbarians, Scythians, bond or free." For they are all members of the great family of God, and recognized as children by the universal Parent. SECTION I. The Natural Equality of Mankind considered as the basis of Love to our Neighbour.. I SHALL now exhibit a few considerations founded on the Natural Equality of Mankind, in order to evince the reasonableness and the necessity of the operation of the principle of love towards all our fellow-men. In the first place, Men, of whatever rank, kindred or tribe, are the offspring of the great Parent of the universe. They were all created by the same Almighty being, and to him they are indebted for all the members and functions of their animal frames, and for those powers, capacities, and endowments, which render them superior to the clods of the valley, and to the beasts of the forest. They derived their ori gin, too, as to their bodies, from the same physical principles, and from the same earthly parent. "Of the dust of the ground" the body of the first man was formed; and from Adam, the primogenitor of the human race, have descended all the generations of men which now exist, or will hereafter exist till the close of time. This is equally true of the prince and of his subjects; of the monarch arrayed in purple, and seated on a throne, and of the beggar, who is clothed in rags, and embraces a dunghill; of the proud nobleman, who boasts of a long line of illustrious ancestors, and of the obscure peasant, whose progenitors were unnoticed and unknown. All derived their origin from the dust, and all return to the dust again. This consideration, on which it is unnecessary to dwell, shows the reasonableness of union and affection among men, on the same grounds from which we conclude, that brothers and sisters, belonging to the same family, ought to manifest a friendly affection for each other. Secondly, Men of all nations and ranks are equal in respect to the mechanism of their bodies, and the mental faculties with which they are endowed. Whether their bodies be rudely covered with the skins of beasts, or adorned with the splendours of royalty; whether they be exposed naked to the scorching heats and piercing colds, or arrayed in robes of silk and crimson-in their construction and symmetry, they equally bear the impress of infinite wisdom and omnipotence. The body of the meanest peasant, who earns his scanty subsistence, from day to day, by the sweat of his brow, is equally admirable, in the motions of its fingers, the structure of its limbs, and the connection and uses of its several functions, as the body of the mightiest and the proudest baron, who looks down upon him with contempt. The organs of vision comprise as many coats and humours, muscular fibres and lymphatic ducts, and form as delicate pictures upon the retina-the bones are equally numerous, and as accurately articulated-the muscles perform their functions with as great precision and facility-the lymphatic and absorbent vessels are as numerous and incessant in their operations -and the heart impels the blood through a thousand veins and arteries, with as great a degree of rapidity and of purity, in the corporeal frame of a poor African slave, who is daily smarting under the lash of an unfeeling planter, as in the body of the Emperor of China, who sways his sceptre over half the inhabitants of the globe. All the external trappings which fascinate the vulgar eye, and by which the various ranks of mankind are distinguished, are merely adventitious, and have no necessary connection with the intrinsic dignity of man. They are part of the consequences of the depravity of our species: in most instances, they are the results of vanity, folly, pride, and frivolity; and they constitute no essential distinction between man and man; for a few paltry guineas would suffice to deck the son of a peasant with all the ornaments of a peer. Men are also nearly on a level in respect to the mental faculties which they possess. Every man, however low his station in the present world, is endowed with a spiritual principle, which he received by "the inspiration of the Almighty," which is superior to all the mechanism and modifications of matter, and by which he is allied to beings of a superior order. The faculties of consciousness, perception, memory, conception, imagination, judgment, reasoning, and moral feeling, are common to men of all castes and nations. The power of recollecting the past, and of anticipating the future-of deducing conclusions from premises previously demonstrated-of representing to the mind objects and scenes which have long ceased to exist; of forming in the imagination new combinations, of the objects of sense; of perceiving the qualities of moral actions, and distinguishing between right and wrong; of recognising a supreme intelligent Agent in the movements of the universe; and of making perpetual advances in knowledge and felicity faculties which distinguish man from all the other tribes which people the earth, air, or sea, are possessed by the dwarfish Laplander, and the untutored peasant, as well as by the ruler of kingdoms, the enlightened statesman, and the man of science. It is true, indeed, that there is a mighty difference among men, in the direction of these faculties, in the objects towards which they are directed, in the cultivation they have received, and in the degree of perfection to which they have attained. There are innumerable gradations in the improvement and the energies of intellect, from the : |