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Show 294 E~ \~LAN ATIONS. they can be teconciled with that provisional theory, n what additions or corrections it requires to make it square with them. In this way .... we arrive, by means of hypotheses, at conclusions not hypothetical.''* It was vrith the design of thus giving a direction to inquiry, and leading to views of nature previously little thought of, but unspeakably grander than those commonly entertained, that, too eager for truth to regard my own imperfections, I ventured upon my late speculation. When an ordinary reader judges of it, let him remember that the question lies, not between two philosophical theories, but between one philosophical theory and a view of nature which does not evP.n profess to look to nature for a basis. As a system moreover, which finds none of the previous labors of sci .. ence shaped or directed in favor of its elucidation, but all in the contrary way, it obviously calls for every reasonable allowance being made for its defects. It may prove a true system, though one half of the illustrations present. ed by its first explicator should be wrong. For any mind competent to judge of the ars-ument, there can be little need to insist upon the supenority of the conclusions to which it leads, over the results which arise from more limited views of ordinary sci~nce. Ex· isting philosophy, halting between the notions of t.ke enlightened and the unenlightened man, leaves us only puzzlep. We know not how to regard the phenomena of the world, and our own relation to them. Many ink into a kind of fatalism V\'hich paralyzes the faculties; others ascend into fantastic dreams which exercise a not less baleful influence. orne of the disastrous consequences are sufficiently conspicuous; but many more blaze and expend them elves in privacy, known only in the circles where they have been so fatally felt. The entire conduct of a large portion of oci ty, and more or less that of nearly all the r ... t, i r ·ulat d, or rather cast loose from regulation, by the \Vant of definite ideas regarding that fixed plan of the Divine working, on the study and observance of which it is vid nt that our cular happiness nearly alt rr ther d p nd . Even acute men of the wor~d are daily seen acting to th ir own manifest injury, In COtJsequence of their utter ignorance of any system. of_ law press1ng around them. With the great bulk of soc1e.ty, life is me rely a following of a few inferior instincts, wtth • Mill's ystem of Logic. tr~ES OF THE DOCTRINE OF NATURAL LAW· ~5 a perfect blindness to consequences. By indiv~duals and by comrnunities alike, phystcal and moral evil are patiently endured, which a true know!edge of th_; ystem of Providence would cause to be Instantly redres ed. Daily health and comfort, lif! itself, are sa_crificed throuO'h the want of this knowledge. It IS not In the heyday oJ cheerful, active, and prosp_erous ex~stence, or \vhen we look only to the things wh1c_h constit~te the greatne s of nations that we becorne sens1ble of this truth. \Ve mu t seek fo;. convictions on the subject be ide the death-beds of amiable children, destroyed through ignorance of the rules of health, and hung over by parents w~o feel that life is nothing to them when these dear beings are 0 more; in the despairing comfortlessness of the sel_fi~h, wbo have acted through long years on the suppo Ih~n that the social affections could be starved hurtles ly; 1n the pestilences rav~ging the ~aunts of poverty, and ~evenging, in a spreadtng c~ntag1on, the negl~ct by th~ rtch of the haplessness of their p~nury and d1 e~ e- tr1c~en neighbors; in the canker of dtscontent and cr1me, wh1ch eats into the vitals of a nation in consequence of an un-limited indulgence of acquisitiveness by tho po in the most ready natural resources and standing in tRe mo t fortunate positions; in the national deO'radation and mi .. ery which follows war entered upon in the wantonn of pride, greed, and vanity. Doubtle s ,,. re the id a vitally present in the. minds of. all m n, that from 1~'' of unswerving regulanty every act, thought, and . motaon of theirs helps to determine their own futur , both by i direct effects on their fate, and its reflection fr m the future of their fellow-creatures, and this without any possibility of reprieve or extenuation, '" ·h uld e society presenting a different aspeet frorn \vhat it do , the sum of human misery vastly dimini hed, and that of the general happinest-S as much increas d. I am not to attempt a particular d ~ nee of the n vi~w of nature fr?m various odium thrown upon it, f, r !Jn~ can only be nghtly done wh n time hn ab t d preJUdice, and shown ~ore clearl_y tbe rela~io.n. of thi philosophy to all other VIews ch nsh d by 1V1ltzcd nation But I may meanwhile r mark it harmony 'vith th r at pr~ctical principle of Christianity, in " tabli ·hin the \lmversal brotherhood and social omnntnion of lll n And not_ only this, but it extends the principle of human: |