18. Regarding man's complex nature as a whole, the relation which comprehends and transcends every other is that of the creature to the Creator. First, it is that of an intelligent being made capable of consciously perceiving his relationship. He sustains the relation of a Divinely originated being, and he knows it. Secondly, it is that of an emotional creature made capable of appreciating unlimited excellence, and the Being possessing and manifesting such excellence. Not only is He the fountain of all the perfections disclosed in the wide creation, but from eternity there has dwelt in Him an amplitude of glory which no creation can ever reflect. Now, that He should have formed us capable of recognizing, not only the glory which He has revealed, but of being as much, or even more, affected by that which He has only suggested and afforded us glimpses of, and of adoring Him on account of it, this, we say, constitutes a second relation. A third relation is that which springs from man's voluntary nature, by which he can freely will to obey God, to act like Him, and with Him. By this means, he can not only admire the perfections of God, he himself contains and reflects more of these perfections than all creation besides. Besides receiving the Divine manifestation, he can consciously subserve and promote it. A fourth relation is that of a moral creature made capable of personally enjoying the proper result of all the prior relations. So that, without any original claim whatever, he sustains a relation to the infinitely blessed God, which makes him capable of receiving, at every moment of his existence, the ever-enlarging results of the exercise of all the Divine perfections.

Now, during any moment of his life, the first man could easily realize the thought, that a short period before, he had no existence; that a comparatively short period before that, the material system to which he belongs had yet to begin to be; that all the adaptations and relations between the different parts of his nature and the objective universe were originated, and derived their power of beneficially affecting him, entirely and directly from omnipotent goodness; and that his distinctive capacity for knowing and loving, serving and enjoying, uncreated perfection was a pure gift from the same Sovereign source. Here, then, is a relation of which the essence is dependence- utter dependence on independent and all-providing goodness-a relation more intimate, profound, and entire, than it is in the power of the human mind adequately to comprehend.

19. We have to regard man also as a being successively ex

istent. The relations which he sustains, when viewed in this light, may be thus arranged:- Relations of property, or possessory relations; of humanity, or between man and man; of family, or between husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, master and servant, family and family; of society, or between citizen and citizen, citizen and State; of nations, or between society and society; of religion, or between man and God; these relations are named here for the sake of the connected view which they enable us to take of man's all-related position. The exposition of these relations, however, with the exception of the last, belongs to a subsequent part of the series,

20. In the first moment of man's existence, God stood to him in the relation of his Creator; but with the lapse of time — with the very next moment- the Creator added the new relation of his Preserver also. In quick succession, he may be said to have taken up the different parts of man's constitution, and to have significantly bound them to Himself. By preparing a place for man's reception, and storing it with selected fruits, man's dependence as a physical, organic, and sentient being was denoted. By placing him in sexual relationship, his social dependence was made manifest. The knowledge divinely poured into his opening mind evinced the relation between his intellect and God. The law which prohibited a certain act, disclosed the vital relation of the human will to the Divine will, or that man was made to find perfection in obedience. By this special enactment the Creator and Preserver of the new-made man appeared in the additional capacity of his moral Governor, while the ininstitution of the sabbathi intimated the wants of man's spiritual nature by bringing him into conscious and special communion with God. Engaged in this sublime fellowship, man was to find, in the love and adoration of which he was made capable, the utterness and happiness of his dependent relation, and an earnest of the grandeur of his destiny.

21. Such are some of the complicated and far-reaching relations which the first man sustained to the objective universe. The busy occupation of philosophy and science ever since has consisted in tracing them. Treatises, the most elaborate and voluminous, expound only a few of them. Man came into a universe of pre-existing relations; a universe in which at every previous progressive stage these relations had been multiplying and complicating indefinitely. He came to take them all up into his own nature. His mind was constructed on a plan relative to the plan of the universe, in order that he might perceive

the rhythm of the whole. But the new powers requisite for this end still further complicated these lines of relation. Psychology was added to physiology. As the body is the medium through which the outer world gains access to the spirit, so also it is the instrument or mediator through which the spirit reacts, reaches the outer world, knows it, and impresses itself upon it. Science is directly conversant with the objective. Philosophy finds its elements in the subjective. But, without the objective, philosophy cannot take the first step; without the aid of the subjective, science is impossible. The ideas of philosophy, the laws of science, and the constructions of art, all proceed together. Every phenomenon is both an antecedent and a consequent, sustains different relations. So vital and perfect is this system of relations, that whatever part or function of the human being engages our attention, we feel inclined to conclude that the whole has been adjusted for that particular point. Nor can any one department of knowledge be properly arranged which does not provide for its relation to every other branch of knowledge.

22. It hardly need be added that these relations are continuous, never pausing from the first moment of man's existence. Indeed, it might be shown that if he lives to draw only a single breath, the record of that breath is written on the atmosphere itself in a manner never to be effaced. And, in the same manner, that subtle element becomes the tablet of every word he utters, and of every action he performs through life. His relations are ever-changing. Like a traveller changing his relations to the scenery through which he is passing at every step he takes, man takes up new relations to the objective universe through every moment of life, relations which modify all those which he already sustains, and all which await him in the fu ture. So also are they ever-increasing. As his powers are developed and advance towards maturity, the sphere of his knowledge enlarges, the objects which attract his attention multiply; the points, so to speak, at which the subjective and objective touch, increase daily. He takes up new relations, without ever becoming entirely, and in every sense, divorced from any which he before sustained. And his relations are universal. From the first hour of life, he is potentially an all-related being. Before he knows it, the capabilities of his nature prepare him for entering into relations with every department of the universe. But as those capabilities are developed by activity, these relations become matters of consciousness. Look where he may, man finds himself in the centre of multitudinous

relations stretching away into infinity and eternity. On no one point can he lay his finger and positively affirm, Here ends one class of relations and begins another. Even his will is conditioned by motives, and owes its freedom to its harmonious relation with the Supreme will. Viewed in this relation, the arched heavens become a dome in which his lightest whisper is repeated through all nature, and carried in thunder to the throne of God; and the wide earth a theatre in which his softest step alights on chords which vibrate through eternity.

23. Among the reflections to which this view of man's rela tions gives rise, one is, that every man must be, within certain limits, different from every other man; and another, that the ways in which man's relationships may be disturbed must be indefinitely numerous; and a third, that no one of these relationships can be affected without affecting all the rest. On these particulars we shall have hereafter to enlarge.

CHAPTER VIII.

ORDER.

1. MAN, then, is an all-related being in an all-related system. Another of our principles suggests the idea "that these laws of relation themselves do not come into operation simultaneously nor capriciously, but that as many of them as pre-existed take effect in the case of the individual man according to the order of their appearance in the great scheme of the Divine procedure." For as by the law of continuity with progression, every law has come into operation in orderly succession, that order of succession is itself a law. And as laws operate uniformly, for the same reason that they operate at all—namely, for the purpose of manifestation, the order of their introduction at first into the general system could not be dispensed with in any of the subsequent stages or parts of the manifestation, without defeating the design of their introduction at all.

2. We have seen that the order in which the great physical laws came into operation is the mechanical, the chemical, &c. Now, as far as we can affirm anything on the subject, it would appear that in that process by which man subjects all-pre-exist

ing nature, as summed up in the animal which he devours, to his own nourishment, the same order prevails. His food, when broken down and prepared by certain mechanical operations, undergone various chemical changes, and then presents an appearance which has been aptly called animal crystalization, and is afterwards vitalized, and lastly animalized.

3. Whether the order in which the different senses are developed and matured is amenable to this law must remain undetermined, owing to our unavoidable ignorance of the requisite data. It is, however, important to remark that they appear to be perfected in man in the order in which they are found in the ascending ranks of animal existence, and that this order is also the order of their importance to man as an intelligent being.

4. The phenomena of intelligence exhibit the same orderly development. "All our knowledge begins with experience." The mind begins by experiencing a sensation, a sensation occasioned by that external world which preceded its own existence; and from this source comes its first hint of knowledge. This is followed by perception, a spontaneous judgment of the mind by which the occasion of the sensation is referred to a cause external to it, to an objective world. Beliefs respecting the objective exist anterior to our reflection upon them. The mind's first communion is not with itself, but with things external to, and apart from, itself. Its earliest movement is direct, not reflex. Next comes the reflective understanding-comparing, abstracting, generalizing, and combining objects.

5. The desire of knowledge is developed according to the order of our wants and necessities; being confined, in the first instance, exclusively to those properties of material objects, and those laws of the material world, an acquaintance with which is essential to the preservation of our animal existence." From this low level of phenomena, indeed, man rises to the contemplation of realities; passes the boundaries of the sensible into the region of the spiritual and the infinite. But his movement is ever in the order of progress or importance. The manifestation of his instinctive nature precedes that of his intelligent nature, and indications of his intelligent, appear earlier than those of his moral and spiritual nature.

6. According to Hartley, as expounded by Mackintosh,* "the various principles of human action rise in value according to the order in which they spring up after each other. We can then only be in a state of as much enjoyment as we are evi

* Ethical Philosophy, 266.