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, undergoes 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.

dently capable of attaining, when we prefer interest to the original gratifications; honor to interest; the pleasures of imagination to those of sense; the dictates of conscience to pleasure, interest, or reputation; the well-being of fellow-creatures to our own indulgences; in a word, when we pursue moral good and social happiness chiefly and for their own sake." In Hartley's own language, "theopathy, or piety, although the last result of the purified and exalted sentiments, may at length swallow up every other principle and absorb the whole man." These views are objectionable inasmuch as they imply that one reason, at least, why so few men are pious is, not owing to any depravity of heart, but because piety, or theopathy, is "in the order of our progress, the last of the virtues;" the "theopathic affection being naturally generated out of the preceding virtues." Antediluvian longevity must surely have afforded man time sufficient for attaining this last of the virtues; and yet then, if ever, impiety triumphed. Animadverting on these views of Hartley, as far as they relate to the nature and origin of piety, Dr. Wardlaw justly remarks,* "were not human nature in a fallen and apostate condition, a sense of God would enter the soul with the first dawn of reason. With the origin of piety, or with the means of its development, we have not now to do, but simply with the order of its manifestation. And, whether we regard man as fallen or unfallen, it is obvious that love to God could not enter the soul prior to the dawn of reason; that the emotions which it involves are subsequent in the order of time to the knowledge of Him from which they take their rise.

7. Taking the individual man, it is evident that conscience presupposes will, for it is only with voluntary actions and desires that conscience has to do. The will, again, presupposes emotion, for this is ever exciting to volition. And hence, doing a thing for its beneficial consequence, presupposes the power of doing it for its own sake, for how else would its consequence ever have been known? Obligation is antecedent to all calculation of consequences. Emotion supposes thought respecting the object which has led to the emotion. And thought points ultimately to some sensation from without as its occasion. In the order of nature, the objective precedes the subjective. And, regarding man in his practical relations, it will be found that his desires precede his dispositions, his inclination to appropriate, that is, precedes his readiness to distribute; that the proprietary

* Christian Ethics, 403.

or possessory feeling is anterior to that sense of duty which prompts him to treat others as he expects to be treated by them. And even this sense of equity may exist as man now is, apart from every sentiment of piety towards God. We have seen, also, that external nature is the chronological antecedent to the mind-experience to reason. The argument a priori supposes an a posteriori postulate from which to start. So also Divine Revelation presupposes natural religion. Like the revealing telescope, it presupposes the eye which is to look through it. The truths which it discloses, however new, must harmonize with all pre-existing truth; and the evidence on which it claims to be believed, relies on man's capacity to weigh and appreciate it. For its reasonableness, it appeals to reason. 8. Looking at the introduction of the human dispensation itself, the fact ought not here to be omitted that the inorganic, the organic, and the sentient stages of creation, took the order of pre-existing nature. According to the inspired historian, the earliest creative arrangements related to an abyss of waters, and then to the formation of land. These were followed by the introduction of vegetable life- grasses and trees. To this succeeded sentient existence, in the order of fishes, water-fowl and land-animals. Now, in all these respects, this is the order of Paleontology - the newly-named science, which treats of the beings that lived in the early ages of the world.* Last of all, man, distinguished by a moral nature, was called into being. And, further, it is worthy of remark that an order corresponding with the order of nature in man's development, was observed in the primary provision made for his well-being. As a physical, organic, and sentient being, a place was first prepared for his reception, in which "grew every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food." Next, as an active and intelligent being, he was put "into the garden of Eden to dress and to keep it." His moral nature was next consulted in the prohibition which taught him that he was a subject of the Divine government. And thus the order of the great scheme of manifestation was in every way maintained. The Divine perfections appeared in the orderly procession of power, wisdom, goodness, and holiness.

*This order "is a corroboration, so far, of the Mosaic account of the Creation; in which (it may be observed by the way) there are several points of coincidence with the results of modern scientific investigation, not a little remarkable if we are to view the narrative merely as traditional record of high antiquity." From an Article on the Vestiges in the "Westminster Review."

CHAPTER IX.

INFLUENCE.

1. THE law of influence may be thus expressed: "everything occupies a relation in the great system of means, and possesses a right in relation to everything else, according to its power of subserving the end; or, everything brings in it, and with it, in its own capability of subserving the end, a reason why all other things should be influenced by it, a reason for the degree in which they should be influenced, and for the degree in which it, in its turn, should be influenced by everything else." For if every created thing necessarily expresses some property of the Divine Nature, if it possesses that resemblance on the condition of manifesting it in subserviency to the great end, and is placed in a system of relations in order that it might be able to make the manifestation, then everything will sustain an active and a passive relation, or will haye a right to influence everything of inferior, and a susceptibility of being influenced by everything of superior, subserviency to the great end of the Divine manifestation.

2. In the pre-existing kingdoms of nature, this law universally prevails. The forces of inorganic nature are found to be ranged according to their activity and energy, or their capability of producing changes; while the most powerful are themselves susceptible of change. In the midst of this incessant play of physical forces, a new force appears; vegetable life, in an organized form, exercising the wonderful power of influencing chemical action, and of thus preparing its own food, and securing its own growth. A higher order of existence next appears in the form of sentient being, and draws its support, directly or indirectly, from vegetable life. Looking up the scale of creation, the highest order of being at any particular time existing is to be regarded as the relative end of all the orders below it. This is its prerogative by right of the superior power which it possesses of answering the great end of creation. Thus, the sentient kingdom, besides illustrating the Divine power and wisdom in common with the inorganic and the vegetable creations, displays the perfection of goodness in addition. But now a being superior to any mere sentient nature has come. Looking up the scale of creation, we behold

its summit occupied by one capable of manifesting, not one or two perfections merely, but the very image of God. How great may we not expect to find his influence!

3. On inspecting his constitution, the first remarkable characteristic which arrests our attention is, that he has power over himself. His superiority of constitution is not produced by leaving out of his nature all pre-existing elements - by the creation of a being utterly new. He is a compendium of all that preceded him—physical, organic, and animal. And over this condensed form of the kingdoms of nature lodged in his own constitution, he is called to reign. To this end he is endowed with the mysterious power of observing himself, of analyzing his own nature, ascertaining its component parts, measuring the comparative strength of each, and of knowing and determining how to apply them.

4. "He is endowed with that mighty spiritual force, a free will. In the exercise of this regal power, he can command away the allurements of sense, hold in abeyance the lower propensities, and despise weariness, suffering, and death. He has the faculty of attention; and by virtue of his will he can fix his eye on what object he pleases in the procession of his thoughts, and can dwell on it until it has shed a hue and an influence over his whole mind. He is capable of belief; but whether or not he will attend to the probable evidence on which his belief of a moral truth should repose, is referred to his will. He has come to be the centre of this earthly system; and, if he will, he can reproduce parts of its plan in his own mind; appropriate and revolve Divine thoughts; and thus intellectually sympathize with the Infinite mind. As a being of imagination, he can regale himself with the creations of ideal excellence, and excite himself to energy and daring by motives drawn from the invisible and the unknown. If he will, he can mentally call for objects which shall make his whole nature flame with emotion. While a sense of duty can add strength even to his will, and give to it the power of an elemental force.

5. And the longer he lives, the greater his self-regulating power may become. In his efforts at self-development he discloses a spiritual energy unknown to all material nature, and which every effort tends to augment. The result is, a distinctive character. To this character everything henceforth ministers and adds consolidation. Works refresh and reinforce it. Memory selects for it congenial facts. Imagination surrounds it with a congenial atmosphere. Conscience clothes it with sacredness.