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astonishment thus: "It is in new circumstances that it is most necessary for us to be on our guard; because, from their novelty, we cannot be aware of the effects which attend them, and require, therefore, more than usual caution, where foresight is impossible. But, if new circumstances had not produced feelings peculiarly vivid, little regard might have been paid to them, and the evil, therefore, might have been suffered before alarm was felt. Against this danger nature has most providentially guarded us. We cannot feel surprise, without a more than ordinary interest in the objects which may have excited this emotion, and a consequent tendency to pause, till their properties have become in some degree known to us. Our astonishment may thus be considered as a voice from that almighty goodness which constantly protects us, that, in circumstances in which inattention might be perilous, whispers, or almost cries to us, Beware." So of all our other susceptibilities of emotion. Cultivate in your pupils the power and habit of recognising their respective benefit.

Without adverting to that fruitful subject of critical disquisition-beauty; to the nature and influence of sympathy, to the several desires the susceptibility of which constitutes an essential part of our mental being, with many other subjects which may profitably have place in your instructions; I shall close these remarks with a slight reference to the emotions we experience on the contemplation of virtue and vice; because correct impressions on this subject constitute the chief value of the science of mind. Mind is that which morally approves and disapproves, as well as that which thinks, feels, and judges; and this part of the mental constitution is its essential glory. The mind can no more

approve vice than it can enjoy pain, or wonder when a familiar object is presented in a familiar way; and much confusion has arisen from the mistaken idea that this approval has a moral character, instead of referring it to its true origin in the constitutional susceptibilities of mind.

The more distinctly and fully we understand the constitution God has given us, with all its susceptibilities and powers, the various states of thought and feeling originating in its physical properties, with the occasions which call them forth, the laws which govern their succession, and the complex phenomena into which they are wrought; the better we are provided for the study of the actual feelings arising out of these original susceptibilities, and the consideration of their propriety in reference to our relation to God, and to our fellows in the intelligent creation.

Besides this primary and direct advantage of the study, it is attended with many valuable results of an incidental nature, to the more important of which I will briefly advert.

It throws light on every other branch of study in which your pupil may be engaged, and lends it an interest previously unknown. Those pursuits especially which have mind for their object as well as their agent will be regarded with an enlightened eye. Language will be understood in its elements and adaptation; poetry, criticism, eloquence, will no longer afford merely a vague delight, or exercise an arbitrary power, they will delight and control, whilst the causes of their pleasure and power are recognised. The various methods of study will be adopted from an enlightened recognition of their adaptation to the nature of the mental

faculties, and the nature of the subject to be acquired, and much economy of time and exertion will result from acting on this adaptation.

The study of intellectual science cannot fail to produce a precision of thought and statement highly improving to the character. In the course of these letters, I have several times expatiated on the tone and vigour accruing to the mental powers from repeated experience in dealing with mathematical processes in their gradual issue to demonstrable evidence. It is, however, a still more improving exercise to deal with processes of judgment between opposing probabilities, to a decision to that side of the question on which probabilities preponderate, and the use of mathematical reasoning is chiefly valuable as fitting the mind for this higher exercise. All the questions arising out of our relation to God and to each other proceed on moral evidence, and the studies we are now considering form the mind to habits of reflection highly favourable to their successful prosecution.

An acquaintance with the nature of mind amplifies the sphere and increases the strength of influence. This it would effect indirectly by increasing the power of mental character; but it does so more immediately. It gives information of inestimable importance respecting the way in which truth may be conveyed through the avenues of the human heart, and made to affect the springs of human conduct. It makes us acquainted with the principles of human nature with which a certain proposition will find alliance, and where it will meet with hostility, and it directs the proposer so to present it as in the greatest degree to win favour, and avoid the provocation of assault. The power which

one mind has over another to bend its will and direct its movements, is the power of superior acquaintance with the order of succession in human thought and feeling, and the consequent capability of originating that train, and bending it at will.

Yours, &c.

LETTER XXIII.

MORAL PHILOSOPHY.

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MY DEAR M- Every poem, every history, every ornament, every picture, every statue, is an experiment on human feeling, the grand object of investigation by the moralist. Every work of genius in every part of ingenious art and polite literature, in proportion to the extent and duration of its sway over the spirits of men, is a repository of ethical facts, of which the moral philosopher cannot be deprived by his own insensibility, or the iniquity of the times, without being robbed of the most precious instruments and valuable materials of his science. Moreover, letters, which are closer to human feeling than science can ever be, have another influence on the sentiments with which the sciences are viewed, on the activity with which they are pursued, on the safety with which they are preserved, and even on the mode and spirit in which they are cultivated; they are the channels by which ethical science has a constant intercourse with general feeling. As the arts called useful maintain the popular honour of physical knowledge, so polite letters allure the world into the neighbourhood of the sciences of mind and of morals. Whenever the agreeable vehicles of literature do not convey their doctrines to the public, they are liable to be interrupted by the dispersion of a handful of recluse

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