est not the works of God, who maketh all." In the same sense, plainly regarding the soul as a distinct part or essence from the body, St. James says, "as the body, without the spirit, is dead, so faith, without works, is dead also."-If the materialist reply, by asking, why, then, do brutes live without souls or essences, which are to survive their bodies? We answer, in the words of the wise man, just quoted, "Who knoweth the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?" intimating that there is a vast difference between the nature of the one and the other.

On this critical subject, various opinions have arisen. The learned Grotius says, "Some actions of animals seem to be the effects of a certain degree of reason; as is manifest in ants and bees, which avoid whatever is noxious, and seek whatever is proper for them. Yet, that such distinguishing property is not, strictly speaking, in themselves, is evident, because they act uniformly

* Eccles. iii. and xi.

alike; proving that they are moved or stimulated by some extraneous reason, which is no other than what we denominate God."* "No," says the annotator, LE CLERK, "these sagacious acts are done by the souls of those animals. For, nothing forbids our believing that there may exist a multiplicity of gradations among intelligent creatures, the lowest of which may be in the bodies of brutes. Is it said, what becomes of these souls, when those inferior orders die? That I know not. There is no necessity for us to know all things; nor should we deny any thing, because we cannot account for it."

That a similar notion prevails in heathen lands, various travellers inform us. Nor are we ignorant, that some unenlightened tribes imagine a portion of their future happiness in another world will be derived from the society (if I may so express it) of favourite animals, which contributed to their pleasure in this. Pope finely introduces this no

* Book I, Sect. 7.

tion in his description of a pitiable human being of this nature:

"Lo! the poor Indian, whose untutor❜d mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
Who thinks, admitted to his native sky,
His faithful dog shall bear him company."*

But, to return. At the close of one of the most exquisite pictures of ruined grandeur that ever was drawn-the decay and fall of the goodly fabric of the human frame-the royal preacher incontestibly specifies, as we have already proved, the two constituent parts of man, body and soul, to be separate natures after death; and as distinct from each other as light and darkness: the one lying inert, a mass of inanimate clay in its native earth; the other, endued with almost seraphic life, enjoying bliss and glory in the presence of its Almighty Creator.

As comprising an instructive lesson for the young, as well as for the aged, I will quote the passage entire. * Ep. I. Sect. 3.

"Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them; while the sun, or the moon, or the stars be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain in the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease, because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened and the doors shall be shut in the streets, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; and when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fear shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because Man goeth to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern: Then shall the dust return to the

C

earth, as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."*

This beautiful description of the decline and fall of the human frame being highly figurative, a paraphrastic exposition of the sacred text will render it plainer to every capacity Early, my son, begin to think of thy Creator. In the season of youth, accustom thyself to meditate on his paternal love, and forget not the various blessings he showers down upon thee. For know, my son, that the frame in which thou gloriest, will not always continue robust and vigorous. Age will steal upon thee, and undermine thy strength; bringing with it a train of evils, which, if thou have made no provision against them, will deprive thee of the enjoyment of pleasure. If, till then, thou defer the work of religion, and art a stranger to its duties and to its hopes, thou wilt be a burthen to thy friends and to thyself. Maladies will press upon thee, which unassisted nature will be too feeble to bear. Memory will fail,

E ccles. XII.