be true, it will, when matured, supply the deficiencies now pointed out.

But how are the views explained in this Work, supposing them to contain some portion of truth, to be rendered practical? Sound views of human nature and of the Divine government come home to the feelings and understandings of men. They perceive them to possess a reality which rivets attention and commands respect. If the doctrine unfolded in the present treatise be in any degree true, it is destined to operate on the character of legislation, on practical conduct, and on public instruction-especially that from the pulpit.

Persons who have embraced the views which it contains inform me that many sermons appear to them inconsistent in their different propositions, at variance with sound views of human nature, and so vague as to have little relation to practical life and conduct. They partake of the abstractedness of the scholastic philosophy. The first divine of comprehensive intellect and powerful moral feelings who shall take courage to introduce the Natural Laws into his discourses, and to teach the people the works and institutions of the Creator, will reap a great reward in usefulness and pleasure. If this course shall, as heretofore, be neglected, the people, who are daily increasing in knowledge of philosophy and practical science, will, in a few years, look with disrespect on their clerical guides, and will probably force them, by "pressure from without," to re-model the entire system of pulpit instruction.*

The principles developed in the preceding chapters, if founded in Nature, may be expected to lead to considerable changes in many of the customs and pursuits of society; but to accomplish this effect, these must first be ascertained to be true; next they must be sedulously taught, and only thereafter can they be practically applied. It appears to me that a long series of years will probably elapse before even nations now regarded as civilised shall model their institutions and manners in harmony with the Natural Laws.

The first step should be to teach these laws to the young. Their minds, not being occupied by prejudice, will recognise

*Since this was written, many preachers have occasionally introduced into their sermons pointed references to the natural laws of God.

them as congenial to their constitution; the first generation that shall embrace them from infancy will proceed to modify the institutions of society into accordance with their dictates, and in the course of ages they may at length be found to be practically useful. A perception of the importance of the Natural Laws will lead to their observance, and this will be attended by an increase of physical prosperity, a higher morality, and, in process of time, an improved development of mind, increasing the desire and capacity for further progress. All true theories have ultimately been adopted, and have influenced practice; and I see no reason to fear that the present, if true, will prove an exception. The failure of all previous systems is the natural consequence of their having been unfounded; if this resemble them, it deserves, and assuredly will meet a similar fate.

The present Work may be regarded as, in one sense, an introduction to an essay on education. If the views unfolded in it are in general sound, it will follow that education has scarcely yet commenced. If the Creator has bestowed on the body, on the mind, and on external nature determinate constitutions, and has arranged them to act on each other, and to produce happiness or misery to Man according to certain definite principles, and if this action goes on invariably, inflexibly, and irresistibly, whether men attend to it or not, it is obvious that the very basis of useful knowledge must consist in an acquaintance with these natural arrangements, and that education will be valuable in the exact degree in which it communicates such information, and trains the faculties to act upon it.

Reading, writing, and arithmetic, which make up the instruction generally enjoyed by the lower orders, are merely means of acquiring knowledge, but do not constitute knowledge. Greek, Latin, and Mathematics, which are added in the education of the middle and upper classes, are still only means of obtaining information; hence, withi the exception of the few who pursue physical science, society dedicates very little attention to the study of the Natural Laws. And even those who do study science disconnect it from the moral and religious sentiments, and thus allow more than half of its beneficial influence on human conduct to be lost.

In attempting to give effect to the views now discussed, I respectfully recommend that each individual, according as

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he becomes acquainted with the Natural Laws, should obey them, and communicate his experience of their operations to others; avoiding, at the same time, the subversion, by violence, of established institutions, and all outrages on public sentiment by intemperate discussions. The doctrines here unfolded, if true, authorise us to predict that the most successful method of ameliorating the condition of mankind will be that which appeals most directly to their moral sentiments and their intellect; and I may add, from experience and observation, that, in proportion as any one becomes acquainted with the real constitution of the human mind will his conviction of the efficacy of this method increase.

Finally, if it be true that the Natural Laws must be obeyed as a preliminary condition to happiness in this world, and if virtue and happiness be inseparably allied, the religious instructors of mankind may one day discover, in the general and prevalent ignorance of these laws, a reason of the limited success which has hitherto attended their efforts to improve the condition of mankind; and they will perhaps perceive it to be not inconsistent with their sacred office to instruct men in the natural institutions of the Creator as well as in Scripture, and to recommend obedience to both. The clergy exercise so vast an influence over the best members of society that their countenance may hasten, or their opposition may retard, by a century the general adoption of the Natural Laws as guides to human conduct.

If the excessive toil of the manufacturer be inconsistent with that elevation of the moral and intellectual faculties of Man which is commanded by religion, and if the moral and the physical welfare of mankind be not at variance with each other (which they cannot be), the_institutions of society out of which the necessity for that labour arises must be pernicious to the interests of the State as a political body, and to the temporal welfare of the individuals who compose it. Whenever we shall be in possession of a correct knowledge of the elements of human nature, and of the principles on which God has constituted, and on which He governs the world, the evidence that these practices are detrimental to our temporal welfare will be as clear as that of their inconsistency with our religious duties. Until, however, divines shall become acquainted with this relation between philosophy and

religion, they will not possess adequate means of rendering their precepts practical in this world; they will not carry the intellectual perceptions of their hearers fully along with them; they will be incapable of controlling the force of the animal propensities; and they will never lead society to the fulfilment of its highest destinies.

It appears to me that by teaching mankind the philosophy of their own nature, and of the world in which they live-by proving to them the harmony between the order of God's secular providence and Christian morality, and the inconsistency of their own practices with both-they may be induced to modify the latter, and to give the moral powers predominance in social institutions; and then the triumph of virtue and religion will be more complete.

Those who advocate the exclusive importance of spiritual religion for the improvement of mankind appear to me to err in overlooking too much the necessity for complying with the natural conditions on which all improvement depends; and I expect that when schools and colleges shall expound the various branches of science as elucidations of the order of God's providence for the guidance of human conduct on earth-when the pulpit shall deal with the same principles, show their practical application to Man's duties and enjoyments, and add the sanctions of religion to enforce the observance of the Natural Laws-and when the busy scenes of life shall be so arranged as to become a field for the practice at once of philosophy and of religion-then will Man assume his station as a rational being, and Religion will achieve her triumph.

APPENDIX.

No. I.-DEATH.

Text, p. 139.

THE fact of a decrease in the mortality of England is strikingly supported by the following extract from the Scotsman of 16th April, 1828. The article is from the pen of the late Mr. Charles Maclaren, who then edited the paper: a gentleman whose extensive information and scrupulous regard to accuracy and truth stamped the highest value on his statements of fact, and whose profound and comprehensive intellect warranted a well-grounded reliance on his philosophical conclusions.

“DIMINISHED MORTALITY IN ENGLAND.-The diminution of the annual mortality in England, amidst an alleged increase of crime, misery, and pauperism, is an extraordinary and startling fact, which merits a more careful investigation than it has received. We have not time to go deeply into the subject; but we shall offer a remark or two on the question how the apparent annual mortality is affected by the introduction of the cowpox, and the stationary or progressive state of the population. In 1780, according to Mr. Rickman, the annual deaths were 1 in 40, or one-fortieth part of the population died every year; in 1821 the proportion was 1 in 58. It follows that out of any given number of persons, 1,000 or 10,000, scarcely more than two deaths take place now for three that took place in 1780, or the mortality has diminished 45 per cent. The parochial registers of burials in England, from which this statement is derived, are known to be incorrect; but as they continue to be kept without alteration in the same way, the errors of one year are justly conceived to balance those of another, and they thus afford comparative results, upon which considerable reliance may be placed.

A community is made up of persons of many various ages, among whom the law of mortality is very different.