him, and he becomes incapable of excellence either in virtue, science, or art: the progress of each being essentially dependent upon the right order of the mind; for "light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright of heart.” *

1852. If such are the advantages of moral art, what shall be said of the superior benefits which it is in the power of political art to bestow, and of the nobleness of its practice? and, above all, how shall we designate the sublime practice and immortal promises of religious art? If the first has for its object and its end individual happiness, and the end and aim of the second is general felicity, the transcendent purpose of the last is universal beatitude, consummate and immortal good: in fine, that purely intellectual and perfect bliss by which God alone is distinguished, and of which Godlike felicity man can only become a partaker through religious art and the love of God, which bring him into communion and similitude with his Divine Original. Whence, according to the apostle, "To those that love God, all things co-operate for good."

1853. Beyond this, where speculation rises anagogically into the design and ends of the creation, the immortal destination of man,-the Divine Theurgy, the art and purposes of God, there arise visions of beauty and good in which the mind has

VOL. II.

*Psalm xcvii. 11.

H H

no hold but through pure analogy, in the exercise of which reason totters, the mind becomes transported, and the winged soul, struggling to escape from the body, finds refuge and rest only in the promises of Divine revelation.

1854. As light, the analogue of truth, is unknown in its elements, and the first principles of nature and philosophy are given conditions or powers, the ground or essence of which is prior to all human knowledge or conception, so is the last and highest of all human purposes suspended beneath, and in reference to an ulterior purpose, out of the bounds of human comprehension: the prior essence and the ulterior end lying equally beyond the sphere of man, who can in no real sense whatever transcend his system.

1855. When, therefore, we inquire into the nature of the first conditions of things, we enter the field of visionary speculation; and we seek, also, in vain, through interminable analogy, the end of ends, in the boundless regions of fancy. The question is, in either case, equally resultless and absurd, propounded as it is by a being from whom the beginning and the end are alike hidden and removed; who, in the first inquiry, demands the conditions of the unconditional, and in the latter requires an interminable end, the sciences of which, if they have sciences, are hypophysical and metatechnical, but not human or philosophical;

for philosophy is every way bounded by human consciousness or self, agreeably to the celebrated precept of Thales, consecrated in the Temple of Apollo.

1856. Sufficient it is, nevertheless, to a purely relative being, that he can know all his relations, and that they are founded on stable principles, and designed for purposes universally good: secure of which, his hopes and wishes may be enshrined by faith and content, and all natural and particular wants and evils may be endured without murmur as means conducive to an ulterior good of which he is to be a partaker, as ordained by God.

1857. If we may, however, venture one step further, to speculate metatechnically through analogy, and attempt to penetrate the design of God in nature, which tends from the material through the animate to the Divine, it appears to be primarily the developement of intellect and consciousness, and, ultimately, the diffusion of His own happiness, of" Himself, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, whence all proceed, and to whom all beings shall return,-who hath made all things for Himself, and saw all that it was good!" Who is, in fine, the aurágnes zaλòr, the self-sufficient and all-sufficient Good, whose happiness cannot be diminished by being imparted.

1858. Thus we have briefly indicated the general outline of Teleology, or the science of

ends, as it relates to all art and philosophy, whereby we may perceive the consistency of universal ends in course and coincidence with universal principles and means, in the constitution of one perfect and systematic whole, or universe, in the golden chain of which there is no absolute or unconnected link.

469

CONCLUSION.

1859. HERE, then, we may terminate our inquiry, from the whole of which we are bound to conclude, that the regarding of things and thoughts as absolute, and overlooking their true relations or analogy, occasion the manifold errors and misunderstandings which mislead and distract both the learned and unlearned. It is, therefore, incumbent on philosophy to settle these relations, that thoughts and their objects may concur truly, and take their proper places; and, till this is accomplished, opinions and doctrines will vacillate unceasingly for the absolute in philosophy can only give stability to dissidence, disputation, and

error.

1860. Nevertheless, upon a review of the present system, as delivered in the preceding Outlines, and comparing the meagreness of its execution with the magnitude of its design, which being to analýze the Universe upon a single principle, and