timents and reflecting faculties, which not only place him above all other creatures on earth, but constitute him a different being from any of them, a rational and accountable creature. These faculties are his highest and his best gifts, and the sources of his purest and intensest pleasures. They lead him directly to the great objects of his existence, obedience to God, and love to his fellow men. But this peculiarity attends them, that while his animal faculties act powerfully of themselves, his rational faculties require to be cultivated, exercised, and instructed, before they will yield their full harvest of enjoyment.

The Creator has so arranged the external world as to hold forth every possible inducement to man to cultivate his higher powers, nay almost to constrain him to do so. The philosophic mind, in surveying the world as prepared for the reception of the human race, perceives in external nature a vast assemblage of stupendous powers, too great for the feeble hand of man entirely to control, but kindly subjected within certain limits to the influence of his will. Man is introduced on earth apparently helpless and unprovided for as a homeless stranger; but the soil on which he treads is endowed with a thousand capabilities of production, which require only to be excited by his intelligence to yield him the most ample returns. The impetuous torrent rolls its waters to the main; but as it dashes over the mountain-cliff, the human hand is capable of withdrawing it from its course, and bending its powers subservient to his will. Ocean extends over half the globe her liquid plain, in which no path appears, and the rude winds oft lift her waters to the sky; but, there the skill of man may launch the strong knit bark, spread forth the canvass to the gale, and make the trackless deep a highway through the world. In such a state of things, knowledge is truly power; and the highest interest of human beings is to become acquainted with the constitutions and relations of every object around them, that they may discover its capabilities of ministering to their own

advantage. Farther, where these physical energies are too great to be controlled, man has received intelligence by which he may observe their course, and accommodate his conduct to their influence. This capacity of adaptation is a valuable substitute for the power of regulating them by his will. Man cannot arrest the sun in its course, so as to avert the wintry storms and cause perpetual spring to bloom around him; but, by the proper exercise of his intelligence and corporeal energies, he is able to foresee the approach of bleak skies and rude winds, and to place himself in safety from their injurious effects. These powers of controlling nature, and of accommodating his conduct to its course, are the direct results of his rational faculties; and in proportion to their cultivation is his sway extended. If the rain falls, and the wind blows, and the ocean billows lash against the mere animal, it must endure them all; because it cannot control their action, nor protect itself by art from their power. Man, while ignorant, continues in a condition almost equally helpless. But let him put forth his proper human capacities, and he then finds himself invested with the power to rear, to build, to fabricate, and to store up provisions; and by availing himself of these resources, and accommodating his conduct to the course of nature's laws, he is able to smile in safety beside the cheerful hearth, when the elements maintain their fiercest war abroad.

Again: We are surrounded by countless beings, inferior and equal to ourselves, whose qualities yield us the greatest happiness, or bring upon us the bitterest evil, according as we affect them agreeably or disagreeably by our conduct. To draw forth all their excellences, and cause them to diffuse joy around us-to avoid touching the harsher springs of their constitution, and bringing painful discord to our ears-it is indispensably necessary that we know the nature of our fellows, and act with a habitual regard to the relations established by the Crea tor betwixt ourselves and them.

Man, ignorant and uncivilized, is a ferocious, sensual, and superstitious savage. The external world affords some enjoyments to his animal feelings, but it confounds his moral and intellectual faculties. External nature exhibits to his mind a mighty chaos of events, and a dread display of power. The chain of causation appears too intricate to be unravelled, and the power too stupendous to be controlled. Order and beauty, indeed, occasionally gleam forth to his eye, from detached portions of creation, and seem to promise happiness and joy; but more frequently, clouds and darkness brood over the scene, and disappoint his fondest expectations. Evil seems so mixed up with good, that he regards it either as its direct product or its inseparable accompaniment. Nature is never contemplated with a clear perception of its adaptation to the purpose of promoting the true enjoyment of man, or with a well founded confidence in the wisdom and benevolence of its Author. Man, when civilized and illuminated by knowledge, on the other hand, discovers in the objects and occurrences around him, a scheme beautifully arranged for the gratification of his whole powers, animal, moral, and intellectual; he recognises in himself the intelligent and accountable subject of an all-bountiful Creator, and in joy and gladness desires to study the Creator's works, to ascertain his laws, and to yield to them a steady and a willing obedience. Without undervaluing the pleasures of his animal nature, he tastes the higher, more refined, and more enduring delights of his moral and intellectual capacities, and he then calls aloud for Education as indispensable to the full enjoyment of his rational powers.

If this representation of the condition of the human being on earth be correct, we perceive clearly the unspeakable advantage of applying our minds to gain knowledge of our own constitution and that of external nature, and of regulating our conduct according to rules drawn from the information acquired. Our constitution and our

position equally imply, that the grand object of our exis tence is, not to remain contented with the pleasures of mere animal life, but to take the dignified and far more delightful station of moral and rational occupants of this 'ower world.

If the physical history of the globe clearly indicates progression in an advancing series of changes, the civil history of man equally proclaims the march, although often vacillating and slow, of moral and intellectual improvement. To avoid too extensive an inquiry, unsuitable to an introductory discourse, let us confine our attention to the aspects presented by society in our native country.

At the time of the Roman invasion, the inhabitants of Britain lived as savages, and appeared in painted skins. After the Norman conquest, one part of the nation was placed in the condition of serfs, and condemned to labor like beasts of burden, while another devoted themselves to war. They fought battles during day, and in the night probably dreamed of bloodshed and broils. These generations severally believed their own condition to be the permanent and inevitable lot of man. Next, however, have come the present arrangements of society, in which millions of men are shut up in cotton and other manufactories for ten or twelve hours a-day; others labor under ground in mines; others plough the fields; while thousands of higher rank pass their whole lives in idleness and dissipation. Now, the elementary principles, both of mind and body, were the same in our painted ancestors, in their chivalrous descendants, and in us, their shopkeeping, manufacturing, and money-gathering children. Yet how different the external circumstances of the individuals of these several generations! If, in the savage state, the internal faculties of man were in harmony among themselves, and if his external condition was in accordance with them, he must then have enjoyed all the happiness that his nature admitted of, and he must have erred when he changed; or, if the institutions and customs

of the age of chivalry were calculated to gratify his whole nature harmoniously, he must have been unhappy as a savage, and must be miserable now; if his present condition be the perfection of his nature, he must have been far from enjoyment, both as a savage and a feudal warrior; and if none of these conditions have been in accordance with his constitution, he must still have his happiness to scck. Every age, accordingly, has testified that it was not in possession of contentment; and the question presents itself, If human nature has received a definite constitution, and if one arrangement of external circumstances be more suited to yield it gratification than another,-what are that constitution and that arrangement? No one can tell. And in what respects have we in times past departed, and do we now depart, from them? The answer is involved in equal obscurity. How has it happened that, in all their various changes, the British have never succeeded in satisfying themselves with their condition? Why did they institute the savage state? It was not fixed by the Creator as the permanent condition of man, otherwise they could not have escaped from it. The bear and the wolf, the ox and the camel, do not change their states and avocations as men have done. What prompted them to betake themselves to war as their most honorable employment? Again we say that that condition was not the ultimate lot of man, because it also has changed. And what has led us now to spin and weave, to hammer and construct, for all the nations of the globe? We answer, that this state may also disappear, and then it will not be regarded as the ne plus ultra of human enjoyment. Farther, if we have not reached the limits of attainable perfection, what are we next to attempt? Are we and our posterity to spin and weave, build ships, and speculate in commerce, as the highest occupations to which human nature can aspire, and persevere in these labors till the end of time? Or if changes are to follow, we may ask, who instituted the changes which history records? On what principles were