moral perfection; and the infinity of the Creator, and the immensity of that universe over which he presides, present a field in which it may for ever expatiate, and an assemblage of objects on which its powers may be incessantly exercised, without the most distant prospect of ever arriving at a boundary to interrupt its intellectual career.

As I cannot illustrate this topic in more beautiful and forcible language than has been already done by a celebrated Essayist, I shall take the liberty of quoting his words." How can it enter into the thoughts of man," says this elegant writer," that the soul, which is capable of such immense perfections, and of receiving new improvements to all eternity, shall fall away into nothing almost as soon as it is created? Are such abilities made for no purpose? A brute arrives at a point of perfection which he can never pass. In a few years he has all the endowments he is capable of; and were he to live ten thousand more, would be the same thing he is at present. Were a human soul thus at a stand in her accomplishments, were her faculties to be full blown, and incapable of further enlargements, I could imagine it might fall away insensibly, and drop at once into a state of annihilation. But can we believe a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progress of improvements, and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after having just looked abroad into the works of the Creator, and made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, wisdom and power, must perish in her first setting out, and in the very beginning of her inquiries?

"A man, considered in his present state, seems only sent into the world to propagate his kind. He provides himself with a successor, and immediately quits his post to make room for him:

Heir urges on his predecessor heir,
Like wave impelling wave.

He does not seem born to enjoy life, but to deliver it down to others. This is not surprising to consider in animals, which are formed for our use, and can finish their business in a short life. The silk-worm, after having spun her task, lays her eggs and dies. But a man can never have taken in his full measure of knowledge, has not time to subdue his passions, esablish his soul in virtue, and come up to the perfection of his nature, before he is hurried off the stage. Would an infinitely wise Being make such glorious creatures for so mean a purpose? Can he delight in the production of such abortive intelligences, such short-lived reasonable beings? Would he give us talents that are not to be exerted? capacities that are never to be gratified? How can we find that wisdom, which shines through all his works in the formation of man, without looking on this world as a nursery for the next? and believing that the several generations of rational creatures, which rise up and disappear in such

quick successions, are only to receive their first rudiments of existence here, and afterwards to be transplanted into a more friendly climate, where they may spread and flourish to all eternity? There is not, in my opinion, a more pleas ing and triumphant consideration in religion than this, of the perpetual progress which the soud makes towards the perfection of its nature, with out ever arriving at a period in it. To look upon the soul as going on from strength to strength; to consider that she is to shine for ever with new accessions of gory, and brighten to all eternity, that she will be still adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge, carries in it something wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man. Nav, it must be a prospect pleasing to God himself to see his crP tion for ever beaurifying in his eyes, and drawing nearer to him by greater degrees of reseratrance. Methinks this single consideration of the progress of a finite spirit to perfection will be sufficient to extinguish ail envy in inferta na❤ tures, and al conterent in superior. That cherubim, which now appears as a god to a boman soul, knows very well that the period wi, come about in eternity, when the human soul shall be as perfect as he himself now is: nay, when she shail look down upon that degree of perfection as much as she now falls short of it. It is true the higher nature still advances, and by that means preserves his distance and superiority in the scale of being; but he knows how high soever the station is, of which he stands possessed at present, the inferior nature will at length mount up to it, and shine forth in the same degree of glory.

"With what astonishment and veneration may we look into our own souls, where there are such hidden stores of virtue and knowledge, such inexhausted sources of perfection? We know not yet what we shall be, nor will it ever enter into the heart of man to conceive the glory that will be always in reserve for him. The soul considered with its Creator, is like one of those mathematical lines that may draw nearer to another for all eternity without a possibility of touching it: and can there be a thought so transporting, as to consider ourselves in these perpetual approaches to Him who is not only the standard of perfection but of happiness!***

SECTION V.

ON THE UNLIMITED RANGE OF VIEW WHICH IS OPENED TO THE HUMAN FACULTIES THROUGHOUT THE IMMENSITY OF SPACE AND OF DURATION.

The unlimited range of view which is opened to the human imagination throughout the immer

Spectator, vol. 2.

sity of space and of duration, and the knowledge we are capable of acquiring respecting the distant regions of the universe, are strong presumptions and evidences of the eternal destination of

man.

If the universe consisted solely of the globe on which we dwell, with its appendages, and were the spaces with which it is surrounded nothing more than an immense void, it would not appear surprising were the existence of man to terminate in the tomb. After having traversed this earthly ball for eighty or a hundred years, and surveyed all the varieties on its surface; after having experienced many of the physical and moral evils connected with its present constitution, and felt that all is vanity and vexation of spirit," and that no higher prospect, and no further scope for the exercise of his faculties were presented to view; he would be ready to exclaim with Job, "I loathe it, I would not live alway; let me alone, for my days are vanity: my soul chooseth strangling and death, rather than my life." To run the same tiresome round of giddy pleasures, and to gaze perpetually on the same unvaried objects, from one century to another, without the hope of future enjoyment, would af ford no gratification commensurate with the desires and capacities of the human mind. Its powers would languish, its energies would be destroyed, its progress to perfection would be for ever interrupted, and it would roam in vain amidst the surrounding void in quest of objects to stimulate its activity.

But, beyond the precincts of this earthly scene, "a wide and unbounded prospect lies before us;" and the increasing light of modern science has enabled us to penetrate into its distant regions, and to contemplate some of its sublime and glorious objects. Within the limits of the solar system of which our world forms a part, there have been discovered twenty-nine planetary bodies, which contain a mass of matter more than two thousand five hundred times greater than the earth, besides the numerous comets, which are traversing the plenetary regions in all directions, and the immense globe of the sun, which is like a universe in itself, and which is five hundred times larger than the earth and all the planets and comets taken together. These bodies differ from each other in their magnitude, distances and motions, and in the scenery with which their surfaces are diversified; and some of them are encircled with objects the most splendid and sublime. They appear to be furnished with every thing requisite for the accommodation of intellectual beings, are capable of containing a population many thousands of times greater than that of our world, and are doubtless replenished with myriads of rational inhabitants. Within the limits of this system the soul of man would find full scope for the exertion of all its powers, capacities and activities, during a series of ages.

Our views of the universe, however, are not confined to the system with which we are more immediately connected. Every star which twinkles in the canopy of heaven, is, on good grounds, concluded to be a sun, and the centre of a magnificent system similar to our own; and perhaps surrounded with worlds more spacious and splendid than any of the planetary globes which we are permitted to contemplate. Nearly a thousand of these systems are visible to every ob. server, when he directs his eye, in a clear winter's night, to the vault of heaven. Beyond all that is visible to the unassisted eye, a common telescope enables us to discern several thousands more. With higher degrees of magnifying power, ten thousands more, which lie scattered at immeasurable distances beyond the former, may still be described. With the best instruments which art has hitherto constructed, many millions have been detected in the different regions of the sky

leaving us no room to doubt, that hundreds of millions more, which no human eye will ever discern in the present state, are dispersed throughout the illimitable tracts of creation. So that no limits appear to the scene of Creating Power, and to that vast empire over which the moral government of the Almighty extends. Amidst this boundless scene of Divine Wisdom and Omnipotence, it is evident, that the soul might expatiate in the full exercise of its energies, during ages numerous as the drops of the ocean, without ever arriving at a boundary to interrupt its excursions.

Now, it ought to be carefully remarked, in the first place, that God endowed the mind of man with those faculties by which he has been enabled to compute the bulk of the earth, to deter mine the size and distances of the planets, and to make all the other discoveries to which I now allude. In the course of his providence he led the human mind into that train of thought, and paved the way for those inventions by means of which the grandeur and extent of his operations in the distant regions of space have been opened to our view. It, therefore, appears to have been his will and intention, that the glories of his empire, in the remote spaces of creation, should be, in some measure, unveiled to the inhabitants of our world.

Again, when the soul has once got a glimpse of the magnificence and immensity of creation, it feels the most ardent desire to have the veil, which now interposes between us and the remote regions of the universe, withdrawn, and to contemplate at a nearer distance the splendours of those worlds whose suns we behold twinkling from afar. A thousand conjectures and inquiries are suggested to the mind, in relation to the systems and worlds which are dispersed through the immensity of space. Are all those vast globes peopled with inhabitants? Are they connected together, under the govern

ment of God, as parts of one vast moral system? Are their inhabitants pure moral intelligences, or are they exposed to the inroads of physical and moral, evil? What are the gradations of rank or of intellect which exist among them? What correspondence do they carry on with other provinces of the Divine empire? What discoveries have they made of the perfections of Deity, of the plan of his government, and of the extent of his dominions? With what speries of corporeal vehicles do they hold a correspondence with the material world? With what organs of perception, and with what powers of intellect are they furnished? What faculties and organs different from those of man do they possess, and by what laws are their social intercourses regulated? Do benignity and love for ever bear from their countenances, and does ecstatic joy perpetually enrapture their hearts? What capacities for rapid movement do they possess? Are they confined within the limits of a single globe like ours, or can they fly from one world to another, on the wings of a seraph? What magnificent landscapes adorn the places of their residence? What celestial glories are hung out for their contemplation in the canopy of heaven? What visible displays of the presence and agency of their Creator are presented to their view? By what means are they carried foward in their progress towards intellectual and moral perfection? What sciences do they cultivate,-what objects engage their chief attention-in what solemn and sublime forms of worship and adoration do they join? What changes or revolutions have taken place among them? What transactions does their history record? What scenes of glory or of terror have been displayed towards any particular system or province of this immense empire? Are sin, disease, and death altogether unknown, and do their inhabitants bask for ever in the regions of immortality? What knowledge do they possers of the character and condition of the inhabitants of our globe, and of the system of which it forms a part? What variety of sensitive and intellectual beings is to be found in the different systems of the universe? What diversity of external scenery, superior to all that the eye of man has seen or his imagination can conceive, is displayed throughout the numerous worlds which compose this vast empire? What systems exist, and what scenes of creating power are displayed in that boundless region which lies beyond the limits of human vision? At what period in duration did this mighty fabric of the universe first arise into existence? What successive creations have taken place since the first material world was launched into existence by the Omnipotent Creator? What new worlds and beings are still emerging into existence from the voids of space? Is this mighty expanse of creation to endure for ever, and to receive new accessions

to its population and grandeur, while eternity rolls on? What are the grand and ultimate designs to be accomplished by this immense assemblage of material and intellectual beings, and is man never to beheld this wondrous scene a little more unfolded?

Inquiries of this description, to which no satisfactory answers can be expected in the present state, might be multiplied to an indefinite extent. The soul of man is astonished, overwhelmed, and bewildered at the immensity of the scene which is opened before it, and at once perceives, that, in order to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of the character and attributes of the Divinity-to penetrate into the depths of his plans and operations—and to contemplate the full glory of his empire,-ages numerous as the stars of heaven are requisite, and that, if no future existence awaits it beyond the grave, its ardent desires after progressive improvement and felicity, and its hopes of becoming more fully acquainted with the universe and its Author, must end in eternal disappointment.

Again, the mind of man is not only animated with ardent desires after a more full disclosure of the wonders of this boundless scene, but is endowed with capacities for acquiring an indefinite extent of knowledge respecting the distant regions of the universe and the perfections of its Author. Those who have taken the most extensive excursions through the field of science, still find, that they are capable of receiving an addition to all the knowledge they have hitherto acquired on every subject, and of prosecuting inquiries beyond the range of the visible system, provided the means of investigation were placed within their reach. Were a human soul transported to a distant world, for example, to the regions of the planet Saturn,—were it permitted to contemplate at leisure the sublime movements of its rings, and the various phenomena of its moons; the variety of landscapes which diversify its surface, and the celestial scenery which its firmament displays,-were it to mingle with its inhabitants, to learn the laws by which their social intercourse is directed, the sciences which they cultivate, the worship in which they engage, and the leading transactions and events which their history records-it would find no more difficulty in acquiring and treasuring up such information, than it now does in acquiring, from the narrative of a traveller, a knowledge of the customs and manners of an unknown tribe of mankind, and of the nature of the geographical territory it possesses. Were angelic messengers from a thousand worlds, to be despatched, at successive intervals, to our globe, to describe the natural and moral scenery, and to narrate the train of Divine dispensations peculiar to each world-there would be ample room in the human mind for treasuring up such intelligence, notwithstanding all the stores of science which it

may have previously acquired. Such information would neither annihilate the knowledge we had formerly attained, nor prevent our further progress in intellectual acquisitions. On the contrary, it would enlarge the capacity of the mind, invigorate its faculties, and add a new stimulus to its powers and energies. On the basis of such information, the soul could trace new aspects, and new displays of Divine wisdom, intelligence, and rectitude, and acquire more comprehensive views of the character of Godjust as it does, in the mean time, from a contemplation of those objects and dispensations which lie within its grasp. To such researches, investigations, and intellectual progressions, no boundary can be assigned, if the soul be destined to survive the dissolution of its mortal frame. It only requires to be placed in a situation where its powers will be permitted to expatiate at large, and where the physical and moral obstructions which impede their exercise shall be completely removed.

It may be farther remarked, on the ground of what has been now stated, that all the knowledge which can be attained in the present state, is but as a drop to the ocean, when compared with "the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" that may be acquired in the eternal world. The proportion between the one and the other may bear a certain analogy to the bulk of the terraqueous globe, when compared with the immensity of the worlds and systems which compose the universe. If an infinite variety of designs, of objects, and of scenery, exist in the distant provinces of creation, as we have reason to believe, from the variety which abounds in our terrestrial system, -if every world be peopled with inhabitants of a different species from those of another, if its physical constitution and external scenery be peculiar to itself, if the dispensations of the Cretor towards its inhabitants be such as have not been displayed to any other world, if "the manifold wisdom of God," in the arrangement of its destinies, be displayed in a manner in which it has never been displayed to any other class of intelligences; and, in short, if every province of creation exhibit a peculiar manifestation of the Deity-we may conclude, that all the knowledge of God, of his works and dispensations, which can be attained in the present life, is but as the faint glimmering of a taper when contrasted with the effulgence of the meridian sun. Those who have made the most extensive and profound investigations into the wonders of nature, are the most deeply convinced of their own ignorance, and of the boundless fields of knowledge which remain unexplored. Sir Isaac Newton had employed the greater part of his life in some of the sublimest investigations which can engage the attention of the human mind,—and yet he declared, a little before his death, "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I

seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, while the great ocean of truth lay all undiscover ed before me." And is it reasonable to believe, that after a glimpse of the boundless treasures of divine science has flashed upon the mind, it is to pass only a few months or years in anxious desire and suspense, and then be extinguished for ever?

It may be farther observed. in connexion with the preceding remarks-that the creation of such a vast universe must have been chiefly intended to display the perfections of the Deity, and to afford grutification and felicity to the intellectual beings he has formed. The Creator stands in no need of innumerable assemblages of worlds and of inferior ranks of intelligences, in order to secure or to augment his felicity. Innumerable ages before the universe was created, be existed alone, independent of every other being, and infinitely happy in the contemplation of his own eternal excellences. No other reason, therefore, can be assigned for the production of the universe, but the gratification of his rational offspring, and that he might give a display of the infinite glories of his nature to innumerable orders of intelligent creatures. Ten thousand times ten thousand suns, distributed throughout the regions of immensity, with all their splendid apparatus of planets, comets, moons, and rings, can afford no spectacle of novelty to expand and entertain the Eternal Mind; since they all existed, in their prototypes, in the plans and conceptions of the Deity, during the countless ages of a past eternity. Nor did he produce these works for the improvement and information of no being. This amazing structure of the universe, then, with all the sensitive and intellectual enjoyments connected with it, must have been chiefly designed for the instruction and entertainment of subordinate intelligences, and to serve as a magnificent theatre on which the energies of divine power and wisdom, and the emanations of divine benevolence might be illustriously displayed. And can we suppose that the material universe will exist, while intelligent minds, for whose improvement it was reared, are suffered to sink into annihilation?

Again, it cannot be admitted, in consistency with the attributes of God, that he will finally disappoint the rational hopes and desires of the human soul, which he himself has implanted and cherished, If he had no ultimate design of gratifying rational beings with a more extensive display of the immensity and grandeur of his works, it is not conceivable, that he would have permitted them to make those discoveries they have already brought to light respecting the extent and the glory of his empire. Such discoveries could not have been made without his permission and direction, or without those faculties and means

which he himself had imparted. And, therefore, in permitting the inhabitants of our world to take a distant glimpse of the boundless scene of his operations, he must have intended to excite those ardent desires which will be gratified in a future world, and to commence those trains of thought which will be prosecuted with increasing ardour, through eternity, till we shall be able to perceive and comprehend the contrivance and skill, the riches of divine munificence, the vast designs, and the miracles of power and intelligence which are displayed throughout every part of the universal system.-To suppose that the Creator would unfold a partial and imperfect view of the wonders of creation, and enkindle a rational longing and desire, merely for the purpose of mocking and tantalizing our expectations, would be to represent the moral character of the Deity as below the level of that of a depraved mortal. It would argue a species of deceit, of envy, and of malignity, which is altogether repugnant to the character of a Being of infinite benevolence. As his goodness was the principal motive which induced him to bring us into existence, his conduct must be infinitely removed from every thing that approaches to envy, malignity, or a desire to mock or disappoint the rational hopes of his creatures. His general character, as displayed in all his works, leads us to conclude, that, in so far from tantalizing the rational beings he has formed, he is both able and willing "to do to and for them exceeding abundantly above all that they can ask or think." If he had intended merely to confine our desires to sensitive enjoyments and to the present life, the habitation of man would have required no more contrivance nor decoration than what are requisite for the lion's den and the retreats of the tiger, and no farther display of the grandeur of his empire would have been unfolded to view.

Since, therefore, it appears, that the universe is replenished with innumerable systems, and is vast and unlimited in its extent-since God endued the mind of man with those faculties by which he has explored a portion of its distant regions since the soul feels an ardent desire to obtain a more full disclosure of its grandeur and magnificence-since it is endued with faculties capable of receiving an indefinite increase of knowledge on this subject-since all the knowledge it can acquire in the present state, respecting the operations and the government of God, is as nothing when compared with the prospects which eternity may unfold-since the universe and its material glories are chiefly intended for the gratification of intelligent minds -and since it is obviously inconsistent with the moral character of the Deity, to cherish desires and expectations which he will finally frustrate and disappoint-the conclusion appears to be unavoidable, that man is destined to an immortal istence. During the progress of that existence,

his faculties will arrive at their full expansion, and there will be ample scope for their exercise on myriads of objects and events which are just now veiled in darkness and mystery. He will be enabled to penetrate more fully into the plans and operations of the divinity-to perceive new aspects of the Eternal Mind, new evolutions of infinite wisdom and design, new displays of omnipotence, goodness, and intelligence-and to acquire a more minute and comprehensive view of all the attributes of the Deity, and of the connexions, relations, and dependencies, of that vast physical and moral system over which his government extends.

SECTION VI.

ON THE MORAL POWERS OF MAN.

The moral powers with which man is endued form a strong presumptive proof of his immortal destiny.

Man is formed for action, as well as for contemplation. For this purpose there are interwoven in his constitution, powers, principles, instincts, feelings, and affections, which have a reference to his improvement in virtue, and which excite him to promote the happiness of others. These powers and active principles, like the intellectual, are susceptible of vast improvement, by attention, by exercise, by trials and difficulties, and by an expansion of the intellectual views. Such are filial and fraternal affection, fortitude, temperance, justice, gratitude, generosity, love of friends and country, philanthropy, and general benevolence. Degenerate as our world has always been, many striking examples of such virtues have been displayed both in ancient and modern times, which demonstrate the vigour, expansion, and sublimity of the moral powers of man.

When we behold men animated by noble sentiments, exhibiting sublime virtues, and performing illustrious actions,-displaying generosity and beneficence in seasons of calamity, and tranquillity and fortitude in the midst of difficulties and dangers-desiring riches only for the sake of distributing them-estimating places of power and honour, only for the sake of suppressing vice, rewarding virtue, and promoting the prosperity of their country-enduring poverty and distress with a noble heroism-suffering injuries and affronts with patience and serenitystifling resentment when they have it in their power to inflict vengeance-displaying kindness and generosity towards enemies and slanderers -vanquishing irascible passions and licentious desires in the midst of the strongest temptations-submitting to pain and disgrace in order to promote the prosperity of friends and rela