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I also perceived that all discordant impres→ sions of deformity, whether natural or moral, though painful at first, might in time cease gradually to be so, and even become pleasing, or concordant; because that the first impressions were always the strongest and clearest in point. of contrast, and gave the greatest shock to their opposites; and, that all subsequent impressions (if the first were not duly heeded) became weaker and weaker, in proportion to the frequency of their application. On the other hand, I saw that the evil sentiments of the heart, with which the deformed impressions were in unison (being as it were roused and strengthened by sympathy) became continually stronger, in consequence of the same general law of truth; which, like ALGEBRA, the type of that law, had a negative as well as a positive efficacy and operation; so that what weakened the good, nourished the evil sentiments of the heart, to which they were altogether congruous; until the most deformed and painful impressions should cease to shock the good sentiments, which had by degrees either assimilated to them, or else were extinct, as fire by water; by which means man, if he neglected the warning of the first strong shock, was carried away almost imperceptibly from one extreme to the very opposite; for instance, from tenderness to cruelty; and was wholly unable of himself to discover or effec

tually to restrain his dangerous progress, unless he had some fixed and original standard of right and wrong to refer to continually.

"I then attempted to demonstrate what was evident to my own mind, that the laws of attraction and repulsion in matter, were real ordained types and shadows of the laws of moral and spiritual attractions and repulsions of the heart; that is to say, of desire and aversion, with respect to good and evil, virtue and vice, truth and error; and I supposed, that probably the only difference in these seeming parallels was this; that in brute matter these laws were more fixed and regular, in appearance at least, because the law being once impressed none could alter or suspend it, but the Creator who first imposed it; but that man, possessing, as I supposed, a certain inherent power, or freedom of will, in himself, either to obey the laws of right reason, or to reject them, this inherent power, this vis insita, fixed by the Deity in a being frail and mutable, eventually gave rise to all the irregularities and eccentricities which we observe in human conduct.

At the same time I did not feel certain in the above theory, because I knew that there were many and various deviations in matter, from the general laws by which it was governed, which proceeded from particular local causes; and my own knowledge and experience, as well as my

reading, were by far too scanty to enable me to decide, whether or not these deviations in the natural system were as numerous and various as those in the moral. If they were, the parallel was complete and perfect.

I then became curious to discover how the dreadful power of evil could have acquired such a wonderful predominancy and absolute dominion in man, as it evidently possessed; for before this could happen, evil, I thought, must be in man as it were originally; else there could be no hold for its attractions, no sympathy therewith, but only antipathy, or aversion and repulsion*.

After numberless reflections upon the nature of good and evil, I came to this conclusion, that God was, and must be, the one great source and perfection of GOODNESS and HAPPINESS. That His infinite happiness must be the necessary concomitant of his infinite goodness; and that all His rational creatures must approach towards Him in happiness in the exact proportion in which they approached towards

* My reader will remember, that I am here only showing him what was the train of thought and argument which about thirty years ago led me by degrees to the belief of the truth. How far this argument was just, every man must judge for himself. I myself still think it was founded in truth in general. At the same time, I must except the temporary transient thought. of original evil in man, which, however, quickly vanished when I came to consider the matter carefully.

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Him in goodness. I also saw and felt, that this goodness must be voluntary; for CHOICE selfevidently constituted its very essence, in the nature of reason.

Since therefore to be happy, that is, in order to resemble God in this attribute, it was necessary that man should choose to resemble HIм in goodness, it became requisite to place the proper objects of this choice before him. This choice then must be either of a kind of happiness similar to that of the Deity, consisting in benevolence and all goodness; or of a kind of happiness wholly different from that of the Deity, consisting merely in sensual and selfish gratifications. Now, the soul of man was evidently enabled to make this choice, by being for a time, during this life, confined in a fleshly body, whose desires and appetites were wholly opposite to those of the soul, being selfish and sensual, while her's were benevolent and spiritual.

But still it remained to place such external objects before this compound creature, as should effectually excite, and stimulate into power and action, the nature of both the parts of which he was composed; that by an experience of the pleasures and pains which belonged to, and resulted from each, he might, by the help of right reason and just sentiment, be fully qualified to compare them together, and finally de

cide which of them was most calculated to make him happy. If he preferred the happiness of his soul, by choosing her proper objects, and despising those of the body in comparison, it was a manifest proof that he was capable of, and fit to enjoy a happiness similar to that of the Deity; which, I doubted not, would be conferred, after death had closed the trial. If, on the contrary, he preferred the gratification of his senses, to the happiness of his immortal soul, it equally proved him to be incapable of and unfit for a happiness resembling that of the Deity; but as I then saw not the necessary certainty or justice of eternal punishment, which appeared to me incompatible with the infinite benevolence of God; I therefore concluded, that such unhappy men, proving themselves to be little more than brutes in a human form, would be (and were) permitted, to enjoy, as they could, the wretched lot which they had chosen, during the term of mortal life; after which, being utterly unfit for divine society, or any communication with God, which would only be torment to them, they would like other brutes be annihilated.

Now, it was evident also, that such a system of external objects, as I have mentioned as necessary to the trial and choice of man, was actually placed before him, in the whole world in general, in the moral intercourse of men,

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