of the reason of high intelligences the desire of knowledge in the bosom of the successful aspirant after new ideas keep pace with his intellectual attainments. This again suggests to us a good reason for the variety and immensity of creation. Man needs such a universe as this, and the universe needs such a thing as man, not merely as a competent part, but as the worthy guest of it. Every thing that exists is to be enjoyed by a being who has the power of understanding and admiring it. Now, as the human power to know and to enjoy, is naturally cumulative and progressive, the objects to be known and enjoyed must be proportionably vast and illimitable. And here again arises a new proof of design and adaptation in this grand and eloquent universe of God. For it is not only in the infinitude and variety of its parts-in its physical, intellectual, aud moral dimensions; but in the immeasurable aggregate of its provisions, as respects variety, extent, and duration, that it is so adapted to the human constitution-to this unquenchable thirst for knowledge-this eternally increasing intellectual power of knowing and enjoying, bestowed on our rational and moral nature. In all the language of celestial or terrestrial beings, there is no word of more comprehensive and transcendant import, than the term Universe. In its mighty grasp, in its boundless extent, it embraces Creator and creature-all past, all present, all future existences within the revolting circles of time, and all the endless ages of eternity. Our finite minds, indeed, with all their gigantic powers of acquisition, cannot compass infinite ideas, but they can divide and subdi The physical wants of the infant do not more naturally and necessarily prompt his first animal exertions to find relief, than does this innate principle, this natural desire of knowledge, urge the mind in the pursuit of new ideas. The ineffable pleasure of the first conception only invites to a second effort; and success in that stimulates to a third; and so on, in increasing ratios, till the full grown man, on his fledged wings of intellec-vide the mighty whole into such small tual maturity, soars aloft, as the eagle from the mountain top, in quest of new and greater discoveries. And never did the miser's love of gold bear a more direct proportion to his success in accumulating it, than does parts and parcels as come within their easy management. We have,therefore, divided the universe into innumerable solar systems spread over fields of space, so immense as to make imagination herself flag in her most vigorous efforts to survey them. These systems we have again divided into planets, primary and secondary; and these again into various kingdoms -mineral, vegetable, animal, intellectual. These we have farther distributed into genera, species, and individuals, until a single individual becomes a distinct theme of contemplation. Even that we often find an object too large for our feeble efforts, and set about separating an individual existence into the primary elements of its nature, the attributes, modes, and circumstances of its being, before it comes within the easy grasp of a special operation of our minds. But the feast of the mind, the joy of the banquet, is not found in these distributions and classifications of things, but in viewing every organ and atom of every creature in reference to itself, and to the creature of which it is a part; then that creature as related to other creatures of its own species and genera; and these again in reference to other ranks and orders belonging to the particular world of which they are atoms; and that world itself as connected with others; and then all as related to the Supreme Intelligence, the fountain and source of all that is wise, and great, and good, and beautiful, and lovely-the Parent of all being and of all joy; and thus to look through universal nature, and her ten thousand portals and avenues, up to Nature's uncreated and unoriginated Author. It is, indeed, a sublime and glorious truth, that this, to us, unsearchable and incomprehensible universe, can all be converted into an infinite and eternal fountain of joy, an inexhaustible source of pure and perennial bliss, commensurate with the whole capacity of man. But this, to us, is yet in the boundless future, and must depend upon the proper direction given to our desires and pursuits in the contemplation and study of the universe. The fields of science are innumerable. But few of them have ever passed under the observation of our greatest masters. Not one of them is yet understood. The whole universe is yet to be studied; and with such care and attention that the worlds, and systems of worlds — of ideas within us, shall exactly correspond to the worlds and systems of worlds without us. As exactly as the image in the mirror resembles the face before it, so must the ideas within us correspond to the things without us, before we can be said to understand them. What ages, then, must pass over them, before the single system to which he now belongs shall have stamped the image upon his soul, and left as many sciences within him as there are things cognate and homogeneous without him! Before this begins to be accomplished, the seven sciences of the ancients will not only have multiplied into the seventy times seven of the moderns, but into multitudes that would bankrupt the whole science of numbers to compute. If Socrates, the great master of Grecian philosophy, could only boast that he had attained so much knowledge of the universe as to be confident that he knew nothing about it-comprehended no part of it-how much of that science of ignorance ought we to possess, to whom so many fountains of intelligence have been opened, from what the sage of Athens was debarred! But as there is nothing isolated or independent in all the dominions of God, so there cannot be an isolated or detached science in any mind, save that in which the original archetypes of all things were arranged before one of them was called into existence. And this is now, and always has been, the insuperable obstacle to the perfect comprehension of any one science, the basis of which is in the realms of mind or matter. Still the desire to know rises with the consciousness of our ignorance, and even of our present inability, and we promise ourselves a day of grace | is, she has five points peculiarly her in which we shall not only know in own, which no other science in the part, and prophesy in part; but shall universe has ever been able to desee clearly, comprehend fully, and velope with either certainty or satisknow as we are known. Till then faction to any man. These five points we must be content to study the are-the origin, the nature, the primer of Nature, and learn the ele-relations, the obligations, and the ments of things around us, as prepa-destiny of man. ratory to our admission into the high Many, indeed, of the teachers, adschool of the universe. Indeed, the greatest genius, the most gifted and learned in all human science, rises but to the portico of that school, the vestibule of that temple in which the true science of true bliss is practically taught, and rationally communicated to man. mirers, and votaries of a science sometimes called "moral philosophy,” as taught by the ancients and by the moderns, have, with a zeal and devotion truly admirable, and worthy of a better cause, inculcated upon the youth of past and present times, the all-sufficiency of human reason, or of human philosophy, to clear up all doubts and uncertainty upon all subjects connected with man's relations and resposibilities to the universe. There is one science, however, in which it is possible to make great proficiency in this life, and which, of all the sciences, is the most popular, and, withal, the least understood. It That there are sciences physical, has been a favorite in all the schools mental, and moral, truly and properly of the ancients and of the moderns; so called, I doubt not; but that the but has never been successfully taught science sometimes called "moral phiby Grecian, Roman, Indian, or Egyp-losophy," which professes, from the tian philosophy. It is, indeed, neither mere light of nature, to ascertain and more nor less than the science of establish-indeed, to originate and happiness-than the philosophy of bliss. But some of you will immediately ask, "Where shall that science be found? In what temple does she deign to dwell? By what rites are her ears to be propitiated to our prayers ? And by what less ambiguous name shall she be called? To introduce her, without proper ceremonies, to your acquaintance, would be as impolitic on my part as it would be perplexing to my inventive powers to find for her a pleasing and familiar name. But, in the absence of such a designation, I will state the five points of which she treats. Whether it is because we have only five senses, five fingers on each hand, or because there are five points in Calvinism, and as many in Arminianism, that this divine science has only five points, I leave it to more learned doctors and sages than your humble servant to decide. But so it set forth the origin, nature, relations, obligations, and destiny of man-is a true science of the inductive order, founded upon facts-upon observation and experiment, and not upon assumption, plagiarism, imagination; I cannot admit. If, then, we cannot set forth the science of happiness, nor find for it, at this time, an appropriate name; we shall attempt to expose, in part at least, the fallacy and imposition of all human science, (especially of moral philosophy, which in this particular arrogates to itself more than every other science), in attempting to settle or develope any one of these five points with any degree of certainty, authority, or evidence, either salutary or satisfactory to any man of sense. This is neither the time nor the place for mere definitions, metaphysical arguments, nor for abstract reasonings. A definition or two we may have occasion to offer; but we shall rely much more upon a safer and more palpable evidence in demonstrating the perfect impotency of philosophy and human reason, however cultivated, possessing only the mere light of nature to decide and enforce any one of these five cardinal points. It will, I presume, be conceded by all persons of education and good sense, that human happiness demands the full enjoyment of all our powers and capacities, in harmony with all our relations and obligations to the creation of which we are a part, and that a knowledge of those relations and obligations is essential to the fulfilment and enjoyment of them; consequently there is a very great intimacy between the knowledge of these points and the philosophy of bliss. It will also be conceded that the knowledge of our obligations and relations presupposes a knowledge of our origin and destiny; and, therefore, whatever system of reasoning, whatever science fails to reveal these, cannot possibly develope those. These things premised, I hasten to show, that while moral philosophy proposes to do all this, she has never done it in any one instance—her greatest masters and most eloquent and powerful pleaders being accepted as credible testimony in the case. That moral philosophy assumes to teach man his obligations and relations to Creator and creatures, and to make him virtuous and happy, is first to be proved. Whose testimony, then, shall we hear? That of the greatest of Roman philosophers-the most learned of her scholars-the most profound of her reasoners-the most eloquent of her orators-the most accomplished of her citizens the unrivalled Cicero ? He was, indeed, an honor to human nature; and, without exaggeration, in my opinion, the greatest man Pagan Rome ever produced. Many a fine encomium on philosophy may be gleaned from his numerous writings; but a few sentences will suffice to imprint his views on every mind. "Philosophy," says he, "is the culture of the mind that plucketh up vice by the roots-the medicine of the soul that healeth the minds of men. From philosophy we may draw all proper helps and assistance for leading virtuous and happy lives. The correction of all our vices and sins is to be sought for from philosophy. Oh! Philosophy!" adds he, "the guide of life-the searcher out of virtue and the expeller of vice, what would we be, nay, what would be the life of man, without thee! Thou wast the inventress of laws, the mistress of morals, the teacher of discipline! For thee we pleadfrom thee we beg assistance. day spent according to thy precepts is preferable to an immortality spent in sin.”* So spake the gigantic Roman, standing on the shoulders of the more gigantic Greek philosophers, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and a hundred others of minor fame. One We shall next hear the oracle of modern philosophers who filled the chair of Dugald Stewart, the greatest of metaphysicians. "Philosophy," says he-quoting the most renowned of the stoics of Roman fame, the distinguished Seneca-" Philosophy forms and fathoms the soul, and gives to life its disposition and order, which points out what is our duty to do, and what is our duty to omit. It sits at the helm, and in a sea of peril directs the course of those who are wandering through the waves." "Such," says our modern philosopher in American schools, Brown of Edinburgh, " is the great practical object of all philosophy." "It comprehends," adds the standard author," the nature of our spiritual being, as displayed in all the phenomena of feeling and of thought-the ties which bind us to our fellow-men, and to our See Cic. Tuscul. Disputations, lib. 2, caps. 4 and 5; lib. 3, cap. 3; lib. 4. cap. 38; lib. 5, ca. 2. Creator, and the prospect of that unfading existence, of which life is but the first dawning gleam," vol. 1. ch. 14. Such, then, are the pretensions of philosophy, mental and moral, in the esteem of Christian as well as in that of Pagan sages. I believe this to be the orthodox creed in all the popular schools of Britain and in America. Indeed, both Hartley and Paley might be quoted as going still farther in ascribing to moral philosophy an almost superior excellence in some points, even to the Revelation itself. But we need not such exaggerated views. The preceding will suffice for a text. We shall now look for the exemplification of the fruits of this boasted and boastful philosophy in the admissions, declarations, and acts of its teachers, and in the lives and morality of its students and admirers. The witnesses to be heard in this case are the Grecian and Roman lawgivers and philosophers. We have not time to hear them deposingly and separately; we shall therefore examine them in companies. The Greek pdilosophy is all arranged in three lines; as the learned, since and before the revival of literature, have conceded. These three great lines are the Ionic, the Italic, and the Eleatic. The Ionic was founded by the great Thales of the Ionian Miletus; the first natural philosopher and astronomer of Greece, who divided the year into 365 days; observed in the diameter of the sun; and foretold eclipses, about the middle of the sixth century before Christ. The Italic was founded by that great lawgiver and philosopher, Pythagoras, who established a school in Italy a little after the middle of the fifth century before Christ. The Eleatic was founded by Leucippus and Parmenides, of Elæ, early in the fifth century before Christ; the chiefs of which may be alluded to in the sequel. These schools are all named from the country or place in which they were originally located. The The Eleatic school was wholly atheistic, root and branch. Leucippus first taught the doctrine of atoms, afterwards adopted by the learned and facetious Democritus. While Heraclitus, the great Ephesian philosopher, wept over the follies of men, Democritus laughed at them, and taught that the universe was but the fortuitous concourse of atoms. more refined and accomplished Epicurus speculated at great length upon the same theories, somewhat modified; and each of those great names headed a sect of Atheists, who, while they agreed in the essential doctrine differed in minor points. The essential doctrines of all the sects of the Eleatic school were, that the world was made by the god Chance-a fortuitous concourse of atoms; that is governed by no intelligence, ruled by no governor, and preserved by no providence. That the soul, if there be any, dies with the body; consequently there is no future life. That there is neither virtue nor vice, moral good or moral evil by nature, or any other law than that of custom and public unity. That pleasure is the chief good, and pain the greatest evil to man. With the moral theories of this school, other distinguished philosophers concurred; amongst whom Laertius ranks Theodorus, Archelaus, and Aristippus; teaching that upon fit occasions (that is, when not likely to be detected), theft, sacrilege, and other enormities which we cannot name, might be committed, because nothing was by nature, or of itself, base, but by law and custom. I shall certainly be allowed to dismiss this school without farther hearingwithout a more formal proof that moral philosophy, in their hands, was not what our great moral philosophers, from Cicero down to Stewart and Brown, of Scotch and American fame, have affirmed, viz.-" The |