And planetary some; what gave them first

Rotation, from what fountain flow'd their light.
Great contest follows, and much learned dust
Involves the combatants; each claiming truth
And truth disclaiming both. And thus they spend
The little wick of life's poor shallow lamp
In playing tricks with nature, giving laws
To distant worlds and trifling in their own.
.. When I see such games

Play'd by the creatures of a pow'r, who swears
That he will judge the Earth, and call the fool
To a sharp reck'ning, that has liv'd in vain:
And when I view this seeming wisdom well,
And prove it in th' infallible result

......

So hollow and so false I feel my heart
Dissolve in pity, and account the learn'd,
If this be learning, most of all deceiv'd.".
"God never meant that man should scale the heavens
By strides of human Wisdom, in his works
Tho' wondrous; he commands us in his word,
To seek him rather, where his mercy shines."

Cowper's Task, Book 3.

If we examine the writings of the greatest men, we have nearly the same opinion of Reason's utter insufficiency for the chief purposes of life. But, it is scarcely necessary to augment the number of testimonies in support of this argument. I apprehend it must be now obvious that Reason of itself can know nothing but what relates wholly to the present scene; that it cannot feel the evidence of a divine spirit, though it may prove the probability of its existence; that it can neither taste any one of the streams of that

fountain from which good springs, nor supply a single draught of vital consolation to the soul in affliction; and, that human reason, however dignified it may be,-yet, as human reason, with all the world's possessions at its command, in the unceasing pursuit of ever-varying earthly enjoyments,-never can fully satisfy the mind.

Therefore, as the soul of man, when engrossed with the love of pleasure, or eager for fame, or ambitious of power, or even ardent in the search after knowledge, refuses to be satisfied,-and reason, though abundantly engaged in the pursuit, cannot satisfy it in any of these sublunary things; it must have an affinity to something above sense, which is immortal. But its immortal nature, having other desires than those which spring from earth-other appetites than those of sense, is rendered incapable of being nourished but by spiritual food, and of being instructed but by a spiritual principle.

It will be our next business to inquire concerning the nature of this principle.

PART II.

OF

THE MORAL RELATIONS

OF

INSTINCT.

CHAP. I.

OF THE OPINIONS OF PHILOSOPHERS ON THE SUBJECT OF A DIVINE INTELLIGENCE IN THE HUMAN MIND.

SECT. I.

Authorities in support of the view now taken.

I PROCEED next to treat of Instinct in its moral relations-a subject involving the highest privileges

of man.

And here I shall not stop to inquire whether that principle, which constitutes the glory and establishes the preeminence of human nature, be more fitly denominated an Instinct, Power, Faculty, Sense, belonging intrinsically to the creature as a natural endowment; or a spiritual emanation, divine intelligence, supernatural gift, freely bestowed by the Creator's bounty. As we proceed, this point will be ⚫ gradually elucidated. But in the course of my speculations, if any of the terms above noticed, as Instinct,