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النشر الإلكتروني

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 cf 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 serenity--stifling 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 relatives-and sacrificing repose, honour, wealth, and even life itself, for the good of their country, or for promoting the best interests of the human race,—we perceive in such examples features of the human mind which mark its dignity and grandeur, and indicate its destination to a higher scene of action and enjoyment.

Even in the annals of the Pagan world, we find many examples of such illustrious virtues. There we read of Regu

lus exposing himself to the most cruel torments, and to death itself, rather than suffer his veracity to be impeached, or his fidelity to his country to be called in question--of Phocion, who exposed himself to the fury of an enraged assembly, by inveighing against the vices, and endeavouring to promote the best interests of his countrymen, and gave it as his last command to his son, when he was going to execution," that he should forget how ill the Athenians had treated his father"-of Cyrus, who was possessed of wisdom, moderation, courage, magnanimity, and noble sentiments, and who employed them all to promote the happiness of his people of Scipio, in whose actions the virtues of generosity and liberality, goodness, gentleness, justice, magnanimity, and chastity, shone with distinguished lustre and of Damon and Pythias, who were knit together in the bonds of a friendship which all the terrors of an ignominious death could not dissolve. But of all the characters of the heathen world, illustrious for virtue, Aristides appears to stand in the foremost rank. An extraordinary greatness of soul, (says Rollin) made him superior to every passion. Interest, pleasure, ambition, resentment, jealousy, were extinguished in him by the love of virtue and his country. The merit of others, instead of offending him, became his own by the approbation he gave it. He rendered the government of the Athenians amiable to their allies, by his mildness, goodness, humanity, and justice. The disinterestedness he showed in the management of the public treasure, and the love of poverty which he carried almost to an excess, are virtues so far superior to the practice of our age, that they scarce seem credible to us. His conduct and principles were always uniform, steadfast in the pursuit of whatever he thought just, and incapable of the least falsehood, or shadow of flattery, disguise, or fraud, even in jest. He had such a control over his passions, that he uniformly sacrificed his private interests, and his private resentments to the good of the public. Themistocles was one of the principal actors who procured his banishment from Athens but, after being recalled, he assisted him on every occasion with his advice and credit, joyfully taking pains to promote the glory of his greatest enemy through the motive of advancing the public good. And when afterwards the disgrace of Themistocles gave him a proper opportunity for revenge, instead of resenting the ill-treatment he had received from him, he constantly refused to join with his enemics, being as

far from secretly rejoicing over the misfortune of his adversary as he had been before from being afflicted at his good success. Such virtues reflect a dignity and grandeur on every mind in which they reside, which appear incompatible with the idea, that it is destined to retire for ever from the scene of action at the hour of death.

But the noblest examples of exalted virtue are to be found among those who have enlisted themselves in the cause of Christianity. The Apostle Paul was an illustrious example of every thing that is noble, heroic, generous, and benevolent in human conduct. His soul was inspired with a holy ardour in promoting the best interests of mankind. To accomplish this object, he parted with friends and relatives, relinquished his native country, and every thing that was dear to him either as a Jew or as a Roman citizen, and exposed himself to persecutions and dangers of every description. During the prosecution of his benevolent career, he was "in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in stripes above measure, in cold and nakedness." Yet none of these things moved him, nor did he count his life dear to him, provided he might finish his course with joy, and be instrumental in accomplishing the present and eternal happiness of his fellowmen. In every period of the Christian era, similar characters have arisen to demonstrate the power of virtue and to bless mankind. Our own age and country have produced numerous philanthropic characters, who have shone as lights in the moral world, and have acted as benefactors to the human race. The names of Alfred, Penn, Barnard, Raikes, Neilde, Clarkson, Sharpe, Buxton, Wilberforce, Venning, and many others, are familiar to every one who is in the least acquainted with the annals of benevolence. The exertions which some of these individuals have made in the cause of liberty, in promoting the education of the young, in alleviating the distresses of the poor, in meliorating the condition of the prisoner, and in counteracting the abominable traffic in slaves, will be felt as blessings conferred on mankind throughout succeeding generations, and will, doubtless, be held in everlasting remembrance.

But among all the philanthropic characters of the past

or present age, the labours of the late Mr. HOWARD, stand pre-eminent. This illustrious man, from a principle of pure benevolence, devoted the greater part of his life to active beneficence, and to the alleviation of human wretchedness, in every country where he travelled,-diving into the depth of dungeons, and exposing himself to the infected atmospheres of hospitals and jails, in order to meliorate the condition of the unfortunate, and to allay the sufferings of the mournful prisoner. In prosecuting this labour of love, he travelled three times through France, four times through Germany, five times through Holland, twice through Italy, once through Spain and Portugal, and also through Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, and part of the Turkish empire, surveying the haunts of misery, and distributing benefits to mankind wherever he appeared.

"From realm to realm with cross or cresent crown'd,
Where'er mankind and misery are found,

O'er burning sands, deep waves, or wilds of snow,
Mild Howard journeying seeks the house of woe.
Down many a winding step to dungeons dank,
Where anguish wails aloud and fetters clank,
To caves bestrewed with many a mouldering bone,
And cells whose echoes only learn to groan;
Where no kind bars a whispering friend disclose,
No sun-beam enters, and no zephyr blows;
-He treads, inemulous of fame or wealth,
Profuse of toil and prodigal of health;
Leads stern-ey'd Justice to the dark domains,
If not to sever, to relax the chains,
Gives to her babes the self-devoted wife,
To her fond husband liberty and life,

-Onward he moves! disease and death retire;
And murmuring demons hate him and admire."

DARWIN.

Such characters afford powerful demonstrations of the sublimity of virtue, of the activity, of the human mind, and of its capacity for contributing to the happiness of fellow intelligences to an unlimited extent. We have also, in our own times, a class of men who have parted from their friends and native land, and have gone to the "uttermost ends of the earth," to distant barbarous climes, exposing themselves to the frosts of Labrador and Greenland, to the scorching heats of Africa, and to the hostile attacks of savage tribes, in order to publish the salvation of God, and to promote the happiness of men of all languages and climates. Some of these have felt their minds inspired with such a noble ardour in the cause of universal benevolence, that

nothing but insurmountable physical obstructions prevented them from making the tour of the world, and imparting benefits to men of all nations, kindreds, and tongues.

Can we then imagine, that such active powers as those to which I have now alluded-powers which qualify their possessors for diffusing happiness to an indefinite extent among surrounding intelligences-will be for ever extinguished by the stroke of death? and that, after a few feeble efforts during the present transitory scene, they will never again exert their energies through all eternity? This will appear in the highest degree improbable, if we consider, 1. The limited sphere of action to which the generality of mankind are confined in the present state. Most men are confined to laborious employments, and have their attention almost entirely absorbed in providing for their families, and in anxious solicitude for their animal subsistence and success in life, so that they find no scope for their moral powers beyond the circle of the family mansion, and of their own immediate neighbourhood. 2. The period within which the most energetic powers can be exerted is extremely limited. It is not before man has arrived near the meridian of life that his moral powers begin to be fully expanded, -and it frequently happens, in the case of ardent benevo lent characters, that, at the moment when their philanthro pic schemes were matured, and they had just commenced their career of beneficence, death interposes, and puts a period to all their labours and designs. 3. In the present state of the world, numerous physical obstructions interpose to prevent the exertion of the moral powers, even in the most ardent philanthropic minds. The want of wealth and influence; the diseases and infirmities of an enfeebled corporeal frame; the impediments thrown in the way by inalice and envy, and the political arrangements of states; the difficulty of penetrating into every region of the globe where human beings reside, and many other obstructions, prevent the full exercise of that moral energy which resides in benevolent and heroic minds, and confine its operations within a narrow span. But can we ever suppose, in consistency with Divine Wisdom and Benevolence, that God has implanted in the human constitution benevolent active powers, which are never to be fully expanded, and that those godlike characters that have occasionally appeared on the theatre of our world, are never to re-appear on the field of action, to expatiate, in the full exercise of their

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