STUDIES OF NATURE. STUDY TWELFTH. OF SOME MORAL LAWS OF NATURE. Weakness of Reason; of Feeling; Proofs of the Divinity, and of the Immortality of the Soul, from Feeling. per SUCH are the physical proofs of the existence of the DEITY, as far as the feebleness of my reason has enabled me to produce and arrange them. I have collected perhaps ten times as many; but I ceived that I was after all but at the beginning of my career; that the farther I advanced, the farther it extended itself before me; that my own labour would soon overwhelm me; and that, conformably to the idea of Scripture, nothing would remain to me after a complete survey of the Works of Creation, but the most profound astonishment. It is one of the great calamities of human life, that in proportion as we approach the source of truth, it flies away from before us; and that when by chance we are enabled to catch some of it's smaller ramifications, we are unable to remain constantly attached to them. Wherefore has the sentiment which yesterday exalted me to Heaven, at sight of a new relation VOL. III. B uf of Nature-wherefore has it disappeared to-day? Archimedes did not remain always in an ecstasy, from the discovery of the relations of metals in the crown of King Hiero. He after that made other discoveries more congenial to his mind: such as that of the cylinder circumscribed within the sphere, which he gave directions to have engraved on his tomb. Pythagoras contemplated at length with indifference the square of the hypothenuse, for the discovery of which he had vowed, it is said, a whole hecatomb of oxen to Jupiter. I recollect that when I first became master of the demonstra tion of those sublime truths, I experienced a delight almost as lively as that of the great men who were the first inventors of them. Wherefore is it extinguished? Why do I this day stand in need of novelties to procure me pleasure? The mere animal is in this respect happier than we are: what pleased him yesterday will likewise give him pleasure tomorrow: he fixes for himself a boundary which he never exceeds; what is sufficient for him, always appears to him beautiful and good. The ingenious bce constructs commodious cells, but never dreams of rearing triumphal arches, or obelisks, to decorate her waxen city. A cottage was in like manner sufficient for Man, in order to be as well lodged as a bee., What need had he of five orders of Architecture, of pyramids, of towers, of kiosques? What then is that versatile faculty, called reason, which I employ in observing Nature? It is, say the Schools, a perception of correspondencies, which essentially essentially distinguishes Man from the beast. Man enjoys reason, and the beast is merely governed by instinct. But if this instinct always points out to the animal what is best adapted to it's situation, it is therefore likewise a reason, and a reason more precious than ours, in as much as it is invariable, and is acquired without the aid of long and painful experience. To this the Philosophers of the last age replied, that the proof of the want of reason in beasts is this, that they act always in the same manner; thus they concluded, from the very per fection of their reason, that they had none. Hence we may see to what a degree great names, salaries, and associations, may give currency to the greatest absurdities; for the argument of those Philosophers is a direct attack on the Supreme Intelligence itself, which is invariable in it's plans, as animals are in their instinct. If bees uniformly construct their cells of the same figure, it is because Nature always makes bees of the same character. I do not mean however to affirm that the reason of beasts and that of Man is the same: ours is without dispute much more extensive than the instinct of each animal in particular; but if Man is endowed with an universal reason, Must it not be because his wants are universal? He likewise discerns it is truc the wants of other animals; but may it not be relatively to himself that he has made this his study? If the dog gives himself no concern about the oats of the horse, it is perhaps because the horse is not subservient to the wants of the dog. We possess, notwithstanding, natural adaptations |