dual with riches; and great talents of debate may carry him to the summit of political ambition. In proportion as society advances in moral and intellectual acquirements, it will make larger demands for similar qualities in its favorites. The reality of the moral government of the world is to be found in the degree of happiness which individuals and society enjoy in these different states. If unprincipled commercial and political adventurers were happy, in proportion to their apparent success; or if nations were as prosperous under the dominion of reckless warriors as under that of benevolent and enlightened rulers; or if the individuals who compose a nation enjoyed as much serenity and joy of mind when they advanced the bold, selfish, and unprincipled to places of trust and power, as when they chose the upright, benevolent, and pious,the dominion of a just Creator might well be doubted. But the facts are the reverse of these.

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CHAPTER VI.

ON PUNISHMENT.

SECTION I.

ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS.

THE last point connected with the Natural Laws, which I consider, is the principle on which punishment for infringement of them is inflicted in this world.

Every law presupposes a superior, who establishes it, and requires obedience to its dictates. The superior may be supposed to act on the principle of the propensities, or on that of the sentiments The former being selfish, whatever they desire is for selfish gratification. Hence laws instituted by a superior inspired by the propensities, would have for their leading object, the individual advantage of the lawgiver, with no systematic regard to the enjoyment or welfare of those who were called on to obey. The moral sentiments, on the other hand, are altogether generous, disinterested, and just; they delight in the happiness of others, and do not seek individual advantage as their supreme end. Laws, instituted by a lawgiver, inspired by them, would have, for their grand object, the advantage and enjoyment of those who were called on to obey. The story of William Tell will illustrate my meaning. Gessler, an Austrian governor of the canton of Uri, placed his hat upon a pole, and required the Swiss peasants to pay the same honors to it that were due to himself. The object of this requisition was obviously the gratification of the Austrian's Self-Esteem, in witnessing the humiliation of the Swiss. It was framed without the least regard to their happiness; because such abject slavery could gratify no faculty in their minds, and ameliorate no principle of their

nature; but, on the contrary, was calculated to cause the greatest pain to their feelings.

Before punishment for breaking this law could be justly inflicted, it would be indispensably necessary to show, that those who were called on to obey it, not only possessed the power of doing so, but were to be benefited by it. If it could be established, that, by the very constitution of their minds, it was impossible for them to reverence the hat of the tyrant, and that, if they had pretended to do so, they would have manifested only baseness and hypocrisy; then the law was unjust, and all punishment for disobedience would have been pure tyranny and oppression on the part of the governor. In punishing, he would be calling in Destructiveness to minister to the gratification of his own Self-Esteem.

Let us imagine, on the other hand, a law promulgated by a sovereign, whose sole motive was the happiness of his subjects, and that the edict was, Thou shalt not steal. If the lawgiver were placed far above the reach of theft by his subjects, and if respect to each other's rights were indispensable to the welfare of his people themselves, then it is obvious, that, so far as he was personally concerned, their stealing or not stealing would be of no importance to him, while it would be of the highest moment to themselves. Let us suppose, then, that, in order to prevent the evils which the subjects would bring upon themselves by stealing, he were to add as a penalty, that every man who stole should be locked up, and instructed in his duty, until he clearly felt the necessity of abstaining from theft; the justice and benevolence of this sentence would rest securely on the circumstance, that it was in the highest degree advantageous, at once to society at large, and to the offender himself. Suppose that he was born with large organs of Acquisitiveness and Secretiveness, and deficient Conscientiousness, and that at the time he committed the offence, he really could not help stealing, still there would be no cruelty and no injustice in locking him up, and in

structing him in moral duty, until he learned to abstain from theft; because if this were not done, and if all men were to follow his example and only steal, the human race, and he, as a member of it, would necessarily starve and become extinct.

Now, the Creator's natural laws, so far as I have been able to perceive them, are instituted solely on the latter principle; that is to say, there is not the slightest indication of the object of any of the arrangements of creation being to gratify an inferior feeling in the Creator himself. No well constituted mind, indeed, could conceive Him commanding beings, whom he called into existence, and whom he could annihilate in a moment, to do any act of homage, which had reference solely to the acknowledgment of his authority, solely for his gratification, and without regard to their own welfare and enjoyment. We cannot, in short, without absolute outrage to the sentiments and intellect, imagine Him doing any thing analogous to the act of the Swiss governor,- placing an emblem of his authority on high, and requiring his creatures to obey it, merely to gratify himself by their homage, to their disparagement and distress. Accordingly, every natural law, so far as I can discover, appears clearly instituted for the purpose of adding to the enjoyment of the creatures who are called on to obey it. The object of the punishment inflicted for disobedience is to arrest the offender in his departure from the laws; which departure, if permitted to proceed to its natural termination, would involve him in tenfold greater miseries: this arrangement greatly promotes the activity of the faculties; and active faculties being fountains of pleasure, the penalties themselves become benevolent and just. For example,

Under one of the physical laws, all organized bodies are liable to combustion. Timber, coals, oils, and animal substances, when heated to a certain extent, catch fire and burn. The question occurs, Was this quality bestowed on them for a benevolent purpose or not? Let us look to the

advantages attending it: By means of fire we obtain warmth in cold latitudes, and light after the sun has set; we are enabled to cook, thereby rendering our food more wholesome and savory; and to soften and fuse the metals. I need go no farther; every one will acknowledge, that, by the law under which organized bodies are liable to combustion, countless benefits are conferred on the human race.

The human body itself, however, is organized, and in consequence is subject to this law, so that, if placed in a great fire, it is utterly dissipated in a few minutes. Some years ago, a woman, in a fit of insanity, threw herself into an iron smelting furnace, in full blaze. She was observed by a man working on the spot, who instantly put off the steam-engine that was working the bellows, and came to take her out; but he then saw only a small black speck on the surface of the fire, and in a few minutes more even it had disappeared. The effect of a less degree of heat is to disorganize the texture of the body. What mode, then, has the Creator followed, to preserve men from the danger to which they are subject by fire. He has caused their nerves to communicate sensations from heat, agreeable while the temperature is such as to benefit the body; slightly uneasy, when it becomes so high as to be in some measure hurtful; positively painful when the heat approaches that degree at which it would seriously injure the organized system, and horribly agonizing whenever it becomes so elevated as to destroy the organs. The principle of all this is very obviously benevolent. Combustion brings us innumerable advantages; and when we place ourselves in accordance with the law intended to regulate our relation to it, we reap unmingled benefits and pleasure. But we are in danger from its excessive action; and so kind is the Creator, that he does not trust to the guardianship of our own cautiousness and intellect alone to protect us from infringement, but has established a monitor in every nerve, whose admonitions increase in intensity through imperceptible gradations, exquisitely adjusted to the degrees of danger, till at last,