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HYPOTHESIS AND TRUTH.

however, and truth are opposed in their very natures, for truth offers itself to the eye of the mind with a self-evidence and an absolute certainty, before which the idea of hypothetical admission or acknowledgment appears as a sacrilege; and hypothesis, on the other hand, courts attention by a display of dazzling and insinuating qualities, which truth ever scorns as utterly unworthy. Hypothesis is swelled up in the robes of argument, in order to astonish and thereby to impose upon us; whereas, truth appears with such simplicity, that the humble soul only can perceive, how infinitely it is above us. Hypothesis is a vile coquette, feigning attachment to all that flatter her, and condescending to the very basest means of increasing the host of her admirers. Truth is a heavenly maid, who shrinks from the profane eye of vanity, whose chaste looks true love alone can attract.

This uncongeniality of hypothesis with truth, is the reason why our sciences depart from the way of truth, in the same proportion as they are mingled with, or founded upon, hypothesis; and as no science, perhaps, has been treated in a more hypothetical manner than the science of the human mind, so, likewise, is there none in which we fall more short of the truth. Hence, as it is written, that the world by wisdom knew not God, so it may likewise be said, that man by wisdom knoweth not himself.

It is, of course, impossible for me to enter into a full and detailed discussion of so vast a subject: I must content myself with urging its great importance, in particular reference to the subject of education, from which it ought never to be separated. The miserable state in which education generally is, can only be accounted for by the general ignorance of teachers in this department of knowledge; and nothing, on the other hand, can be a more striking proof of the absolute darkness, in which the philosophy of the human mind is still involved, than the fact, that the different attempts of establishing that science, have been made with hardly any reference to the gradual develop

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ment of the powers of the soul in infancy, childhood, and youth, as if the nature of any thing could be understood, independently of the knowledge of its origin, and the history of its formation. No one will ever be able to form a correct estimate of man's nature, unless he watch it from the earliest dawn of life, through the various stages of its progress; nor will any one ever be able to nurture up the mind and heart of a child, without a general knowledge of human nature. This is so obvious, that it would seem superfluous to say it, were it not for the fact, that, in practical life, education, and the philosophy of the human mind, are as unconnected as two of the most heterogeneous trades. Nor shall we ever see this evil remedied, until the public at large free themselves from the bondage of some hacknied systems, handed down from generation to generation, and received with the same veneration and confidence, as the legends and traditions in the Romish church—such, for instance, as Locke's doctrine of the tabula rasa, or blank sheet, on which it is the teacher's task to scribble the necessary ideas. But if a salutary degree of diffidence should be exercised with reference to these hereditary systems, no less caution is required in the examination and adoption of some that have newly sprung up among us. As the very antipode of Locke, a system has recently been started, which not only recognizes the existence of a variety of faculties, but distinguishes and defines them with an accuracy hitherto unknown in the philosophy of the mind, and the more tempting, because supported by a host of facts-not speculative facts, but facts which admit of demonstration to the five senses. Between this topography of the soul, and Locke's terra incognita, there are an indefinite number of intermediate views, in which the balance is held more or less equally between the supposed primitive powers of the mind, and the presumed influence of education. But, widely as these various views and systems may differ, in their foundation and their superstructure, their value, when put to the test of truth, and applied

84

REVELATION AND HUMAN SCIENCE.

to the practical purposes of education, will, I am afraid, turn out to be much the same.

I should be sorry to be understood to say anything in the slightest degree tending to depreciate an accurate knowledge of the different powers of the mind; on the contrary, I consider that knowledge to be most essential, not only in education, but, generally, for the economy both of our internal and external life. Yet this knowledge will be altogether dead and valueless, if, as is the case very frequently, and particularly in the systems alluded to, the existence of the different powers be assumed or ascertained as a mere matter of fact, without due reference to the cause, from which they spring, and to the purpose, for which they are intended. It will not do to say :-We find such and such facts in the physical organization of man, and hence we conclude that such and such is the nature of his mind, and such and such the purpose of his existence. The conclusion from the effect to the cause, from the means to the purpose is, to say the least of it, always a very doubtful one; and if there be other sources from which cause and purpose may be ascertained, in a more direct manner, they are unquestionably preferable. This is the great value of revelation for human science, a value which has never been understood-that revelation informs us of the causes and purposes of all that exists, and thereby gives us the key to that world of facts, which is displayed before us. Thus, with reference to the knowledge of man's nature, revelation supplies us with information the most important, and such as, from no other source, least of all from an observation of the facts of the mind, or an investigation of its powers, we could ever have attained. For the sake of a clearer understanding of what I shall afterwards have to say, I may, perhaps, be allowed to sum up the subject in the following manner :—

I. As regards the history of human nature:

1. Man's soul was originally created as an object of the agency of the divine life; its faculties were concentrated

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upon its Maker, whose influence gave them life, a life of harmonious consciousness in themselves, and a life of harmonious expansion over the whole creation of God. It was an instrument of psaltery, from which the breath of Jehovah drew heavenly notes of bliss to the soul, and of glory to himself.

2. It was the will of God, that this state should be perpetuated, and thus the purpose of man's creation accomplished, by a voluntary yielding, on the part of man, to the influence of his Maker, and, consequently, the powers of the soul were instructed not only with a capability of receiving the divine influence, but also with a capability of rejecting it; and both states, the existence with God, and in God, and the existence without God and out of God, were set before man, in their true light, the former as life, the latter as death.

3. The use which man made of this liberty of choice, was to take the government of the faculties of his soul out of the hands of God into his own; whereby he gave birth, in himself, to a tendency opposed to the divine influence, and he not only became liable to the influence of other evil beings, but he became evil in himself. Under the rule of his own evil spirit, the faculties of his soul fell into a state of contradiction among themselves, and of discrepancy with the creation of God. The harmony of the true life, for which they were destined, was lost, and, instead thereof, came the discord of a false life, which, truly, was death.

4. Although the condition of man was thus altered, God's original purpose in the creation of man remained unchanged; and, therefore, God did not abandon man, even in his degraded state; but he placed him in his present condition, the wants and difficulties of which are calculated to impress him with a sense of his dependence ; and to counteract, and ultimately to conquer, his evil spirit, God continued upon him, the influence of that power of true and perfect life, by which, originally, his soul was exclusively ruled, and which still influences him,

86

PRESENT STATE OF THE HUMAN SOUL.

in a greater or lesser degree; unwillingly, in those who have not received it, but are, for a period, or at times, rendered incapable of resistance by the helplessness of their condition; unconsciously, in those who have not acknowledged it; but willingly, in those who have received it, and consciously in those who have believed in it, who acknowledge and profess it. He who receives it only, when under the sway of necessity, and, therefore, both unwillingly and unconsciously, is in a reprobate state, a state of sin and darkness he who receives it willingly, but unconsciously, is under the law-he who receives it willingly and consciously, is in a state of sanctification.*

II. As regards man's present condition:

1. Man is fallen off from the original purpose of his

creation.

2. God intends to restore man to that purpose.

3. Man, being a fallen creature, has in himself an evil spirit, which turns away the faculties of his soul from the purpose for which they were created, and rules them unto destruction.

4. Man, being destined to be restored, has dwelling in himself, though unknown to himself, a good spirit, the Word, which was one with God from the beginning, which, if yielded and submitted to by him, will recal the faculties of his soul to the purpose for which they were created, and rule them unto life everlasting.

Let these premises, derived from revelation, be granted, let them be the torch by the aid of which we penetrate into the mysteries of the human breast, and the field of psychology may fairly be thrown open to observation and inquiry. Let every fact that is observed, be brought under the rays of this light, and it will be elucidated; it will become itself a point of light, from which light will

* It may, in these days of easy offence, be due to the weakness of some, to remind them, that the above is not an enumeration of all the dispensations of mercy, but merely of such, as have for their immediate object the government of man's mental and moral faculties.