lectual faculties is good for man: the maturity of judgment, taste, imagination, and all the 'high capacious powers' which in so many 'lie folded up.' Each of these is a ministry of good to the possessor: there is happiness for the man of science in his researches; for the artist in his perceptions and imitations of beauty; and for the poet in his creations. There is enjoyment, rich and large, for those who can merely appreciate what they perform. These are faculties of which the germs exist in all: it is virtue to cherish them. Professed religionists have much to answer for: they have often aimed at preventing reasoning, which is to crush the power of reasoning. Many dislike others thinking freely, because they love subserviency to their own judgments. All this is vicious. As we should bring a plant to the full growth of its stem, and expansion of its leaves, and beauty of its blossoms, so should we subserve and delight in the cherishing of every faculty of the soul, until human intelligence shall generally attain and exhibit its full proportions.

4th. The affections were implanted in man's nature for his happiness. They are his moral wealth. Rightly to be their subject and their object is his blessedness. The Roman character was vicious, for its superstructure was raised on the ruins of private affections. The Jewish character was vicious, for beyond a certain circle, instead of affections, it cherished antipathies. Every system which tends to the suppression of feeling is vicious, for affection as well as intellect should be expanded and strengthened to its full development. Christ's fervency of feeling was a

wonder to the Jews; and made them exclaim, when they saw him at the tomb of Lazarus, 'Behold how he loved him.' False shame at emotion, the affectation of cold heartedness, restrictions on the expression of the heartfelt appreciation of excellence, attempts that can only produce selfishness if they act on the mind, hypocricy if they only reach the manners, tend to diminish, and to diminish without corresponding good, the happiness of which man is capable from this source, and are therefore vicious, as the opposite course is therefore that of morality.

5th. It is good for man that he should occupy his proper relative position in society. Whatever therefore tends to place all men according to their capacities and aptitudes, is virtuous; and whatever tends to keep them where they have less enjoyment in themselves, and are less useful to other, is vicious. No man can be happy in a situation for which he is unfitted. The parent is immoral who only calculates how his child may be wealthiest, instead of studying the harmony of his character with the situation for which he destines him. An ecclesiastical system which lures into the office of teacher those who are not superior to others in the faculties of acquiring and communicating knowledge, is an immoral system. obstruct the attainment of political rights by those who are qualified to use them, is an immoral act. We are virtuous whenever we aid men to gain the positions in society for which they are best adapted; and vicious whenever, from envy, prejudice, indolence, or any other cause, we uphold those dislocations which produce so much of misery.

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6th. Religion is good for man It is the recognition of his relation to the Creator, Preserver, and BeneIt is the source of abundant en

factor of the world. joyment, consolation, and hope. The tediousness or repulsiveness of its services; the artificial gloom in which it is sometimes shrouded; the dogmatism with which doctrine is asserted, and the asperity with which controversy is waged; these, and whatever else tend to alienate men's feelings from religion, are therefore immoralities. By them we create hinderances to their possession of this exalted species of enjoyment; we interpose, it may be unintentionally, between mankind and their Father in heaven.

It is but the barest outline or index of the leading particulars into which man's well-being may be distributed, which has now been stated. Both the science and the art of happiness should have a much more systematic attention than has yet been bestowed upon them. We cannot well and wisely serve our generation, until we know how that service can best be rendered. We have rested too long in the letter of precepts, without heeding their spirit; in the forms of morality, without regarding its essence; and in the traditions and conventionalisms of society, without ascending to the everlasting principles of human nature and human happiness. This must we do, as well as rectify doctrinal corruptions, if we would be men of God, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It is evident, that to be moral, we have more to do than simply to abstain from those grosser vices which bring so speedily their punishment, in the loss of health, wealth, and reputation, or than to conform with

those external regulations with which society is satisfied. In our view of morality many topics rise into an importance which is not assigned to them in commonplace manuals of duty. How momentous, for instance, are religious opinions and practices! How far have they misled many, reckoned amongst the best of men, from the Christian principle of morality! According is the current theology, the greatest amount of human enjoyment is not the object either of man or God. They make virtue to consist in blind faith or obedience; represent reward as positive, and punishment as eternal. They create sins by the misappli→ cation of precepts, and overlook virtues by the nonapplication of principles. Much of what is supposed to constitute a good man is made to consist in performances, or abstinences, which are alike useless to himself, and to all the world besides. Every enlightened man must desire that this perversion of the powers of the world to come should be rectified. An intelligible aim, beneficent as well as intelligible, should be given to human exertion, especially to that exertion as stimulated by the sanctions of religion. full emancipation of religion from the corruptions and superstitions which have accumulated by the suppression of reason within its boundaries, would give a new and glorious impulse to those exertions by which man blesses himself in blessing others.

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We see also, in this view of morality, what importance attaches to public institutions and laws. How largely and incessantly do they act upon the enjoyments and sufferings of millions! Directly or indirectly, they are ever at work upon our habits, cir

cumstance, prospects, all that is without us, and consequently upon all that is within us, our thoughts and feelings. Sometimes an acquaintance with them indicates the means of benefiting others, sometimes they are an obstruction to the good which we might realize. Their wisdom, their utility, their improvement, their adaptation to the wants and spirit of the age, are of the utmost importance. Bishop Horsley's definition of a good subject, that 'he has nothing to do with the laws but to obey them,' is certainly not the description of a good Christian or moral man. It is mere hypocricy to talk of living for human happiness, and yet profess indifference to the machinery by which so extensively that happiness is created, preserved, impaired or destroyed. One of the first duties of morality assuredly is to watch the tendencies and bearings of these things, and do what we can towards their right direction.

Another most important element is the prevailing tone,temper,or spirit of society. If public law and in stitution be mighty for good or evil, yet more mighty, in some classes at least, is public or rather social opinion and feeling. There are many, over the formation of whose characters, and the conduct of whose lives, this agency exercises a greater power than any other that can be indicated; more than reflection, more than law, more than religion. To take a glaring instance, because it is on that account an illustrative specimen,-it is this which has upheld, in one class of society, the most absurd and criminal practice of duelling, in direct opposition to the opinions of philosophy, the enactments of law, and the pre