are thus a compound of two natures, or classes of existence. They are at the same time material things, and immaterial beings; but they are beings without the sensitivity and degree of mind which animals possess. They are immaterial beings of their own class and kind, strictly limited to that, and clearly defined to the eye and judgment of every one by that limitation; but their material substance is as truly not their principle of life, as their living principle is not their material substance.

As

As I think on the vast amount of individual beings which our earth contains, my reason is led, among other possible causes and uses of them, to regard them as so many depositaries of the immaterial living principle. soon as this was created, it had to be placed in a position that suited it. But it never appears to us without a material investment; nor do we know that it can exist consciously and livingly without one, an organized form of some sort or other; and if it is to be preserved in a sentient state, an animal configuration of some species, seems to be, as far as the observable phenomena which attend it justify an inference, its proper and most fitted residence. Magnitude, we have already seen, is indifferent to it. It is as active, as sensorial, as vital, and as intellectual in the ant as in the elephant; and therefore all animal bodies-the minutest as well as the greatest-may be its appointed and most beneficial receptacles.*

But as such a multiplicity of living beings in our world is far more exuberant than any occasions for it on this earth appear to require, the thought is sometimes led to the recollection, that the globe we inhabit is not the only orb of life and substance in creation. We are but one of many worlds; and of these there are a few separated from the innumerable others, which are immediately and distinctly associated with us in one planetary system, and which revolve as we do around one common sun. The peculiar seclusion of these from all the rest, and the appointment of these only to be together, and their manifest combination into one system of being, apart from every other, and divided in space from every other by more myriads of

* Dr. Hartley's concluding observation on the intellectual faculties of animals deserves a quotation. "It ought always to be remembered, that brutes have more reason than they can show, from their want of words, from our inattention, and from our ignorance of the import of those symbols, which they do use in giving intimations to one another, and to us." Hartl. on Man, vol. 1, p. 428.

millions of miles than we can easily calculate-are clear and certain indications, that we have some important relations with each other, which have not yet been ascertained. That we all recede from the solar centre, and yet gravitate to it according to our masses and projectile impulsion, is only one truth-one of our connecting similarities. This fact manifests some general concern with him, and apparently much more than the mere reception of his agencies of heat and light, as these are confessedly very small, comparatively, to the planets beyond the orbit of Mars. But the reason, in weighing all the probabilities of the case, inclines to the conclusion, that we and our fellow planets have more references to each other than are yet known; and, consequently, that our earth is existing for some purposes with which they are interested, as they have also circumstances in their subsistence or destinations which as materially concern us. Here the imagination, having no descried data to lay as the foundation for any real superstructure, can only again indulge in conjectural possibilities. One of these would be, that our earth may be a nursery of the immaterial principle; that it is here brought into its first state of being in animal forms, with a profusion that seems to us unexplainably lavish, in order that it may be elsewhere used in some advanced or ulterior condition, and in other modes of material existence. There is a very large part of our massy and animated globe which has no relation to its human population. The supposition, therefore, seems not irrational, that it may have some unexplored relations with those orbs which have been made expressly to be our fellow planets, and with which astronomy teaches us that our earth has been always associated, peculiarly and exclusively from the immense multitude of the other radiant spheres, that nightly deck the unbounded space above us. But here the mind must pause. It has no authority to inculcate any speculation on this point, as a fact. It is justified in conceiving the connexion to be an indication of relations; but what these relations specifically are, can only be at present dreams of the fancy, and a temporary hypothesis.

But it is in the characterizing phenomena of the vegetaable and animal kingdoms, of which a few have been in these letters selected for your consideration, that we find the materials from which we may derive a larger knowledge of our Divine Sovereign and Benefactor, than the

common occupations and habits of life can supply. His mind, as I have before intimated, inevitably reveals itself to us in his creations. The elementary particles of matter are arrangeable into any forms that omnipotent power and wisdom might command. But of all these possible configurations and combinations, he has chosen those vegetable and animal structures which live and move around us. He has deliberately and specifically made them as they are; and therefore they display to us his deliberations and resolutions, the thoughts and purposes of his sacred mind, for our contemplation and instruction. It is this fact, which makes natural history and philosophy so important and so interesting to us. Creation is every where a picture and elucidation of its Maker's conceptions, imaginations, reasonings, feelings, and will. The more we study its departments and individualities in this light, the more we shall know of him; and the more fully and truly we know him, the more we shall admire what we know, and love what we admire. To explore nature without this associated idea, that it is his mind and thoughts which we are beholding in every part, is to forego the sublimest knowledge and sensibilities which are attainable by human nature. The God is in all his works, as much as the man is in his literary compositions. Whatever the mind, in any being, does or displays, discloses that mind to us. Intellect cannot, indeed, make itself known to intellect in any other way than by word or action. Vocal or written phrase, deeds or operations, are necessary to make our thoughts and feelings perceptible or intelligible to each other, and those of our great Sovereign to us. He has chosen the medium of language, whenever he has deemed it proper to have recourse to it; but he holds a constant communication with us by his creations and his providence, by his course of nature, and by his direction of human history and life. It is for us to learn to read them as we ought, and to understand them like beings of an enlightened and enlarging comprehension. They cannot be so studied, without expanding and enriching the mind which thus applies itself to know, feel, and appreciate them. For it is the perfect wisdom of omnipotence that we shall be contemplating; . and we all know and daily feel that we can at no time pursue any subject of thought, without imbibing largely the ideas and feelings by which we are interested, and to which

our attention is directed.* Thus the comprehensive study of created nature becomes to us an oracle of enlightened theology, and will prepare the mind for better receiving and appreciating its specific and invaluable revelations.t

Cowper has truly said,―

The just CREATOR condescends to write,

In beams of INEXTINGUISHABLE LIGHT,

His names of wisdom, goodness, power and love,
On all that blooms below, or shines above;
To catch the wandering notice of mankind,
And teach the world, if not perversely blind,
His gracious attributes; and prove the share
His offspring hold in his paternal care.

Cowper, vol. 1, p. 148.

† As you may be desirous of knowing how the Scriptures represent the condition of the animal kingdom, and the relations which their Creator has chosen to maintain with them, I will briefly notice the principal allusions to them. They were subjected to the dominion of mankind as soon as created, Gen. i. 28; and vegetation was then assigned for their food, ver. 30. Pairs of those genera which were to spread again upon the earth after the deluge, were preserved for that purpose, Gen. vi. 19; and when the human race were renewed, they were permitted to use animals for their food, Gen. ix. 3. But a distinction was afterwards interposed on this subject, and specified portions of each class were forbidden to be eaten, Lev. xi. Lambs, goats, and bullocks were selected for the sacrifices of divine worship. Exod. Levit. passim; but their figures were forbidden to be used as sacred images, Deut. iv. 16-18. Their qualities, power, and beauties are declared to have been specifically varied and given to them by God, Job xxxix.-xli. All receive their appointed food in due season from him, Psalm civ. 27, 28; cxlvii. 9; and are called upon to praise him, cxlviii. 10. The ravens were appointed to feed Elijah, 1 Kings xvii. 4. The locusts and destructive insects are represented to be his missioned instruments of punishment and discipline to man, when he thinks proper so to send them, Joel i. 4; xxii. 25. Deut. xxviii. 38. 42. Kindness to animals was inculcated, Deut. xxii. 4; xxv. 4. Lev. xxii. 27, 28. Ex. xxiii. 12; and cruelty reprobated, Deut. xxii. 6. Ex. xxiii. 19. In the final state of the world, the ferocious and the carnivorous will change their destructive appetites and passions, for vegetable food and gentle and playful dispositions, Isaiah xi. 6-9; lxv. 25. Our Saviour represents the birds of the air as fed by our divine parent, without any providing labour on their part, Matt. vi. 26; and declares that the most insignificant of them does not perish unnoticed by their Creator, Matt. x. 29.

Ii2

LETTER XX.

The formation of man. The principle and process of his being.The divine image and likeness.-Nature of human knowledge.Man's self-formation, free agency, and free will.

THE creation of man is placed by the Mosaic narration, immediately after the completion of the animal kingdom; and this is the period at which our natural reason would, on an impartial review of all the probabilities of the case, be inclined to suppose that his formation occurred, in a world in which he is the preeminent creature, and of which he is the unquestionable sovereign. For, to suppose that vegetables existed for ages before animal life appeared, or that the brute classes occupied our globe for thousands of years before man was made, is not only unwarranted by the fossil phenomena, when justly contemplated and reasoned upon, but is at variance with the most probable plan which a commanding intelligence would form on such a subject; as it also is with the apparent and declared purpose of the Creator in making it the residence of his human race. If the earth had been framed for plants or animals only, they might have enjoyed it for any series of time, however extended. But the coexistence and predominance of mankind upon it, demonstrate that it was not made or meant to be a mere vegetable or animal world. Human beings have always been, so far as all tradition or history reaches, its most distinguished and predominating inhabitants. It has never been known to be without them; and if they have been in the unceasing occupation of it, as far as any investigation of its events and memorials can ascend, it is reasonable to conclude that for them it was principally constructed. When inferior and superior existences are found together, the probability will always be, that the sphere which they occupy, was formed for the grander beings rather than for the less, and not for the inferior only. If the coexistence of both were incompatible, then one must be omitted, that the other may occur; but where all can be and are in harmonious coincidence, the exclusion of either may be safely discredited. It is therefore more likely that man should have been in a habitable world from its commencement, than that either vegetables should have been alone