It has begun in this respect a rivalry with our To rise in Science, as in bliss ;— Our poet, indeed, despairing of our making the to us. LETTER I. LETTER Some superfluities that we would prune, pours out I. many a noble effusion, Lorenzo! these are thoughts that make Man, Man; Let us, then, cultivate these elevating inquiries. apply as assiduously as our individual inclinations or opportunities may lead or dispose us to all the branches of natural philosophy; but let a due portion of our care be given to exalt and crown these with divine philosophy: either will be incomplete without the other. Let us study them in friendly conjunction, and we shall find that what is natural, will be enlightened and more endeared to us by its grander companion. What subject can be better fitted to the spirit within us, that awaits those glorious destinies which Plato exhibits his master as delighting to contemplate; and which lessons and promises that he could never know, have brought within our power personally to secure!" 5 Night Thoughts. He continues, with a fine enthusiasm: How great, while yet we tread the kindred clod How great, in the wild whirl of time's pursuits, To stop and pause, involved in high presage, To stand contemplating our distant selves, As in a magnifying mirror seen, Enlarged, ennobled, elevate, divine! To prophesy our own futurities! To gaze, in thought, on what all thought transcends! As far beyond conception, as desert; Ourselves, th' astonish'd talkers, and the tale! Night 6. Is the soul like what is divine, or like what is mortal? What is divine is born to govern, but the mortal substance to obey. Which of these does the soul resemble? 'O Socrates, it is clear that the soul must be the divine, and the body the mortal element. "Yes, Kebes! the soul is most like the divine, the immortal, the in telligent I. Divine philosophy should be regarded as a science, LETTER and be treated as the physical sciences are; the facts which relate to it should be carefully searched for, and as carefully reasoned upon. We shall then find that it is truly a science, and the most exhilarating of all that we can select to be the subject of our pursuit. It has really all the characters of a science, and will be seen to be so, and will become more visibly such, in proportion as it is studied in this aspect, and in the same mode, and with the same caution, assiduity and judgment with which our analytical or chemical investigations are conducted. We most justly apply the term science to the knowlege we have collected and arranged of those departments of nature, where the phenomena are the result of such a scientific disposition or causation of things as to have a visible relation with each other; to be governed by some common laws, to be arrangeable under a distinct classification, and to be reducible to rational principles, which are steadily followed in connected and successful operation. Such results are evidence of a contriving and presiding mind, and are what intelligent agency alone could produce. When effects or events occur telligent; the one in form, and the incorruptible; and when it goes from hence, it passes to another place, like itself, excellent and pure, tho now unseen; to Hades, and truly, to a good and wise God:' (Tov αγαθον και φρονιμον θεον.) He repeats this idea: Will it not, then, go to something like itself; to the Divine? To that which is divine, immortal, and wise? Certainly; and coming to it there, it will exist in happiness, free from error, ignorance, fears and passions; yes, it will indeed pass the rest of its time with the gods themselves: μera Oewv diaɣwga.' Plato, Phed. c. 21. I. LETTER in consequence of a pre-established plan, and on regulating principles, and in obedience to perceptible laws, evincing certain foresight and adjusting arrangements, they form the subject of a true science; and this it will be the object of these Letters to shew is the character of that divine philosophy which they will recommend to you to cultivate. All material nature is moulded by the will, fulfils the designs, and subsists and acts on the plans of the stupendous Creator. All intellectual nature-all moral beings, are in the same predicament. The one is not more guided or governed than the other. Mind and matter are equally the objects of the Divine administration; and the rules and principles of this, deserve our researches as much in the one as in the other. Indeed, so far as they can be traced, it will be always more interesting to us to discover those which relate personally to ourselves, than such as uphold or regulate the external substances amid which we are residing. Who would not rather know the divine laws by which his life and destiny are governed, than those which determine the masses or the velocities of Jupiter or Uranus, or which compel the comets to revisit us by periodical migrations? Sublime in its own nature, and most honorable to human genius, is the knowlege which has been attained on points, that at one time seemed beyond all the possibilities of human talent to acquire. The eagle-eyed sagacity and patient observations of some have conquered the seeming impossibility which was so long insurmountable, and by their success have encouraged future minds to hope that few things will hereafter be found inaccessible to I. determined diligence and energetic intellect.' But LETTER still that science which is most connected with our individual welfare in this world, and with our endless future in the next, will have an endearing interest to us, of which nothing can divest it. Stars may disappear, or new comets rush upon us, or fresh planets may be discerned to move. But all events of this sort will be ever inconsiderable to us in comparison of the relations which are subsisting between us and God; and the rules and principles by which His moral government of our affairs are directed, and especially in their personal application to each of us respectively. Nothing can exceed the momentous importance of the knowlege of these things to every human being; and the uncertainty in which it may seem to some that they are involved, ought to be but a more impelling reason to excite us to more assiduous endeavours to diminish this obscurity, and to develop their realities as far as it may be permitted to human diligence to do so. The subject has certainly fallen into discredit from the many wrong interpretations and foolish applications which weak, tho often well-meaning, 7 In the Report of the British Association for 1832, Professor Airy mentioned, among the desiderata of Astronomy, the determination of the mass of Jupiter by observations of the elongations of her satellites. 'I think it would have astonished the mathematicians of antiquity, as much as the populace, to have been told that this splendid planet could have ever been weighed and measured by a human being; and yet what Mr. Airy suggested, he has since himself executed in the most complete manner. He has weighed the mass of Jupiter in the way he thus recommended; and it may show the wonderful perfection of such astronomical measures to state, that he has proved with certainty that this mass is more than 322, and less than 323, times the mass of the terrestrial globe on which we stand.' Whewell's Address, p. 14. |