to express it in such words as might convey a notion of it to his hearers. It is very natural for us to take delight in inquiries concerning any foreign country, where we are some time or other to make our abode ; and as we all hope to be admitted into this glorious place, it is both laudable and useful curiosity, to get what information we can of it, while we make use of revelation for our guide. 17. When these everlasting doors shall be opened to us, we may be sure that the pleasures and beauties of this place will infinitely transcend our present hopes and expectations, and that the glorious appearance of the throne of God will rise infinitely beyond whatever we are able to conceive of it. We might here entertain ourselves with many other speculations on this subject, from these several hints which we find of it in the holy scriptures; as whether they may not be different mansions and apartments of glory, to beings of different natures; whether, as they excel one another in perfection, they are not admitted nearer to the throne of the Almighty, and enjoy greater manifestations of his presence. . 18. 'Whether there are not solemn times and occasions, when all the multitude of heaven celebrate the presence of their maker, in more extraordinary forms of praise and adoration; as Adam, though he had continued in a state of innocence, would, in the opinion of our divines, have kept holy the Sabbath-day, in a more particular manner than any other of the seven, These, and the like speculations, we may very innocently indulge, so long as we make use of them to inspire us with a desire of becoming inhabitants of this delightful place. 19. I have in this, and in two foregoing letters, treated on the most serious subject that can employ the mind of man, the omnipresence of the Deity; a subject which, if possible, should never depart from our meditations. We have considered the Divine Being, as he inhabits infinitude, as he dwells among his works, as he is present to the mind of man, and as he discovers himself in a more glorious manner among the regions of the blest. Such a consideration should be kept awake in us at all times, and in all places, and possess our minds with a perpetual awe and reverence. 20. It should be interwoven with all our thoughts and perceptions, and become one with the consciousness of our own being. It is not to be reflected on in the coldness of philosophy, but ought to sink us into the lowest prestration before him, who is so astonishingly great, won derful, and holy. HUMAN NATURE. 1. I have always been a very great lover of your speculations, as well in regard to the subject, as to your manner of treating it. Human nature I always thought the most useful object of human reason, and to make the considerationTM of it pleasant and entertaining, I always thought the best employment of human wit: other parts of philosophy may perhaps make us wiser, but this not only answers that end, but makes us better too. 2. Hence it was that the oracle pronounced Socrates the wisest of all men living, because he judiciously made choice of human nature for the object of his thoughts; an enquiry into which as much exceeds all other learning, as it is of more consequence to adjust the true nature and measures of right and wrong, than to settle the distance of the planets, and compute the times of their circumvolutions. 3. One good effect that will immediately arise from a near observation of human nature, is, that we shall cease to wonder at those actions which men are used to reckon wholly unaccountable; for as nothing is produced without a eause, so by observing the nature and course of the passions, we shall be able to trace every ac- › tion from its first conception to its death. 4. We shall no more admire at the proceedings of Catiline and Tiberius, when we know the one was actuated by a cruel jealousy, the other by a furious ambition; for the actions of men follow their passions as naturally as light does heat, or as any other effect flows from its cause; reason must be employed in adjusting the passions, but they must ever remain the principles of action. 5. The strange and absurd variety that is so apparent in men's actions, shews plainly they ean never proceed immediately from reason; so pure a fountain emits no such troubled waters ; they must necessarily arise from the passions, which are to the mind as the winds to a ship; they only can move it, and they too often destroy it if fair and gentle, they guide it into the harbour; if contrary and furious, they overset it in the waves. : 6. In the same manner is the mind assisted or endangered by the passions; reason must then take the place of pilot, and can never fail of seouring her charge if she be not wanting to herself; the strength of the passions will never be accepted as an exeuse for complying with them: they were designed for subjection; and if a man suffers them to get the upper hand, he then betrays the liberty of his own soul. 7. As nature has framed the several species of beings as it were in a chain, so man seems to be placed as the middle link between angels and brutes; hence he participates both of flesh and spirit by an admirable tye, which in him occasions perpetual war of passions; and as a man inclines to the angelic or brute part of his constitution, he is then denominated good or bad, virtuous or wicked: if love, mercy, and goodnature prevail, they speak him of the angel; if hatred, cruelty, and envy predominate, they declare his kindred to the brute. 8. Hence it was that some ancients imagined, that as men in this life inclined more to the angel or the brute, so after their death they should transmigrate into the one or the other; and it would be no unpleasant notion to consider the several species of brutes, into which we may imagine that tyrants, misers, the proud, malieious, and ill-natured, might be changed. con 9. As a consequence of this original, all passions are in all men, but appear not in all : stitution, education, custom of the country, reason, and the like causes may improve or abate the strength of them, but still the seeds remain, which are ever ready to sprout forth upon the least encouragement. 10. I have heard a story of a good religious man, who having been bread with the milk of a |