our aspirations far beyond the confines of sublunary things, and induce us to approximate the purity and spirituality of the divine essence of the great Creator of REASON itself. This faculty is synonymous with Free Will: for it is determined to action by principles or precepts, which are acknowledged to be spiritual things, and wholly independent of the necessity of nature; for they originate from this practical faculty. This spiritual freedom is taught by our "Saviour" when he says"The Kingdom of heaven is within you." So that the spring of all moral actions is reverence for the moral law, implanted by our Maker in our hearts, and revealed to us by the divine Saviour of man.

When PRACTICAL REASON digests, arranges, and combines, the principles which it originates into a consolidated mass of spiritual essences, it generates a "Science of Morals." This science refers immediately to virtue, which is wholly inconceivable without an Omniscient and Omnipotent Being - God—who dispenses rewards and punishments in due proportion to the deserts of his creatures. When the laws of conduct, or the precepts expounded in "Holy Writ," are sifted from every extraneous ingredient, they constitute a pure "Science of Morals," which, considered in the

light of a divine revelation, become God's commandments. The sincere and honest obedience to Divine Laws constitutes RELIGION, or the submission of the Will of Man to the Will of God. Here, PRACTICAL REASON does not overstep its limits, by constantly striving to gain that Kingdom prepared for us before all worlds, but merits all the praise that has ever been bestowed on so divine a faculty; nay, how must every human attempt fall short of doing adequate justice to a gift, which displays to mortal eyes the ineffable goodness and infinite wisdom of the great Author of Reason! PRACTICAL REASON thus confirms the Revelation of our Saviour, and secures it from cavil, which is indeed. all that subsequent enlightenment has been able to effect. But, in doing this upon principle, it has also accomplished the glorious task of erecting a sacred science, the SCIENCE OF RELIGION, which, by producing perfect unanimity among men, for ever shuts out even the possibility of ever again disputing on the subject of Religion, and thus fulfilling the sacred prophecy – "that the Gospel shall be preached to all the nations of the earth."

What can surpass the sublime view thus opened to us of our ultimate destination, proving that at the

present instant of our existence our soul is an inhabitant of that abode of infinite and eternal bliss, revealed to us in the "Word of God;" though we must pass the confines of the grave before that which our REASON assures us to conviction to be the design of our Creator is accomplished! Thus, then, we are endowed with REASON, for the double purpose of attending to the interests of our joint nature, that is, of Soul and Body, without detriment to either; and for this purpose that divine faculty is employed in two departments :

Hence arise two distinct desires, the one ever aiming at the greatest sum of physical enjoyment, the other aspiring to absolute goodness. This exposition of our rational faculty fully accounts for the two indispensable desires of our nature, the one for happiness, the other for virtue. The former demands the satisfaction of all our inclinations; the latter, the fulfilment of all our moral duties. So that man is actually in constant antagonism with himself; and the only way to obtain supreme and perfect happiness is by re

stricting the inclinations to the sublime laws of morality, and thus establishing the supremacy of Reason.

The ARGUMENT FOR THE DIVARICATION fully confirms this display of human nature, by shewing the different value of the two operations of REASON, as exemplified in the following table:

It is most certain that, while we are performing the voyage of probation here below, in order to determine our claim to higher regions, the first thing of which we are conscious is the impressions received by our

senses from external objects, and these are called sensations. Thus we are placed in a state that calls forth all our energies, for every sensation is accompanied by a feeling either of desire, aversion, or indifference. So that, from the moment of our birth, we are plunged into the most perplexing difficulties and trying situations, and occupied, as we advance in years-if we have fortitude enough—in avoiding seductive allurements, that would draw us from our duty, or obviating appalling circumstances, that threaten our happiness. In order, therefore, to obtain the fulfilment of an essential desire of our nature, the gratification of our inclinations, SPECULATIVE REASON is called into play. But as, according to our exposition, the things of SENSE are facts, and range themselves under the Antithesis, their ultimate object is to accomplish our happiness. Yet, not being the authors of the external world, we find it impossible ever to attain this aim to our entire satisfaction-here end the operations of SPECULATIVE

REASON.

Dissatisfied at the never-ceasing attempts to accomplish an unattainable end, though an instinctive part of our nature the natural desire for happiness

new

powers are called into activity, still further to pursue