tion will probably see and acknowledge this truth. But, in the meantime, I remark, that be the sufferings of the West Indian planters at present what they may, they, as the representatives of the original transgressors, are justly sustaining the penalty, and that, in their instance, as in that of a patient undergoing a severe operation to escape from a dangerous disease, delay would only have protracted affliction, and augmented ultimate pain and the danger of the remedy.

The Spaniards, under the influence of selfish rapacity and ambition, conquered South America, inflicted upon its wretched inhabitants the most atrocious cruelties, and continued to weigh, for 300 years, like a moral incubus, upon that quarter of the globe. The punishment is now endured. By the laws of the Creator, nations must obey the moral law to be happy; that is, to cultivate the arts of peace, to be industrious, upright, intelligent, pious, and humane. The reward of such conduct is individual happiness, and national greatness and glory. There shall then be none to make them afraid. The Spaniards disobeyed all these laws in the conquest of America, they looked to rapine and foreign gold, and not to industry, for wealth; this fostered avarice and pride in the government, baseness in the nobles, indolence, ignorance, and mental depravity in the people; and led them to imagine happiness to consist, not in the exercise of the moral and intellectual powers, but in the gratification of all the inferior feelings to the outrage of the higher. Intellectual cultivation was utterly neglected, the sentiments ran astray into bigotry and superstition, and the propensities acquired a fearful ascendency. These causes made them the prey of internal discord and foreign invaders; and Spain, at this moment, suffers an awful retribution.

Cowper recognises these principles of divine government as to nations, and has embodied them in the following powerful verses:

The hand that slew till it could slay no more,
Was glued to the sword-hilt with Indian gore.

Their prince, as justly seated on his throne
As vain imperial Philip on his own,
Tricked out of all his royalty by art,

That stripped him bare, and broke his honest heart,
Died by the sentence of a shaven priest,

For scorning what they taught him to detest.
How dark the veil, that intercepts the blaze
Of Heaven's mysterious purposes and ways;
GOD stood not, though he seemed to stand aloof;
And at this hour the conqueror feels.the proof:
The wreath he won drew down an instant curse,
The fretting plague is in the public purse,
The cankered spoil corrodes the pining state,
Starved by that indolence their minds create.

Oh! could their ancient Incas rise again,
How would they take up Israel's taunting strain!
Art thou too fallen, Iberia? Do we see
The robber and the murderer weak as we?

Thou that hast wasted Earth, and dared despise
Alike the wrath and mercy of the skies,

Thy pomp is in the grave, thy glory laid
Low in the pits thine avarice has made.
We come with joy from our eternal rest,
To see th' oppressor in his turn oppressed.
Art thou the god, the thunder of whose hand
Rolled over all our desolated land,
Shook principalities and kingdoms down,
And made the mountains tremble at his frown?
The sword shall light upon thy boasted powers,
And waste them, as the sword has wasted ours.
"T is thus Omnipotence his law fulfils,
And Vengeance executes what Justice wills.

Cowper's Poems.—Charity.

In surveying the present aspect of Europe, we perceive astonishing improvements achieved in physical science. How much is implied in the mere names of the steamengine, power-looms, rail-roads, steam-boats, canals, and gas-lights; and yet of how much misery are several of these inventions at present the direct sources, in consequence of being almost exclusively dedicated to the gratification of the propensities. The leading purpose to which the steam-engine in almost all its forms of applica

tion is devoted, is the accumulation of wealth, or the gratification of Acquisitiveness and Self-Esteem; and few have proposed, by its means, to lessen the hours of toil to the lower orders of society, so as to afford them opportunity and leisure for the cultivation of their moral and intellectual faculties, and thereby to enable them to render a more perfect obedience to the Creator's institutions. Physical has far outstripped moral science; and, it appears to me, that, unless the lights of Phrenology open the eyes of mankind to the real constitution of the world, and at length induce them to regulate their conduct in harmony with the laws of the Creator, their future physical discoveries will tend only to deepen their wretchedness. Intellect, acting as the ministering servant of the propensities, will lead them only farther astray. The science of man's whole nature, animal, moral, and intellectual, was never more required to guide him than at present, when he seems to wield a giant's power, but in the application of it to display the ignorant selfishness, wilfulness, and absurdity of an overgrown child. History has not yielded, and cannot yield, half her fruits, until mankind shall be possessed of a true theory of their own nature.

Many persons believe that they discover evidence against the moral government of the world, in the success of individuals not greatly gifted in moral and intellectual qualities, in attaining to great wealth, rank, and social consideration, while men of far superior merit remain in obscurity and poverty. But the solution of this difficulty is to be found in the consideration, that success in society depends on the possession, in the greatest degree, of the qualities which society needs and appreciates, and that these bear reference to the state in which society finds itself at the time when the observation is made. In the savage and barbarous conditions, bodily strength, courage, fortitude, and skill in war, lead a man to the highest honors; in a society like that of modern England, commercial or manufacturing industry may crown an indivi

dual with riches; and great talents of debate may carry him to the summit of political ambition. In proportion as society advances in moral and intellectual acquirements, it will make larger demands for similar qualities in its favorites. The reality of the moral government of the world is to be found in the degree of happiness which individuals and society enjoy in these different states. If unprincipled commercial and political adventurers were happy, in proportion to their apparent success; or if nations were as prosperous under the dominion of reckless warriors as under that of benevolent and enlightened rulers; or if the individuals who compose a nation enjoyed as much serenity and joy of mind when they advanced the bold, selfish, and unprincipled to places of trust and power, as when they chose the upright, benevolent, and pious,the dominion of a just Creator might well be doubted. But the facts are the reverse of these.

22

CHAPTER VI.

ON PUNISHMENT.

SECTION I.

ON PUNISHMENT AS INFLICTED UNDER THE NATURAL LAWS.

THE last point connected with the Natural Laws, which I consider, is the principle on which punishment for infringement of them is inflicted in this world.

Every law presupposes a superior, who establishes it, and requires obedience to its dictates. The superior may be supposed to act on the principle of the propensities, or on that of the sentiments. The former being selfish, whatever they desire is for selfish gratification. Hence laws instituted by a superior inspired by the propensities, would have for their leading object, the individual advantage of the lawgiver, with no systematic regard to the enjoyment or welfare of those who were called on to obey. The moral sentiments, on the other hand, are altogether generous, disinterested, and just; they delight in the happiness of others, and do not seek individual advantage as their supreme end. Laws, instituted by a lawgiver, inspired by them, would have, for their grand object, the advantage and enjoyment of those who were called on to obey. The story of William Tell will illustrate my meaning. Gessler, an Austrian governor of the canton of Uri, placed his hat upon a pole, and required the Swiss peasants to pay the same honors to it that were due to himself. The object of this requisition was obviously the gratification of the Austrian's Self-Esteem, in witnessing the humiliation of the Swiss. It was framed without the least regard to their happiness; because such abject slavery could gratify no faculty in their minds, and ameliorate no principle of their