wisdom and maxims of Heaven, as set before us in the example and doctrine of THE MESSIAH!

The case is, we compile an heteroge neous jumble of theses, collected from systems of jurisprudence, and blend them with political constitutions, jesuitical casuistry, and private interest; and then honour them with the title of Moral philosophy; to the utter exclusion of that simple, unsophisticated, luminous, and complete code of universal legislation, digested for us in the sacred word of purity and truth whose ethical institutes were, no doubt, intended to form that first of all great characters-before which, heroes, nobles, and statesmen, may hide their diminished heads-" AN HONEST MAN, "the noblest work of God."

Impressed, in an early stage of my literary education, with the importance of distinct ideas, as the best method both of receiving, and of communicating science,

it has always appeared to me, as scarcely possible to do either, unaided by the accurate definition of principal terms. Upon this account, I judge it expedient to state, that, by Reason, I would be understood to mean, those principles, which are best calculated to enlighten, correct, and regulate, that faculty in man: by Philosophy, the love of wisdom-properly so called: by Virtue, the intellectual beauty, worth, and excellence of the human soul: and, by Morality, the harmony of the life and manners, with the best principles of Reason, Virtue, and Philosophy, thus briefly defined.

The very strange, perplexing, and metaphysical mode, in which these things have been too frequently represented, may serve to remind us of Aristotle's definition of Light; which can only tend to plunge us into mental darkness: "Light," says he, "generates its luminous species by way of multiplication; and this action is called, repercussion-and, conformable to the acting force, there is another multi

plication, which is equivocal, and by which light begets heat, and heat putrefaction!"-Of how much greater importance is it for us to know, that, whether in the world of Nature, of Reason, or of Revelation, "whatsoever maketh manifest," paveguμevov, apparent, "is Light.”—To offer to instruct mankind, by a style, or in a mode of reasoning, which is only comprehensible by five in a hundred, is to insult the public understanding. I venerate the memory of that truly great mind, which could say, Sunt, qui scire volunt, eo fine tantum, ut sciant: hæc turpis est Curiositas. Sunt, ut ipsi sciantur: turpis Vanitas. Sunt, ut scientiam pro pecunia vendant, pro honoribus: turpis Quæstus. Sunt, ut ædificent: hæc eşt Charitas et Beneficentia.

Of the prodigious aversion, which some writers have betrayed to the use of System, in certain cases, I need not be apprized. To their opinion, however, I am very far from being any convert. "For, what is

System, but a whole, exhibited with a due consistency, or agreement, of all its parts? And, if this be the only just sense of the word, can there be any Art or Science, any general truth made up of particulars, without it? What is a System, but a body of science, in which all the constituent branches are suitably arranged and properly connected, so that the whole may be conveyed in one perspicuous view? The lucidus ordo of any given science must inevitably produce a system: and, however his pretensions may differ, he must be an enemy to the former, who would destroy the latter.

"There is, then, a concatenation, an harmony, a connection, in the truths of Religion. There is a System, or complete body of Doctrine, in the Gospel. But a Religion, in which there is such a golden chain, ought not to be taken by bits and parts. The more ingenuity there is in a machine composed of divers wheels, the more necessary it is, to consi

der it in its whole, and in all its arrange ments, and the more does its beauty escape our observation, when we confine our attention to a single wheel. In a compact System-in a coherent body of Doctrine, there is nothing useless; nothing, which ought not to occupy the very place, that the Genius, who composed the whole, hath given it." This, indeed, is what constitutes the Perfection of Christian knowledge. There is an Integrity in Science, as well as in morals.

Not at all shy of meeting any idea of exception, which may arise in the mind of my readers, I can easily anticipate, that some of them may arraign the very Title, I have selected, as confident and presumptuous and, I should readily allow the justice of the charge, if this Temple of Truth be not erected upon that basis, which the divine Architect himself has laid in his own oracles of Inspiration. In that case, let it sink into utter ruin, nor leave one trace behind. My own hand should be