Blessed is the man, says the Psalmist, that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But if unhappily he should be so far engaged in the discussion of their impious notions, as to have deprived himself of the power of retreat, let him beware of surprises, and of short and superficial views; let him not mistake confidence for proof, nor ridicule for argument; and he may hope, by proceeding with modest resolution and an ardent desire of truth, in a steady reliance on the divine guidance and blessing, gradually to make his way through the mazes of sophistry, and at length to attain that elevated and vantage ground, whence the true intellectual and moral system of the universe will open to his view with wonder and delight,

As when a scout

Through dark and desert ways, with peril gone
All night, at length by break of cheerful dawn
Obtains the brow of some high-climbing hill,
Which to his eye discovers unawares

The goodly prospect of some foreign land
First seen, or some renown'd metropolis,
With glitt'ring spires and pinnacles adorn'd,
Which now the rising sun gilds with his beams!

SECTION II.

On the Knowledge of Ourselves..

THERE is no precept of wisdom which has been more generally or justly celebrated than that which enjoins the knowledge of ourselves; a precept which was held, even by pagan antiquity, in such high estimation, as to be ascribed to the oracle at Delphi,

Though we should take this knowledge in the lowest sense, and refer it only to the body, it deserves to be placed at the head of all natural science; since we are more concerned to be acquainted with that little portion of matter to which we are so intimately united, than with the whole extent of the material universe; and should we consider it in relation to the soul, then it evidently transcends all knowledge of corporeal nature, and ought to be ranked, in point of importance, next

to the knowledge of God. We cannot, therefore, be surprised, that man, in his various composition, has powerfully engaged the attention of the inquisitive in all ages; that he has been a subject of so much curious and elaborate investigation, and furnished matter for innumerable volumes.

The labours of the physiologist, especially since the revival of learning in the sixteenth century, have been crowned with remarkable success. By the help of anatomical dissections, with other experiments and observations, he has acquired a more critical knowledge of the principal parts and members of the body, and has ascertained both their structure and uses to a degree of accuracy, which shows that his particular branch of study has fully shared in the general progress of experimental science; while the medical professor, by availing himself of the lights of the physiologist, has been better able to explain the causes and symptoms of diseases, and to point out their peculiar remedies.

The metaphysician has been equally diligent to explore the nature and operations of the soul, though, as would appear, with less reason to applaud himself for his discoveries. His motions have been rather circular than progressive, and have sometimes recalled to my imagination a flock of sheep (absit invidia verbo), which I was used to observe in a morning, coursing round and round the top of a hill, though it seemed, I suppose, to them, as if they went straight forward. Something, however has been done; the essential difference that subsists between matter and mind, and the impossibility that thought either is or can be an affection of the former, has been demonstrated in a manner conclusive, as may bid defiance to all opposition from the schools of Democritus or Spinoza* It must be acknowledged, indeed, that this demonstration is purely negative, and leaves us still much in the

SO

* Of the many excellent discourses upon this argument, there is none, perhaps, superior to Dr. Clarke's Five Letters to Dodwell.