height, its impulsive weight might carry it to the centre of gravity or self, where it would find eternal repose.

The fictions or the corruptions of truth, made by the. imagination when considering universal motion, are absurd and useless; and it is unworthy of human reason to combat the errors of mankind, formed by the reveries of the imagination upon this subject. The only dignified and useful operation of the mental faculties, unbiassed by the prejudices of custom and education, is to consider the motion and nature of self.

My mind is filled with amazement when I review the past ages of the world, and find every subject that Thought and Nature present, investigated with zeal, erudition and capacity, and the subject Self, of such infinite importance that its very comparison annihilates every other, almost without mention, and absolutely without investigation.

What applause and glory have Ptolemy, Copernicus and Newton obtained by discovering the planetary system? What benefit has mankind received from them? I know of none.

What will that mortal deserve who shall discover, or rather, form the moral system, and prevent the terrestrial bodies from moving in eccentric and destructive collision? He will be amply recompensed by the proportion of happiness, which he, as a part of the great integer of Nature, will receive from his zealous study; for that mind which has force to make such a discovery, can receive no recompense from the articulated sounds of praise bestowed upon it by its fellows.

Self is that chain which connects Man with Nature; and though its vibration is strong upon the sense of feeling, thought can give it no form. It revolves about the universal centre of Nature in the moral world, and is connected with the infinite orbit of other selfs, by the radii of sympathy, which is to the moral, what attraction is to the physical system.

The quality of willing for self alone, may be called its attraction of cohesion, and the quality of assimila

ting through the medium of persuasion, its own will and the will of others, the attraction of gravitation or centripetal force, analagous to that of material bodies. With these two qualities every moral self would reɣolve about its integer Nature, as a centre; and the dreadful collisions of humanity ceasing to form a chaos; it would move in all the harmony and order of the celestial bodies, round the sun of truth, in the orbits of enlightened and intellectual existence.

The first blow given by man, in a state of ignorance, to the chain or connection of Self and Nature, by violating the will of a fellow-creature, has caused such a dreadful vibration, as threatens an eternal durability: but the epocha of its relaxation or diminution will arrive, when human reason shall be declared free, and every thing that checks its operation shall be regarded as an enemy to human nature.

In proportion as the faculty of thought extends itself, it diminishes, the impulse of this vibration or passion; and must, in its perfection, elevate the mind to a state of intellectual existence; when absolute moral liberty, directed by wisdom, will lead man to a state of well-being and happiness.

SELF.

To what a sublime position must that being elevate himself, and what superior excellence of the intellectual faculties must he possess, who can look down into and comprehend this labyrinth, whose paths are inexplorable to the man who walks within its confines.

Self, as a part of all Nature, is immortal and universal, and though identity of matter and mind separate, and their combination or identity is annihilated by death; yet self as a part of Nature, can never be annihilated; self pervades all Nature in its revolutions and operations, and self is as much concerned in the present or future health and happiness of all Nature, as the hand is concerned in that of the body.

Men who have no superstitious fears, suppose the dissolution of the body to end their concern with Nature; but if their mental faculties were still more enlightened, they would see that particular combinations of matter, called intellectualized bodies, are but stations or inns to receive matter in its revolution, and that those inus are to be regulated by laws and policy, to give comfort and pleasure to matter in its eternal revolution or passage, and from which self can never separate its connection.

Matter may be divided into two parts, intellectualized and unintellectualized, and these are constantly changing places; so that the former by wise operations, labors for the happiness of both. By education and constitution good moulds are formed to receive matter, and by a wise government happy inns or resting places are provided; and while intelligent matter enjoys this happiness which it has produced, it prepares happiness for unintellectualized matter also and perpetuates it for its own return in the general revolution.

This power of the human mind to separate from its own identity, and generalize itself with that of Nature, presents the same difficulty to civilized and improved, though not perfect understandings, as the eternal durability of matter would to a savage mind. He sees matter dissolve, and therefore thinks it destroyed; so improved minds, seeing individual identity apparently annihilated, cannot eternalize it with the identity of Nature.

The novelty of this idea must also increase the difficulty, for it may first arise in a mind employed in contemplating its own ideas, and not learning those of others; in the latter case the faculty of thought may not be improved, yet the technical or external operations of the mind must be so, by acquiring the science of logic, which gives body and power of communication to thought; without which the mind cannot transfer its wisdom to another object, which is useful, and even necessary by assimilating those objects to itself in order to form social happiness.

This universal identity or unity of all Nature has also the proofs of probability from intellectual inference; it demonstrates itself plainly to the senses by sympathy.

The cries of an animal suffering pain, affect with pain every sensible animal within hearing; and the acclamation of joy affects with pleasure in the same manner, though not so generally.

If A feels the pain of B, and the latter only feels the cause, there must be an occult relation between the two bodies; and this can be explained only by supposing them parts of the same integer, and their specific identities and bodies component parts of the universal mass and identity of Nature.

Utility is the only light or beacon, which ought to guide the intellectual faculty in its progress towards well-being or happiness.

Metaphysicians constantly pass the point of utility when they go beyond the volition of man; for this is the true source of moral motion, which is to arrange moral bodies in the intellectual system of well-being or happiness; and for the formation, control and guidance of this volition, all true and pure intellect will operate, and neglect all trivial pursuits of extraneous knowledge of art and science, which should be permitted to occupy the labors of the mind only when it has arrived at the height of perfection, and may then serve to augment the pleasures and comforts of intellectual existence, without impeding the progress or energy necessary to arrive at that point.

To promote the study of self, great contemplation and much solitude is necessary; for in the world, or society, vanity is such an enemy to truth, that it constantly prefers and recommends error, which marks the triumph of opinion, as investigation, indecision and doubt imply ignorance Hence that impertinent logomachy of private conversation, where loquacity is mistaken for ability, and where, surrounded by ignorance, glow-worm like, it shines orightest in the dark.

Hence those long harangues in public assemblies, which by fatiguing the memory, confound the judgment,

and force the auditors into such a labyrinth of error, that the clue of decision has not length enough to reach. from the exit of truth through the extensive mazes of a wandering imagination.

The mind of great vigor, that proceeds upon the search of truth, must resolve never to be ashamed of ignorance, but only of error, and the moment this resolution is formed, the success of the pursuit is assured; for true wisdom consists in knowing how little is to be known, and that this little is, however, sufficient for the purposes of well-being and happiness.

I pronounce, without the least hesitation, all learned or ingenious men, in the pursuit of the arts and sciences, to be void of wisdom, and absolute fools, unless they have first obtained a knowledge of self. This being procured, other studies may be followed as matter of pleasure and amusement.

Mankind have hitherto confounded the two qualities, knowledge and wisdom; many have possessed the former, and in a most eminent degree; but few the latter, even in the smallest degree; and Sir Isaac Newton, when compared to beings endowed with wisdom, is, as the poet observed, a mere ape, and all his knowledge becomes puerility in comparison with wisdom, or the knowledge of self.

What benefit is it to mankind to discover the laws of the natural world, which they cannot improve, in preference to moral laws, upon which their existence and happiness depend? If one millionth part of the intellectual labor of man, that has been employed on the former, had been bestowed on the latter, the golden age of the poets would have been verified, and man would, ages ago, have obtained a state of intellectual existence, and enightened Nature.