misery to happiness? Or is he indifferent to both? The voice of Nature cries aloud that God is not indifferent to happiness and misery; and that he does not prefer the latter to the former; it also proclaims God in trumpet tones, as preferring happiness to misery, by an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable preference. But let us remove this question from the court of Reason to the Scriptures, and ask their verdict. How do the Scriptures represent God as affected towards happiness and misery? "Have I any pleasure at all, that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God; and not that he should return and live?"-Ezek. xix. 23, 32. Again: "Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God; and every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love."-1 John, iv. 7, 8. Similar passages might be multiplied indefinitely. What do they mean? And what do they prove? They prove that God interests himself in the happiness of his creatures; that he subordinates his moral government to the promotion of that happiness as an end; and that he urges obedience to his laws, another name for the practice of the whole system of virtue, as the indispensable means of happiness. There cannot be a greater libel on God, than to represent him as indifferent to the happiness of his creatures, or as not preferring their happiness, and deprecating their misery.

324. We have, then, the fundamental assumptions of the happiness theory of virtue given us not as mere hypotheses, desirable, indeed, but uncertain; but as valid truths, sustained to the fullest extent, both by the court of Reason and the verdict of the Scriptures.

It is not a hypothesis, therefore, that virtue is a means, and happiness an end; it is a fact. Happiness is loved and pursued by men both for themselves and for others, on its own account; and it is loved and pursued by God on its own account, and is an object of His choice and preference. Virtue is its essential condition, and the indispensable means of producing it; therefore, virtue is the means of happiness. Vice is incompatible with it; and results inevitably both in the destruction of happiness and in the production of misery; therefore, vice is the essential condition of misery. Virtue is good, because it subserves happiness on the whole, and renders eternal and perfect happiness possible and certain, to one and all who practice it: and vice is evil, because it

destroys happiness, both that of those who practice it, and that of others, as far as they are affected by it.

The happiness theory of virtue is no system of temporizing expediency, but is a system of eternal order and happiness. It is not a system of selfishness; but is a system of the most enlarged benevolence, identifying man with his fellow, and the creature with the Creator; and assigning to all, one common, indivisible, harmonious, and infinite interest, both in a common happiness, and in a system of virtue which subordinates every right moral action to the promotion of that common happiness, as its end and purpose.

§ 325. The whole theory of virtue is a theory of facts. Virtuous actions are facts of one kind, sinful actions of another. The universal division and classification of these facts by the human race, and by other moral beings as far as our knowledge extends, are other facts to be taken into the account in the construction of our theory, and to be resolved. Our relation to these facts in a scientific point of view, is merely that of interpreters and expounders. We may not add to them; we may not detract from them; we may not color them; but in their nakedness and truth we are bound to observe them, and to represent them precisely as they are. No coloring can improve them; no clothing can add to their beauty or delicacy; and no aggregation of foreign elements can increase their strength.

Had the system of observation been generally applied to this subject as it has been to the investigation of the principal facts in the material world, the controversies of ages would long since have been settled, and put at rest for ever. We should read of them, and wonder at them, as we do at other systems of delusion which have melted away in the increasing light of modern times, like the enchanted castles of romance; but we should not meet them as we now do, entrenched in the strongest holds both of inveterate prejudice and hallowed associations, and sustained by all the devices and enginery of human selfishness and pride.

§ 326. But Truth must prevail and must triumph. Her course is a course of conquest which nothing can arrest. On she goes, and on. She does not strive, nor cry, nor lift up her voice in the streets; and deeds of violence are not in her hands. The nations rage, and are disquieted at her tokens; and thrones and principalities conspire to arrest her progress. But she laughs at their rage and despises their

machinations. With her gentle step she treads down thrones and overturns dynasties, and leaves millions of leagued combatants, who had disputed her progress, to gaze after her advancing columns, with mute wonder and astonishment; not unfrequently with love and admiration. Her progress is noiseless; she cometh not with observation and loud hurras; but she cometh with power, and with lightning speed, and is God's prime minister of good. "To know her is to love her, and to love but her forever." The soul that she vanquishes, she illuminates; and the soul that she illuminates she redeems, and crowns with imperishable honors. The spirit of good and of power is no creature of fancy merely. She has a valid existence which the most expressive symbols, and the most brilliant imagery cannot fully represent. Job saw her, and traced her lineage. Solomon saw her, and with a few master strokes of his mighty pencil sketched her matchless form, and gave to the canvas her Divine lineaments. All the great poets whose deep inspirations have been caught from the organ of the universe, and whose hearts have thrilled with the music of realities, have had glimpses of her, and have held delightful communion with her.

Many think meanly of knowledge, and suppose that the world's renovation is destined to come by some other instrumentality. But the Saviour of the world condescended to be a teacher; the holy prophets and apostles were teachers; and every step which has yet been taken in the improvement of the condition and character of the human race, has involved a previous progression in knowledge. That which has been, is a type of that which is to be, and authorizes us to hope for man's indefinite improvement in virtue and happiness, only by means of previous improvements in knowledge.

§ 327. We ascertain the moral character of actions by judgment, and judge some acts and some series of acts to be morally good, and others to be morally evil. Elementary ideas of right and wrong, and all actions which we know to be of this character, serve as rules of judgment to assist us in determining the moral character of other moral actions. Having ascertained the moral character of particular acts and modes of action, we prosecute our judgments by comparing other actions with them, and judge the objects so

compared to be good or evil, according as they agree or disagree with any ascertained rules of right and wrong.

The character and law of God are the highest ascertainable standards of this kind. We judge God to be good, and compare other beings with him as a standard of goodness. We judge his revealed law to be good, and make a similar use of that. Those actions which are in accordance with the revealed law of God, are good; and those which do not accord with it, are evil. Any precept of the revealed law of God may serve as a rule of judgment, to assist us in determining the morality or immorality of actions. By this means we may resolve many questions in morals, which we should be unable to resolve on general principles, and may arrive, directly, at many important practical conclusions, which would otherwise require much time and study. The revealed law of God is of unspeakable value, considered merely in this point of view, and it contributes greatly to facilitate many important ethical investigations, and brings many moral truths, of the highest consequence, within our grasp, which would otherwise defy the most accurate and persevering inquiries; and makes a large amount of ethical knowledge attainable by persons of ordinary abilities and opportunities, which would otherwise have been confined to a few of the most gifted and favored of mankind. The general use of the Scriptures, in families, common schools, and every class of literary institutions, is highly important as a means of diffusing information on ethical subjects, and increasing the moral intelligence of mankind.

§ 328. Erroneous classifications of moral actions arise from incorrect observations and analyses, and from hasty and inaccurate comparisons. In order to classify them correctly, we must first observe them accurately; and then analyze and compare them with each other, and with approved standards of moral rectitude. Comparisons are in order to judgments respecting the similarity or dissimilarity, or other perceptible relations of things compared. Accurate observations and Scripture testimony furnish premises from which many important inferences may be drawn, respecting the consequences of actions. These ulterior ideas are pure deductions of reason. Ideas of moral actions are

among the most important which we are capable of attaining. The capacity of entertaining them is the distinguish

ing endowments of men, and places the human family on an eminence far above that of the most intelligent and ingenious animals and insects. It qualifies us more than all other attributes together, for high and happy fellowship with God and angels.

Moral actions are as legitimate objects of philosophical reasoning as any others. The most important questions respecting them, relate to their elements, or highest generic properties, and the different subordinate genera which they appropriately constitute; or the lower generic properties by which right and wrong actions of different kinds are distinguished from each other. Some degree of reasoning, on moral actions, is performed by all men, and all have some ideas of voluntary actions, considered as right and wrong, morally good and evil. All are able to judge correctly respecting the moral character of many actions. The highest capacities of moral discernment and reasoning, however, require extensive knowledge and habits of accurate observation and comparison. Very good mathematical reasoners may be bad ethical reasoners; and those who reason accurately in the various departments of physical and mental science, may fall into the greatest errors and absurdities respecting moral actions, instances of which are

not uncommon

CHAPTER XXIV.

REASONING FROM EFFECTS TO CAUSES IN THE DISCOVERY AND INVESTIGATION OF THE MATERIAL WORLD.

§329. From facts the mind naturally infers causes by a a primary law of judgment which has been fully explained. From each fact the mind infers its causes, and no more; and by a comparison of all the facts within the sphere of its knowledge, and of all conceivable and possible facts, it infers that all facts, real, and possible, must have causes. These inferences are clear and certain; and introduce to our acquaintance a world of things beyond that of facts. On a comparison of these things, we divide them into two classes under the title of material objects, and spiritual objects,