the Wisdom of God, as it is to be discovered by the observation of a reasonable mind upon the structure of the world and of human society, with these remarks : 'The Creator, as being the author of all things, must possess a complete and actual acquaintance not only with the things which exist, or have existed at any definite point of time, but with whatever can possibly arise as consequences from things so existing, or be contingent upon them. Neither can He, upon whose original will it depended that certain powers should produce certain effects, be possibly ignorant of the means which best conduce to any design, or of the end which may result from any particular means. And this perfect knowledge of all that is past, and all that is present, and all that is dependent upon the past and present, is omniscience, or infinite wisdom.' But irrefragable as this argument appears to be, man, who is ever prone to justify his own departure from the ways of God as the necessary effect of surrounding circumstances, rather than of his own wilful perverseness, requires to be continually reminded by a recurrence to visible and sensible objects, or to the results of reasonings derived from them, that God knows our several cases and circumstances much better than we are able to describe them; and that he mercifully gives whatever is needful to promote our real welfare, though we, through our ignorance, may depreciate or despise the gift. From the thousand ways in which this truth may be illustrated, it was evidently necessary essary to make a selection, and we think it is made in the essay before us with great judgment. Mr. Sumner undertakes to shew 'by a few particular instances, that both in the constitution of the universe, and in the laws which peculiarly respect the human race, the Deity has shewn the most comprehensive and prospective wisdom.' And these instances he has selected in such a manner as to avail himself of the latest discoveries in physics and politics. On the constitution of the universe he justly observes, that the highest aim of philosophical theory is to account for the phenomena it treats of by the fewest possible principles; and the great ambition of human art is to attain the end proposed by the least complicated means. Examine by this test the effects of the principle of gravitation which ' at once determines the planets in their orbits and the descent of the most triffing body to the ground.' Contemplate the single body which forms the centre of the system :-it not only gives support and stability to the whole, but furnishes it, to the remotest point, with the essential requisites of light and heat. 'In descending from the contemplation of the whole system to the examination of the globe to which we ourselves belong, we are attended by the same comprehensive wisdom. The air of our atmosphere, which is necessary to the existence of the animal and vegetable world, is composed posed of two elastic fluids, united in a definite and exact proportion; a proportion so precisely suited to those for whose respiration it was intended, that any difference in the quantity of either ingredient would prove, according to its degree, injurious or destructive. The same air which supplies life and health to the human race is equally and alone salubrious to every other animal. It might be expected that the portion of this air which animals return in the alternate motion of the lungs, having performed its service, would prove of no further utility : but it has been otherwise contrived. This part of the atmosphere, though insalubrious to man, affords the most grateful nourishment to the plants by which he is surrounded; according to which provision nothing is lost, and the constant purity of the air we breathe is pre served. 'The same air which in its compound state supports the life of the animal creation, administers also to the comfort and necessities of man in the shape of fire. Combustion is the decomposition of the atmosphere, a process which, under certain circumstances of temperature, most of the products of the earth have in a greater or less degree the power of effecting; and which is regularly accompanied by the disengagement of the light and heat for which we have such frequent ocсаsion, when the assistance of the solar rays is either wanting, or inapplicable. The same elastic fluids which perform these important purposes, in another state of composition become the chief constituents of water also. And the result is, that the principal wants of the animal and vegetable world are supplied by three elastic fluids, the peculiar union of which furnishes us with water, fire, and vital air. Neither do these fluids require the interposition of the Creator to supply their constant expenditure. The original mandate of Eternal Wisdom provided, as far as we can learn from physical researches, for a world of which we cannot foresee the termination. The simple gasses, disengaged by various natural processes, from the combustibles, vegetables, and different substances which absorb them, are so contrived as to form a natural reunion, and preserve a constant equilibrium.'-vol. ii. p. 8-11. But the case by no means terminates here. From the rapid progress which modern chemists have made in the discoveries arising from what may be termed the electro-chemical science, many bodies hitherto considered as elementary have been decomposed;-the number of elements or simple substances is diminished by almost every elaborate experiment. The philosopher to whom we owe many of these discoveries, and who is equally distinguished by the brilliancy and importance of the facts which he has disclosed, by the humane and useful purposes to which he has adapted them, and by the singular candour and modesty of his deportment as a man of science and a gentlemen, has declared his opinion * that we are probably not yet acquainted with any of the true elements of matter.' And yet so far have the successful efforts of science in reducing compounded substances already extended, that the same philosopher has in another place thought himself, upon good grounds, entitled to state, 'that a few undecompounded bodies, which may perhaps ultimately be resolved into still fewer elements, or which may be different forms of the same material, constitute the whole of our tangible universe of things.'* * See Davy's Agricultural Chemistry, 4to. p. 38. It must, we think, be acknowledged, that a more beautiful display of exalted wisdom, of grandeur and simplicity in contrivance, of minuteness and delicacy in operation, of what is 'wonderful in counsel and excellent in working,' cannot even be faintly conceived by the imagination of man. But we turn with pleasure even from these engaging speculations to others yet more interesting to the moralist, who after all is the true philosopher, at least if the importance of the science is to be estimated by the value of the subjects about which it is conversant. We turn to the contemplation, with that 'lively sympathy with the fortunes of the human race, and that warm zeal for the interests of truth and justice, without the guidance of which, it has been well observed, 'the highest mental endowments, when applied to moral or to political researches, are in perpetual danger of mistaking their way.' To this higher department of the inquiry, -to MAN as a member of civil society and as a moral and accountable being, the remainder of the Essay exclusively relates. As we have already hinted, there is no reasoning justly upon the Creator's provisions respecting man, without some understanding of the design of God in bringing him into existence, which involves the question, what man is in his state of nature, or as he is placed by Providence in connection with the scheme of earthly things. Now all reflection upon the moral and intellectual powers of man, compared with the circumstances calling for their exercise with which he is surrounded, tend uniformly to the conviction that he was placed here in order to exercise, according to his opportunities in his progress through the world, the various powers of reason and virtue with which he is endowed.' The state of nature then, when applied to man, is a state of progressive improvement; and we are convinced that it is equally true of communities as of individuals, that if they do not wilfully or through ignorance place themselves in a state contrary to nature, that is, inconsistent with the rules which God has given them for their government, they might proceed, through the whole period of their existence, in a growing course of moral and political welfare. But we must not anticipate. * Davy's Elements of Chem. Phil. p. 503; as quoted by Mr. Sumner. Mr. Mr. Sumner very satisfactorily refutes the arguments of those philosophers, who, by exhibiting what they are pleased to call the chain of existence, virtually deny the gradual improvement of man to be the design of the Creator; and this he does by shewing the elastic and extendible nature of those links in the moral chain which are made up of human beings. M. Bonnet and a Mr. White are great advocates for this catenarian system of philosophy; and because they have observed that there is less difference between the highest brute and the lowest savage than between the savage and the most improved man, have thought themselves justified in concluding that man forms part of a regular gradation of beings, and is himself instinctively the subject of similar gradations; that the Ouranoutang, for example, is the first link which connects man with quadrupeds, and that the Negro is the connecting tie between the white man and the ape. Upon these principles we see no sound objection to ranging Messrs. Bonnet and White as severally the intermediate links between the philosopher and the madman; for if it is to be understood that individual or national character is always to continue precisely at that point where it may have been observed at any particular period to have stood; -or that there is a mental and moral circle drawn round each variety of human character, of the nature of an impassable barrier; (which is evidently the case with animals regulated by instinct;) then we must allow that the Bonnet and White links in the series must be permanently kept up, or the ways of Providence interrupted. But if the human mind in those individuals is of an expansive and improveable nature, although their moral faculties have been deadened or their intellectual powers perverted by abuse, then it will become us to use our best exertions in devising the means whereby more sober and enlightened philosophers than Messrs. Bonnet and White may be provided for the use of future generations. In short, man is placed in the world with moral powers and faculties, dormant indeed till called into exertion by the circumstances which surround him, but capable of being improved and exalted in the highest degree by a right application of them to those circumstances. He is commanded so to apply them, and instructed in the method of obeying that command. He is placed in a state of moral and mental trial, whereas brutes are placed in a condition of mere instinctive obedieuce to their animal propensities. Man then being placed in a state of moral discipline through the media of surrounding circumstances operating upon his moral faculties, and of the reaction of those faculties modifying the principles upon which the affairs of the world are regulated, it behoves us, in estimating the wisdom and goodness of those principles as originally ordained by the Creator, always to keep in mind their main |