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I pass on to the animal creation. There I perceive other operations, and am overwhelmed with new wonders. The principle on which they act, and which is termed instinct, is the gift of God; and it appears to differ from the immortal principle in man, in its confinement to a certain inferior standard, and in its direction to one particular pursuit, adapted to the peculiar nature and exigences of its possessor. I see the timid acquiring courage while they have a maternal part to perform; and, forgetting to measure the disproportion between their own strength and that of their antagonist, boldly assaulting those superior animals, which designedly or unintentionally, disturb the repose of their young. Their instinct enables them to perform those things to which it is particularly adapted, with more order and facility than man, with his superior understanding, can accomplish; and, with the simple tools of nature, they effect that which the complex machinery of art cannot produce. All that animate creation, from the elephant, and "that great leviathan," among animals, to the bee, and the ant, among insects, still conduct us to the invisible God; and we say, "The earth is full of thy riches; so is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all."

But all these are far inferior to man. He blends in his own person, the nature and properties of all. He has the vegetation of the plant-for his limbs expand and grow; and he combines with it the properties of the animal-for he lives and moves: he possesses also their distinguishing principle of action, instinct-for his eye closes self instructed against the fly which blindly rushes upon it, on a summer's evening. But he has a

superior principle; and here is he in truth the Lord of Creation. "There is a spirit in man; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding." These words well express the substance of the Lecture proposed for this evening: the subject of which is

A SCRIPTURAL REPRESENTATION OF THE NATURE AND DESTINATION OF MAN.

While Elihu declares what man is, Moses leads us back to the contemplation of what he was; and both develope how he came to be what he is. "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." The combined testimonies of these scriptures require us to declare the NATURAL DIGNITY of man, and to unveil THE SOURCE of his greatness; and from each of these considerations some REFLECTIONS will arise, important to us, as intelligent, responsible beings.

The passages we have selected convey a forcible description of

1. THE NATURAL DIGNITY OF MAN. "There is a spirit in man"-"Man became a living soul." And

1. WHAT IS SPIRIT? Every inquiry into the nature, power and phenomena of mind-every search into its union to matter, its mode of operation, its dependance, or the contrary, upon this exterior vehicle and instrument of its volitions-every question agitated respecting its modes of existence, and their several relations -is interesting and important. But these inquiries should be made with humility, these rescarches pursued with caution, these questions agitated with diffi

dence, and the several conclusions which we deduce in support of any favorite hypothesis, should be inferred and maintained in a spirit totally opposite to dogmatism: since, such is our uncertainty after the most laborious investigations, and our darkness in defiance of the lights which Revelation and philosophy have respectively furnished, that little more than conjecture can be obtained after all; and while the pride of man on the wing for information, aspires to nothing less than demonstration, his reason, fatigued with her daring flight into regions so unexplored, is compelled, for the most part, to sit down at the lowest stage of evidence-probability.

Our object is not to render this Lecture a mere philosophical essay, but simply and seriously to inquire what we are, and to what we are destined. We shall not attempt to enter far into that, which has been the mystery of every age: but shall be satisfied with proving the position laid down, that "there is a spirit in man." We shall describe some of the more obvious properties of mind, in answering the inquiry, "what is spirit?" without laboring to “darken counsel by words without knowledge," in attempting a solution of that, which in this world can never satisfactorily be solved.

I feel within me a principle superior to the tabernacle which it inhabits. I mark a similar principle in my brethren of mankind: at least I see them affected in the same way, and I conclude that they are agitated from the same causes. I discern these impressions in a child but faintly: they wax stronger and stronger; they grow with his growth, strengthen with his vigor, and increase with his age. I discover impressions on the animal creation resembling these: but they are limited; they act always in the same way;

in me, they are illimitable; they assume a thousand different shapes; and they are confined to no certain standard. I conclude that "there is a spirit in man." But this spirit is not to be defined; and is best understood by the effects that it produces.-Let us therefore inquire,

2. WHAT ARE ITS OPERATIONS? On all occasions it compares, it combines, it reasons, it judges. Whenever a subject is presented, it considers its parts, compares its probabilities and the contrary, and forms its decisions upon the preponderance of the one or the other. I see my friend; and the sound of his voice communicates joy to my bosom; its tones vibrate upon my heart, as well as upon my ear. The blood circulates along my veins with greater rapidity. Pleasure dilates all my powers, and the feelings of my heart rush to my eyes. I read the same emotions in his countenance. I see the same rapture thrilling through his frame. It is the mingling of kindred spirits. Sometimes the communication is made through the medium of the eye, and his hand-writing imparts the same pleasurable sensations as the tones of his voice: but it is still the spirit that speaks within me. He dies and all is changed! The face of nature seems no more. lovely. The vicissitudes of seasons charm me no longer. My bosom is oppressed; and as I stand over the grave of my departed comforts, my sorrows force their way to my eyes, and my tears fall upon the unconscious dust. I wander, in an agony of grief, over his deserted habitation. Time, which mellows my af flictions, is unable to remove it altogether, and it melts only into the softer shade of melancholy. The sun shines, and the seasons return, since his departure as before: but they are not the same to me! Whence is

is this change? or why these emotions and passions at all? There is a spirit in man!"

When I raise my hand, it is in consequence of an impulse of my mind; and when I walk out, my will determines the road which I shall take: but if there were "no spirit in man," there could be no will to determine, and when that spirit is removed, the body sinks into a state of rest. Year after year, I lose my connexions: but the bond of our union is indissoluble

even by death. Memory uncovers the grave, and the form of those whom I loved, rises perfect before me. I meet them in the room which they occupied; and the ground on which they trod becomes holy. As the man sinks into the vale of years, the scenes of his former days recur, in all the vivid colors in which they were presented to him in the days of his youth. He well recollects the house in which his childhood was passed; and the field over which he strolled in quest of the wild flower, or in pursuit of the insect; and as he reviews these early enjoyments, he seems to live them over again. This is another of the operations of the mind; and it furnishes another evidence that "there is a spirit in man."

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The radiance of yonder orb scarcely reaches the

man.

Science discovers that it is a sun, or a planet;

and imagination pursues the thought. He roves through the fields of infinite space, and without quitting the globe which he inhabits, strays beyond the vast confines of the creation, presses into the invisible worlds, enters the "heaven of heavens," and loses himself before the throne of God.

He sleeps but his heart waketh." The body requires repose; but the mind, ever active and awake, wanders unfettered through all the labyrinths of fancy.

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