connected with Bishopwearmouth iron works. The iron works in question extend over a vast extent of country, and for the purpose of a speedy transit from one part to the other, railways have been established, one of which is formed on an inclined plane, down which the heavily laden waggons are propelled at a fearful rate. On the

morning of the above day, while one of the trains of waggons was passing down, two very old women, each being nearly seventy years of age, labouring under defective sight as well as hearing, got on the line. A few minutes more, they

both must have been inevitably crushed to death. Their perilous situation was, however, witnessed by Mr David Holgrove, the overlooker of the works, who in an instant dashed forward and seized the two females, whom he threw off the line, and out of the way of danger. Unfortunately, the engine at this instant came up, which knocked Mr Holgrove down, and he was picked up as dead. He was instantly conveyed to one of the buildings in the vicinity, and medical aid was sent for, when, upon examination, it was discovered that he had sustained several contusions about the head, that both his arms were broken in two places, and also one of his legs, besides other injuries about the body. It is supposed that some part of the train must have gone over the limbs. Although so severely and dangerously injured, hopes are entertained of his recovery. The two females escaped without the slightest injury."

In this case the deliverer became a sufferer. He became a victim to his generosity. The laws of gravity and motion were not suspended in his

favour. Just after he had rescued the two helpless aged females, onwards rushed the ponderous train of vehicles and crushed his limbs beneath its formidable mass. The females he saved; himself he could not.

Was Mr Holgrove a transgressor? Did he disobey the compassionate Creator? Did Mr Holgrove violate this law in the benevolent and successful attempt he made to rescue two helpless fellow-creatures from a dreadful death?

According to Mr Combe, Mr Holgrove's suffering was a distinct and signal case of punishment -of divine punishment-for infringing important physical laws. He was a transgressor, a flagrant transgressor; he merited, as well as met, severe and exemplary punishment. He suffered, according to Mr Combe, that he and others might not in future similarly sin!!

Great must be the error in principle that legitimately leads to such a conclusion-to an inference so monstrously false as this. That error is part of Mr Combe's grand principle, viz. :— "The independent existence and operation of the natural laws of creation"-physical, organic, and moral. These laws, which exist, and are carried into effect, independently of each other, he confounds with laws of human conduct. Now, it is only the moral laws that imperatively regulate our conduct. Obedience to the first two classes is only prudential, and often has nothing moral in it. Moral laws should be obeyed at all times, and in all circumstances. Physical laws we may evade or disobey in multiplied instances, quite unblameably. That we may fully obey the moral laws, we frequently must, to some ex

tent, disregard the physical laws. Mr Holgrove's case is only one of a multitude. We repeat it— Physical laws ought not to be confounded with laws of human conduct. These we always must obey; those we may often, without deserving blame, boldly disregard. By commingling distinct classes of natural laws, Mr Combe introduces into his system dangerous error and gross absurdity. The same remarks, to some extent, apply also to the organic laws. These we may often, to a large extent, properly disregard. Obedience to them, though generally prudent, is not universally imperative. It is a species of wisdom; but it may or may not be duty. There may be moral heroism in daring to incur the evils which result from the operation of the organic laws. Having already dwelt on this point, it is unnecessary to dilate upon it here. Suffice it to

name as illustrations of our position the prince of British philanthropists, the immortal Howard, who fell a victim to the natural law of contagion, when prosecuting his labours of enlightened compassion in a far distant land—the apostle of the Gentiles, who was "in deaths oft," not counting his life dear to him, so that he might finish his course with joy,—and we would, in devout reverence, add, the Divine Saviour himself, who was a man of sorrows"-who "suffered for us," -enduring the cross-voluntarily enduring itin all its indescribable agonies, sustained by "the joy that was set before him"-the joy of promoting the divine honour in the salvation of human beings.

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Should it be contended that the sufferings of the Saviour, arising from his devotedness to the

enterprise of human salvation, were altogether peculiar and unparalleled, and that they cannot fitly be adduced as having any bearing upon the ordinary obligations of men,-we answer, that his self-denying and self-sacrificing benevolence is held up in Scripture as a model for the imitation of his followers. "The mind is to be in them which was also in Christ Jesus;" and they are to be ready, in token of their christian love, "to lay down their lives for the brethren."

We maintain, therefore, that when the apostle of the Gentiles, and the philanthropic Howard, to accomplish great and glorious ends, disregarded the suffering that may be incurred under the operation of the organic laws, each of the noble sufferers acted a part heroically good. It is absurd to place them in the same category with those who bring upon themselves disease and death by their violations of the moral laws. In that category, however, they must be placed by those who implicitly follow the guidance of Mr Combe.

M

CHAPTER XIII.

ON THE ALLEGED POSSIBILITY OF DEDUCING A SYSTEM OF MORALITY MERELY FROM THE NATURAL LAWS.

THE number of the natural laws seems to be incalculable. Mr Combe says,- "Every natural object has received a definite constitution, in virtue of which it acts in a particular way. There must, therefore, be as many natural laws as there are distinct modes of action of substances and beings viewed by themselves." Now, the number of substances and beings, including the simple and the compound, the inorganic and the organic, is beyond our powers of enumeration. Mr Combe adds,- -"But substances and beings stand in certain relations to each other, and modify each other's action, in an established and definite manner, according to that relationship; altitude, for instance, modifies the effect of heat upon water. There must, therefore, be also as many laws of nature as there are relations between different substances and beings.' As each substance must have one relation, at the least, to every other substance, it is evident that the total relations of substances and beings to each other, must be innumerable. In consistency with this multitudinous amount of the natural laws, Mr Combe admits," It is impossible, in the present

*Constitution of Man, p. 9.