into one common grave, and give trouble to no one. We may add, however, that to our minds it seems to leave materialism and fatalism precisely where it found them, and to plant religion on the imperishable basis of adaptation to the constitution which God has given to the mind of man. ARTICLE II. ON THE HARMONY BETWEEN PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION.* The human mind consists of observing and reflecting powers, animal propensities, and moral sentiments. The observing faculties take cognisance of existing objects and events simply as they present themselves; while the reflective powers perceive the relations existing among them. The reflecting faculties, joined with the moral feelings, constitute man's rational nature, and distinguish him from the brutes. Powers of action are conferred on man, by using which, under the guidance of his observing and reflecting intellect, he may subjugate external nature to a prodigious extent to his sway; and where this power is denied him, he may still, by studying the order of nature, accommodate his own conduct to its course, so as to reap advantages from its operations. Several conditions are necessary to render this arrangement beneficial to man: First, External nature must be regular, both in its elementary constitution and course of action: This we shall assume to be the case; because every well-ascertained fact in philosophy proves it to be so, and because the denial of it implies a charge of want of design and intelligence in the Creator, which we entirely reject. Secondly, The human mind and body must be constituted with a wise adaptation to the course of external nature: Every step in science affords additional proof that this proposition is true, and we assume it to be so. Thirdly, The human faculties must be in harmony with each other: If one feeling, legitimately directed, gave us a desire for an object, and another, also legitimately directed, an aversion to it; or if one portion of our intellect represented a certain course of action as cal. culated to lead to happy consequences, while other faculties induced us to perceive that the result would be disastrous; we could not possibly act as rational beings. If our elementary faculties were in * From the 32th number of the Edinburgh Phrenological Journal. VOL. II.-32 their constitution contradictory, they could never enable us to discover which course we ought to follow, nor to feel satisfied with any mode of proceeding after we had adopted it. The regularity of nature is admitted by every individual in the least acquainted with philosophy. We have heard Dr. Chalmers, from his divinity chair, expound and illustrate most eloquently the doctrine, that the material universe is regulated by fixed laws, which guide the minutest particles, as well as the most ponderous masses of matter, in their movements. He distinguished between the unascertained and the uncertain. The laws of the motions of the planets, for example, have been discovered, and philosophers can with certainty predict their positions and appearances at any future hour. The motions of a minute drop of water dashing over a mountain precipice are not ascertained, and, it may be, not ascertainable, by human observation; but they are equally certain as those of the mightiest orb that rolls in the boundless regions of space. That atom of matter obeys the laws of gravitation, attraction, and repulsion, as precisely as the earth observes her laws of motion in her circuit round the sun. In a sermon preached in St. George's church on 22d March, Dr. Chalmers is reported in the newspapers to have said:" As far as our observation extends, nature has always proceeded in an invariable course, nor have we ever witnessed, as the effect of man's prayer, Nature diverge from her usual course; but we affirm the doctrine of a superintending Providence as wide as the necessities of man." The reflecting intellect of man is delighted with this view of the constitution of external creation; because, if the adaptation of the world to human nature be wise and benevolent, every step in knowledge must necessarily be one in happiness and virtue. The faculty of Causality, in particular, which has received its desires and powers of perception from the Creator, requires order and arrangement for its satisfaction. A world in which regularity of cause and effect was designedly wanting, would be in contradiction to a mind in which a faculty of Causality was implanted by the Creator; and this is a position which appears to us to be unassailable. There are some brains in which the organ of Causality is so small, that the perception of causation, and the desire to trace it and rely on it, are extremely feeble, and these will probably dissent from our present reasonings; but it is equally irrational to assume the perceptions of such individuals as standards of philosophical truth, as it would be to determine the importance of music as an art and science, by the opinions of a person extremely deficient in the organ of Tune. Man has also received from the Creator, sentiments of Veneration, Hope, Wonder, and Ideality, which, combined with Conscientiousness and intellect, render him a religious being. These faculties prompt him to inquire after, reverence, and love a Superior Being; in short, to acknowledge and obey a God. The problem which we are now attempting to solve, is to reconcile the perceptions of Causality, which instinctively demands regulated order in all objects and events, with the desires of Veneration and Wonder, which love a God, doing according to his good pleasure in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. It is clear that no opinions in philosophy and religion can become practically useful which do not satisfy both orders of faculties. If we shall embrace a system of necessary causation without a God, our religious sentiments will remain unsatisfied; while, if we shall establish a belief in the superintendence of a particular Providence on such principles as to contradict the perceptions of Causality, we shall offend the strongest dictates of reason; and by neither means can we arrive at that internal harmony of feeling and perception which is essential to enjoyment, and also to the practical direction of conduct. It appears to us that the Creator has constituted and arranged the external world, and the human mind and body, with admirable wisdom and benevolence in their reciprocal relationship; and that the efficient power of a particular Providence is exercised by the perfect action of the general laws which He has established. In other words, that the general laws are so complete, that they rule every individual case in the best manner; so much so, that the result which they produce in each instance could not be varied without departing from the dictates of benevolenee and wisdom. This proposition will be best understood by means of practical illustrations. Let us suppose that the father of a large family is seized with consumption, and is in danger of dying, and that the prayers of many a believing and loving relative are offered to the Throne of Grace for his recovery; those who contend for a special Providence, independently of general laws, expect that these prayers will be heard, and that, if God see it profitable for the patient and his family, he will restore the sufferer to health. According to our idea, the first point of inquiry that presents itself is, whence does the condition from which deliverance is craved, originate? Consumption is a diseased affection of the material substance which composes the lungs; and we ask, did God command that organ of the body to depart from its healthy condition, to decay, and, by its imperfect action, to destroy the health of its possessor, with a view merely to show forth the power of his Providence in taking away or restoring to health the patient, according to his good pleasure? or did he imprint a definite constitution on the lungs, one result of which is liability to disease from certain irregularities of conduct, and did this particular affliction arise out of that liability in the ordinary course of physiological action? The latter is our proposition. Physiology shows that the lungs, if originally well constituted, and subsequently wisely treated, will operate in a sound condition till the natural period of decay in advanced age; and that whenever, in individual instances, their substance decays in early or middle life, this evil may be traced to an inherent deficiency in strength, inherited from a feeble parent, or to undoubted infringement of the natural conditions on which healthy action has been made by the Creator to depend. There is nothing arbitrary, therefore, in the state of the sufferer. It is the consequence of departure from physiological laws, instituted apparently of deliberate design by the Deity; and the object of the affliction appears to be to induce men who, having received intellectual faculties, are bound to use them, to study and obey the laws of health, and abstain from all practices tending to impair their lungs; and if they shall have unfortunately violated this duty, to forbear transmitting an enfeebled constitution to posterity. Providence, we may presume, could have entirely prevented the descent of imperfection, if He had seen proper; and some may complain of sufferings arising from inheritance as extremely unjust to the offspring; but whenever the parent has obeyed the organic laws, the children inherit the reward in possessing fine constitutions; and it appears to be part of the Divine plan, that where the parents have violated them, the children should endure part of the penalty in inheriting feeble frames. The parent having received rational faculties, was bound to use them, and he neglected to do so at the highest peril to his offspring. The recovery of the afflicted parent, in the case supposed, means the cessation of decay in the material organ diseased. Now, as this organ, to adapt it to man's rational nature, has received a definite constitution, in virtue of which it becomes disordered from certain kinds of treatment, and maintains itself in health, in certain other circumstances; the object of the prayer may be, either that Providence will, in this instance, dispense with all the established laws which regulate the condition of the lungs, and restore the patient to health without fulfilment of the natural conditions; or that the patient and his advisers may so study and obey the Divine laws as to discover and apply the established means for bringing back his lungs into a prosperous state. The latter appears to us to be the legitimate object of prayer; and it is calculated to satisfy both Veneration and Causality. Veneration is gratified by the recognition of Divine Providence in the establishment of the laws which regulate the action of the lungs; and Causality is pleased with the perception that their operations are characterised by regularity, benevolence, and wisdom. The great error fallen into by those who object to this view, is, that they lose sight of the fact, that the condition from which deliverance is asked by means of prayer, is one brought about by the Creator himself, in the perfect knowledge of all its consequences. If a poor man feel disposed to pray for riches, he ought to consider the causes of his poverty, and he will find that they are incapacity, inattention, ignorance, recklessness, or some other deficiency in himself, in his circumstances, or in those persons with whom he is associated; and according to our view, he ought to set about removing these causes before his prayer can have effect. If a parent is afflicted with a profligate son, and pray for his amendment, he ought first to examine his own conduct, and see whether that child does not date his existence from a day when the parent gave himself up to riot and debauchery, or to passion, or to some insensate pursuit; and if he find this to be the case, he ought to regard his son's immoral dispositions as the personification of his own sin, and view himself as the chief cause. He ought next to consider whether the education bestowed, and example set, have been conducive to the child's improvement. He will discover that his dispositions have an origin which leaves no stain upon the goodness of Providence. It is no disparagement to the Divine Being, to say that he has bestowed on man lungs, which, if properly used, will successfully execute their functions for seventy or eighty years; but which, if improperly treated, will waste at an earlier age; when it is added, that he has also bestowed upon human beings faculties capable, when duly applied, of discovering and fulfilling the conditions necessary to their healthy action, and of avoiding the causes that lead to premature decay. Our view implies that the laws of nature have, every one of them, a beneficial tendency, when properly understood and obeyed; and that every particular evil which afflicts any individual man, arises from infringement of one or more of these laws, in his progenitors, himself, or his associates, perhaps through ignorance, perversity, or incapacity. In many instances this can be demonstrated: Although, owing to the existence of vast regions of unexplored territory in the natural world, many instances of evil occur, in which the precise operation of the natural laws cannot be traced; yet these are the regions of the unascertained, and not of the uncertain. The region of the uncertain would be one in which |