tions of the people, and to secure a willing and almost unlimited subjection to civil authority, independent of the exercise of external force.'

The principles of action proper for a nation,' said Sir Edward, are perfectly analogous to those by which the conduct of every reasonable agent ought to be directed. In all situations of moment and difficulty, we feel the force and energy of various, distinct and, perhaps, opposing principles. Our volitions, if rational, are determined by the conjunct force of the several motives which prudence and wisdom suggest. Both in public and private life, we must view and review the leading measures of our conduct, in connexion with all those circumstances by which they can be materially affected. The rules of action, both political and moral, are immutable, because they are founded on the basis of reason and utility. The great end of government is the happiness of the people. The people are entitled to all that liberty which is consistent with happiness, and to all that power which is consistent with liberty.'

"The moral happiness of a country depends much more on the state of the lower orders than is commonly imagined. Not only the

characters and morals of the lower orders, but the general character of the nation is affected by it. The wretchedness resulting from extreme poverty has a direct tendency to debase the human character. Energy of mind, active bodily industry, and those combined exertions of both, which so much improve intellect, promote health and constitute happiness, cannot be expected in beings who are without hope, and who are not acted upon by the stimulus of adequate reward. A familiarity with this kind of wretchedness has also an injurious effect on the minds of the higher orders. Some of the best principles of human nature are lost, and some of the finest feelings of man blunted by too frequent sights of misery. Benevolence, that principle which of all others most exalts our nature, is almost extinguished in countries where large classes exhibit a constant appearance of wretchedness. Arbitrary governments have the most immediate tendency to produce this evil; but all other governments, which admit of continued increase of expenditure, indirectly promote it; and even the best form of government, by errors in its administration, may participate in the evils of the worst.'

CONVERSATION VI.

Observations on Man, as belonging to the Material, the Moral, and the Intellectual World.

HAVING considered man, said Charles,

as a member of a political body, we may now proceed to view him as an individual, belonging to the natural or material, the moral or political, and the intellectual or spiritual world. He is invested with appropriate senses, faculties, and capacities, peculiarly adapted to his duties and situation, in each of these departments, in reference to himself, to his fellow-creatures, and to God.

In viewing man as belonging to the material world, we discover him to possess faculties, senses and perceptions, in common with animal creation. The more his inferior propensities prevail, the lower he must rank in the scale of

intelligent being: the greater their subjugation to the authority of reason and the restrictions of morality, the more elevated his dignity in the moral and intellectual world.

The material nature of man affords the inlets to knowledge and the general means of mental culture; as impressions made upon the mind through the medium of the senses become sensations, and by sensations the mind receives ideas, by whose union or combination complex ideas are formed, which are connected with other ideas, and by the power of association the mental feelings are produced, namely, the affections, passions, desires and emotions, whose proper regulation and government constitutes the business of the understanding.

From the analysis of the origin of our mental: feelings, we may clearly discern the necessity for the culture of the understanding, in producing a proper regulation of the animal propensities, and the subordination of the passions, desires, and affections of the human mind.

The essential difference that exists between, man and inferior animals, said Sir Edward, constitutes him a political, moral and responsible being. Man is the only animal that selects the

form of government under which he associates himself in society, or chooses the laws by which he will be governed. Animals of the gregarious kind invariably submit to the same regulations. No alteration is made in subsequent ages, either in the mode of their society or the construction of their habitations. All other creatures are alike incapable of improving themselves or their species. Man only is an improveable being: he alone possesses an understanding, not operated upon by instinct, but regulated by reason, or the power of discriminating between virtue and vice, good and evil, and of making his election and acting accordingly.

The culture of the understanding, said Charles, is a duty man owes to himself; and a knowledge of its powers and faculties is essential to its proper improvement.

The principal properties of the understanding are, consciousness, attention, observation, reflection, thinking and meditation, abstraction, judgment, reasoning and investigating.' By the operation of these powers the understanding perceives and discovers truth, analyzes principles, investigates causes, and deduces effects; which constitutes another characteristic distinction of