edly meet with difficulties and disappointments at every step of our progress. We shall in vain seek for proofs of absolute perfection, either in the physical or moral condition of this lower world. It is a scene of perpetual change; of beauty, ending in deformity; of pleasure, succeeded by pain; of success, giving way to disappointment; of life, vigor, and brightness, alternating with gloom, decay, and death; and, if the actions of rational agents be regarded, it is a union of wisdom and folly, nobility and meanness, virtue and vice. Instead of perfection, we have here the very reverse. Where, then, are we to seek for the wisdom and goodness of an Allpowerful and Intelligent First Cause? Our answer is,In the general character and tendencies of the system; in the arrangements by which evils are averted or mitigated, and excellence is drawn from the very bosom of apparent defect and worthlessness. We are not to expect absolute, but only relative good; not the absence of evil, but compensations for it; not perfection, but a bias towards it. In regarding the whole system, we seem to behold a piece of vast and amazing mechanism, of which the materials are defective or positively unsound, but the workmanship perfect. The wisdom lies in the admirable execution of a work apparently full of difficulties and obstructions; and the goodness, in the conversion of what would seem to be naturally evils, into agents of virtue and instruments of enjoyment.

This, however, is certainly not the real, but only the apparent, state of things. That the power of the Eternal, as well as his intellectual and moral perfections, is infinite, it is on other grounds impossible to doubt that we cannot perceive these perfections in all their extent manifested in his works, must therefore proceed from a deficiency in the grasp of our minds: but we must treat of them according to our own perceptions; and the evidence of Divine wisdom and goodness which, under the modification we have endeavored to explain, breaks in upon us from every side, is probably, in some respects, better suited to call forth the wonder, admiration, and gratitude of such limited creatures as we are, than even

if we were to see the hand of the Creator less darkly. The view might be too vast, and the glory too effulgent for our mortal vision.

An apt illustration of the kind of defect and compensation, which seem to be inherent in the system of our world, may be found by attending to the state of external nature in the present season of the year. That there are disadvantages and privations in Winter, under which all animated nature seems to shrink and groan, is undeniable; yet how many abatements, and how much positive enjoyment have we to place in the opposite scale!

It will be my duty to examine these abatements of evil, and these actual blessings, separately, in the course of our inquiry; but let us take one example by way of illustration. In our climate, and in all the regions which verge toward the poles, within certain limits, one of the discomforts of winter, which must occur to every person who thinks on the subject, is the shortness and gloom of the day. The sun rises late, looks down for a few hours with diminished glory on a blasted world, and then goes rapidly away, leaving all nature to the darkness of a tedious night. This is dreadful; yet see how it is rendered a source of pleasure and improvement ! If, during the absence of the sun, we look at the starry heavens, what an inexhaustible fund of wonders does astronomy unfold, at once to exalt and to humble the human mind, to fill us with admiration of the Divine perfections, and to teach us the salutary lesson of our own insignificance. It does not require that we should dive into the mysteries of this science, by means of the telescope, before these sentiments arise. They belong to every age of the world, to every stage of advancement in science, and to every station in life. There is no expression of devotional feeling to which even "babes and sucklings," as it is emphatically said, more readily respond, than that of the psalmist, "When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained;-what is man, O Lord, that thou art mindful of him ? and the son of man that thou visitest him?" How blank and dismal would be the

darkness of a long winter night, were it not cheered and rendered sublime by the splendor of the starry firmament !

Look, again, at the comforts and domestic endearments of a winter-evening fireside. Who, that has experienced these, will allege that winter is inferior to summer, either in its enjoyments or in its means of improvement? When early night has spread its shade over external nature, and labor has ceased in the fields, and the sound of busy feet is more rarely heard along the streets; when the shutters are closed, and the curtains drawn, and the fire blazes in the grate, and the candle stands on the table, shedding artificial day, and a united family, shutting out the world, retire within their own beloved circle, to enjoy the social hours; when the father and mother occupy their wonted chimney corners, and the children, while their hands, perchance, are engaged in some light employment, listen with interest to the instruction of some well-chosen book, or bear their parts in edifying and endearing conversation,-who will not , confess that there are advantages in this intercourse, which longer days, and a more genial atmosphere, with all the attractions of vocal woods and flowery meads, can scarcely equal?

Here, then, we have compensation for an acknowledged evil :-we have even more. This evil is converted into means of pleasure and improvement; and such is precisely the character of Creative Wisdom and Goodness, into which we have to inquire. He, who expects to find a higher grade of perfection in those manifestations of nature with which he is surrounded, will assuredly be disappointed.

["The Great Author of our being," says Dr. Roget, in his Bridgewater Treatise, "who, while he has been pleased to confer on us the gift of reason, has prescribed certain limits to its powers, permits us to acquire, by its exercise, a knowledge of some of the wondrous works of his creation,

interpret the characters of wisdom and goodness with boich they are impressed, and to join our voice to the gengra chorus which proclaims 'his Might, Majesty, and Do

minion.' From the same gracious hand we also derive that unquenchable thirst for knowledge which this fleeting life must ever leave unsatisfied; those endowments of the moral sense, with which the present constitution of the world so ill accords; and that innate desire of perfection which our present frail condition is so inadequate to fulfil. But it is not given to man to penetrate into the counsels, or fathom the designs of Omnipotence; for in directing his views into futurity, the feeble light of his reason is scattered and lost in the vast abyss. Although we plainly discern intention in every part of the creation, the grand object of the whole is placed far above the scope of our comprehension. It is impossible, however, to conceive that this enormous expenditure of power, this vast accumulation of contrivances and of machinery, and this profusion of existence resulting from them, can thus, from age to age, be prodigally lavished, without some ulterior end. Is Man, the favored creature of Nature's bounty, the paragon of animals,' whose spirit holds communion with celestial powers, formed but to perish with the wreck of his bodily frame? Are generations after generations of his race doomed to follow in endless succession, rolling darkly down the stream of time, and leaving no track in its pathless ocean? Are the operations of Almighty power to end with the present scene? May we not discern in the spiritual constitution of man the traces of higher powers, to which those he now possesses are but preparatory; some embryo faculties which raise us above this earthly habitation ? Have we not in the imagination, a power, but little in harmony with the fetters of our bodily organs; and bringing within our view purer conditions of being, exempt from the illusion of our senses, and the infirmities of our nature, our elevation to which, will eventually prove that all these unsated desires of knowledge, and all these ardent aspirations after moral good, were not implanted in us in vain?

"Happily there has been vouchsafed to us, from a higher source, a pure and heavenly light to guide our faltering steps, and animate our fainting spirit, in this

dark and dreary search; revealing those truths which it imports us most of all to know, giving to morality higher sanctions, elevating our hopes and our affections to nobler objects than belong to earth, and inspiring more exalted themes of thanksgiving and of praise." AM. ED.]

FIRST WEEK-TUESDAY.

THE CHARACTER IMPRESSED ON NATURE.--CONTRIVANCE.

FROM the example stated yesterday, some idea may be formed of the kind of compensation for permitted evils which is every where to be discovered in the works of creation; but another, and equally marked feature in the face of nature, is that of the most ingenious contrivances, to avoid evils which would otherwise occur, or to insure advantages which could not otherwise be obtained. example or two of this unequivocal proof of a wise and beneficent Designer will illustrate this subject.

For these I shall take advantage of the ingenious Treatise of Sir Charles Bell on the Human Hand, which is, throughout, a most masterly exposition of the argument, arising from this very view. The first which I select is taken from his chapter on the "Sensibility of the Surface, compared with the deeper parts." That the skin is extremely sensible to pain, no one need be informed; but few, perhaps, have sufficiently attended to the fact, which is yet within the reach of any person's observation, that the pain does not increase in proportion to the depth of the wound, the sensibility being almost exclusively confined to the outward covering of the body. This has been very convincingly proved to be a contrivance of much wisdom and benevolence. After stating the fact, and showing it to be a matter of daily surgical experience, the author justly observes, that the obvious intention is, that the skin should be a safeguard to the delicate tex