powerful effect upon our reasoning faculties ;— and this will arise more especially from the nervous system. Persons who lead sedentary lives are often affected with complaints that evidently produce an effect on the mind. Some dispositions show peevishness, sourness, restlessness, fear, anger, doubts, &c., all which in some degree have an influence on the reason.

It has been generally believed that the nerves are the medium of communication between soul and body; and that through them we derive sensations, perceptions, and ideas. A temporary derangement of them may occasion their powers to be uncertain in their operation; as in delirium and mania great strength of body is sometimes observable, the soul in this state seems to act as the imagination does during sleep-irregularly and ungovernably. This debility or derangement of the nerves, which are the medium of sensation, is the cause why the faculties of the mind cannot be perfectly employed.

There are also other circumstances whereby the natural understanding may be weakened or rendered inefficient :-any emotion of the mind. may so disturb the nerves as to render them weaker than when in a state of quietness; a small portion of wine will sometimes have so exhilarating or stupefying an effect, as totally to

alter the system, and render it unable to follow such avocations as it otherwise might be capable of attending to; even a hearty meal to some has the effect of rendering the body (or perhaps more properly the nerves) sluggish, and thus oftentimes occasioning the mind to be altogether unfit to pursue or contemplate those things which it could have previously done.

The state of the atmosphere also may have a considerable effect in hindering the operation of man's boasted reason, although, when in health, he is ready to believe, that we are capable by our own power, energy, and strength alone to know, and at all times to do, the will of our Father who is in heaven.

Some speculative writers have urged that the reason of man is nothing more than an instinct in him, differing from that of other animals only as the human frame differs from every other: but the instinct that animals possess, according to their several natures, is perfect, and marks the extraordinary wisdom of the great Creator. The smallest insect discovers the correctness and powers of its faculties, and shows that it is governed by laws and limitations consonant to the eternal order which is apparent in all the works of Omnipotence.

If we could view the ant, and notice every

motion and action it makes use of for the performance of its various functions, we should discover that hardly a moment was misemployed or an effort misdirected, and evident traces of profound wisdom and industry would be conti nually conspicuous in the government of its little community. Other insects, according to the designs of unerring Wisdom, have their peculiar parts to act whilst in existence; all equally correspondent with their natures, and equally governed by an instinct sufficient for the intended purposes of their creation. The extreme sagacity and innate knowledge that are discovered by the feathered tribes in the formation of their nests; in which an exact similarity of construc tion is adopted by each of the various species; the strength and neatness with which they are put together, and adapted to the protection of their young from particular animals or insects, and which might molest them in their infant state; their care, attention, and maternal solici tude, continually discoverable when danger ap. proaches, or when the calls of nature are evident, afford the strongest proof that with the instinct animals have received they fully answer the end of their creation; whilst man is oftentimes under the necessity of confessing that the efforts he has made use of under the direction

of his natural reason, to accomplish designs of real importance, have been altogether vain; and he not only finds his reason inadequate to the accomplishment of his best plans, but he goes further, and even perverts this noble faculty to the worst of purposes. So that, if man would be since e with himself, he must acknowledge, that when the powers of the ant are contrasted with his own, he possesses less of the correct wisdom of nature than any other part of the animal creation.

That faculty which is called instinct in animals, is to be considered as quite distinct from human reason: the first, being a faculty confined to the supplying the wants and necessities. of the animal nature, is possessed in most instances in greater perfection by the mere animals of this world than by man, who, through his fall, is only a stranger and pilgrim in it; and it entirely ceases to exist with the animal life: whereas the second, being a faculty of the human soul, partakes of the immortality of its nature; and when enlightened by the Divine Spirit, but not till then, is enabled to search into and understand divine mysteries, therefore may with propriety be considered as the most exalted faculty of human nature; as no mere animal, however acute its instinct, is capable of it; it

being that which makes the essential difference between man and the beasts that perish.

It may perhaps, on the first view of this subject, affect the feelings of haughty man, that he is here placed, in respect to his rational faculties, as inferior to other animals; and doubtless he will have many struggles with himself before he will be willing to subunit to a belief of its truth: but as this little work is intended as an address to the heart of the reader as well as to his understanding, we shall endeavour, in as concise a way as we can, to prove that self-examination will discover our sentiments to be not altogether er

roneous.

Can there be a greater proof of the fallibility of human reason than that which arises from the excuses made for ambition, anger, resentment, revenge, &c. &c., and the deceptive reasonings often made use of where private interest is concerned, either with respect to ourselves or our immediate connexions? With how much case, by the force of popular reasonings, (even when opposed to our natural feelings,) do we become reconciled to the inhuman practice of war; for although there is scarcely a family which has not in some degree had to deplore the evil of it, yet are we content, under the fatal but false covering of necessity, to approve of this sys