the adherents of the Dogmas petition the Legislature, and successfully too, to shut up all these museums and collections of works of art, and to withdraw musical performances from the public parks on Sundays! They claim the whole of that day to themselves. But under their teaching and preaching there is scarcely any social progress. Their dogmas are stereotyped, and ever the same; and I can bear testimony, that for fifty years I attended churches, and after the first four or five, when everything was new, I rarely received any addition to my knowledge; and it is to maintain the interminable repetition of such doctrines that God, His works, His wisdom, and His lessons, so prolifically abounding in nature, must be thrust aside as profane, unprofitable, and unfitted for the day set apart by society for rest, devotion, recreation, and instruction in things that are Divine! If the Dogmas were removed, or modified, and a more rational interpretation of the Bible introduced, and the elements of science and the practical rules of conduct they dictate were taught in schools as God's revelations for our guidance, we should come prepared to hear the same sublime and soul-elevating instruction extended and enforced every Sunday from the pulpit; and it appears to me that the beneficial consequences to society would be incalculably great. Progress would never cease; monotony would be the fault of sloth and incapacity alone; and no man of average mental endowments could truly say at the close of fifty years of such preaching, I "am no wiser and little better than I was at the beginning." The unreasonableness of the oppression exercised by the adherents of the Dogmas over society in regard to the enjoyment of these sources of improvement and happiness on Sundays, is the more striking when we consider on what it is founded. From infancy, certain interpretations of the Fourth Commandment have been entwined in their minds with their religious emotions, and have become sacred in their estimation. They are unconscious that the sacred and religious character of the notions has been given to them by training, and regard them as infallible Divine truths. The inhabitants of Continental Europe, on the other hand, holding the same Commandment in their hands, put a different interpretation on the words, and, under the influence of their training, regarding that interpretation as the sound one, act on it. Nevertheless our dogmatists seem incapable of conceiving that these other opinions can possibly be true; and not satisfied with unbounded liberty to act on their own impressions, they insist on forcing these on their countrymen! They not only refuse to listen on Sundays to God's teaching in Nature, but prohibit their equals from enjoying this unspeakable pleasure and advantage.

Finally,―In all ages and countries, religious teachers have succeeded in persuading their own flocks that only their doctrines constitute true religion, are capable of supporting the mind in affliction, and are certain to lead to salvation; and laymen, when trained from infancy under such impressions, really feel no religion in their souls, and cannot, even by their understandings, conceive any to exist that is calculated to produce these effects, except that which is embodied in their own. tenets. When, therefore, a doctrine, be it that of election or the fall of man, or any other (however uncertain in its foundation, and vehemently disputed by other sects), which has been woven into the mind of an individual as the only foundation of his hopes and consolations, happens to be subverted, he is really deprived, pro tempore, of his religion, and all its accompanying advantages and enjoyments; for he has no religion unconnected with belief in the dogmas which have perished. Such believers are as sensitive to every doubt thrown on their faith as they would be to an attack on their lives; and if they are not strong-minded, or are past the middle period of life, they only obey the law of their nature in feeling and thinking in this manner. Were it likely that any of them would peruse these pages, I should be most unwilling to disturb their tranquillity. On the contrary, I should refer them to the case of Rammohun Roy's mother, and encourage them to hold fast by the faith which gives them support and consolation. Though convinced that his Christian doctrines were true, she could not throw off the shackles of idolatrous customs. "Rammohun," she said to him before she set out on her last pilgrimage to the Temple of Juggernaut, right, but I am a weak woman, and am grown too old to give up these observances, which are a comfort to me." She maintained them with the most self-denying devotion. She would not allow a female servant to accompany her; or any other provision to be made for her comfort, or even support on her journey and when at Juggernaut, she engaged in sweeping the temple of the idol. There she spent the remainder of her life-nearly a year, if not more; and there she died.* When Melancthon paid a visit to his mother in her old age, she asked "What am I to believe amidst so many different opinions of the present day?" To which he answered,—" Go on, believe and pray as you now do and have done before, and do not disturb yourself about the disputes and controversies of the times." -(Life of Melancthon, by Francis Augustus Cox, A.M., 2d edit., p. 281.)

you are

* Review of the Labours, Opinions, and Character of Rajah Rammohun Roy, by Lant Carpenter, LL.D. London, 1833.

CHAPTER X.

CONCLUSION.

IN reference to the present condition and future prospects of the Religion of Christendom, the fundamental point to be determined appears to me to be-Whether the world, as it now exists, is merely the wreck of a better system, or an Institution? If it is the former, I leave to other hands, the task of mending its disjointed parts, and educing from them whatever good they can be made to yield. If it is an Institution, then, as before remarked, it will be our duty and our interest to regard it with respect as the design of its Author, to try to discover its plan, and to conform to its laws. With this view we may approach the study of it in the following order :

Human nature will constitute the central point of our investigations; because the adaptations of the world to our capacities, wants, and desires cannot be understood while the latter are unknown. If the views of man's nature, stated in Chapter III., §§ 1 and 2, and elucidated in the Appendix, No. II., be well founded, physiology will form one grand source from which this information will be derived.

If we find evidence, as maintained in Chapter III., § 4, that man is constitutionally a religious being then we shall see a firm foundation in nature for religion; and if, as stated in § 5, we discover in him organs of the moral emotions, we shall perceive also an indestructible basis for morality.

These two points being fixed, the next question will beWhether nature is constituted in such a relationship to our religious faculties as to inspire us intuitively with belief in the existence of a supernatural Power and Intelligence-whom we call God? The affirmative of this question is maintained in Chapter V., p. 66. If this conclusion is well founded, we shall then be led to view our own constitution and that of the external world, as institutions proceeding from this supernatural Power, and under this conviction our duties will become obvious.

If we desire to be healthy and to live long, we shall enquire into the conditions on which He has been pleased to dispense

these advantages. If we desire to possess the necessaries, elegancies, and beneficial luxuries that contribute, by His appointment, to the enjoyment of life, we shall try to discover and to fulfil the conditions on which He offers to us these advantages. If we wish to live in the society of intelligent, moral, religious, industrious, and happy men-we shall enquire into and fulfil the social duties on which He has made these boons to depend. Finally, if we desire to improve our whole being to its highest attainable point of perfection, and to raise our souls to communion with their Divine Author, we shall acquire and carry into practice the kind of knowledge, the morality, and the religion which He has rendered indispensable to our highest state of existence on earth.

These are not Utopian and impracticable ideas; for, be it observed, if the world is an Institution and man's faculties are adapted to it, there must be divinely appointed ways of gratifying these powers, and the corollary seems evident that man must be capable of finding them out and complying with their requirements, when he shall seriously apply his endowments to this end.

Our next aim should be to discover the qualities, agencies, and relations of natural objects. These exist and act under divinely imposed laws; which we call the Laws of Nature. As we cannot alter the qualities, suspend their action, or prevent the consequences which have been attached to it, our chief duty in regard to them will be to investigate them and to discover everything that can be known regarding them. This is the aim of scientific enquiry as now conducted; and the expiscation of the qualities and agencies of natural objects should continue to be conducted on purely scientific principles, for the sake of the knowledge which it affords, without, in the first instance, attempting to apply it to moral and religious purposes. But the Divine origin of Nature should be constantly inculcated, and all our investigations should be conducted in a reverential spirit.

In the next place, all the thoroughly ascertained facts concerning the qualities and agencies of nature should be surveyed in their relations to man. When they are compared with his position, structure, wants, capacities, and desires, it will be seen that highly instructive rules of conduct are dictated to his understanding by Divine wisdom in these qualities, agencies, and relations. Examples of this fact are given in Chapter VI. Now, I respectfully maintain that these rules, when correctly inferred, are Divine Laws, because the things from which they are deduced are Divine Institutions, and obedience to them is enforced by the consequences attached to them, which man can

neither alter nor evade. Here, then, we have Divine Law and Divine discipline combined. To render these rules moral in our minds, we require only to entwine them from infancy with our natural moral emotions; and to render them religious, to present them habitually to our religious emotions as Divine, and train our whole faculties to reverence and obey them.

If, by training, the doctrines of Calvinism quoted on pages 186-7, and the dancing evolutions of the Shakers described on page 204, and in the Appendix, No. VI., have been invested with sacred qualities, become religious truths, and solemn ceremonies of Divine worship in the minds of large classes of good and intelligent people, why should we doubt that rules which can be demonstrated to be Divine, may be made to assume a moral and religious character, when proper means shall be used to communicate to them in our apprehension that sanctity which they inherently possess? The low estimate which is now formed of them, as rules of prudence, but not of moral or religious obligation, appears to me to arise solely from the misdirection of our moral and religious emotions to other objects, and to the false light in which we have been taught to view man and the world.

In the reformed faith, a distinction will be made between religion and theology. RELIGION will rest on the sentiments of Veneration, Hope, and Wonder, as its basis, and be recognised as emotional in its nature; its elements being reverence, admiration, and faith. It will be seen that, by training, these emotions may be directed to almost any objects or doctrines; which, by being closely associated with them, assume a sacred or religious character. Hence, by such training, all truth conducive to human happiness may be rendered religious.

THEOLOGY will be referred to the intellectual faculties and their organs as its basis; and these will not permit any objects or doctrines to be associated with the religious emotions which they cannot comprehend and trace to Divine authority. The intellect will not pretend to comprehend the nature of God, but will recognise His existence, such of His attributes as it sees manifested, and also His Will, as revealed in His works; and it will compose a theology out of these elements, associate them with the religious emotions, and thus constitute a religion. Forms will be invented to give expression to this religion, and in which to teach it to the people.

MORALITY will be recognised as resting on the sentiments of Benevolence and Conscientiousness, as its peculiar basis, using the intellect to give it form in precepts and laws, and to direct us in its practical applications. It will include the proper use of all the other faculties. It will not be viewed as dependent