Erratum.-In the No. for August, page 54, instead of the last paragraph on the page, read the THE QUARTERLY REGISTER. VOL. VII. AUGUST, 1834. No. 1. INFLUENCE OF EMINENT PIETY ON THE HUMAN MIND. AN opinion is entertained to a certain extent, that superior mental cultivation is inconsistent with distinguished attainments in holiness. It is supposed that deep and thorough scholarship is incompatible with pure and elevated religious affections. Before proceeding, therefore, to a direct consideration of the subject, it may be proper to look at some of the reasons why this idea has been entertained. One cause of the prevalence of this opinion, is the want of enlargement of mind on the part of some pious students. An individual does not see the bearing of a particular study upon his piety, or upon his future profession, and consequently renounces it in disgust, or attends to it with an utter indifference. He thus loses sight of the fact that his mind is an instrument, in a great degree unfitted for work, and that it is of little. importance whether he has knowledge of his future profession or not, so long as his mind is rude and shapeless. His great object is not instruction, it is education; it is not acquisition, it is dicipline. But if he allows his mind to fasten on the secularity of his study, or on its want of correspondence with his future profession, he will not, as a general thing, advance either in piety or in science. Another cause of the prevalence of the idea, to which I have alluded, arises from the injudicious remarks which some eminently pious men have made, in their diaries, respecting the worthlessness of human learning. Owing, perhaps, to a defect in early education, to a temptation into which they have been betrayed, or to want of Christian candor, they have uttered sentiments adverse to the general current of their thoughts-sentiments which have been eagerly seized upon and made the excuse or the occasion, in some instances, of a nearly total neglect of mental discipline and improvement. Such sentiments should be counteracted and neutralized by opinions on the other side equally decisive and far more numerous. Again, the prevalence of this idea may be ascribed in part to the perversion of a few texts of Scripture. From passages like that wherein it is asserted that God has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the wise, it has been most absurdly inferred that human knowledge is of little value. But all the passages and facts of Scripture, which relate to this subject, are to be taken in connection. Why did God choose Moses for the leader of his people through the desert, a man learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians? Why select Solomon, the wisest of the children of men, to build his temple? Why was the man educated at the feet of Ga VOL. VII. 2 maliel, inspired to write almost one half of the New Testament, and to publish the name of his Saviour in almost every land of the Roman dominions? Why must the priest's lips keep knowledge, and why were schools of the prophets so early founded, and continued for so many ages? The truth is, that one simple principle of the New Testament would determine the whole question. We are commanded to present to God our bodies and souls as a living sacrifice :-not our souls without cultivation, but with all possible cultivation and enlargement. We are as really commanded to discipline and perfect our understanding, and to present the fruits of it to the Lord, as we are that which relates to any other part of ourselves. Another cause of the erroneous idea, which I am endeavoring to combat, is found in the prominence which has been given to literary ambition as a motive for effort. Our plans of study have been based for ages on the principle of competition. It has, in a considerable degree, swallowed up all other incitements to literary effort. Religious students have either yielded to the impulses of this powerful motive, and been subjected to all its disastrous effects, or they have quietly relinquished the literary object before them, and have been contented with mediocrity of attainment and usefulness. The inquiry does not seem to have been made whether there were or were not motives for effort equally strong, and less objectionable in their character. One marked effect of the prevalence of the motive of ambition, has been a belief in the minds of many pious and estimable persons, that there was an inseparable connection between the exercise of bad passions and the attainment of eminent knowledge. I am now prepared to present some considerations in favor of the proposition, that piety is eminently beneficial in its effects on the mind. Eminent piety will tend to give an increased importance to the human mind in general. The mental constitution, is the work of the Creator, and displays exquisite skill in its formation and its adaptedness to the uses for which it was designed. The man of pious feeling will love to trace the proofs of divine wisdom, which are visible in his mind, as well as elsewhere. He will see, in a clearer light than other men, the high destiny of the human soul. He will learn to think of it with more seriousness, and will attach to it an importance commensurate, in some degree, with its powers, and the end of its creation. One reason why the worldly-minded professor of religion regards with such apathy his own condition, and the ruined state of multitudes around him, is his utterly inadequate ideas of the value of the human mind. He does not separate the material from the immortal, the transitory from the permanent. He looks on the world of rational agents very much as he does on any of the animal tribes, as created to breathe, to eat, to sleep, to play and to perish. It is not so where Christianity exerts its full influence. There a solicitude is awakened and sustained by a sense of what the mind is, and of what it is able to accomplish. One fundamental reason why men are held in civil bondage, in any part of the earth, is the want of a vivid apprehension that those men have minds rational and immortal. Impart to a community a strong and abiding impression of the presence of God, of the reality of eternity, of the importance of a state of probation, and every intellectual shackle will be sundered. The mind is not seen in its real dignity, except in the light of another world. Looking at it as immortal, the importance of its cultivation, and of its perfect discipline, is immensely increased. The influence of eminent piety is seen in leading the scholar to an intimate acquaintance with his own mind. The habit of self-inspection is important in regard to the intellectual progress as well as to the spiritual. There is no toiling successfully in darkness. An individual must know his mental constitution, the defects and the excellencies of his education, what remedies to apply to those defects, how his mind has been influenced under various outward causes, and in what way he can secure it against further injury. One reason which prevents a frequent and thorough mental analysis, is literary pride. Many men are not willing to know precisely on what ground they stand. They are conscious of serious mental deficiencies, but they are not willing to have them pointed out, or to dwell upon them themselves. But he who has been disciplined in the school of Christ, has divested himself of pride and self-conceit. There is no dark corner in his mind, which he is not willing to examine. There is no weak point, which he is not ready to investigate. His habits of moral self-investigation have both given him courage to undertake this inward review, and power to do it. He is not accustomed to shrink at the moral corruption and imperfection within him; why should he at the mental irregularities and disproportions which he may witness. He has the habit of looking difficulties which respect himself, calmly and firmly in the face. He has the humility which will bear the trial of permitting his faults to be pointed out. The man will wish to be estimated as he is in reality. He will not desire to obtain credit for what he is not. Eminent piety will have the effect to give to an individual a good practical judgment. An imposing hindrance to intellectual effort, is the habit of over-estimating a particular branch of study. It is perfectly obvious that all the powers of the human mind cannot be developed in one direction, or by an exclusive attention to one pursuit. A single tendency cannot be nurtured to a great extent without weakening or destroying another. It is not needful, indeed, that an individual should be an universal scholar; but, in order to develope all the powers of his mind, he must have a general acquaintance with science and literature. There is a correspondence between the material world and the human mind. Created nature must be studied in its various parts, before the mind can receive all the benefits from it which its Creator intended. So it is with truth of every kind. There is an adaptation of it, in all its forms, to some powers and aspects of the human mind. God has not been parsimonious in furnishing aliment for the nurturing of the souls which he has formed. Now the man, who is the most familiar with the character and with the providence of God, is prepared to apprehend truth of all kinds, not only in a higher degree than other men, but in better proportions. He is in the habit of looking at universal truth. He has the key which unlocks the treasures of the material and moral world. Other things being equal, he has a better practical judgment. The religious truth which he has contemplated, he has been accustomed to refer to an invariable system-the Bible. The actions which he has performed, he has compared with an unerring standard-the Divine Law. Of course he has a better internal director, in his judgment, than other men have. Another advantage of the eminently pious student, is the aid which he derives from his conscience. Rapid progress in knowledge is not compatible with inward uneasiness. The conscience must be in its healthiest and best state, or in a condition of extreme torpor, to allow a scholar to prosecute his studies constantly, and to the highest advantage. Such men as Hume, Diderot, and Laplace, pursued their intellectual studies with great calmness and self-possession, probably in part from the fact, that their con science had either been perverted, or wholly silenced. But the intermediate state between that and the possession of a good conscience, both towards God and towards man, is full of delay and difficulty. The scholar, who with an enlightened conscience is living in conformity with the world, is at war with his own improvement. The inward feeling that his heart is not in a right condition, is a constant source of uneasiness. When about to engage in a protracted intellectual exercise, he cannot escape the conviction, that another thing is more needful first. The feeling of insecurity in regard to his eternal state, harasses him wherever he goes. Now, no condition of mind is more inconsistent with an uniform advance in knowledge than this. It weakens the resolution, and throws a chill over the brightest intellectual prospects. The student is sometimes even compelled to stop, and engage in some direct religious exercise, as a sort of penance or quietus to an alarmed conscience. But the eminent Christian has none of these misgivings. If he has not, at all times, an assured hope of heaven, still he has a prevailing and delightful conviction that he has secured his eternal salvation, and that if he should be cut off in the midst of an intellectual exercise, all would be well. He can thus act with undivided power. Every thing within him is harmonious. Conscience has become a powerful auxiliary to his intellect. Distinguished piety is eminently conducive to intellectual advancement, by the serenity and purity which it spreads over the affections. How totally unfit is the man of proud and of self-sufficient feelings for investigating any of the truths of natural science. Questions connected with the higher mathematics, and with the nature of the soul, require that the affections should be in a state of calm serenity, so that the mind can fasten on pure truth, undimmed by the mists of passion or prejudice. What connection have the elevated truths of astronomy, with the impure dreams of the sensualist? None at all. It is, doubtless, true, that a love for a particular literary pursuit may become so strong as to amount to a passion, which will swallow up every thing else, and in fact, cut off a man from human sympathy, and make him an exile from social life. Some of the French analytical philosophers have appeared to rid themselves of every thing but simple, dry intellect. Still it is capable of the fullest proof, that this is not a condition best adapted to intellectual improvement. Intellect cannot flourish in a desert. Man cannot pervert or overlook any part of that constitution which the Creator has given him, without injury to all the other parts. The cultivation of the social affections is necessary to the highest intellectual progress. The connection between all the parts of the human constitution is intimate, and is not to be trifled with. Destroy the affections, and as a general thing you cripple the intellect. Blot out a human sympathy, and you destroy mental energy. What is termed an original thought, depends, in no inconsiderable degree, upon original emotions. Some of the more important works of reasoning, as well as those of the imagination, would have never seen the light had it not been for the social affections. It is of incalculable importance, therefore, that the affections of the soul should be refined by Christianity. They will be thus purified from disorders. They will flow forth towards praiseworthy objects, and will come into that state which will qualify them to be the assistants and the handmaids of the intellect. The influence of eminent piety upon the memory, is by no means unimportant. The best rule, probably, which could be given, for the cultivation of that power of the mind, is a conscientious and habitual utterance of the truth on all subjects. What is termed a deceitful or treacherous memory, if not always, is generally occasioned by loose and desultory habits in conversation, and intercourse with society. Now the eminently pious man |