ral, or our political situation; and though the last only falls strictly within our subject, I would entreat the reader's indulgence to a few previous observations on the two for

mer.

1. First then, as to our natural situation. When a man travels into a foreign land, his eye is directed to the face of the country; and should any new and singular phenomena present themselves, they naturally awaken his curiosity, and call forth his researches. Something like this is the case when, after the dawn of reason, we enter upon the great scene of the universe. Suppose a boy, who has begun to exert his understanding, should observe the sun rising behind a certain hill; and some months afterward should observe him rise behind another hill at some distance from the former; he will be curious to know the reason of this difference. Or, if he see the moon at first scarcely visible as a crescent, then in a semicircular form, and afterwards at the full, he will be equally curious to understand the cause of this changeable appearance; and this is a disposition which ought to be

encouraged, and, as far as possible, to be gratified. As his reason advances, and he is able to take a more extensive view of nature, he may be prompted, by the same inquisitive temper, to carry his researches into the vegetable, the animal, or the mineral kingdoms; he may endeavour to analyse the air, and, ascending above the atmosphere, to determine the laws of the planetary revolutions, and to explore the starry regions. And provided this excursive curiosity be regulated by those just rules of philosophy laid down by Bacon, and above all, by a regard to the divine will, which ought undoubtedly to direct and limit all our pursuits, it is both rational and laudable; it may subserve many useful purposes of life, and manifest the glory of the Creator, whose works are great and admirable, and "sought out of all them that have pleasure therein +."

2. Our moral situation is an object of still more important and rational curiosity. To know the things around us in their natural

.quæsita דרושיס *

↑ Psal. cxi, 2.

virtues and properties, may indeed contribute to our present use and convenience; but to know them morally, or as they infer certain duties and obligations on our part, is a point of far greater concernment; as it bears an immediate respect to our real and final happiness. This ought therefore to call forth our most diligent and critical investigation; which, in order to be successful, must first proceed in an ascending scale from the creature to the Creator, whose will, informed by his wisdom, is that which renders binding and obligatory upon us, what before at most could only be discerned to be fit and congruous. In this way may some knowledge be obtained of the obligations we are under both towards God and man. But as nature alone fails to give us any full or clear information even of our duty; and fails still more to afford us any solid ground on which to build our future hopes and expectations; we must be content, after all our philosophic efforts, to have recourse to the page of revelation; we must search the scriptures*,

* John v. 39. “Ερευνᾶτε τὰς γραφὰς.-In voce έρευναν

of those floating edifices, which are equally fitted to brave the elements, to repel a hostile attack, and to convey our merchandize to the remotest regions, is a production of this nature. How much more then must the fabric of a state, if accommodated to the wants, the conveniences, and the protection of every order of its citizens, be an object of curious inquisition, and rational admiration!

(3.) Further: As there never probably existed a political constitution which was more justly an object of such regard, than that of our own country, it must be contemplated with peculiar interest by every true Briton, both in its origin and through every stage of its progress. He will be delighted to discover its gradual dawn among our British and Saxon ancestors, till it broke forth with a degree of lustre under the auspices of the justly-renowned Alfred; many of whose institutions remain with little variation to this day; and having regretted for a moment its interruption by the Danes, he will gratulate its return with increased brightness, in the reigns of Edgar and of Edward

the Confessor. Again: After suffering almost a total eclipse by the Norman conquest, he will welcome its re-appearance under Henry the First, its rapid advance in the reign of John, by the grant of magna charta, and its arrival almost to the point of juridical perfection under our English Justinian, the first Edward. After a long interval of foreign and civil wars, he will note, in the great event of the reformation, one of the chief causes of its subsequent progress, notwithstanding the tyrannic stretches of power by Henry the Eighth, and some of his suc cessors. Under the house of Stuart, amidst all the violent contentions between royal prerogative and the privileges of the people, he will admire the same steady progression of our political system, till he is brought to that happy period, when all those intolerable grievances introduced by the Nor mans were removed, military tenures abo lished, property secured, personal liberty established, and especially that liberty which is to be prized beyond every other, liberty of conscience; and the whole clearly ac knowledged and solemnly confirmed by the