and the creation is indestructible. The one will be everlastingly the cause of the other, and that cannot but be the effect of his causation. No changes of mind in ourselves, no lapse of time, no accumulations of human experience, no extension of our mathematical or physiological investigations, can abolish this connexion, or preclude its consequences. As he lives and reigns, so he thinks and acts. He rules what he has made; and all that has been framed by him is continually affected by his existence, his mind, and his government. It is therefore of unceasing importance to us to become as fully acquainted with him as possible, and to learn his will and purposes, his wishes and ordainments, as far and as largely as we can attain to the perception of them.

These acquisitions can be realized only from the sources which he has provided for this purpose to us, and these will always be his works, his ways, and his express communications. The study of these will constitute that branch of hu→ man knowledge which we may justly characterize as DIVINE PHILOSOPHY a subject dear to the human mind in all ages, however inefficient the talent may have been to explore or explain it. It was obviously a frequent theme in the meditations and conversations of Socrates.* It was a favourite one with his pupil Plato, and repeatedly gleams out amid the mazes of his colloquial dialectics.

The Pythagoreans, the Stoics, and the new Platonists of Alexandria, discover to us the same desire of examining and discussing it; and it obtained no small portion of Cicero's diversified attention. But all these great men show us the continuity of the will, rather than any success in accom plishing it. They wanted too much farther knowledge, both human and divine, to make any progress in the sublime inquiry. They all, like our Milton, felt its value; but they

Xenophon has transmitted some of these to us, as well as Plato; and in one passage says of Socrates, " He thought that the gods took care of mankind, and not in the way inany suppose, who imagine them to know some things only, and not others; for Socrates believed that they are conscious of all things; those said and done, and those also which are wished in silence; that they are everywhere present, and that they give suggestions to men concerning human affairs."-Arou. 1. i. c. 1. On this feeling, he exclaimed to Aristodemus, "O my good friend! cont sider, that as thy mind within thy body governs it as it chooses, so that understanding which is over us all, disposes of every thing as it pleases." -Ib., c. 4.

had not the means or the opportunities which we possess of more satisfactorily contemplating it.*

It is, then, for us, not to neglect the advantages which we have above them, but, imbibing their spirit, to apply ourselves to do what they were unable to effectuate. Divine philosophy ought now to be studied by us as carefully and as generally as natural philosophy evidently is. Numerous minds are zealously engaged upon this, and are inviting others to imitate their example. Never before has it been so much or so successfully attended to. It is even taking the form of annual festivals and theatrical exhibitions, in order to concentrate and stimulate the public attention to its merits and pursuits. It has begun in this respect a rivalry with our political animations; and the new activity and display seem to be as popular as we will hope the result will be advantageous. At all events, it is an honour to the present age that it is so zealously directing itself to the study and promotion of the natural sciences. They enlarge the mind and intellectualize the life: they raise us above inferior gratifications and pursuits, and are the true materials for forming that divine mind within us which many of the illustrious ancients aspired to, but which cannot be attained until we cultivate the divine philosophy of things in conjunction with the natural. It is this which, to use the words of Dr. Young, will enable us

"To rise in science, as in bliss ;

Initiate in the secrets of the skies!
To read creation: read its mighty plan-
The plan and execution to collate!"

Our poet, indeed, despairing of our making the attainment in this world, notices it as a part of our beatitude in the next; but we need not wholly defer it so long: we may begin it here. The rudiments of it have been delivered to us from the only authority that could present them unerringly to us. It is for us to use rightly the treasures we possess ;

The lines of Milton are familiar to us:

How charming is DIVINE PHILOSOPHY !

Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,
But musical, as is Apollo's lute:

And a perpetual feast of nectared sweets,
Where no crude surfeit reigns."

COMUS.

† Night Thoughts, N. 6.

and due contemplations of the natural sciences with these aids, and temperate exercises of the investigating thought, as our mind enlarges, will lead us to some portion of that banquet here, which we shall delight to enjoy more amply hereafter. We may then say with our same poet, who, amid some superfluities that we would prune, pours out many a noble effusion,

"Lorenzo! these are thoughts that make man, man;
The wise illumine; aggrandize the great."*

:

Let us, then, cultivate these elevating inquiries. Let us apply as assiduously as our individual inclinations or oppor tunities may lead or dispose us to all the branches of natural philosophy but let a due portion of our care be given to exalt and crown these with divine philosophy; either will be incomplete without the other. Let us study them in friendly conjunction, and we shall find that what is natural, will be enlightened and more endeared to us by its grander companion. What subject can be better fitted to the spirit within us, that awaits those glorious destinies which Plato exhibits his master as delighting to contemplate; and which, lessons and promises that he could never know, have brought within our power personally to secure !t

Night Thoughts. He continues with a fine enthusiasm: »
"How great, while yet we tread the kindred clod-
How great, in the wild whirl of time's pursuits,

To stop and pause, involved in high presage,+
To stand contemplating our distant selves,
As in a magnifying mirror seen,

Enlarged, ennobled, elevate, divine!

To prophesy our own futurities!

To gaze, in thought, on what all thought transcends!

To talk, with fellow-candidates, of joys

As far beyond conception as desert;

Ourselves, th' astonish'd talkers, and the tale !"

NIGHT 6.

What i

"Is the soul like what is divine, or like what is mortal? divine is born to govern, but the mortal substance to obey. Which of these does the soul resemble?

"O Socrates, it is clear that the soul must be the divine, and the body the mortal element.

"Yes, Kebes! the soul is most like the divine, the immortal, the intelligent; the one in form, and the incorruptible; and when it goes from hence, it passes to another place, like itself, excellent and pure, though now unseen; to Hades, and, truly, to a good and wise God :" (rov ayalov και φρόνιμον θεον.)

He repeats this idea:

Divine philosophy should be regarded as a science, and Created as the physical sciences are; the facts which reto it should be carefully searched for, and as carefully oned upon. We shall then find that it is truly a science, the most exhilarating of all that we can select to be the ect of our pursuit. It has really all the characters of a nce, and will be seen to be so, and will become more bly such, in proportion as it is studied in this aspect, in the same mode, and with the same caution, assiduity, judgment, with which our analytical or chymical investions are conducted.

We most justly apply the term science to the knowledge have collected and arranged of those departments of are, where the phenomena are the result of such a sciendisposition or causation of things as to have a visible tion with each other; to be governed by some common s, to be arrangeable under a distinct classification, and De reducible to rational principles, which are steadily folved in connected and successful operation. Such results evidence of a contriving and presiding mind, and are at intelligent agency alone could produce. When effects events occur in consequence of a pre-established plan, d on regulating principles, and in obedience to perceptible ws, evincing certain foresight and adjusting arrangements, ey form the subject of a true science; and this, it will be object of these Letters to show, is the character of that ine philosophy which they will recommend to you to culate. All material nature is moulded by the will, fulfils designs, and subsists and acts on the plans, of the studous Creator. All intellectual nature all moral beings, in the same predicament. The one is not more guided governed than the other. Mind and matter are equally objects of the divine administration; and the rules and nciples of this, deserve our researches as much in the as in the other. Indeed, so far as they can be traced, will be always more interesting to us to discover those ich relate personally to ourselves, than such as uphold or

Will it not, then, go to something like itself; to the Divine? To that ch is divine, immortal, and wise? Certainly; and coming to it there,

regulate the external substances amid which we are residing. Who would not rather know the divine laws by which his life and destiny are governed, than those which determine the masses or the velocities of Jupiter or Uranus, or which compel the comets to revisit us by periodical migrations? Sublime in its own nature, and most honourable to human genius, is the knowledge which has been attained on points, that at one time seemed beyond all the possibilities of human talent to acquire. The eagle-eyed sagacity and patient observations of some have conquered the seeming impossibility which was so long insurmountable, and by their success have encouraged future minds to hope that few things will hereafter be found inaccessible to determined diligence and energetic intellect.* But still that science which is most connected with our individual welfare in this world, and with our endless future in the next, will have an endearing interest to us, of which nothing can divest it. Stars may disappear, or new comets rush upon us, or fresh planets may be discerned to move. But all events of this sort will be ever inconsiderable to us in comparison of the relations which are subsisting between us and God; and the rules and principles by which his moral government of our affairs are directed, and especially in their personal application to each of us respectively. Nothing can exceed the momentous importance of the knowledge of these things to every human being; and the uncertainty in which it may seem to some that they are involved, ought to be but a more impelling reason to excite us to more assiduous endeavours to diminish this obscurity, and to develop their realities as far as it may be permitted to human diligence to do so.

The subject has certainly fallen into discredit from the many wrong interpretations and foolish applications which

In the Report of the British Association for 1832, Professor Airy mentioned, among the desiderata of astronomy, the determination of the mass of Jupiter by observations of the elongations of her satellites.

"I think it would have astonished the mathematicians of antiquity, as much as the populace, to be told that this splendid planet could ever be weighed and measured by a human being; and yet what Mr. Airy suggested, he has since himself executed in the most complete manner. He has weighed the mass of Jupiter in the way he thus recommended; and it may show the wonderful perfection of such astronomical measures to state, that he has proved with certainty that this mass is more than 322, and less than 323, times the mass of the terrestrial globe on which we stand."-Whewell's Address, p. 14