On surveying the events of human history from the creation, the great outlines of what has occurred to mankind in the ages before us, may be distinguished into some general heads, of which the following shall be the first subjects of our consideration.

The geological construction of the body of the globe, as

The Pythagoreans believed the moon to be inhabited, but maintained that the living creatures in it were much larger than ours, and at least fifteen times stronger. The plants also as much more beautiful, c. 30. While Plutarch himself thought that our souls were made out of the moon, and would therefore return to it. He disclaims the imputation that he thought the moon to be dead matter, without either soul or mind, p. 1723. He also tells us that some think its inhabitants hang by the head to it, or, like Ixion, are tied fast to it, that its motions may not shake them from it; and that it ought not to seem surprising that a lion fell out of it into the Peloponnesus.--De. Fac. Lun. v. iii. p. 1728.

As to the stars, Anaxagoras supposed the sky in its revolution to catch up stones from the earth, and then setting them on fire, they became the stars. While Xenophanes contended that they were inflamed clouds, quenched during the day, and lighted again like coals every night, and that this explained their setting and rising, c. 13. Archelaus made them redhot earthen plates.-Stob. Ed. c. 25. p. 53. Heraclitus insisted that they were living creatures, nourished by exhalations from the earth.Plut. 1. ii. c. 17. Aristotle asserted that celestial bodies did not require nourishment; but Plato thought the stars did receive it.-Ib.

In like manner Seneca says, "From the earth arise aliments to all animals, to all plants, and to all the stars. Hence it is that so many stars are maintained; as eager for their pasture as they are hard-worked both by day and night."--Nat. Qu. ii. c. 5. Lucan says, “We believe that the sun and pole feed on the ocean." Pliny had no doubt about it. “Sidera, vero, haud dubiè, humore terreno pasci."--L. ii, c. 6. And even Ptolemy mentions that the body of the moon is moister and cooler than that of the other planets, from the vapours that are exhaled to it out of the earth. -1 Apostel.

We have arraigned the fathers and some bishops for opposing the Antipodes; but Aristotle and Pliny alike denied them. So did Lucretius. So Plutarch makes one of his speakers ask, as a great falsehood, "Do they not say that it is inhabited by Antipodes, who cling to it by the lower parts of their bodies, like worms or cats ?"-De Fac. Lun. 1703.

We laugh at some modern savages who, with drums, and cymbals, and shoutings, make all the noise they can when the moon is in an eclipse, to hinder some supposed monster from devouring it. But the Romans were not more philosophical; for they thought the moon was then in maternal labour, and sounded all their brazen instruments, and presented to her all the fires they could make_by torches and lamps, to ease her in her sufferings.-Plut. Vit. Emil. Propertius alludes to this. So does Ovid, Met. I. iv.; and Pliny, 1. ii. c. 12. It must have continued almost down to Juvenal's time, as he alludes to it,

"Jam nemo tubas atque æra satiget; Una laboranti poterit succurrere Lunæ."

Sat. vi. v. 44.

it was to remain as long as the earth should last ;* and the formation of its primitive surface, and the superincumbent atmosphere, into that state which would best suit the nature and condition of mankind, as the Deity meant them to be in the first period of their existence, with a vegetation and animal system corresponding thereto, were first completed.

This completion was accompanied by the selection of a particular part of the surface to be a garden of great beauty and abundance, with every plant and tree that would most please and gratify the eye and taste, in order to be the first residence of the created pair of human beings, from whom, in due time, all others were to descend; but this place was to be their abode only so long as they should choose to obey him, and be guided by him.

The next events were, the removal of Adam and Eve, upon their disobedience, from their garden of Eden into the general world; and the descent of two races of human beings from them, one of which began with an ancestor, who, having destroyed his brother, separated from his paternal family, and became the founder of a distinct population. With these the first arts that are noticed originated. This line in time became united with the other, but the improved civilization of both led to such a relaxation of all the moral duties, that the social world became full of violence and corruption, and the termination of this state and mode of existence of human beings, was resolved upon and effected by their Creator, by the instrumentality of a universal deluge.

By the operation of this destructive revolution, the ancient surface and state of the earth were changed, and a new surface was in most parts imposed, suited to the existence of the renewed human population, for the production of which one chosen family was specially reserved.

But this new population of the earth was appointed to begin under new laws of nature, both in themselves and in external things. An essential modification of their own vitality took place in the contraction of human life to one tenth of its former duration and great alterations in the condition and agencies of the material world must have folJowed the deposition and distribution of the new rocks and

Genesis ix. v. 1].

surface, which were to be the habitable land for the fresh human race as it should gradually multiply.

While these terrestrial changes were taking place, the arrangement began under which mankind have been ever since subsisting; and this was, that they should not grow up, as they themselves desired, in one dense and united population, occupying only one country or locality; but that, against their will, they should be separated into various families or portions; and that these should separate from each other, and settle in parts of the surface, at various distances from each other, and there become the heads or founders of distinct tribes and nations.

These dispersed colonies, or little masses of separated populations, were kept in this state apart from each other, and made to remain so by the cessation of one general language, and by the rise and use of dissimilar words or forms of speech peculiar to each community, which went on to increase instead of lessening, as the numbers of mankind were multiplied.

These diversities of the human population were so stationed and acted upon as to form two grand divisions of human nature, mind and manner. The one a chain of settled and civilized nations originating from each other, or connected by mutual communication and intercourse: the other, a wilder and moving series of tribes in that which we call the uncivilized condition, keeping aloof from amity or intermixture with each other, and having peculiar characters of mind and body, different from the more quiet and cultivated populations.

Among the settled nations, the Egyptians, the Assyrians and Babylonians, the Phenicians, Persians, and Greeks, the Carthaginians and Romans, succeeded each other in advancement and celebrity, while the Chinese, who grew up in a particular corner of the earth, and the Indian nations likewise, gradually rose into number and civilization. All these chiefly resided in Asia, or in those parts of Europe which are connected with it by the Mediterranean Sea.

The uncivilized were, in the meantime, led into Europe, and there became known as the Cimmerians, the Scythians, and the Sarmatians. In time, from the Cimmerians, arose the barbaric population of the British island, and of some parts of ancient Gaul, and the Cimbri of the Baltic; while

from the Scythians proceeded the numerous tribes which formed the German and Gothic nations; and from the Sarmatians, the Slavonic ones.

Each of these grand divisions of mankind, both settled and uncivilized, underwent great changes and vicissitudes. The earlier civilized were in time conquered by those of later civilization. Part of the barbaric nations were subdued and incorporated by these. Other portions of the wilder were fostered and increased in that condition, until they were enabled to become the conquerors of the civilized and at length a new state of mankind was produced by the destruction of the vast Roman empire, and by the establishment, all over it, of new kingdoms and nations of a character different from all which had preceded, and from these the present highly improved state of human nature has eventually arisen.

Now I submit to your judgment, on this outline of the great features of human history, which the events that have occurred to mankind thus far exhibit to us; and looking also at the present results and at the prospects which arise out of them, as to the future condition of human society in this world, whether there is not the aspect of a progressive, connected, and effectuated plan, the issue of which, up to the present moment, displays itself to us in most impressive and interesting characters. Is it not quite reasonable to say, that human existence is now in a far superior state to what it was when the classical nations flourished? and can we hesitate to believe that their mental and social activities and condition have powerfully contributed to make us what we are and that human nature would not have become what it now is, if the preceding nations had not existed, and felt, and thought, and acted as they did? Are we not the result of that train of human incidents and operations, as far as such things influence, which have been anterior to us; and if so, have not these had the effect of causative agencies upon us? In this view, is not human history a series of successive causations and their successive results; and does not such a series carry its own testimony with it, of a gradually evolved and executed plan; and are we not entitled, as rational beings, perceiving in our own plans and actions what a designing mind and a designed scheme and system are, and that these always display a reasoning mind and an intelligent will effectuating its rea soned purposes and appointed ends are we not, I say, en

titled to consider the train of the grand events which signalize human history, as the development and accomplish ment of a previous plan, whose continual object has been the improvement of human nature, and through which this great and benevolent end has been gradually advancing by a graduated progression? The present result proves the fact of the progression; and from this the sound inference of the mind appears to be, that a wisely formed and powerfully executed plan has produced what we see around us. Surely this is what we cannot but admire, if we judge on sufficient knowledge and with an impartial temper.

But I have not yet mentioned a still grander compartment of the great providential scheme for the formation, melioration, and completion of the moral and intellectual nature of the human branch of the magnificent creation. Here also I will only trace the outline of the facts, that they may stand clear of the reasoning with which we shall attempt afterward to elucidate them. The subjects which I here allude to are, the formation and peculiarly-conducted history of the Jewish nation; and the connected, consequential, and gradually-diffused dispensation of the Christian revelation. The first, meant to be temporary and limited in its locality, though with effects largely emanating from it, was also directed to prepare the means and materials for the introduction and dissemination of the second: and that second, surmounting all competition, as the human mind expands and improves, has rooted itself in our intellectual nature, and is now visibly advancing, to become, according to all prospective probabilities, the sacred monarch of the world.

The Jewish nation began by the selection of an aged Chaldean, about four hundred and twenty-seven years after the flood, and above three centuries after the dispersion of the renewing population, to be the founder of the intended new nation. Several communications are stated to have been made to him from the Deity; and he was induced to visit Egypt, the chief nation of the earth at that time, and was there brought into familiar intercourse with its sovereign; so that whatever had been imparted to him more than to others, he had this opportunity of making known to this civilizing people. He was also led to distinction among the princes of Palestine; and he became, in his son Ishmael, the ancestor of one of the most distinguished nations of the