provement of others to be regarded as altogether gratuitous, or unnecessary to our own advancement in intellectual excellence. The progress of the human mind is abundantly slow; but it would be still slower, or rather it would never take place, were every man to labour for himself as a solitary individual. A few unconnected remarks upon some scattered objects would be the utmost height at which any science would arrive. Unprotected and weak, because alone, instead of the master of the inferior creation, man would be a timid and feeble animal, destitute both of art and vigour. It is by the communication of observations that science is formed; it is by a combination of efforts that arts exist; and it is by acting among his equals, and taking a share in their enterprises, that man discovers and improves his powers. Little improvement, however, can be made in the society of ignorant and uncultivated men. To advance ourselves, we must prevail with others to do the same, that an adequate field may be provided for our exertions, and that fellow-labourers may be obtained in our extensive occupation. Enlightened and accomplished men are formed by the society of each other, or by a communication of thoughts and discoveries. While we labour to teach others, we adopt the surest means for bringing our own knowledge to perfection and our faculties to maturity. Even for his own sake, there

fore, every individual ought to instruct the rest of mankind, and to prevail with as many of them as possible to engage in the great business of intellectual improvement.

3d. As a farther inducement to this kind of exertion, let it be remembered, that of all the objects which the universe contains, Mind is the most excellent. To endeavour to produce

highly improved minds, is, therefore, the most excellent employment of human industry. To make a porcelain jar or a vessel of chrystal, is a more valuable effort than to make a brown pitcher or a wooden dish; but to produce wisdom, or to convert ignorant and weak into enlightened and energetic beings, is not only a more valuable exertion than any of these, but it is a true creation of what is most valuable in the universe. Compared to this illustrious labour, which appears to be the occupation of God, and a task which He accounts worthy of his providence, all other cares diminish into folly.

The great business or employment, therefore, which Nature points out for man in this world, and which ought to be the ultimate object of his pursuit, is twofold; to labour to promote the intellectual improvement or excellence of his own character as an individual, and to endeavour to produce the same worth or excellence in the characters of other men. The one of these cannot be successfully performed without the other;

and when united, they form the most important pursuit in which a rational being can occupy his faculties.

AFTER all, however, it must be confessed, that the view now given of the object on account of which the human race were created, and of the business in which they ought to be occupied, is not without difficulties. The most obvious of these is that which results from the prepossession of the human mind in favour of pleasure, and from the difficulty of imagining any other object, which a being of boundless power and intelligence could propose to himself in the creation of the universe, than that of diffusing felicity. In the pursuit of truth, however, it is our duty to disregard every such prepossession or prejudice. It is certain that this world is not formed. for the direct and immediate purpose of conferring felicity; and that the pursuit of this object is not pointed out to its inhabitants as their proper business. It is to be observed, however, that I have here stated what I account the great Law of Morality, or the regulating principle of human conduct, only in a general and rather popular manner. A part of the difficulty now alluded to will vanish, when the consequences of the general doctrine here maintained come to be considered in detail, that is, when it shall be made to appear that the pursuit and the acqui

sition of intellectual improvement naturally tend to produce a certain measure of felicity; and that there is even reason to suspect, or rather to believe, that the intellectual universe is so constructed, that this pursuit is necessary to the endurance, not merely of enjoyment, but of existence itself.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER FIRST.

REMARKS ON THE BOOK OF JOB.

Ir appears that, in every period of history, speculative men have been extremely perplexed by the difficulty which they found in reconciling the character of boundless benevolence, which they ascribed to the Deity, with the state of suffering, or of physical evil, in which individuals and nations frequently find themselves placed in this world under his government. It is a singular circumstance, that the most ancient book which perhaps exists in the world is a philosophical poem upon this subject, I mean the Book of Job. As the opi

nion of its being inspired has prevented philo sophers and critics from giving to it that atten tion to which it is entitled from its poetical merit, its high antiquity, and the importance of the reasonings which it contains, I shall here shortly state its contents, and the principle which it is written to illustrate.

The Book of Job is a dramatic poem. The speakers in it are six in number, viz. Job himself, three old men, his friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zøphar, and a young man, his friend, called Elihu: last of all, God himself is introduced as a character in this drama. The plot, or story, is simple. Job, the hero of the piece, a man of great, or rather perfect virtue, suffers almost every human calamity. His children are destroyed, his property is lost, and he himself falls into bad health. In this situation his three aged friends and his young friend come to comfort him. The subject of their conversation is the celebrated question concerning the origin of the evils and sufferings which men endure in this world, and whether they do not afford a good reason for impeaching the justice of divine providence?

Job begins the dialogue, by complaining of the hardship of his situation, and by cursing the day of his birth, and his birth itself as a calamity. He is answered by his aged friend Eliphaz, who tells him, that the evils he endures VOL. I.

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