FIRST PRINCIPLE. THE NATURE OF HUMAN LIFE IS TWOFOLD, MENTAL AND PHYSICAL; AND HUMAN HAPPINESS IS THE RESULT OF THE WELL-BEING AND HARMONY OF BOTH. WHEN we cast our eyes about us in this beautiful world, the most superficial observation and the slightest reflection must fill us with the deepest gratitude to the Almighty, for the superior endowments with which our nature has so liberally been gifted, and which alone enable us to occupy so eminent a station among all living beings. For while the most lovely of flowers, which, by the harmony of its colours and the fragrance of its perfume, delights and gratifies our senses, has itself but little sensibility, and, in consequence of its inferior organization, and its being rooted to the spot where it grows, can neither change its place nor improve its condition; while the most perfect of all irra tional creatures, though it may luxuriate in the gratification of its animal wants and propensities, can neither extend its own sphere of action, nor increase or perfect the number of its enjoyments: man, the most perfect of beings, in consequence of his nature forming a divine combination of mental and physical faculties, is enabled to live, not only in the present, but also in the past, the future, and even in an ideal world. Neither do fetters, of his Maker's creation, bind him to the spot where he first has seen the light. If it so please him, he may wander over the whole world, and select the most propitious market for his industry, profiting by all the moral, political, geographical, or commercial advantages which one country may offer to him in a greater degree than another. Or, if accident has placed him among men uncongenial to his own spiritual nature, he may fix his abode, where he meets with the greatest affinity to his own mind; an affinity which certainly claims, above all others, the regard of every rational and reflecting being; and which, like a sympathetic chord, often attracts towards the same spot, and unites together into one and the same nation, individuals from the most different and the most distant countries. Nor has a Divine Providence, in gifting our nature with sources of enjoyment so far beyond those of the animal creation, willed that man's happiness should be confined to the gratification of his animal wants and propensities. For, in blessing us with the divine gift of reason, and with all our other intellectual faculties, the Almighty has fitted us for enjoyments far superior to those of our animal nature. And though there are persons who hold that man's fate depends on mere chance, this is far from being the case. For does the history of mankind not show that the same difficulties and misfortunes which have broken down one man into shame and perdition, have lifted up another to the respect and admiration of the world? Nay, by means of his superior organization and endowments, man has not only the power of developing and of improving his physical condition and prosperity, but he also may, by the culture and the proper application of his intellectual faculties, and by the energy and the ardour of his character, raise himself from the humblest to the most exalted station in human society. Neither rank nor wealth, however, nor all the gifts of fortune united, even if accom panied by a perfect knowledge of their usefulness, are adequate to produce happiness in one's self, if two conditions are wanting; conditions which, in consequence of a wise ordination of |