English
Since my arrival in this country I have visited several places both of amusement and of instruction, and have been astonished at the stride of progress in both ; but in the department of self-improvement, or that department which is the most vital and fundamental to mankind, the religious instruction communicated to the public in several denominatory institutions has, in this civilized country, in no small degree surprised me, and I have been at a loss to understand the aims and objects of these institutes ; hence, I earnestly desire to be enlightened on the fol- lowing few Questions : — 1. Is not God, the creator of the universe, one without a second ? 2. Does not the fatherhood of God establish the brotherhood of mankind ? 3. Is not mankind in all countries and nations virtually the same, though differing in form, colour, dress, and speech ? 4. Is not reason a natural gift to all, by which men are superior to other animals ? 5. Since reason has the quality of discrimination, does it not presup- pose the existence of the evil of ignorance ? 6. On what grounds are the differences in belief to be defended ? 7. On what ground is the conclusive opinion of the sole authenticity of each to be supported, and how can the pride of its supporters be upheld ? 8. Should such beliefs be allowed to remain — sources, as they are, of hatred in humanity, and stagnation in progress ? 9. If universality of belief and nationalization are to be united, what means are best conducive to the attainment of this end ? MORAL PRECEPTS. 1. O Mind! desires are bad, and lead to sin, Keep these without, and bind good thoughts within. 2. O Mind ! forsake desires, to truth adhere ; For from desire come sorrow, suffering, fear ; And who of men such fruits as these holds dear ? 3. O Mind ! away with anger, from which grew First grief ; away with lust, whose child is pain ; Away with pride and envy ; peace ensue, Sweet as in sultry tides the summer rain. 4. O Mind ! be constant always, and forbear Vain talk, which murders time, of talk the worst. O Mind ! let all your words be clean, and fair, And sweet, to satisfy the hearers’ thirst. f>. O Mind ! how precious is good fame ! It is The ointment of sweet savour, like the wood Of the brown sandal tree, perfumed is this. Living for ever, and for ever good. 0. O Mind ! who in this world of woe Rests happy in hamlet or on throne ? Alas ! we reap what seed we sow ; The hands that smite us are our own. 7. O Mind ! be not afflicted, be not grieved ; Be not afraid, be not forlorn, O Mind ! Peace is by reason in the heart received, By perfect reason grows rash man resigned. 8. O Mind ! One grieves for his brother’s death, and he Dies ; loud ambition has no lodging here, Or should have none ; it fills the bond and free With rage and lean remorse and quaking fear, And guilt that ever looks behind, and lust. Those idle passions of the child of dust. THEOLOGICAL PROGRESS. In this civilized country, wherever I turn my eyes, I find all men pro- gressing in various departments of the knowledge of the world called Science, and in the adaptation of this acquired knowledge to useful purposes for the comfort and convenience of man, that is labouring in the field of Art. Hence my inquiry, who or what is this that has been the source of this wonderful improvement or development ? Is it some latent principle ? Has any attention been paid to the search of what it is, whence it has come, and its action in this material world ? Experience has taught us that a human being is an organized crea- ture, gifted with reason, an attribute possessing power to distinguish good from bad. Mr. Butler, in his “ Analogy of Religion,” says : “ Reason is the only faculty we have wherewith to judge concerning any- thing, even revelation itself; for if it contain clear immoralities or contra- dictions, either of these would prove it false;” and therefore the great poet, Milton, says, “ Let truth and falsehood grapple ; who ever knew truth put to the worse in a free and open encounter ?” When it is universally acknowledged that there is but one God, the Creator, who is infinite and ever-existing, — is it possible for us mortals, children of a day, to tell definitely when the world was created, or to say that God gave one nation of the world certain dogmas and doctrines better than or different from those He gave to another — nay, to say He has been favourable to one and unfavourable to another? Can any reasonable man of any country pretend to affirm that he was born wise or perfect from his mother’s womb ? Can any reasonable man deny that ignorance is everywhere, and that it has been the chief cause of different faiths and worships in all nations ? The keynote of this essay is Action, or Progress, for the terms are convertible. I shall endeavour to prove that bodily and mental action exists everywhere and always. I shall then, at some little length, show the vast improvements which have been made from time to time in various countries, through the unfettered action of reason, in the different XVI THEOLOGICAL PROGRESS. departments of Art and Science. We shall then see how much man’s comfort, happiness, and intelligence have been increased by these im- provements ; and I shall conclude by submitting whether Theology has been treated in like manner, and whether it is capable of being treated in like manner, and whether, being so treated, it admits of similar ame- lioration. Looking about this world of ours, what is it that with the eyes of reflection we cannot fail to see ? Action — action in earth, action in air, action in water, action in fire, action in animal life from its apex, man, to the lowest form of the zoophyte, which moves on the borders of vegetable existence, the fair sea flower with its tentacles never in repose ; action in vegetable life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop which groweth against the wall ; action even in mineral life there is, though we cannot see it with such weak eyes as ours, nor compute it by any system of human calculation. I will briefly describe the wonderful progress the iiUeiligent principle in man has been able to work out in the different known sciences which we daily witness. I will begin with Chemistry, or the investigation of the laws under which various elementary bodies have become the numerous compound substances we see in nature, and conversely of the means by which such compound substances can be resolved into their original or simple ele- ments. It is only within the last hundred years that Chemistry has risen to the rank of a science ; but during that period it has advanced towards perfection with a rapidity unparalleled in the history of philosophy ; and why ? Because reason has met with no restraint, and action, the essence of man’s existence, with no check or antagonism. What has Chemistry done for us ? There is no science so immediately conducive to human comfort. To whatever art or manufacture we turn our attention, we find that it has been cither wholly created by Chemistry, or owes it some of its most important improvements. I will not add any remarks on chemical attraction, the laws of combination and decomposition, the atomic theory, observations on acids, salts, metallic oxides, earths and alkalies, with which most of my readers are doubtless more or less fami- liar ; but I will endeavour to show how indispensable is Chemistry, as I have before remarked, to the comfort of man. Agriculture, which may be considered the most important of all arts, THEOLOGICAL PROGRESS. XTH is radically dependent on Chemistry. Without a knowledge of the con- stitution of his soils and his crops, the properties of the materials which are required to enrich his field, and the action of the atmosphere and the light of the all-seeing Sun, that " soul of the world,” what would be the condition of the husbandman ? And are not all these subjects, and many more equally necessary, explained to him at large in the pages of Che- mistry ? Baking, brewing, distilling, and indeed all operations by which food is prepared, are in general a series of processes of Chemistry. The manufacture of pottery, porcelain, glass, paper (and who shall deny their use ?), the operations of bleaching, dyeing and calico printing, the pre- paration of soap, gunpowder, ink, salt, drugs, perfumery, and a thousand other articles in daily, nay hourly, demand, — what are these but fruits sprung from seeds sown by the chemist’s hand ? Almost the whole circle of manufacturing industry has its centre in his laboratory. True, that some of these processes are more strictly termed mechanical — as, for instance, the conversion of flax into broadcloth, and clay into pottery ; still, in these there is the same blending, though not to so great an ex- tent, of chemical appliances as in the making of glass from proper pro- portion^ of sand, potash, and lime, of the conversion of common salt into soda, of hides into leather, and of charcoal, sulphur, and saltpetre into gunpowder, that terrible agent for good and for evil In the subject of analysis, or separation of a whole into its elements or component parts, Chemistry has been the means of dispelling mystery, and producing satisfaction as to the nature and composition of material substances, and their adaptability to the use of man. Very early, in India, philosophers turned their attention to man, and analyzed the human system. They found that the soul, which exists in the innermost part of the body, has certain integuments, and is, in fact, an intelligent principle capable of knowing itself and things around it. These integuments are five* — viz., food, vital air, mind, knowledge, and joy.